Away

Every time I sit down to write a review, Goodreads asks at the top: What did you think?

I think this book's middle and ending pissed me off, that's what I think Goodreads.

Away begins shortly where The Line left off. Rachel has Crossed and, with Pathik by her side, they face a whole new set of challenges.

The writing was still mediocre. To be fair, when the action picked up, the writing improved. But my beef isn't with the writing. MY ISSUE IS WITH THE CHOICES SOME OF THE CHARACTERS MADE.

Spoilers below for the ending of Away.



Indigo's death. INDIGO'S DEATH. This character's choice chapped my ass more than anything else in this whole book. He had ample opportunity to get Pathik OUT and return them both safely. He had an opportunity to scare the other guards to get them out.
But he did not.
He chose, instead, to make in my opinion an unnecessary sacrifice all in the name of not harming another.
Indigo had just reunited with the woman he loved and had just brought his whole family together. And in one completely unnecessary ‘sacrifice', that was brought grinding to a halt.
I understand that a large portion of this book is dedicated to teaching the morality of harming no one, but goddammit. Goddammit.
I am angry that he made that choice.. I am angry that Mrs. Moore is now without her partner, Pathik is without a grandfather, and Magram is without a father, simply because Indigo valued the lives of three ruthless and corrupt strangers more than his family.

That's how I see it.

Now, I cannot say with any certainty what I would have done in his situation. Its very easy to talk a big talk.
But, I felt screwed over. I felt like my happy ending was ripped from my hands by a stupid, martyr-esque decision that could have been avoided.

In retrospect, the mere fact that Away invokes this type of emotion in me says something about my love for these characters despite the issue with writing.


I rated Away higher than The Line purely because of my reaction to Indigo's choices. The writing issue was, unfortunately, still glaringly present, but if a book evokes anger out of me like this, then it must be doing something right.

This is a great story for upper middle graders and teens who enjoyed City of Ember and The Tomorrow Girls series. The writing is simple, the story line moves at an even pace, and it is perfect for a reluctant reader. This is not a story that delves deeply into the subject and the characters are all one dimensional, but the story is the important motivator here. It is clear that there is no good side of the line vs bad side. It's more like there are good and bad people on BOTH sides. I liked that message! The action scenes were well drawn, although I would have liked to know more about the animals in the Away. Nipper was cool, and I wanted more. There are lots of great “father figures” in this story which is a nice balance from The Line which was filled with “mother figures”.
I think this is ramping up to be a series, so I would expect a third one.
If you need romance with end of the world tale, you need to look elsewhere. There is no development of a relationship here, just a kind of awkward sputtering of emotion at a bad time between two kids who have more important things on their minds (like surviving), and some alpha male posturing. So there was no eye rolling from me!