Ruby can't look back. Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup. With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers. Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds.
They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained. But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the "rehabilitation camps" housing thousands of other Psi kids.
Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would-and did-sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her. She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government. But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.
So this book. I read the first two installments over a year ago and in between that time I also read the first two installments of The 5th Wave series. For some reason whenever I pick up a book from either series I think it's the other. So for the first 20 pages or so I was wondering where Ben was and why we were spending so much time focusing on some guy named Liam...then it all came back.
Because I wasn't as mentally prepared to start this book as I thought I was the first half was difficult to get into. I didn't like how the book just jumped right in and assumed I remembered everything I needed to know about the characters and their place in the world. Especially with as little action as there was. Don't get me wrong, I still love the characters and the story, but I could have used just a few pages of recap before we got started.
But once we did get started...wow did things move. It is because of this kind of development that I love this series and the author. No character is safe but at the same time we don't have to wait 300 pages for the characters to explain why they're angry. There's a problem and we think about it then we solve it. Done and on to the next. The only thing I really didn't like was the ending. It felt rushed and everyone just accepted that Ruby had to face her demons. I get that the main character is supposed to be all heroic and fight everyone herself I just thought the rest of the series was building toward a much more climactic ending.
I'm glad that everyone lived a happily ever after (well almost everyone) but that just seemed too nice a way to conclude a book this dark. Ironically In The Afterlight was the darkest book of the trilogy, so to have it end all sunshine and roses seemed out of character for the writing style and ideas the book wanted to portray. After so many characters had donated their lives to 'the cause', the ending seemed to ignore all that and just let everyone else move on with their lives. It felt like a piece of the puzzle was missing so we made our own and it didn't fit exactly, but it was good enough.
All that being said, this installment of the series created a satisfying ending to the trilogy. Not much was left unsolved and the overall ending was promising, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. I can't wait to read more of Ms. Bracken's writing in the future!!
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