Brief Summary:
In the follow-up of LIFEL1K3, the story picks immediately after Eve has done her thing in Babel. Now, for a nice little twist, we spend most of this book following the brilliful Lemon Fresh, with look-ins on Ezekiel and Cricket with his new warbot body. Lemon has just lost her bestest and is on her own, and this is where she is found by some more abnorms like her. Deviates if you will. This little band of soldiers live in this old missile silo and Lemon is wondering if she can join them (granted this story takes place over a few short days). She’s being hunted by a major corporation for her deviate powers. Ezekiel teams up with the cyborg bounty hunter to find his friends. And Cricket becomes a cage fighter with his big new body but also learns how to manipulate the laws of robots. Then there is Eve still trying to do something (but she isn’t much in this story via POV). Let’s just say the story ends with a missile in mid-air and then cliffhanger!!!
What works:
I love when authors buck the trend and do something different and Mr. Kristoff definitely does this by making Lemon the main character when Eve was the main in book one (granted he did this with his Lotus War trilogy too, and hence why I dig his work!). Eve’s story definitely isn’t complete but I don’t know if I would have been as engaged in her story if it was the full book. Lemon was certainly an interesting character in the first book and by expanding on her story in this follow-up, the reader gets to experience something much different than we are typically reading. Lemon also shines as a main character, her personality is energetic and fresh (like her name!). I liked being able to follow her through this and the emotional weight in her arc was great, and to be honest, completely unexpected after her introduction in book 1.
I really did like Eve’s continuing arc though. There was just enough there to keep you on your toes and eagerly await the third and final book.
The other deviates were a fun addition. I liked how they had their own X-men-style powers but were different and in the case of Diesel, fairly fresh. I also liked their little band, with their banter and lifestyle. It was different in a way from the rest of the story.
One thing I think Mr. Kristoff doesn’t get enough praise for is his New Weird creatures. Hunter in particular was really awesome. The melding of biology and tech is really cool in this world and he has some strange ideas that play out perfectly on paper. I mean who would think of a creature that has bees come out of her throat with Predator-like hair and a fishbone-like gun. It’s all odd but man it’s really cool to read.
Something that speaks to me as a reader (and writer) is Mr. Kristoff’s use of slang. I feel like not enough books use it in a natural way and he certainly does. To top it off, it is slang terms I might even use if I lived in such a world. I doubt every reader will think of it, but I sure appreciate the terminology because it’s fun and refreshing to hear something come natural off the character’s tongues.
What doesn’t work:
I mentioned this in my review of LIFEL1K3, but sometimes I felt the romance angle with Lemon and Grimm was a bit forced to fit into the YA mold. I get it, but it felt too fast (again this story takes a few days total). Nothing wrong with it, just me I suppose.
I will say I was a tad deflated with Cricket. I loved loved loved his arc on the whole, but I missed his snark. His consciousness was uploaded into the new body, so I didn’t understand why he wasn’t as sarcastic as he was in book 1. I get that he was broken by Eve’s story, but I still wish he was the same sassy Bender-lite. I was just waiting for him to say something about his “shiny metal man parts.”
Rating:
4.5 out of 5
Personally, I think this book was even better than the first one. As much as I enjoyed Eve’s story in book 1, I thought Lemon’s journey was stronger and more overall fun. And then to have Ezekiel be more human (not to mention his team up with Preacher) was a bright spot. Eagerly awaiting the completion of this series!
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