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Saturday, July 13, 2013

Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2) by Veronica Rossi Review

4/5 Stars
Details of the Book
Hardcover, 341 pages
Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Publication Date: January 8, 2013
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository |

Synopsis as taken from GoodReads.com: It's been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission. Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don't take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe's precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both. Threatened by false friends, hidden enemies, and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder,Can their love survive through the ever night? In this second book in her spellbinding Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi combines fantasy and dystopian elements to create a captivating love story as perilous as it is unforgettable.

All of my answers from the previous book have been answered in this sequel. As much as I love this book, I still think that it suffers from second book slump as many trilogies do. There are other interesting characters involved as well as the reappearance of others that I didn't expect that pulled the book forward and wove in well to the rest of the plot the book left me wanting more...and not entirely in a good way.

Strengths/Likes:

1) In a lot of YA novels, I have found that a lot of the time the heroine is the one with all of the insecurities that clouds their judgement leading them to make poor decisions. This novel, it's the opposite, it's not Aria with all of the insecurities, but Perry. Not only is this refreshing, it's realistic. In all relationships, each person has insecurities and they influence the couple's relationship. Although I was a little peeved at Perry, I liked how the descriptions and scenes of his insecurity really provided more depth to his character.

2) All of the relationships were illustrated and described very well. I felt like I could really see and feel the characters feelings towards one another as their relationships developed, whether it was a friendly, loving, or hateful relationship.

3) This novel picks up right where the first one ended with undisrupted flow. I felt it very easy to jump right into this one.

4) The dual point-of-view continues to make this trilogy three-dimensional and very easy to feel and understand what the two main characters are going through. I really felt like I was in both Perry and Aria's heads.

5) I also said this about the first novel that Perry and Aria's relationship is not the main thing that moves the plot a long. Of course they are a large focal point, there are other things that pushes the plot forward.

6) I was impressed with Soren's character. I really didn't believe redemption was possible, but I really bought into his back story and wanted to know more.

7) Roar and Aria's friendship: I'm so glad that finally a boy and a girl have been best friends in the novel without any sexual tension happening between them. Society as well as popular media make it seem like a guy and a girl can't be best friends without ending up having romantic feelings for another.


Weaknesses/Dislikes (spoiler alert):

1) This book moved much slower than the other novel. Throughout the middle section of the book, I was bored and just kept waiting for something to happen.

2) I felt like a lot of the events in this novel were too easy. Almost everything has a proper and generally happy resolution. I'm all for happy endings, but in a dystopia novel it's not likely. There are of course a couple of exceptions to this, but otherwise it was hard to take a lot of the dramatic scenes at full value because of how simply things were resolved.

3) Too many characters with a lot of them being too similar. Maybe I missed something but I felt like a lot of the minor characters sounded so similar in personality it was hard to keep up with who was who.

4) Although, I liked Soren in this novel I felt like he was too similar to Peter in Veronica Roth's, Insurgent in their redemption with the exception that Peter was not fully redeemed and still kept his asshole status, which I found more interesting.

Favorite Moments/Quotes: 

1) 
" 'Roar's smile widened. 'I know. You missed me.'
She rolled her eyes. 'It's barely been three week since I saw you.'
'Miserable stretch of time.' he said" (30).

2) "'Do you ever miss anything?'
Perry smiled. 'You, all the time" (99).

3) "'Who was it?' He searched the faces around him.
No one answered.
'Do you think silence will protect you?' He walked past Rowan and Old Will, moving through the crowd, pumping air into his lungs. Inhaling.
Sifting.
Searching.
'Do you have any idea how loud guilt is to me?'" (115).

4) "She san a song he knew this time--one she'd sung to him when they'd been at Marron's together. It was a message from her. A reminder--here among hundreds of people--of a moment that had been theirs alone" (81).

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