Review: Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

Rage Within 

Author: Jeyn Roberts
Series: Dark Inside, Book Two
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 357 pages
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
 

Synopsis: 
 
Aries, Clementine, Michael, and Mason have survived the first round of strange earthquakes that wiped out most of the world’s population and turned the rest into Baggers who run around murdering people for sport. Now they are hiding out in Vancouver with a group of fellow survivors, trying to figure out what to do next.

Aries is leading the group, but begins to question herself as decisions become harder to make and every decision feels wrong or results in tragic consequences. Clementine is still desperate to find her brother, Heath, but the chances of finding him alive are slim to none. Michael has tried to get the images of what he did to his last group out of his head, but they haunt him every day. And Mason is struggling with something he can’t reveal to anybody. Darkness lurks inside him and he fears that he may be a danger to his friends. Meanwhile, the Baggers are beginning to get organized and starting to rebuild the world the way they want it to be rebuilt. The four friends will have to trust and rely on one another in order to survive this post-apocalyptic world.

My Review: 
 
So the last eight books I read have been mind-blowing. In addition to that, I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book in this series so I steeled myself for disappointment, but surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. Jeyn Roberts does not hold back in the violence department. This book is brutal; I’m talking baseball bats to the head brutal. In the first book, I complained that the characters were difficult to distinguish between. In this book, they have all met and are now working together which made it so much easier to keep track of who was who. I still get Mason’s and Michael’s backstories confused some times, but that could just be me.

What I really liked in this book was that the Baggers, as they have dubbed the crazy humans running around on killing sprees, become organized. The first book felt very zombie-esque to me, but this book felt more organized and less chaotic. There was more plotting and planning than just pure blood and carnage. Aries has become the leader of their little group of surviving teens. I think she is perfect for this position. She is strong and knows when to take risks and when to stay put. However, we see weakness and self-doubt making her character more realistic. She is only a teenage girl, a strong one, but Roberts doesn’t let us feel like she is older than she is. She struggles with tough decisions. This girl literally at points in the story has to choose between lives lost, because either way she decides, people will die. These are hard decisions for a young girl to make. Mason becomes her confidante in this book and she relies heavily on him for advice and simply an ear to listen to her.

But Mason is struggling with his own demons. He continues to have dark thoughts that he tries to suppress, but he fears that he will inadvertently give away information about his friends to the Baggers, putting them all in danger. He’s very quiet and the only person he really talks to is Aries. He believes that being alone is what he deserves because of the darkness that haunts him every day.

Michael and Clementine have become really good friends and he is helping her search for her brother, Heath. Clementine became my new favorite character in this book. She is strong and an eternal optimist. Not many people could keep up the cheery attitude that she does in their situation, but she brings a light to the group that is desperately needed. While Michael still struggles with some bad decisions he made in the past, I believe that Clementine is helping him move on, showing him that, while he can’t change the past, he can change himself for the future.

Daniel, a mysterious boy that Aries is in love with, continues to be mysterious in this book. He still refuses to come live in the safe house with them and won’t allow Aries to even reveal the location of where they are staying. He repeatedly tells her it’s not safe. This is heartbreaking and confusing to her. She believes that he can only stand to be around her for the short periods of time they meet in secret at night. That kind of annoyed me. I mean obviously he is hiding something, but she only thinks that it must be her. I guess that really showed how young she is, but it still annoyed me.

Overall, this book was really good. I liked it much better than the first one, so am really glad that I gave it a chance. I liked this one better because it was more organized and strategic rather than just the crazed killing we saw in the first book. For those of you who enjoyed the crazed zombie-like killing the first book brought to the table, do not fear. There is still plenty of action, violence, and bloodshed to keep you on the edge of your seat. According to Jeyn Roberts there will be a third book in the series, but not for a while because she is working on two different books. Boo. So I guess we will just have to sit back and relax for the time being. Happy reading all! 

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