Monday 30 June 2014

Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies. For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul...

The sequel to Dark Inside, the first few chapters goes back to before the earthquake, with some details about their lives before, then zooms to the present, three months after the initial attack. I'll admit, I was a bit lost but the prequel bit showed how the rage was starting to infect some people, which was interesting to see. We also got a section from Daniel's perspective and seeing how he acted before made his actions in the present that more understandable.

In the present, they were all getting a bit more pro-active in their survival. Clementine still hunting for brother, getting closer all the time, and the rest of them have set up a home with supplies and even contacts with a few other groups of survivors. Meanwhile, Mason and Daniel are being, well, stupid in their attempts to even the playing field, attacking Baggers and amazingly winning. But then they get captured and taken to Bagger Central where they are tortured and put to work in the Bagger's new world order. 

Much like the previous book, the story was told from multiple perspectives, including Nothing. In this one, Nothing's perspective became more of a person than a collective; it was clearly the dark thoughts of someone which was deeply unsettling but very intriguing to read. All of the characters had changed quite a lot; Michael was more open with his feelings, Aries and Clementine were both sore about how they were surviving and aching to do something more, which made for an awkward yelling match but ended in a great rescue mission. 

I really liked having a continuation of the story, it was really interesting to see where it went and how they all adapted and fought back for their world. There were also a few surprises, and some that were completely obvious about who could or could not be trusted. I'd really like another book to see how everything turned out, especially on that ending! But if not, even though it ended openly, I still really enjoyed it, terrifying though it might have been.

Published 30th August 2012 by Macmillan Children's Books.

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