Series: Defiance #2
Baalboden has been ravaged. The brutal Commander’s whereabouts are unknown. And Rachel, grief stricken over her father’s death, needs Logan more than ever. With their ragged group of survivors struggling to forge a future, it’s up to Logan to become the leader they need—with Rachel by his side. Under constant threat from rival Carrington’s army, who is after the device that controls the Cursed One, the group decides to abandon the ruins of their home and take their chances in the Wasteland.
But soon their problems intensify tenfold: someone—possibly inside their ranks—is sabotaging the survivors, picking them off one by one. The chaos and uncertainty of each day puts unbearable strain on Rachel and Logan, and it isn’t long before they feel their love splintering. Even worse, as it becomes clear that the Commander will stop at nothing to destroy them, the band of survivors begins to question whether the price of freedom may be too great—and whether, hunted by their enemies and the murderous traitor in their midst, they can make it out of the Wasteland alive.
In this daring sequel to Defiance, with the world they once loved forever destroyed, Rachel and Logan must decide between a life on the run and standing their ground to fight.
2.5 Drink Me Potions
If I could summarize Deception in one word, it’d definitely be angsty. Chalked full of Rachel’s spiraling darkness as she succumbs to the silence inside of her. Now normally I don’t mind a story focused on getting through the dark times in order to become a stronger person. But I swear every time it’s her POV, it’s just so annoying . It doesn’t stop!
The story is a fairly simplistic one. Maybe too simplistic, actually. It starts right where we left off in Defiance. For the most part, the plot’s all about travelling through the Wastelands to another city-state after the destruction of their home, Baalboden. The only excitement from the endless walking, people complaining and Rachel’s endless thirst for revenge stems from the mysterious entity that’s testing Logan and hurting his people as they travel. I’m always in for a good mystery element in a story, and I think this was the only thing that saved Deception from completely dying in my eyes.
Anyway, Rachel was cutting herself off from anyone, especially Logan, as her need for vengeance against the Commander continues to grow. But her inner monologue doesn’t really suck because of this one thing. Oh no, it’s also due to her own self hatred. How could she have done such a horrible thing at the end of Defiance? How can she live with her actions and seeing the consequences of it? How can she continue on feeling anything after losing her father and Oliver? It didn’t matter that Logan was hurting from what happened as well. She wanted to cut herself off from everything, including him.
Half the time while I was reading, I wanted to just knock some sense into her head. Maybe denying herself from the horrible feelings welling up inside her was a temporary relief, but it was making her very unstable. And frankly, a not-so-nice person to follow around in her head. I’m not sure how Logan could even stand the way she was.
Though I suppose he did have bigger problems to deal with…
Logan continues to become a better protagonist in my opinion. I love his POV, and not just because they seem so much better in comparison to Rachel’s. He’s such a strong character, even before all the events of the previous book occurred. His background story was never pleasant but seeing him taking responsibility for so many people way older than him – he’s only 19 after all – and doing his very best to become the leader he never expected to be was amazing. I loved the gradual change and growth in him through all the craziness that occurred from the mysterious enemy tracking them. Which by the way, its identity completely took me off guard even though in hindsight it also made 100% sense.
Without giving away too much, the last bit of the story really picks up for the finale of the series. Meeting new characters and a surprising twist, I will at least say that Deception does know how to end well. If only the rest of the story could have matched this faster pacing and plot development.
Or cut out most of Rachel’s parts of the story.
Overall Recommendation:
C.J. Redwine’s Deception falls flat from expectations. And I can completely pinpoint its failings on Rachel. Her constant ramblings about revenge and the way she cut herself off from ALL feelings made her overall struggle to regain her humanity a very hard thing swallow as a whole without getting completely exasperated. That was already really bad, but the plot was a little too slow, stuck on their journey across the Wastelands. The one thing I enjoyed was the element of surprise as some mysterious enemy was methodically killing off Logan’s people as they travelled. Overall, it suffered greatly from Middle Book Syndrome, but the ending was worth it, wracking up suspense for the conclusion of the series.
Down the Rabbit Hole 