Review Detail

I just really haven't been having luck with sequels lately.

I didn't really have any expectations going into The Way We Fall and ended up pleasantly surprised. Needless to say, I did, in fact, have some expectations going into The Lives We Lost and in the end they simply weren't met.

So here's the thing about the sequel: nothing happens. Sure, some stuff happens here and there (we wouldn't have a book otherwise, would we?), but ultimately, nothing really happens.

Here's how it goes:
Kaelyn finds some vaccine samples.
Kaelyn decides to take said samples to someone who can do something about them.
Something bad happens on the island and everyone has to leave.
They travel to someplace useful (supposedly) with the samples.
They travel more.
And they travel some more.
And more.
The end.

And it really didn't help that most of the characters were getting on my nerves.
Kaelyn is all tough and determined until something she doesn't like shows up and she turns all squeamish. I'm probably being callous, but it's a dead body, we get it. It's not the first dead body you've seen. In fact, it's about the 19578806043rd body you've seen. It's the end of the world and people are going to die. Can you please get over it already.
Gav was shoved into the background unless he was forcefully brought forward and this just made him a flat character for me. I found it hard to care when The Thing went down in the end. I was just kind of like: "I'm supposed to feel something, right? Cuz I got nothin'."
Leo just wasn't doing it for me either. He's all somber and depressing, unless Kaelyn's in the picture and he looks at her with those mournful, meaningful glances. I get that he had a hard journey back home and that he's an orphan now, but the rest of them have faced some bad stuff and they all happen to be orphans as well.
Tobias was my favorite character. He was honest and haunted, but didn't let what he's seen and done consume him. I liked that he was helpful without forcing himself into a leader position simply because he was older.

The Nutshell: The Lives We Lost wasn't a terrible read, but since nothing actually happened in the end, I felt cheated. I'll still read the next book since something (or, everything) has to happen to combat the nothingness that happened in this one. Honestly, this is the first sequel I've felt was simply a oh-yeah-this-is-a-trilogy-I-guess-we-need-a-book-two filler.

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