Rebel Heart- November 16


 
Grade: B

Rebel Heart is the sequel to Blood Red Road which is part of the Dust Lands trilogy. We mention this for two reasons: 1) There may be spoilers in this review and 2) We think the covers are a bit confusing. See, they updated the cover for Blood Red Road before they issued the sequel and like the sequel, the title of the trilogy is the most predominant. We like the new covers, but hate that our first two books don't match.

Rebel Heart is divided chapter by chapter, in to one story line that follows Saba and the other that follows Jack. Saba, having freed her brother, Lugh from the Tonton thinks that everything from here on out will be a piece of cake. Having agreed to part ways briefly with Jack at the end of book one, Saba and her family set out for the West and a better life. Jack is returning home to deliver some bad news to a friend and has promised to meet up with Saba later. However, their journeys are fraught with growing danger from the Tonton and the misfortune of those in their way. Saba and Lugh fight. Saba goes a little bit crazy and starts seeing ghosts and having visions of the future. Jack is captured and possibly turned into a Tonton supporter. DeMalo resurfaces and manages to seduce Saba (seriously!). And Saba keeps being told that she has some mysterious power that will unite everyone against the Tonton.

We loved book one. Book two... kinda strange. In fact we started to focus on how dirty everyone probably was because they were always walking and rarely taking baths. That should not have been an attention grabber in what was supposed to be another action-packed book in the trilogy. We are willing to hope for the best with book three and we still recommend book one, Blood Red Road.

Next Up: Ironskin by Tina Connolly, Nov. 23rd

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