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Outpost (Razorland, #2)
by Ann Aguirre (Goodreads Author), Emily Bauer
by Ann Aguirre (Goodreads Author), Emily Bauer
All Things Urban Fantasy's review
bookshelves: september-2012-hotp, reviewed-by-abigail
Feb 11, 13
bookshelves: september-2012-hotp, reviewed-by-abigail
Read in February, 2013
Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy
OUTPOST is a very different book from ENCLAVE. Instead of a group of teens governing themselves a la THE LORD OF THE FLIES, Deuce, Fade, Stalker, and Tegan find themselves literally adopted into the town of Salvation. Instead of focusing primarily on hunting Freaks and surviving, Deuce has to learn gender roles, attend school, and accept parental affection…yeah. It’s a big change. Aguirre still writes well and the characters have maintained believable consistency in their new circumstances, but the dramatic departure from the debut was jarring to say the least.
The whole first half of the book felt like one long lecture on gender stereotypes. The townspeople kept trying to get Deuce to conform with their puritanical notions regarding women. She naturally objected and then there were lengthy passages about gender equality etc. Not that I disagree, but it became somewhat tedious after the third ‘girls can do anything boys can do’ monologue. The romantic developments helped to breakup these parts, and only deepened my love for Fade. It was nice to see Deuce soften where he was concerned and see her own sense of wonder at her emotions regarding him. Unfortunately, that storyline ended up moving in several cliche directions.
The story did pick up when the group finally ventured outside the walls of Salvation, but they didn’t stay out there long enough to fully compensate for the slower beginning. That’s partly due to the Freaks themselves. Yes, they are still cannibalistic feral creatures, but it’s almost as if they’ve evolved. They almost end up being viewed like some indigenous people group that Deuces group just doesn’t understand. Yes, they are hostile, and yes, they eat people, but they also have baby Freaks and build houses. They just didn’t feel the same as they did in ENCLAVE.
As an audio book, the production level was good, and I appreciated that the narrator altered her voice subtly when delivering dialogue from other characters My only complaint is that she was a little too sunny in her delivery for Deuce. Still, this is a series with merit, and while OUTPOST didn’t wow me in the way that ENCLAVE did, I’m invested in these characters and where the story is headed. I’ll be interested in seeing how it ends when HORDE is published on October 29, 2013.
Sexual Content:
Kissing. References to rape
OUTPOST is a very different book from ENCLAVE. Instead of a group of teens governing themselves a la THE LORD OF THE FLIES, Deuce, Fade, Stalker, and Tegan find themselves literally adopted into the town of Salvation. Instead of focusing primarily on hunting Freaks and surviving, Deuce has to learn gender roles, attend school, and accept parental affection…yeah. It’s a big change. Aguirre still writes well and the characters have maintained believable consistency in their new circumstances, but the dramatic departure from the debut was jarring to say the least.
The whole first half of the book felt like one long lecture on gender stereotypes. The townspeople kept trying to get Deuce to conform with their puritanical notions regarding women. She naturally objected and then there were lengthy passages about gender equality etc. Not that I disagree, but it became somewhat tedious after the third ‘girls can do anything boys can do’ monologue. The romantic developments helped to breakup these parts, and only deepened my love for Fade. It was nice to see Deuce soften where he was concerned and see her own sense of wonder at her emotions regarding him. Unfortunately, that storyline ended up moving in several cliche directions.
The story did pick up when the group finally ventured outside the walls of Salvation, but they didn’t stay out there long enough to fully compensate for the slower beginning. That’s partly due to the Freaks themselves. Yes, they are still cannibalistic feral creatures, but it’s almost as if they’ve evolved. They almost end up being viewed like some indigenous people group that Deuces group just doesn’t understand. Yes, they are hostile, and yes, they eat people, but they also have baby Freaks and build houses. They just didn’t feel the same as they did in ENCLAVE.
As an audio book, the production level was good, and I appreciated that the narrator altered her voice subtly when delivering dialogue from other characters My only complaint is that she was a little too sunny in her delivery for Deuce. Still, this is a series with merit, and while OUTPOST didn’t wow me in the way that ENCLAVE did, I’m invested in these characters and where the story is headed. I’ll be interested in seeing how it ends when HORDE is published on October 29, 2013.
Sexual Content:
Kissing. References to rape
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