Anyone else find this book to be an ordeal?

[Stephen]

“Ninth graders with machine guns: its hard to make that a happy story.”

I'm rereading this book in preparation for going through the rest of the series. This book sort of stopped me last time as I felt like it was just too tortuous. There were too may things going wrong with too many bleak points and very little relief. I'm guessing that that was in part to make Sam's plight more immediate but I got the feeling that the author was just being sadistic to a degree.

I did finish before but I needed a break and never went back to read book 3. Now I've gotten Book 3 & 4 from the library and intend to go on but book 2 is a real marathon of pain.

[Emily]

Although the book can be difficult and annoying to read at times with everything going wrong it is such a great series that I have read multiple times. It is definitely worth reading in the end.