All hail Karen, queen of the mic drop book ending. CBR12 Review 3.

Disclaimer: Karen McManus and I went to college together. I am very good friends with her old roommate. Karen has been a huge supporter of the Cannonball Read in the past. I would never review one of her books if I wasn’t going to give it a big thumbs up.

And so, with that out of the way, I’m happy to report that One of Us is Next, the sequel to her fun and amazingly popular debut, One of Us is Lying, is just as filled with twists, turns, and insane social media shenanigans as its predecessor, and just as much of a good time.**

The story brings the reader back to Bayview, approximately 18 months after the events of OOUIL. We get brief updates on the original “Bayview Four” — Bronwyn, Nate, Cooper, and Addy — but this book is more about the next generation of kids at Bayview High, including Bronwyn’s little sister, Maeve, her best friend (and ex), Knox, and Addy’s neighbor, Phoebe.

Someone in Bayview has stepped into the late Simon’s shoes and is threatening the entire school population with a massive game of Truth or Dare — take the Dare or have a horrible secret exposed to EVERYONE. Of course, every single kid in the school should have reported this game to the authorities the second they saw the text alert on their phones…and yet, nobody does. They all sort of want to see what will happen, who will be chosen, and what secrets will come out.

But that all changes when people start to die.

Dude, this is a Karen McManus book. Of course someone is going to die. The book starts out telling us that someone is dead, and we spend the rest of the story trying to figure out WHO and WHY and HOW.

I’ll admit, this time I figured out who was behind the mysterious game a little bit sooner than last time. BUT. I was once again not prepared for the ending, because nothing ever goes exactly the way you think in one of these books.

We think we know how things will wrap up, and then BOOM, something comes out of left field that changes everything…and usually on the very last page, leaving me to say WHAT?!?!?!?, but not in a bad way.

(At this point, I know I should be ready for these endings. But the twists really do surprise me! I wonder if she comes up with the ending before she comes up with the rest of the story? I’ll have to ask at our next reunion!)

This was a fun and quick (only because it was hard to put down) read, and I look forward to more from Karen McManus for many years to come. I couldn’t be happier for her and the success of these books.

**My only gripe? I’m not quite sure I buy into the Luis/Maeve relationship…do college age boys (really, men) go out with high school girls and nobody cares? Including parents? I get that these two were friends first, and maybe they are really close in age, but I got a little squicky over that.

Time to break up with Sarah Dessen. Or at least see other people. CBR12 Review 2.

For a long while, I was happily riding along on the Sarah Dessen bandwagon, waving my flag and cheering her on. I recommended her books to my daughter and her friends, and enjoyed reading them myself. And now, I think I’m ready to get off the bandwagon. I’m going to ask the driver to pull over.

I’m confused about why our relationship has cooled.

Maybe its that I’ve just gotten older and can’t relate to her characters anymore.
Maybe I’m annoyed with her about the twitter scandal she was in last year, where she publicly called out someone for criticizing her books and called their words “mean and cruel.”
Or maybe I’m just tired of the formula? Girl lives in North Carolina, near the water. Girl has dysfunctional family, probably only one parent. Girl needs direction. Girl meets perfectly imperfect boy with all the answers and they fall in love, yay.

This book is no different. Emma Saylor (both are her first name) lives with her dad, who has just gotten married. Her mom died a few years back, overdosing after a life-long battle with addiction. Emma (as her dad calls her) hasn’t spent much time with her mom’s side of the family, as her dad prefers to keep those upsetting details away from her.

Until!

Her dad goes on his honeymoon and Emma needs somewhere to stay. She ends up going to her maternal grandmother’s house — to see relatives she hasn’t seen since she was four. (?!?!?!). Her grandmother — Mimi — owns a motel at a lake, and her house is filled with noisy cousins and friends. So much different than the quiet and orderly life Emma is used to. Everyone there knows Emma as Saylor, because that’s what her mom always called her.

And so, Emma Saylor tries to figure out how to bring the two pieces of her life — the Emma part and the Saylor part — together. Meanwhile, there’s also a bit of a subplot about class — the side of the lake where Mimi lives and works is decidedly blue collar, but the other side has a yacht club and a 5 star resort. Which side does Emma Saylor truly belong on?

The only thing that surprised me about this book was the ending. (Spoilers?). A huge hurricane hits the lake, while Emma is staying with her dad’s family on the fancy side of the lake. She has been forbidden to visit the other side where her new friends and family live, after breaking curfew, getting drunk, and lying to her dad. The fancy resort totally misjudges the storm, and is more or less destroyed. But Mimi’s family is ready for the storm and everyone works together to make sure everyone is safe and sound. Emma’s dad breaks character (because honestly, he was kind of awful) and drives through the worst of the storm to help some of the new-found cousins who are alone and scared, and is actually sort of heroic about the whole thing.

This wasn’t a bad book, and I enjoyed it more than the last one (because I really, really didn’t like that one), but I don’t think I will be adding these to my must-read list anymore. Sorry, Sarah. It was fun while it lasted, but I think its time for us to go our separate ways.

Next time, I’ll just read The Stand again. CBR12 Review 1.

This book had everything going for it, including multiple comparisons to The Stand, and a massive recommendation from the mothership. I started it back in August, thinking I could whip through it for the Pajiba Says bingo square, and well, I just finished it yesterday. I was…not a fan. I didn’t hate it, but I was incredibly let down by it.

The story starts out strong: across the world, sleepwalkers start marching toward an unknown destination. Their numbers start off small, and as the group (and the “shepherds” who are traveling with them) starts to grow, the world starts to ask questions: Where are they going? What’s wrong with them? How do they know what they’re doing? Why do they EXPLODE when you try to stop them? Meanwhile, a virus slowly makes its way into the population, and seems to be undeniably lethal and unstoppable. The CDC sends their best (and former best) scientists to the scene to try and figure out what’s happening with the walkers and if they have anything to do with the virus — now called White Mask — before its too late.

Here’s what I liked:

I’m down for any book that attempts to emulate The Stand. I’m always curious to see how another author interprets the potential apocalypse and the breakdown of society. I liked the idea of a specific destination (in Colorado, no less! With a special cameo by Las Vegas as the home for the worst of us at the end of days) for society to be rebuilt after the world that we know has come to an end. And I liked that the bulk of the story took place on the road — as the group of walkers and shepherds grew, we met more and more characters. I loved how they became a tight-knit community of RVs and trucks, following their loved ones into the unknown. I really liked Marcy, the ex-cop with a special connection to the walkers; Landry, who started out as a minor love interest but over time became quite a hero; and Dove, the mayor of Ouray, Colorado. I could have spent many more pages with them.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Pretty much all of the main characters. ESPECIALLY Pete the rock star. UGH.

The quickly wrapped up ending where we find out how the virus really started and how many actually survived.

All of the action that took place within the computer program.

And most of all, I hated everything that was about Christianity and MAGA-veiled white supremacy. Basically, the author chose to make all of the villians members of a militia group that used the reach of the church to poison the minds of as much of society as it could get its hands on. I understood where it was coming from, as clearly the end of the world has to have some anarchy, and that the story needed clear-cut good guys and bad guys, but it was painted with such broad, stereotypical strokes that it was pretty insulting to the reader. And I’m confident saying that as neither a Christian nor a MAGA supporter in any way, whatsoever. If I wanted to be lectured about politics and the state of the world, I would have asked for it. I did not need to have Wendig’s opinions (which really were not opinions, as he is pretty sure he is right about everything) shoved down my throat, page after tedious page.

Did I mention that this book was long? Like 800 pages. It could have used a 300 page trim and wouldn’t have suffered for it. This was my first Chuck Wendig, and I can’t imagine I’ll be reading a second.