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Resist by Sarah Crossan

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Book name and author
Resist, by Sarah Crossan

Brief synopsis (no spoilers)
Continuing from Breathe (previous book), the Resistance members flee to another community outside the Pod, hoping for assistance and to pick up their original plans. But the other community has their own ideas of how things should be done (cue ominous music).

Why I chose this book
I enjoyed Breathe, and saw tons of possibilities for the story line to continue. Crossan did not disappoint!

My personal opinion (the review)
This was a harder book to like than Breathe. Breathe had action and romance and even some language, but it was Young Adult Fiction action, romance, and language. This book had all of those in a much stronger, harsher level. I was worried about a love triangle for a few minutes, but it all worked out the fairy tale way. It was really good, but not great.

Warnings (language, violence, "adult" situations, death, etc.)
Language: medium to strong (no f-bombs, but enough other ones to make me notice)
Violence: many instances of fighting with guns, of people being attacked, of imprisonment and mild torture
Sexual situations: nice, happy love situations between 2 characters; one situation leads the reader to believe that a rape is imminent, but it resolves way before anything happens (strong tension, though)
Death: many instances of suffocation, parent of a main character dies
Other: one character gets an infection in the leg and another character has to clean it out- mildly graphic situation

Movie rating equivalent
PG-16 (not bad enough to be rated R, but I wouldn't allow a 13-year old to read it)

Protagonist description
Bea continues to be the strength behind the resistance effort; Quinn grows a spine and shines in some action; Alina is strong, but becomes a more secondary character- almost like she's just a tool to bring the voice closer to third person omniscient; Ronan kicks butt and takes names

Point of view of story
As if flipping between 3 first-person narrators wasn't difficult enough, this one has 4. They are all told from the "correct"/"best" angle, but I found myself constantly checking the chapter title to remind myself who was narrating.

Book length
Medium - less than a week

Story flow
Decent. Most of it was fairly gripping. A few situations had me squirming uncomfortably and wanting to peek ahead a few pages to see if they were "safe" to keep reading. But the plotline never dragged.

Grammar and spelling issues
None

Character connection (no spoilers)
I kinda wish Alina had been stronger. Her intense part in Breathe was taken over by Ronan in Resist. So, Alina faded a bit.

For series:
Independent or integral (stand-alone or back story dependent)
Integral

Series review as a whole
Very good. Not the best series I've read this year, but also far from the worst.

If you only have time for one, read: (which one)
Breathe, definitely

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