published: 2017
pages: Lyra 266 // Gemma 236
ISBN: 978-0-06-239419-4
read: 1/19-23/2018
rating: yea. it was cool but overall, together as a whole, nah. maybe not.
book: 4 of 12 (secretly aiming for 52 but happy with 30) of 2018
In the world outside of the Haven Institute, Lyra and Caelum are finding it hard to be human—and Lyra, infected at Haven with a terrible disease, finds her symptoms are growing worse. When Caelum leaves without warning, Lyra follows him, seeking a pioneering organization in Philadelphia that might have a cure. But what they uncover there is a shocking connection to their past, even as their future seems in danger of collapsing.
Though Gemma just wants to go back to her normal life after Haven, she soon learns that her powerful father has other plans for the replicas—unless she and her boyfriend Pete can stop him. But they soon learn that they aren’t safe either. The Haven Institute wasn’t destroyed after all, and now Gemma is the one behind the walls.
MY THOUGHTS
one thing i didn't mention in my last post about the first book was the way i read it.
you can either read the entire Gemma story first and then Lyra or the other way or you can do like me and read one G chapter and then flip over to L.
it might be too late....but i would maybe suggest just doing the alternating thing because either way, no matter who you read first, you'll know whats going on at some capacity.
at least if you alternate, you'll know the whole cause and effect.
in this book, i started doing the alternating chapter but what's different in this story is that Gemma & Lyra literally only cross paths in the beginning and at the end.
so this whole story is just them as individuals.
i ended up reading Gemma's story first and i found that a lot of the questions i had were answered on Lyra's side and i didn't feel that it necessarily took anything away from the reading experience by not knowing right away.
anyway, enough about that. it doesn't matter what order you read it in because if you end up feeling like me, it'll have left you gutted and not in a good way.
this duology: exhausted face emoji.
the first book was soo good! i mean, it had holes but it was good.
and while unbelievable, i feel like this book took it to the eeexxxtttrreeemmmeee!!!
there were just sooo many things!
G&L went through ALL OF THAT in book 1 to barely have anything to do with each other in book 2.
there were sooo many holes or just stories that don't add up for me or that didn't make it seem "real" to me.
for every down that there was for Lyra & 72 and Gemma & Pete, there was an up.
shit went bad sooo many times that at some point you had to be like damn but no. there was always a solution to it all.
i as a human can barely read the metro schedule. I'm scared ill get lost in a new town and have no way out meanwhile L & 72 are traveling from state to state to county like no ones business.
every time they are about to hit the fan, they get saved.
every time Gemma & Pete get into shit it just gets worse and worse and worse but then it all works out.
at some point, i just wanted it to end bad already for someone just so all the shit that happened could have been justified.
i just had an aha moment!
in book 1, Lyra & 72 were kinda the ones that had the shit end of the stick while Gemma & Pete were out and great.
in book 2, Lyra & 72 run into shit but its nooooothing compared to what happens to Gemma & Pete this time around. so i guess there's that and i wonder if it was done on purpose.
but it's been a while since i finished this book and all i still feel is that it was just maybe a bit TOO much for me. and now that i have read both books, they're just too much as a story as a whole.
too much investment for so little in return.
so much AHHHHHHH for a little zzzz.
its like when you FINALLY get something you've been wanting just to find out that all that hard work just to achieve it wasn't worth it.
overall, they're not bad reads but i'd 1000% would have been okay never having had read them. they gave too much for little return.
ill jump over and do spoilers as best as i can remember them.
thanks for reading!
GEMMA
gemma's parents have decided to help with the whole Lyra, 72 & Rick situation; her dad got them a trailer and rick a job on one of his properties.
they're throwing a party for Gemmas mom and everything is going great. she feels like its all finally settled.
then her and Pete decide to fool around and end up in her basement or some shit.
THEN her dad walks in with General some shit or other and it turns out that all along, it was her father's plan to sell out Lyra & 72.
so they freak out, they drive the 6 hrs to Lyra to warn her only to arrive to Lyra basically already walking out.
Gemma tells her that they can help her but Lyra decides nah. shes been free a few months so she can travel the whole freaking world on her own.
so then Gemma gives her a wallet with money and cards (T R A C E ! ! ! ! ! ! !)
they take off.
they get on the freeway.
they come across a completely 100% staged accident.
they get kidnapped and taken to who knows where hours away where they are now holding all of the surviving replicas.
Gemma tells them over and over and ooooooveer that she's not one of theirs but they wont listen.
eventually homeboy that takes over the company arrives and lets her know that he knows and that they're taking care of it.
in there Gemma meets Calliope and to make this short, all the replicas planned an attack escape. they blew shit up and made it out (well, some).
C, Pete & Gemma manage to escape but not before Gemma gets fucked the fuck up and has basically everything broken.
they run away. they're in a forest. C ends up leaving them but comes back because after HOURS of walking aimlessly, she finally finds a house.
apparently they ran into the Amish country.
they go to the house and wonder where the people that live there are.
Pete showers. Gemma and C fight. C leaves. Pete and Gemma fight. Gemma showers. Pete discovers that C killed the people that lived there in the barn.
Gemma finds Pete at the door of the barn.
the only one kid who survived C went to town got a crew and now they're back for revenge.
Pete tells Gemma to run because they're going to basically kill her
(mind you that C IS HELLA SKINNY AND GEMMA IS (for lack of any other description based on the entire previous book) "FAT"!) i get fury and anger but how do you confuse a skinny person for someone bigger?
she runs and runs (mind you on a fuuuuuuucked up ankle) and manages to get away.
finally when its safe, she gets out and just walks and walks and walks until she comes across empty homes.
and then boom, she falls in a hole in the ground and basically she's doomed.
(i should also let you know that when she showered, she used some dudes clothes and in them, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE AMISH, she finds cigarettes and a lighter.)
so obvs hours pass maybe even days and she finally hears people.
turns out its C and she's just back to cover the hole to make sure no one finds her.
then she hears more people and then realizes that she has the lighter so she starts a fire.
so of course they find.
AND WHO FINDS HER YOU ASK!!!!?
OH, ONLY FREAKING LYRA & 72.
(please note that at this point, Lyra and 72 have ridden many buses. crossed several states and somehow escaped "authorities" like nothing....but this is on Lyra's side.) (oh!, and also there's a world wide search for her placed by her parents so there were people looking for Gemma.)
anyway, while all this is going on, Pete is across town, talking to cops and now Gemma's parents about C and how she's the one that killed all those people but she wanted to be the only one so she had to frame Gemma.
of course Gemma's mom didn't know that there was more than one so she's all wtf and the dad is all " this kid is loopy. fuck him."
so Gemma gets found. taken to the hospital, thanks Lyra, tells her mom that she neeever wants to see her dad again (can't blame her) and then confesses her love to Pete and that's it.
that. is. it.
dear this story, suck it.
LYRA
so Lyra is living in a trailer with 72 and her dad.
she meets some trick living there, they become friends, 72 gets mad, gets in a fight with her dad, gets a job and then eventually ends up stealing all the money and runs away without her.
she goes to a party with home girl, it's a mess so she goes home and she stumbles upon 2 of the bad guys waiting at her door. she hides under a trailer and waits and waits until Rick gets there and he tells them over and over that she is not with him. in the end, he ends up in the car with him and to cut the crap, yes they kill him by making it look like an overdose.
she goes inside gets her shit, gets mad over 72 having ran away and finds out that he's also collecting stuff that he comes across.
she then makes the executive decision that she's going to go to Nashville to meet up with him because those were the clues that he left her. (idk what state they're in) but she fucking crosses state line. .__________.
some shit happens.
she walks into a 7/11 and sees a sign that they caught 72 stealing and that he's a thief basically.
some other shit happens, she runs into this detective that ends up taking her to the precinct where they have 72. they're reunited.
she bonds with the guy, he drops them off at the station and they end up at UPENN (i think. and I'm also sure other stuff happens in between) they're there because homeboy who acknowledges that Gemma was wrongly captured was supposed to be there and they want to talk to him.
but there is of course a protest going on.
then a fight breaks out and they get separated but they of course come back together.
they go to some dudes apartment and he tells them all sorts of things so Lyra now has an idea to go to another town, state, probably country at this point, to find Dr. Some shit...the one that gave her that one book. so they go, they break in, turns out she was a bad guy after all. she pulls the fire alarm so that she can escape (after waking up and "needing to go to the bathroom") and look for 72 (they got separated cause duh! he's a white one so they can use and abuse him). in a huge ass building with codes and all this shit you need to access things, of course she finds him.
they manage to sort of escape but of course because Lyra can wing all of this, running is where she chokes. they get caught by Dr. Some shit as the firefighters arrive and she tells that they are basically there to test some drugs and their reaction is a side effect. the ffs are about to leave when Lyra tells them that Dr. SS wont let them call their parents. the ffs give Dr. SS shit about it so she hands over the phone thinking "they're replicas, they don't know shit" and BOOM! Lyra surprises them by making the call.
who does she call?
ghostbusters!!!
jk. (i had to! it was an open door, you'd be more mad if i didn't walk through it.)
she calls the detective dude that took her to 72.
he drives over to pick them up.
hours away.
and of course Dr. SS is like fuck it whatever, I'm going home.
he picks them up, she tells him the truth.
i forget what, if anything happens here and they end up going towards where Gemma is missing (i think he might have told them that she was missing and Lyra FELT that she knew where Gamma's was at (of course).)
so they walk, walk, walk, they find the houses (but G is weak by now) Lyra admits defeat, walks away and then she hears Detective some shit say something about how he found Gemma.
Lyra turns around just as he's walking towards her except that its not her, its actually that bitch C, but by the time she gets to him, its too late, C has already stabbed him.
72 goes after her, pins her down and then Lyra catches up with them.
C feeds her all this bullshit but she remember the one time she killed a bird and so she knows she's a bad seed.
she shoots her right in the face.
then she smells smoke and at this point, is where they find Gemma.
Detective whatever the fuck tells the cops he shot C because she stabbed him (unbelievable because in what circumstance would he have gotten her in the face on the floor in that position? ...but what do i know, i haven't shot anyone and i don't watch SVU)
they're at the hospital then she goes to say goodbye to Gemma and her and 72 escape through a fire escape (paparazzis are everywhere)
and then instead of getting in a bus to get the hell out of there, they just sit on a bench and let time pass like shit didn't just go down.
honestly, this had so much potential, but i fee like TOO much for too little an outcome.
and that's it. and i mean there's stuff i left out but at this point, who remembers.
thanks for reading! :D
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