Gray has been captured by Cracked and is under Jace’s
command. He must quickly adapt to the high standards of his new prison – or he
will be disposed of as any shapeshifter is if they don’t fit into Cracked.
Jace quickly turns from an enemy to an essential ally in
helping Gray fit into the prison life – and he grows closer to her team and
their ongoing mission
He also grows closer to her – as their telepathy and relationship come together into something new and completely outside both their experiences.
I was pleasantly surprised how this book worked – I
expected a lot of resentment and angst and snarling between Gray and Jace.
Their epic hostility would continue for most of the book until eventually the
inevitable romance developed
Well, I was partly right
Instead of going down that clichéd route, Jace and Gray
seem to mesh quite well from the beginning. A lot of this stems from Gray’s
excellent personality. He’s easy going, he’s gentle, he’s not going to blame
Jace for being an enslaved part of the system any more than he blames himself.
He’s not going to rebel for the sake of it, nor is he going to fight a battle
he can’t win. He’s going to do the very best he can in a bad situation, make
sure he survives and then see how he can manage for freedom and existence from
there. He also quickly recognises that people around him are trying to help him
survive and he buries any resentment.
It’s a refreshingly mature attitude. And if I have any criticism of it it’s that it’s just a little… too perfect? Gray’s assimilation into Cracked, his adaptation, the difficulties he faces et all are all just… kind of easy. There’s little depiction of any real struggles over this new life he’s living, there’s no anger or grief or frustration over becoming a prisoner and effective slave. It’s freakishly smooth and probably too smooth. This is even more obvious when we see how quickly he makes friends and gets by with the other inmates – sure part of this can be explained by the fact he is Jace’s protégé and she is top of the pile, but in the last book it really emphasised how brutal and cut throat Cracked was with lots of violent competition between the inmates.
I feel odd for complaining about this because I think I
enjoyed the book a lot more without these conflicts than I would have if they
had been there. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel quite so solid or
realistic to have his transition into Cracked be so smooth. Where do I stand on
enjoying the absence of a particular plot point while at the same time thinking
the story and the world building suffer for it not being there?
There was a love triangle – and I don’t think this needed
to be there at all. I do like how it went though with, ultimately, Gray paying
some kind of comeuppance for, basically, being such an utter coward.
The main reason I did like these awkward, necessary plot
points being excluded is because it let us get on with the meat of the story
rather than dwell on this (and I think that conflict would have been too
obvious a plot line and full of lots of romance clichés). The actual main plot, Gray finding his feet
in the organisation, Jace fitting into her current place as well as the huge
expansion of the world with new talented people (and their own telepathy
talents) made for a much more compelling story – seeing how a different organisation
works puts the brutal treatment of the Cracked facility far more stark
I also like the conflict, especially from Jace, over what
she does. She doesn’t like Cracked, doesn’t want to be there and is desperate
for freedom, but it’s still the only home she’s ever realistically known, it’s
the system she knows, it is run by the mentors she knows and respects and, in
some ways, it is also source of pride for her because she is so good at what
she does and her team is so excellent. It’s subtle, but there’s some nice depth
there. There’s also scenes like her team being seconded to the army, she thinks
it’s important, she’s impressive and she thinks her team is doing the right
thing and she’s proud of her achievement.
I wasn’t as enthralled by the actual depiction of the
antagonists – whatever they are. They’re this vague band of vague shapeshifters
aiming to do vaguely ominous things involving vagueness. And I think the plot
is weak because of that – they get nebulous intelligence about this vague
threat so they have to be sent off on various tasks. It feels poorly held
together – the story demands that the characters go HERE and do THIS but it has
no real motivation for this – so it’s kind of pushed in.
So we have this huge chunk of the book where Gray and
Jace are protecting the presidential kids and… I have no idea why. I honestly
do not know what the point of this is or what it develops. I think it may be
there just for something to happen while Gray and Jace’s development continues.
I didn’t so much find it tiresome as totally unexplained. I also want to know
why Britain is the one willing to execute shapeshifters for existing when it’s
the US with the death penalty
In terms of marginalised people we have some… minorish
characters. Several members of Jace’s team are POC including an Indian, Viraj
and a Latina, Carmen and they’re both definitely skilled, experts and largely
free of tropes. There’s also an Asian FBI agent who is fairly prominent. But
this book focuses so much on Jace and Gray’s story that they – along with every
other character minority or otherwise – is pretty much pushed into the
background. I don’t like the dubious, random and still unexplained middle
eastern terrorists and we have a random army trip to Afghanistan to kill more
evil terrorists.
At the end of the book it’s revealed that Gray’s sister
is in a relationship with another woman – but she’s a vanishingly tiny presence
in this book.
Jace is a very strong female character and leader – and I
like that she is the driving force, the power and the greater threat and
authority in her relationship with Gray. It’s a nice subversion of the gender
roles we see so often. I also like how Jace and Carmen are soldiers, kick arse
deadly fighters – but at the same time they are interested in make up and
clothes. In a genre where we repeatedly see Strong Female Characters reject
everything that is remotely coded as female, it’s interesting to see these women
embracing them, while still being so strong and dangerous
This is another excellent book in this series and a great
continuation of these characters’ experiences. I am really invested in them
and, equally and surprisingly, invested in their romance. I want to see what is
going to happen here – but I also think the world and actual plot needs more
foundation
