Brood

Mild spoilers, very mild. I think I gave the first one three stars. To be honest, I liked it better, but this book doesn't deserve less than three stars. I feel as though the first one had far more going on, far more intricacies, far more character development. This follow up follows Leslie's sister, who adopts Adam and Alice and–God knows why–decides to move into the Twisden house, where the children grew up. Where their parents went mad. And then after this, the book is mostly about Cynthia panicking over everything (with good reason); rat infestation; the kids running out on her and randomly coming home at all hours; and the reconnection the twins have with Rodolfo and the wild children. But most of the character development occurs within the plot points concerning Rodolfo and his gangs of wild children. I feel as though we only know Cynthia superficially, because she spends most of her time panicking in the house. I liked her, but I wasn't invested in her. There is also a plot point concerning a horror/thriller trope–the luckless villain who blames everyone else for everything, and who is not a very nice person. He will, of course, have to kill a hooker at some point. Yawn.

In the end, one is left with questions on the practicality of anything that just happened. This book was decent, enjoyable, and I read it quickly. But it pales in comparison with the first one. Even the writing isn't as good.

That said, it's still a decent book. I still had fun reading it. And whilst I might have cared less about Adam and Alice in this one, I cared more about Rodolfo and his cohort. So read. Enjoy.