See How They Run by Ally Carter | Review

Embassy Row #2

Pages: 336
Genre: young adult, mystery

Summary

Grace’s past has come back to hunt her and if she doesn’t stop it, Grace isn’t the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world are neighbours and stand like dominoes. One wrong move can make them all fall down.

My thoughts

Rating out of five:

No. Noope. Glad to be done with this book. It showed the series had a direction, but too much went wrong along the way.

I don’t even know why I would review a book I didn’t like, but I feel like I would appreciate it if someone warned me? I liked the other series by Ally Carter and if I’d read a review like this, I wouldn’t have bothered to pick this one up. Go read the Gallagher girls or even better; the Heist society. They’re both better than this one, even if it has its moments and good quotes.

To start off on a positive note: here you got young adult characters that actually behave like young people, however serious the situation is. It’s refreshing and it seems like they characters have grown up a bit since the last book, which makes completely sense.

I didn’t really know what this book would be about – at all – since in the first book every secret seemed to spill over and was eventually wrapped up with a bow on top. How could there be any more skeletons in the closet after that? All praise to Ally Carter’s creativity to figure that out – and she did. This book have good action, it’s fast-paced and have its moments. You think the plot twist is obvious, but there’s always more undetected hidden behind them. The mystery wasn’t as original as I hoped. It got an okay backstory though, and that’s about what I can say without spoiling anything.

These teenagers got to be very energetic. That’s a looot of running around, which I don’t really care for. It might be a choice taken to keep things interesting and the reader alert, but I don’t really care to follow when they return to places for the who-knows-how-many times. You got a lot of hiding spots, and surely need them with all this drama, but it’s a bit overkill.

That’s the thing about being the girl who’s spent years convincing the world she’s not afraid of anything: at some point, someone is going to find out you’re afraid of everything.

The main character, Grace, has changed since the first book too. She’s as wild and upredictable as usual, but no longer considered as paranoid because she’s proven herself at last. The relationship between her and her brother seemed more real, as did the friendships she finally developed with the other embassy kids. She seem to have PTSD, or something similar, and it’s well shown throughout the book. It makes Grace and the plot seem more real, since you’re shown the consequences she has to deal with. I was worried at the beginning that this book would follow the usual recipe: girl meets boy, drama happens and they have to fix it together, everyone acts before they think, but it magically works out anyway and finally they get together. It wasn’t completely like that, to my relief. Some of the elements are certainly there, but Carter managed to add some dimension to it.

Also, the adults seem to finally have been introduced to the plot, even going so far as keeping an eye on them. Wow, who would have known they could have information and perhaps be willing to help? “See how they run” was predictable at times, but well-written and a step up from the first book. Still it didn’t do enough for me to concider picking up the third book of the series. I believe I’m done with this, there has to be better mysteries out there to read. I think it’s beccause the plot is built on one too many clichés, and that’s honestly why I didn’t figure out all the plot twists; I thought it wouldn’t be that obvious. This book certainly tries to keep your interest and who knows, perhaps it will work for you, but I’ll throw in the towel and say I’m happy to have finished it.

“She’s right, of course. There’s a loop in my life – a pattern of violence and death and heartbreaking sorrow that I would give anything to stop. To rewrite. To end. But my walls are not yet high enough, not strong enough. What Ms Chancellor doesn’t know is that I never will stop building.”