Black writes an action packed story with fearless depth and creativity. The book(s) contain a lot of smell descriptions, which given the dystopic world that this ends up taking place in, is entirely appropriate and only deepens the readers sense of presence in the story. All of the tactile ways the characters are being bombarded with this new reality just enhance the tension and the mystery of what has happened and what do we do now.
The story moves into a deeper exploration of not just "what would I do in that situation," an important part of the engaging quality of the book, but then goes into how do groups of people respond to this situation. And this is where Black's fearlessness comes in to play. Really looking at what happens when all structure of government, rules, discipline are absent from a society. In that gap, what happens? To some degree, one of the answers is that small groups led by crazy power hungry people before the zap lead with insanity after it. But she doesn't let that be the whole story.
I desperately wanted to read book three at the end!
"A deep red bled across her vision. Disoriented, her lungs on fire, she churned water in a wild, frothing panic, and then she was lunging for a distant glimmer, what she thought might be the surface, kicking desperately even as the water fisted her heavy boots, greedily fingered her clothes, and tried to pull her back." Loc 1336
"Mina sailed across her vision." Loc 1349
"The stench was like summer, hot and torrid: a stink of tarry asphalt and roadkill bloated with decay." Loc 1373
"Mina spotted her first. Her tail thumped, and then she was heaving to a stand. her left leg was splinted, but she pranced over to Alex, who dropped to her knees and wrapped the dog up in a hug. 'Good girl,' she said. 'You are such a good girl.'" Loc 1466
"'When hope fails, then watch out. Some people get brutal. They'll turn on each other; they'll become their own worst enemies.'" Loc 4061
"But she was scared. She was starting to forget Ellie and Tom." Loc 4700
"Vietnam was wedged in his brain, good and tight, like a stringy piece of meat caught between his teeth that wouldn't be dislodged for love or money. So why should everybody else forget if he couldn't?" Loc 84
"The thing was - no one had ever accused him of being too smart." Loc820
"He's crazy. Peter's throat convulsed, and then he was rolling his head to one side and vomiting the water he'd just drunk along with a thick gob of sour phlegm and mucus. he gulped air as the room spun. He's nuts, he's insane." Loc 1663
Books 64 - 65
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