Originally Reviewed At: Mother/Gamer/Writer
Rating: 3 out of 5 Controllers
Review Source: Publisher
Reviewer: Ariel

Reaper’s Legacy by Tim Lebbon, the second novel in the Toxic City series is full of rich characters and journeys for missing family members.

The story follows Lucy-Anne, who travels with a mysterious boy named Rook. Lucy-Anne is searching for her brother, Andrew, who is the only family she has left. The story also follows Jack, Sparky, and Jenna, who are in search of Jack’s mother and younger sister. All must battle their way through the city of London, running from the Choppers.

My favorite characters to read about were definitely Lucy-Anne and Rook. Lucy-Anne already knows that her parents are dead, and she is now on the way to find her brother, who is supposedly in the northern part of the city. Luckily, she has Rook to travel with her and help her along the way. Rook has a strange affinity with (no surprise here) rooks. The birds seem able to communicate with him, they can warn him about any danger that seems to be ahead. Rook was a great character to me just because he was so mysterious. You learn about his past further into the story and then I fell in love with him even more. Just his willingness to help Lucy-Anne find her brother made him extremely likeable for me.

Jack’s side of the story I didn’t find as interesting, but it wasn’t bad. Jack’s mother and younger sister, Emily, have been sent to Camp H, the only problem being that no one knows where Camp H is. Joining him on his journey are his best friends, Sparky and Jenna. Sparky and Jenna made really good side characters, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses and they’re both extremely loyal to Jack. The two are dating, but they don’t try to make Jack feel like a third wheel, which is nice. Jack also has to deal with the fact that he’s been touched by Nomad, a mysterious girl that most people don’t believe exists. He begins to develop powers, and he must play around with them to see his abilities.

I’m not entirely sure why, but this book just didn’t really grab me. It could be because it’s the second in a series and I haven’t read the first. I think that the main issue I have with this novel is that I don’t feel as though a lot really happened. This stems from the fact that the book is multiperspectival. The storyline alternates between chapters, with one chapter following Lucy-Anne and the next chapter following Jack. I don’t have a problem with multiperspectival novels in general, but for a novel that’s only 231 pages, I don’t think it was necessarily a good decision. 231 is not a lot of pages for one storyline, let alone two storylines.

Slow pacing aside, I do think that the characters are well rounded and well written. We see Jack having moments of doubt, especially when it comes to discerning his father from Reaper, the man that he has become. Lucy-Anne is driven to find her brother, although there’s no guarantee that he’s alive. She thinks about her friends, just as they think about her, but each group feels as though they need to put their own family first.

The world that London has become is also described extremely well, the powers that people possess, the mutants that Lucy-Anne runs into as she goes further north, the scenery are all done really well.

Overall, I’m giving Reaper’s Legacy 3 out of 5 controllers. While the characters and the scenery are really well written, for me it doesn’t make up for the slow pacing of the novel.
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