It is a truth universally acknowledged that the second book of a trilogy is always the weakest... but not this time. "Crushed" takes all the things that were good about "Cracked", amplifies them and then adds a depth of thought that grabbed hold of my brain while the rest of the story twisted my emotions.

The plot, full of twists and surprises and peppered with violence, unfurls at a pace designed to maximise the tension without rushing thoughtlessly from one fight to another. Describing the plot would spoil the enjoyment of the book, so I'll confine myself to saying that Meda is at risk from both sides in the newly-started all-out-war between Demons and Crusaders, with only her friends standing between her and destruction. All she has to do now is figure out who her friends are.

Although the plot is strong, I see it mostly as a vehicle for working through the big themes of this book: the futility of trying to be someone you're not, the different definitions of being good, the fundamental evil of the removal of choice, the appeal of stolen fun, the price of control, the nature of friendship and, right at the centre of all this, what it means to be a monster.

The book starts fairly gently, lulling me into thinking that I'm in some kind of Hogwarts for Crusaders High School drama where poor misunderstood Meda is defended by her friends and treated unfairly by adults and abused by the mean kids.

To be fair, that's more or less how Meda sees things at the beginning, She get's frustrated by Jo's constant appeals to her, half-demon that she is, to be good. She wants to be good, in theory anyway but tells herself that she can't manage it to Jo's satisfaction because:

"... Jo’s and my definitions of “good” are about as similar as an Eskimo’s and a Jamaican’s definitions of “cold.”
The idea of having to define for yourself the good that you are capable of rather than accepting the good that others expect from you drives much of the plot of this story.

Of course, Meda also fails to be good because she doesn't want to be. She lets herself be distracted by the charming Armand, the half-demon she met in "Cracked". He offers her fun. Forbidden fun. As Meda says:

"Fun is so much better when it' stolen"
The fun stops when the Crusaders do things to Meda against her will. I found this part as fascinating as it was unpleasant. Meda can't stop what's happening but she still resists. Resistance isn't just an instinctive reaction, it's a decision. Meda says:

But I want there to be no doubt in their minds that I do not consent. I do not agree. I have no choice, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to make it easy on them.

This is a powerful way of confronting that the removal of consent is always a violation but it also shows the two sides of Meda's character: her outrage at a wrong being done (especially by the good guys and especially to her) and her absolute determination to make her enemies pay.

About a third of the way into the book, just at the point where I was tiring of reading about High School pranks and rivalries, things got serious. Then I realised they had always been serious but Meda has been unable to see what was really going on.

For a while, we get to explore Meda's demon side. I was impressed by this because it doesn't show Meda as a good guy handicapped by her demon heritage, like some angst-ridden sparkly I-didn't-choose-to-be-this-way vampire. Meda IS as much demon as she is Crusader. She's also as little demon as she is Crusader.

When Jo re-enters the story, the rest of the book, apart from the fights and the things that move the story arc along, is about the nature of friendship and what it means to be a monster.

Meda's relationship with Jo is the thing that keeps her linked to the non-demon side of herself. Jo is her best friend. Jo is the only person Meda would willingly risk herself for. Meda understands this but is unable to articulate it to Jo. At one point, Meda demonstrates the nature and depth of their friendship by saying:

"But seriously, what do you say to your best friend when you stand at the gates of the Gates of Hell? Nothing. If it’s your best friend, she already knows."
Armand calls to Meda's demon nature. They fit each other. He lets her be herself. Yet she always holds something back from him because she understands what he is.

At one point, Armand describes himself and by inference, Meda herself by saying:

“I’m a monster, Meda. I’ve never claimed to be good; I’ve never claimed to be anything other than what I am. I’m selfish and evil and greedy, I want many, many things, most of which I shouldn’t have.”
By the end of the book, after tears and blood have flown freely, lives have been lost and intrigues have played out, Meda has grown up a great deal. When she reflects on her relationship with Armand, she doesn't go for easy answers, She says:

"Our friendship was real, as real as is possible between two monsters."
She then adds:

"You can love a monster, it can even love you back, but that doesn’t change its nature."

I don't want to give the impression that this book is an ethics essay. It's a fast-paced, emotionally taxing, urban-fantasy thriller, but what lifts it from the cliché of the eternal struggle between the forces of good and evil, is an honest and thoughtful exploration of what good and evil are and how all of us feel the call of both. We are all potentially monstrous and we all have to decide what kind of good we're able and willing to be. ( )

4.5 Out of 5 "you can love a monster" Stars

Hmmm…I have no idea why I waited so long to get back into this series, it may have had something to do with my not getting into paranormal lately, actually, that is exactly why. I should have known that Meda would make the experience of reading this second book a blast. Meda rocks.

"You can love a monster, it can even love you back, but that doesn't change its nature."

If you like a bad-ass half-demon heroine, who makes you laugh out loud and root for her to be bad. What, she only kills the bad guys. The child molesters and serial killers. Seriously, I love it when she's bad and is it wrong if I like Armand? But I digress…if you like all this in a supernatural setting then you should totally give this series a go.

"Like most things, fun is better when it's stolen."

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~MY RATING~
☆4.5☆STARS - GRADE=A-
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~BREAKDOWN OF RATINGS~
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Plot~ 4.5/5
Main Characters~ 5/5
Secondary Characters~ 4.2/5
The Feels~ 4.2/5
Pacing~ 4.2/5
Addictiveness~ 4.5/5
Theme or Tone~ 5/5
Flow (Writing Style)~ 4.2/5
Backdrop (World Building)~ 4.2/5
Originality~ 5/5
Ending~ 4/5 Cliffhanger~ Sorta…
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Book Cover~ Excellent
Series~ Soul Eaters #2
Setting~ Mountains of Virginia
Source~ I Own Kindle eBook
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This is the 2nd book in the Soul Eater trilogy. This was a fun and fast-paced YA paranormal book. It’s been awhile since I read the first book, but I found myself falling right back into the story and was completely engaged from the first page to the last.

I love how vicious Meda is, yet how torn she is between her two heritages...dark and light. She is just such a complex character and such an interesting blend of loyalty and recklessness.

The writing style is fast, fun, and easy to read. I always find myself zipping through these books quickly. It’s a bit of a breakneck pace and at times I found myself almost out of breath with the intensity of it all.

Overall a very fun dark YA paranormal series. I love the complex characters, the breakneck pace, and the constant moral dilemmas Meda finds herself in. I would recommend to those who enjoy dark, violent, fast-pace paranormal reads with a lot of dark humor in them. ( )

**SPOILER ALERT**

This book was so fun to read and so easy to go through, I loved how even after everything that happened in the last book there was still a chance that Meda chooses the bad side, especially with Armand in the picture.
I love Armand, I really adored how bad he is and how he never tries to deny it and all. And that moment at the end where it turned out this was all his plan? AMAZING!!

Though I really hope he didn't die and will be there in the next book bc bae ( )

Buddy read with Figgy! We sort of lost sight of each other, to which I apologise and I promise I will be a better reading buddy on our next book.
Actual rating: 4.5

I am Meda Melange, demon-saint monster girl. I make full-grown men scream in terror. I break bones and drain blood. I turn nightmares into reality.
I am the most powerful creature on earth. I do not wear a leash.

Lately, I've been having trouble with books. I'm either only half-invested in finding out what happens next or I truly cannot be bothered to read on. It's either a really bad slump or me, going through that phase. We've all been through it, so turn your judging, no-nonsense eyes away from me.

I'm not going to lie. At first, I believed that Crushed was suffering with Middle Book Syndrome. For some reason, I couldn't get into it as quickly as with Cracked. I mean, I DID, but then around the 15% mark, I found myself thinking, more often than not, "Who the hell cares?!"

It didn't last long. Crewe has the power to quite literally turn your brains inside out. As Meda says, "You can't unscramble scrambled eggs." When I began believing that it was going to be all dramarama, yada yada, I was quite literally bitch slapped back into the book by some of the most dramatic twists I've ever seen in a YA book.

No, Meda, you can't leave campus.
No, Meda, you know we have a curfew.
No, Meda, you can't eat that guy.

Meda is a 'free prisoner' at the Crusader's new school/campsite. Where before she was "one of them" (mostly because they didn't know who she was, but whatever) she is now being watched like a hawk, stalked and reprimanded at every turn, only fed when they say so but is, at least, free to roam the school. Before curfew. It doesn't matter if she's truly innocent, people -- especially Jo -- need to remind her to, "Be good, Meda." And for a half-demon-half-Crusader, this feat is proving harder than she expected. In fact, Jo has made it her personal mission to mother her.

She rounds on me. "Well?" she demands, hands on hips. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?" She looks at me expectantly.
"Gee, you're pretty when you're angry."

Of course, Meda will take none of her shit, and continues to run around, wreaking havoc as she pleases... even if she does have particularly good intentions behind those terrible actions. I was incredibly happy to see that Jo's and Meda's friendship not only strengthens but is also tested. I find it so unbelievable in some books when there are those strong girl friendships and they never argue or betray/upset each other, because whether you like it or not, you cannot keep your best friend happy day in and day out. One day, you're going to do something that'll piss her off big time.

"You treat living here like a joke." She hasn't turned back to me. "You float along, barely civil, and act like they owe you. You act like they should be grateful the Great Meda Melange didn't kill them today. You want them to treat you like a Crusader?" Now she does look at me. "Then stop acting like a demon."

As friendships are tested, Meda finds herself drawn more and more to the beautifully handsome French boy she met whilst she was imprisoned in Cracked -- Armand.

Ladies, prepare to swoon, for her is more glorious than you could ever imagine.



And yes, ladies and gentlemen, our girl has raging hormones just like any other teenage girl out there.

So when our sexy Frenchman offers her a way out, she can't possibly say no. As she says, a good girl's weakness is always a bad boy.

But he turns those long-lashed eyes on me, full of entreaty, as if he were saying: please, please let me come murder the molester with you. How do you say "no" to eyes like those? They are the magical combination of sex and puppy.
Better than it sounds, I promise.

But don't let it fool you into thinking that there's going to be an abundance of insta-love, dry humping and kissing in dark, rotten corners of the school. Far from it. They're so devilishly good together that you don't quite realise that what they're forming is friendship. I absolutely adored the way Crewe handle the most overused, popular trope of today, the feared insta-love, because I can honestly say there is none. It's so real, I could almost punch them in the face.

In a good way.

Get him! My hormones scream.
Don't fall for it, my brain cautions.
Pretty! They whine.
Calm down, hormones. We are just pumping him - (really brain, you chose the word pumping?) - for information. He is literally evil. We need to keep our distance.
A pause.
Get him!
Sigh.

Because there is a greater threat on the horizon. A treaty has been broken and now the demons and Crusaders are at war. The greatest prize (or threat eliminated)? Meda.

Together, Meda and Armand jump on a Whatthefuckishappening-train to OMGthisiscrazyVille, with Jo and Chi not far behind.



It's not going to be pretty.


Although it had, for me, a rocky start, once I got over that hurdle I sped through the book as if my life depended on it. In some sense, it did. I needed to know what happened next and, just like with Cracked, I wasn't going to sleep until I had all the answers. Every time you think you can breathe, there's a new surprise that screams "BOO!" the minute you let your guard down. The action/fight scenes were incredibly well executed, to the point I found myself giggling and intrigued rather than mind-numbingly bored (I'm looking at you, Iron Fey) or completely disinterested.

I will always say that Meda and I are two peas in a pod. She's one of those characters you either want to be, adopt or kidnap, which is always an option if they don't want to be adopted, of course.

*shifty eyes*

10/10 would recommend, and if you haven't yet read CRACKED, I honestly do not know what you're waiting for. This series is fucking amazing.



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