This book was just kind of okay. The writing was technically pretty good and had nice imagery, but the story really dragged on. About halfway through I found myself just wanting it to end. It's just back to back scenes of Trio and friends finally finding somewhere better or safer or whatever only to have one of the random bad groups show up and magically they've infiltrated everything and their only option is to run away. Again and again.

At one point they were even inside of a literal bunker and a gang of actual teenagers just walks right in and suddenly their only option is to immediately pack up and run away. I would have enjoyed some legit conflict between Trio/Beckett and Cade but Cade and his seemingly endless army of unquestioningly loyal child soldiers are kind of glossed over and then there is no actual interaction with him other than to shove him away until the next time he shows up. This whole book just seems like a huge stall tactic to fill up pages. At one point I was even joking with my friend about the puppies just being "plot puppies" because they served absolutely no purpose to the story other than to complicate things and extend the plot. The main character, while walking towards an actual thing she has an actual motive to go to suddenly discovers these puppies and basically just turns around to show the people she just left these sweet puppies she just found.

Then there's Poppy who must be the most amazing escape artist and tracker the world has ever seen even though she's something like 8. No matter what she always manages to escape to catch up and find them even though they had a head start and are actively trying to conceal themselves. Then Trio just laughs about it and thinks it's cute or something and defends her when Beckett gets mad even though she's an actual child roaming through the ruins of a city with something like 2 or 3 different kinds of zombies, murder police, and multiple gangs of evil children.

And they ended trusted Genki repeatedly even though he continuously stabbed them in the back despite the protagonist never even liking him to begin with. And why did Dauphine even stay with Genki? Why did Genki even care about her so much other than the vague reason that he's greedy? Were they in love? Was there some complicated abusive relationship going on? Did her stabbing him in the back even matter? How did Cade know about all of Genki's extra hidden caches? How did Genki manage to plot his final betrayal with Cade while Dauphine was with him? Why wouldn't Cade just immediately murder him? How did Cade track down two people sneaking off on their own but failed to find Beckett's entire group? Why would Socrates EVER destroy all his books, especially after going through such great lengths to find every single missing book from the library? Why would he as a character even have a system like that in place when they seemingly mean more than his life to him? Why did he never move into the bunker or even send someone over to check it out? He could have even brought his books there if he wanted. Why does Emile never do anything besides protect Socrates? What is he to her? Why do we never learn any actual substance about their relationship? I don't think she even had a single line of dialogue. What was Nico's deal? Why was she so against Trio that she'd be willing to throw away her place in the group, out them to Cade, risk Beckett's life, and ultimately give up her own life trying to screw her over? She even tripped children and then ran away instead of helping them. She's almost like a Disney villain and is made out to be this utterly irredeemable character with no positive traits. Why does Trio have absolutely no problems physically or morally murdering nameless minions but whenever the opportunity arises to kill Genki or Cade she just can't do it for some unknown reason even though it would solve at least 80% of her problems? She's even shown that she doesn't even need her special powers to do it. I have so many questions. I can't even list them all here.
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Ms. Larson’s words flow easily with her writings of this story. You will find yourself pulled in from the beginning and refusing to believe the story is over when it ends even knowing there is a sequel out there for us to come.
Clone 3 also known as Trio is confused. She has waken with little memory and only flashbacks of things from the past. She is on a mission to find Clone 2 and Clone 1 by a graphic of a woman telling her to find them but it fades away. She happens upon Poppy, a little girl that grabs her heart instantly. Beckett, Poppy’s brother is a protector in many ways. The Sick have come along after the world that we know of has ended along with other predators. All adults have died and all that is left are children and young adults trying to make it in the world of what is left. But survival is hard because if you can’t hide in the shadows, be aware of what is around you, then your fate will be as the rest of the world has met. I dare you to not fall in love with the characters Ms. Larsen has created for us and brought to life. I am looking forward to the next story to this series. ( )