Rating: 3 stars
Cover Rating: 3.5 stars (Again, an interesting and relevant cover, but I'm just not in love with it. These are good boy covers though.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Page Count: 338 p.
Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon
Add it: Goodreads
Sequel to: Shelter
Spoon, Ema and Mickey are back and caught in the middle of a terrible mystery. Their new friend Rachel has been shot, and something about it seems fishy. Mickey is also still trying to figure out exactly what Bat Lady meant when she said his father was still alive. Also, what is up with the picture of the Butcher of Lodz, could it really be the same person that Mickey thinks it is? Mickey gets into even more trouble and finds himself in plenty of dangerous situations, all to help his friend Rachel figure out what happened when she got shot.
I'll start with something that bugged me, because I noticed it a few pages in. In Seconds Away Harlan Coben repeats a lot of things. Not only doesn't he do mini recaps for people who apparently decided to skip the first book and go right into the second, but he repeated many phrases that he used in the first book. An example:
From Shelter "I love the way you can be exhausted and sweaty and running with nine other guys, and yet, at the risk of sounding overly Zen, you are still so wonderfully alone."
From Seconds Away "I picked up the basketball, lost in the—and, yes, I know how this will sound—Zen-like quality of shooting."
In both of these sentence Mickey talks about being Zen with basketball and about it sounding corny. Maybe this won't bug other people, and maybe if I had waited awhile in between reading the two books I wouldn't have even noticed but I did notice and it did bug me. There were a few more instances like this, and each one made me cringe a little.
Beside that, I really enjoyed this book. The mysteries keep getting deeper and more twisty. On top of all the mysteries left over from the first book, Mickey finds more mysteries including Rachel's shooter. I did not for one second guess who it was. Until I was reading it on the pages I was in the dark about who could've been the shooter.
Spoon and Ema are still great in this book too. We learn a lot more about Ema, some of them surprising some, expected. Spoon is still his fun self, I would love to learn more about him too, hopefully in the next book!
As soon as I finished this book I wanted more. There are still so many mysteries that need to be solved and I am dying to know what happens next. I don't know when the next book will come out, but hopefully soon. I'll be picking it up right away, I just hope I don't have to hear about the Zen of basketball again ;)
First Line:
"There are moments in your life that change everything."
Favorite Line:
"I texted Spoon first and got the following auto-answer. Spoon: I cannot reply at this time. Due to recent events I am grounded until the age of 34. And then, because he was Spoon, he added: Abraham Lincoln's mother died of milk poisoning at age 34."
Add it: Goodreads
Sequel to: Shelter
Spoon, Ema and Mickey are back and caught in the middle of a terrible mystery. Their new friend Rachel has been shot, and something about it seems fishy. Mickey is also still trying to figure out exactly what Bat Lady meant when she said his father was still alive. Also, what is up with the picture of the Butcher of Lodz, could it really be the same person that Mickey thinks it is? Mickey gets into even more trouble and finds himself in plenty of dangerous situations, all to help his friend Rachel figure out what happened when she got shot.
I'll start with something that bugged me, because I noticed it a few pages in. In Seconds Away Harlan Coben repeats a lot of things. Not only doesn't he do mini recaps for people who apparently decided to skip the first book and go right into the second, but he repeated many phrases that he used in the first book. An example:
From Shelter "I love the way you can be exhausted and sweaty and running with nine other guys, and yet, at the risk of sounding overly Zen, you are still so wonderfully alone."
From Seconds Away "I picked up the basketball, lost in the—and, yes, I know how this will sound—Zen-like quality of shooting."
In both of these sentence Mickey talks about being Zen with basketball and about it sounding corny. Maybe this won't bug other people, and maybe if I had waited awhile in between reading the two books I wouldn't have even noticed but I did notice and it did bug me. There were a few more instances like this, and each one made me cringe a little.
Beside that, I really enjoyed this book. The mysteries keep getting deeper and more twisty. On top of all the mysteries left over from the first book, Mickey finds more mysteries including Rachel's shooter. I did not for one second guess who it was. Until I was reading it on the pages I was in the dark about who could've been the shooter.
Spoon and Ema are still great in this book too. We learn a lot more about Ema, some of them surprising some, expected. Spoon is still his fun self, I would love to learn more about him too, hopefully in the next book!
As soon as I finished this book I wanted more. There are still so many mysteries that need to be solved and I am dying to know what happens next. I don't know when the next book will come out, but hopefully soon. I'll be picking it up right away, I just hope I don't have to hear about the Zen of basketball again ;)
First Line:
"There are moments in your life that change everything."
Favorite Line:
"I texted Spoon first and got the following auto-answer. Spoon: I cannot reply at this time. Due to recent events I am grounded until the age of 34. And then, because he was Spoon, he added: Abraham Lincoln's mother died of milk poisoning at age 34."
I really don't think the cover looks like YA at all but maybe it's going for a different audience.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Id' have the same problem with the repetition of the phrases and words but overall this does sound like a good read!
Also, I see my name over there >>> what did I win? That is so exciting! :)
It really doesn't look like a YA cover.
DeleteI sent you an e-mail re: your winnings. If you didn't get one, feel free to e-mail me and I'll share with you the details :)