Review: Savage Drift - Emmy Laybourne

Savage Drift by Emmy Laybourne
Series: Monument 14 #3
Genre: YA, post-apocalyptic
Published on May 6, 2014
Published by Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 320
Read From: 8.7.14 - 8.8.14










SYNOPSIS

They made it. 

I felt joy for them and I missed them and I felt sorry, so deathly sorry for myself and I felt angry at myself for feeling sorry for myself. 

I hadn't known how good I had it before we got locked in. And I hadn't even known how good we had it when we were locked in. 

IT'S OVER. 

Dean, Alex, and the other survivors of the Monument 14 have escaped the disaster zone and made it to the safety of a Canadian refugee camp. Some of the kids have even been reunited with their families, and are making tentative plans for the future. Then, Niko learns that his lost love, Josie, has survived! 

OR IS IT? 

For Josie, separated from the group and presumed dead, life has gone from bad to worse. Trapped in a terrible prison camp with other exposed O's and traumatized by her experiences, she has given up all hope of rescue. Meanwhile, scared by the government's unusual interest in her pregnancy, Astrid - along with her two protectors, Dean and Jake - flees the camp to join Niko on his desperate quest to be reunited with Josie.

Review

Cover Blurb: Yes or No? Probably my most favorite cover of the three books. There's a character impersonator, but you can't see his/her face. And I do love the color gray.

Characters: I actually started to become genuinely attached to some of the characters in Savage Drift. Before, I didn't necessarily dislike any of the main characters, but I really wasn't invested in what happened to them, either. But I came to really care about Josie, once we saw her darker side and how she was struggling with it. I felt bad for Niko, of course, and I liked Marco a lot. I'm still not a fan of Jake, though, or even Astrid, and Dean got kinda annoying in this. Chloe is still a pill; why couldn't she have died? And Sahalia is still trouble, but maybe she'll get better as she gets older.

The Romance: Jake and Dean are at each other's throats constantly when it comes to Astrid. Dean is worried that Astrid doesn't love him enough, and Jake wants to be a part of the baby's life because he'll never be able to father another child. I understood Dean not wanting Jake around; Jake was the furthest thing from a good role model and he was always pushing in where he wasn't wanted. At the same time, though, I really hate it when guys fight over a girl. Maybe if Astrid had accepted Dean's protection, or if Dean had been a bit more mature about his defending Astrid. But it all came across as totally juvenile, and I honestly wanted to tell Dean that he could do better than Astrid. No, she wasn't helping matters, either. Sure, Jake's your friend, but once you've crossed a certain line with a friend (i.e. slept with him), you can't really maintain that friendship when you have someone else in your life. It doesn't work like that.

Plot: The group from Monument 14 made it to a safe location in Canada. They're recovering from the trauma and the chemicals, and the world is slowly, but surely, being cleaned up and made safe once more. However, not everything is back to normal quite yet. Military scientists are taking a bit too much interest in Astrid's pregnancy, and Niko has just found out that Josie is being held in a separate camp for violent O's. A camp that is almost worse than a death sentence. The Monument 14 kids must reunite once more to rescue Astrid, Josie, and brave the rumored drifts of chemicals still out in the wastelands. Savage Drift is actually probably my favorite out of the three. Not quite as much happens as it did in Sky on Fire in terms of danger. But there is a darker edge to it. My main complaint? Everything moved too quickly. For the most part, Dean and his friends' journey to Josie's internment camp is pretty smooth. They have a lot of help, the chemicals are dispersing, and there just isn't as much danger.

Believability: Not applicable.

Writing Style: First person, past and present tense. Dean's narration is in past, and Josie's is present. I enjoyed Josie's narration more mostly because stuff happened to her. And it also gave me a break from Dean's jealousy. I was sorry that Alex didn't have a narration; I actually missed him.

Content: None.

Conclusion: The climax was a little too tidy. Things go from bad to worse, it looks like there might actually be some character deaths, but then everyone is saved at the last minute by a coincidence. I don't mind coincidence; fiction is all about taking a plausible - but not likely to happen - coincidence and making it happen. This one, though, was just a little too convenient, a little too tidy, and it caused a pretty anticlimactic ending. Oh well. Savage Drift was still fun, and my favorite out of the trilogy. It was the cleanest, I actually started to care about some of the characters, and though less happened, it was the darkest. 

Recommended Audience: Girl-and-guy read, eighteen-and-up, fans of post-apocalyptic.

Others in This Trilogy:
1)Monument 14
2)Sky on Fire
3)Savage Drift

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