Rage Within (Dark Inside #2)

Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts

Paperback, 368 pages

Expected publication: 30th August 2012 by Macmillan Children's Books

My shelves: apocalyptic, arc-or-review, blog-tour, books-i-own, dystopian, horror, read-in-2012, sci-fi, read, young-adult, zombies

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

After the earthquakes came the infectious rage, turning friends into deadly enemies. For survivors Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine the battle to stay alive is about to get even tougher. The new world is organising itself, with camps that promise protection for the uninfected. But the reality of the sites is far more sinister. Besides, nobody is safe from the rage within their own soul...

For fans of Gone, or 28 Days Later not to be missed!

Buy this book:

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My thanks go to Macmillan's Children Books for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Last year, I picked up a copy of Rage Inside from my local library, not knowing much about it and having not read a zombie-type book before (okay, they're technically not zombies, but some characters are in a zombie-like state). I was very glad that I did pick it up as I really, really enjoyed it. The only problem was, I had to wait for the second book to be released! When I finally held a copy of Rage Within, I was so excited to delve into it.

I'll be honest and say that I can't remember Dark Inside very clearly, despite how much I liked it - I could only recollect snippets of events, though I had a good memory of the characters. This wasn't a problem for me though, by around only 50 pages in, I was absolutely absorbed into the story, reacquainted with the characters and didn't want to put the book down. I was surprised that I enjoyed Dark Inside so much and even more surprised that I enjoyed this instalment even more. In this book, we follow a group of teenagers as they unite to try and survive a world that has completely changed after a catastrophic earthquake. They are up against a load of people who have turned into what are known as 'Baggers' - the bad guys of the books. Baggers are still human and it's very hard to know who is a bagger and who is not, which makes things a whole lot scarier and unnerving.

Again, this book is narrated by Mason, Michael, Clementine and Aries. Each character was strong and for me, it felt very equal - I didn't warm particularly to one character as I was interested in them all. Whilst all characters are well formed, I personally thought it was quite easy to get them mixed up, however this didn't cause any difficulty whilst reading. Though I won't mention who they are incase of spoilers, we also got to meet some new characters in this book who were very intriguing. There was a huge twist with one character in particular in this book and although it did sadden me as I'd come to like and know the character, the twist was indeed very effective! I loved all of the twists and turns in the book. There were some things that were slightly predictable but a lot of twists did shock me and make me gasp, which was fantastic. I was totally hooked, desperate to know what was going to happen next.

The one aspect of the first book that troubled me was the point of view of a character known as 'Nothing' - someone/thing that we don't know anything about. despite it being effective, I didn't like it in the first book as it was too vague for me. However, in this book we get to learn a lot more about 'Nothing' and begin to really discover who/what Nothing is. 

As you should be able to tell, I really liked this book and now begins the torturous wait for book three! Absolutely addictive, edge of your seat reading with fantastically developed, fun and loveable characters, this series is definitely one that I'd recommend.