A review by liralen
Hero Complex by Margaux Froley
2.0
It's spring semester, Devon's back at Keaton, and somebody's trying to kill her.
The first book had Devon up against a prescription drug ring on campus. I wasn't a big fan, mostly because so much of it seemed implausible to me. Most of the issues I had there are no longer applicable -- Devon isn't a (the) peer counsellor (to whom students spill all while also calling her a narc), and things feel a lot darker to her now. She doesn't trust in the process so much, given everything that happened in [b:Escape Theory|15797800|Escape Theory (Keaton School, #1)|Margaux Froley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353033241s/15797800.jpg|19257621].
But the book feels kind of...like filler? I'm not sure what word I'm looking for, but it feels like a warm-up to the next book. Devon doesn't solve a mystery here so much as she spends the book trying to figure out what the mystery is. She doesn't go to boarding school (or school at all) so much as it's the vague background for the book (showing my bias here, though -- I picked up the first book precisely because it was set at boarding school). The recurring characters get very little introduction, presumably because we're supposed to remember them from the previous book (which...nope), so they can be a little hard to get behind.
Meanwhile, a lot happens action-wise, but not so much plot-wise. I sort of wonder whether the entire book could have been condensed into a couple of chapters that made up the premise of whatever book comes next. (Again, I'm probably showing my bias here; I have no idea how many books are planned for this series -- or if this is the last one, for that matter -- but I get frustrated by trilogies, in particular, where it feels like the second book is only there to get to the third book.)
I was in the minority on [b:Escape Theory|15797800|Escape Theory (Keaton School, #1)|Margaux Froley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353033241s/15797800.jpg|19257621], and I expect I'll be in the minority here as well -- but again, not really one that worked for me.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.
The first book had Devon up against a prescription drug ring on campus. I wasn't a big fan, mostly because so much of it seemed implausible to me. Most of the issues I had there are no longer applicable -- Devon isn't a (the) peer counsellor (to whom students spill all while also calling her a narc), and things feel a lot darker to her now. She doesn't trust in the process so much, given everything that happened in [b:Escape Theory|15797800|Escape Theory (Keaton School, #1)|Margaux Froley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353033241s/15797800.jpg|19257621].
But the book feels kind of...like filler? I'm not sure what word I'm looking for, but it feels like a warm-up to the next book. Devon doesn't solve a mystery here so much as she spends the book trying to figure out what the mystery is. She doesn't go to boarding school (or school at all) so much as it's the vague background for the book (showing my bias here, though -- I picked up the first book precisely because it was set at boarding school). The recurring characters get very little introduction, presumably because we're supposed to remember them from the previous book (which...nope), so they can be a little hard to get behind.
Meanwhile, a lot happens action-wise, but not so much plot-wise. I sort of wonder whether the entire book could have been condensed into a couple of chapters that made up the premise of whatever book comes next. (Again, I'm probably showing my bias here; I have no idea how many books are planned for this series -- or if this is the last one, for that matter -- but I get frustrated by trilogies, in particular, where it feels like the second book is only there to get to the third book.)
I was in the minority on [b:Escape Theory|15797800|Escape Theory (Keaton School, #1)|Margaux Froley|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353033241s/15797800.jpg|19257621], and I expect I'll be in the minority here as well -- but again, not really one that worked for me.
I received a free copy of this book via a Goodreads giveaway.