The first book in this duology, Now That You’re Here, was actually quite surprising to me. It wasn’t the best written, most unique story I’d ever read, but my expectations were very low considering it’s ratings on GR.

Going into the second book I was actually excited. I thought it was clever to tell the story of the other Danny and Eevee. I wanted to see Danny’s redemption arc, since we know that one of the Dannys did some really mean, jerky things. I wanted to get to know the other Eevee. I wanted to learn about this dystopian society where people’s EMF signals are tracked in the name of public safety. I was really intrigued.

Unfortunately, this book was just plain bad. It was poorly-written, boring, and shallow.

Just an FYI. I will be making a lot of comparisons between the first and second book. They take place concurrently, and follow different versions of the same character, so I feel like the comparison is justified.

What I didn’t like:

1. Insta-love. The romance in the first book happens quickly. The characters know each other for only two weeks and are in love. However, the Danny and Eevee in this book make the other pair look like a slow-burn romance. It’s ridiculous. There is no real foundation for their relationship.

2. I never felt bad for this Danny. It doesn’t make much sense when you think about it. This Danny is the one who lost his parents. He’s the one in the abusive foster home. But while I felt empathy for the Danny in the first book, I didn’t here. I think my biggest problem is that we are told in the first book that the two Dannys are so different. One of them is a total creep who bullies people and gets high all day. But aside from a couple off-handed comments about not remembering why he shoved Warren in a locker and how he wished he had a cigarette, there wasn’t really much difference between them, at least in the second book. He had none of the edge I was expecting. He basically saw Eevee and became a lovesick fool.

3. Serious lack of world building. In the first book, Danny explains that the society is the way it is because of the Cold War. Ehhh, I just didn’t buy that. I accepted the explanation in book one, expecting it to be expounded upon in this book, but it really wasn’t. The government in this book was the epitome of moustache-twirly and one-dimensional. I didn’t understand how the society actually functioned. In the first book there was talk about curfews and people of different classes not allowed in certain areas, but the characters in this book seemed to have no such restrictions.

4. The ending.
It was so abrupt and anti-climactic. There was no closure for the Eevee and Danny from the first book, and not much for the pair from this book either. The society is pretty much still corrupt and the characters are still in danger. And what happened to the Mac from Book one?! It just felt like there were a lot of loose threads left hanging. Not to mention the fact that the Danny from Book one was cool with never seeing his parents again because ‘twu wuv’ and I’m like...YOU’RE 15!!!

I was not expecting to rate this a one star after enjoying the first book like I did. Unfortunately, while it was a very quick read, I felt like it wasn’t worth it.