Review: Frozen by Erin Bowman

Heads up, Frozen is the sequel to Taken by Erin Bowman. Catch yourself up by checking out my review of Taken, here.

Frozen by Erin Bowman

Publisher: 2014 HarperTeen

Pages: 359

Series: Taken #2

After the climax of the first installment, the rebels are continuing their efforts. This time, they are trekking across the country in order to look for survivors of Group A, who they desperately hope are alive. Along with their personal problems, Gray and the Rebels must stay one step ahead of the Order and be on the look out for forgeries so they can complete their mission. 

This was a great sequel. It was its own story in many ways but still kept the same feel of the first novel. It wasn't attempting to keep everything the same and allowed some leniency with the character development and plot. However, during the battles I never felt as though the main characters were in danger. SPOILER ALERT! There is even one moment where Bowman makes the readers believe that Emma (Gray's first love) is dead. I called BS the second it happened. The only way to kill Emma, a character of that significance, is to have it mean something and evoke emotion. That was missing from the scene. So obviously, I knew she wasn't dead. That was one of the main problems I had with the plot. The rest was pretty good. Actually, really good.

Part of the plot is the forgeries. The government, or specifically the man in charge, has been able to take the heisted children and create copies for his own personal gain. These forgeries go on to serve in his military to do his dirty work. Bowman was able to introduce four important forgeries into the story. They showed the problems with the forgeries, how easy it is to manipulate those who know the people the forgeries are copies of, and to show how ruthless the forgeries really are. Bowman plants a seed of doubt in the readers minds about half way through the book and it causes them to reevaluate who they think the forgeries really are. I know I was wondering who could be one. 

As a character, Gray was still forgettable. I hate saying that about such a strong character though! The only thing I seem to remember about him is how INCREDIBLY STUPID HE WAS. Like I wanted to just slap him on the back side of his head half the novel. He just said the wrong things, made the wrong decisions, and trusted the wrong people when it was just so obvious that HE SHOULDN'T DO THOSE THINGS. I am pulling the hair out of my head right now just remembering how DUMB he was. Okay, moving on. 

Let's talk about the deaths. Yes, people actually died in some of the fights. However I didnt see justice in any of them. One was a good death (I'm not going to give spoilers) but the other two happened for now reason. And I felt as though they were all glossed over. Some of these characters were very important to Gray, the main character. Meaning that they should have a death that meant something, Other than one, the other two were just sacrificed meaninglessly in my eyes. I appreciate that people actually were killed off during fights but I just wished they would have gone a more honorable way. 

In the end I do think this novel was AMAZING. I tend to nitpick when I think a novel is great. I have been burned by bad review before (people saying the book was amazing and having it be total crap in reality) so I don't want to do that to anyone. I will give my honest opinion and nitpick to my hearts content. Though this novel was slow at times, I do think it was a good sequel. It built on the original plot and set up for the next one. I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment!

-Shawnee Smith