Rage Within (Dark Inside) by Jeyn Roberts

Rage Within (Dark Inside) by Jeyn Roberts
Buy Rage Within (Dark Inside) by Jeyn Roberts at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Second instalment of a post-catastrophe series. Engaging characters and an interesting plot make up for the loss of frenzy that characterised the first book.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 416	Date: August 2012
Publisher: Macmillan
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 144721790X
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We left Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason in a world they can barely recognise. After a series of devastating earthquakes many people changed. They became murderous monsters that the normal survivors called Baggers. There are few normal people left and they must hide in ruined cities, avoiding death at the hands of the Baggers. And in Rage Within, the battle for survival is about to get even tougher. The Baggers are organising themselves, clearing the streets of bodies and setting up worker camps for captured survivors.

And it's not just the Baggers these kids should be afraid of. Inside each of them, a darkness is whispering, begging to be let out. Can the group evade capture? And will they be able to control the rage within their own souls?

I enjoyed Rage Within - mostly because I engaged strongly with the central characters in the first book in the series and also because I was hoping to find out more about the mysterious Nothing. And this second instalment is satisfying in that it develops the original characters and their relationships, introduces some new and interesting people, and answers the main question posed by D4rk Inside. And the plot advances in an interesting way, resolving previous issues - at least in part - and setting up more questions for book three. So it's all good.

But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say that Rage Within was a slight disappointment in terms of style. The senses-battering intensity of D4rk Inside is missing. While there is plenty of action, violence and gore, the Baggers are organising and so everything is much less of a frenzied confusion. I thought this smash-and-grab style was the stand-out feature of the first book and gave it a real freshness. That the plot progression has diluted it for Rage Within does feel a little bit anticlimactic.

Even so, if you enjoyed D4rk Inside and want to know how things begin to pan out for Aries, Michael, Clementine and Mason, you will want to read Rage Within. It answers questions and then asks more. And that's always a good thing.

People - this time only the young - also turn murderously horrible after a natural disaster in Ashes by Ilsa Bick. If Rage Within appeals, I think you'd like it!

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