Monday 15 August 2016

Review on The Felix Chronicles #2 Five Days in January


After winter break, Felix August must resume his life as a freshman at Portland College. However, the murders have not stopped, and after experiencing the numbered ones first hand, Felix must find a way to stop them from killing innocent people. With the help of his best friend Alison, Felix must confront Lofton Ashfield, the Drestian who is destined to save the source, but also bend humankind to his will. As the Belus, Felix must overthrow Lofton and save the Source in a way that will allow the people to keep their freedom. However, Felix must also deal with the Protectors, a group of people who think that it is the Sourcerors themselves who are killing the Source, and believe all Sourcerors must be destroyed.

I was so excited to start reading this book! Although the first book in the series wasn't perfect, it did have potential, so I was looking forward to seeing how the story progressed. The story picks up right after winter break, and is action packed right from the first chapter! As one of my major issues in the first book was that it dragged out for too long, making certain parts boring, I was happy to find that this book didn't do that at all. I was hooked from start to finish, and there was barely any time for the story to slow down. As the first book was practically an origin story, I was expecting this book to be an improvement, and it definitely was! It was shorter than the first book, but I didn't feel as if this was a problem, as there was no plot point I felt was unnecessary and was just being added to fill time, which I felt was a huge problem in the first book. Books do not have to be 500 pages long to tell a well rounded story, and this book definitely proved that!

Felix continues to struggle with the extent of his powers and trying to control them, which puts him into some life threatening situations, particularly since the numbered ones, a group of monsters of Lofton's creation who easily rip humans to shreds are after him. I loved that he started to realise that he was killing people and feeling no remorse about it, which made him question himself on if he was good or bad. I adored the plot twists, particularly the ones that happened towards the end of the book, and the fact that although we are pretty sure Felix is the chosen one who is destined to save the world in the first book, this one makes us question that, and realise Felix is more of an anti hero.

 The idea of the chosen one not necessarily being the “good guy” was extremely unique and something I've never seen in a YA book before which I loved! I also loved that although Alison was the best friend who needed to be saved in the first book, she is able to look after herself in this one, and is an all round badass. Although I wasn't that keen on Alison in Freshman, I adored her in this book and she became a strong ally to Felix. I did however see some hints of their relationship starting to turn romantic, which I really didn't like as I would prefer them to remain best friends. Something I hate is that in the majority of YA, heterosexual characters can never be friends with someone of the opposite sex without it turning romantic, and I feel as if it is important that male and female characters can be friends and remain friends. However as I wasn't that keen on Harper in the first book, I was happy that there was a minimal amount of romance.

Dirk was a less important character in this book, which I couldn't decide if I was happy or disappointed about. The first book showed how he was doing crazy things to get attention, and I expected him to be more than just Lofton's pawn, so I was a little disappointed that he didn't have more of a story line. However, I did love how clever Lofton was, using others for his own personal gain and corrupting the public into thinking the government owned the numbered ones and were doing terrible things such as poisoning the water supplies when it was in fact him. The poisoning of the water was one of my favourite chapters. It followed a boy named Carter working as kitchen staff who discovers that everyone who had drank the water was dying except for himself. Sadly the book didn't return to Carter, which I was disappointed about as it left me wondering why the water hadn't affected him and if he was actually a sourceror. I felt as if he had potential and would have been a good addition to the story.

I was a little disappointed that Lucas didn't play as big of a role in this book as he did in the first one, as he was initially one of my favourite characters. I felt as if the non sourcerors, or “Wisps” should have been shown as being just as important, as I always feel as if the little people should be represented too. Although he is seen as a typical reality star, Lucas is actually quite smart, as although everyone else thought he was crazy, he was right about a lot of things about Felix before they were revealed to him. Although it wasn't really a big deal, I was surprised that his relationship with Caitlyn didn't really go anywhere, as the first book seemed to hint at a romance forming between them.

I felt as if this was a big improvement to the first book, and although I did still have a few issues with it I really enjoyed it. It ended with a huge cliffhanger and I have no idea how I'm going to be able to wait until the next book comes out! I have a few theories, one being that I think that Bill is Felix's dad, so I am excited to find out if i'm right or if i'm completely wrong! I'm hoping to see the extent of Alison's powers in the third book, and hopefully have Lucas a little more involved!





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