Azize Ceylan Unluturk Ceylan Unluturk itibaren Karang Mulia, Nabire Sub-District, Nabire Regency, Papua, Indonesia itibaren Karang Mulia, Nabire Sub-District, Nabire Regency, Papua, Indonesia

I love Creech, but I didn't love this book. As usual, she did a good job of handling mature themes, but I wasn't overwhelmed like I normally am by her stories. I'd still recommend it, but not before most of her other work.

Volume 2 begins with Gus trapped in the "preserve," where he meets several other animal-kid hybrids, also locked up in the prison camp. Wendy, a pig-girl, is one of the few who can speak, and she tells him what actually happens there: someone comes to get the hybrid kids, and they don't come back. Soon Gus is taken to talk with the doctor, who believes that something in Gus's past will explain the plague. Meanwhile, Jepperd considers his own past, reviewing how he came to be the person he is, and deciding who he wants to be. The post-apocalyptic elements are clearer here; there's a better sense that this is something that Happened to the world and now we're living in it, rather than something that's happening Out There Far Away. Violence is ticking up, pushing this more toward upper-high school or adults.