I enjoyed this sequel as much as I enjoyed the first installment - that's something that does happen sometimes, but for some reason I wasn't expecting it with this book, so it was a pleasant surprise!

It's been a few years since I read The Hallowed Ones and I wasn't sure if I'd remember what had happened in the whole book. Fortunately it was easy enough to pick up where the other had left off, and I quickly jumped into the action again. Were there parts that were slightly preachy? Yeah. Did the science always make sense? Nope. Is it still a unique spin on the idea of vampires and apocalypses? Absolutely, and that's what I most love about it. ( )

So, yeah, we were out of sparkly vampires at the store, but as we traveled through Pennsylvania we saw these really cute bonnets walking around, and WOULD YOU KNOW IT? They were all lit up inside and sparkly, so I thought to myself, what an interesting light display! So when I got closer, a few men with military grade hardware came out of nowhere and started threatening poor little me. I kept asking, "What is it, what is it?" And they just told me to mind my own business.

I grabbed a beer down the road and fortunately, some really drunk locals told me that they were the AMISH. I was shocked. No sparkly vampires anywhere? They said no. Apparently the genre ran out of ideas for vampire fiction, thought throwing the Amish into the mix would be AWESOME, but instead of thinking up something original, it just reverse-engineered the sparkly bit with a bit of science mixed with Handwavium and turned people into glowsticks that frighten little children and vampires alike.

I said to my new friends, "Oh, Thank God. I thought for a moment that some radioactive spider had bit the cows and now the whole community had gone Super Cheese."

They reassured me. They also prayed for me because of my blasphemy.


*Grand Silence*

I'd like to say that this was a super corny and funny B-Movie that me and I my friends could heckle over copious quantities of alcohol, but the novel takes itself too seriously. I was amazed at the amount of mythology research that was expositioned at me. I like classic mythology, of course. I like it when there are intelligent characters that can incorporate the classics into any conversation, or at least when they do it wittily. I especially like it when mythology is submerged into the text so no one absolutely has to focus on it just because its there. You know, like having the choice to read a novel for its subtexts? Or how about when religion is pushed upon an unsuspecting reader for the sole purpose of converting them? Same thing. I can enjoy either when they don't go all didactic on me.

Unfortunately, both the myth classics and uber-christianity (Or at least a handful of different faiths, with discussion,) were the primary focus in this by-the-books vampire explosion novel. Don't get me wrong. I like anything that improves my knowledge of anything, and I love diving into religion and myth. But to be honest, I don't think it belonged here.

Religion was set up to be equally powerful against the vamps as science, and the two had a nice long discussion throughout the novel as to which would do better in the apocalypse. The problem is, it's obvious that this is social commentary, and it's not buried deeply. We know that the author is sitting dab-center of the argument and doesn't want to commit to either science or religion. She gives us portents and signs and lab results. Magic versus Reason. And all the while, she makes it feel like both are equally valid, and maybe they are, but the discussion is too complex and interesting to be surfaced to death in a novel about happy shiny people and the undead.

"But," you say, "It's a YA, and we can't expect children to go that deep into the thinking!"
And I say, "Bullshit. Anyone who believes that kids don't eventually get *everything* eventually are idiots. Telling someone to sit in the middle of the road and have faith in both sides of the argument is just as bad as going religious nutso or an asshole atheist. That isn't to say that there are no balances that can be had, but no one is going to come out of this novel thinking that they had a great revelation."

*sigh*

Was I entertained with the novel? Meh, middling. It wasn't a horrible read. I still think, as with my previous review for book one, that it would have been served SO much better with a bit more creativity. Sure. Glow=Immunity. Odd and believable if you squint real hard and shut down your nervous system and stop yourself before you ask questions like, "So if I'm radiating enough light to scare the vamps, does that mean I'm full spectrum? Can I help my friends up north as winter sets in to prevent an onset of Seasonal Affect Disorder?" or, "Can I harness myself to charge my Ipad? Make myself a solar panel coffin and sleep nude to charge all the batteries in my house?"

It is, after all, the apocalypse, and infrastructure is probably a distant memory. How else am I going to read my ebooks?

Ah, well, welcome home, wayward daughter. You look well from your little journey outside our community. What is that glow about you?

It's ok. Wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, though, unless they haven't read much of anything or just want a direct cure for Twilight. ( )

Decent. Like the First one, I had to give it a couple chapters to get into it. But it was a good, decent read.

I appreciate that the author tried to explain how the magic/religion/spiritual stuff affected the science in what was going on.
Although the operative word in that sentence... is TRIED.
As in, failed. As in, it didn't really work.
I'm sorry, I just... I just DID NOT buy that explanation.

Also, why on earth would it fail with the guy named Tobias? It worked for everyone else, INCLUDING Elijah, the one that guy that I REALLY wanted to die.
No, but I believe that people named Tobias are inherently more awesome than other people. So why did that happen?
(I would have appreciated some explanation THERE too, you know)

overall, I believe this book was an improvement over the first one. There was more action in it, which I liked as well. But there were some iffy things, bits that didn't make sense (And the Tobias thing, which went COMPLETELY UNEXPLAINED). But I'm pretty sure there will not be a third book, because that end, felt like an end. like, a for-good end.

Me, out.
( )

This one was a fun fast read. I read the entire book in less than 24 hours in between sleeping and doing other things. After I had read the first book in the series I could not wait to read this. It did not end like I thought it would and I kinda wish there was a third book so that the story did not have to end. ( )

The Outside is the sequel to The Hallowed Ones. If I were to sum it up in a sentence, I would say it is the Amish Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love Buffy, and I loved these two books!

This book takes place after Katie, Alex, and Ginger are cast out of the Amish community; thrown into a new and violent world filled with vampires where they must either find a way to survive or die. While the book is far from the realm of reality, it is extremely creative and original as well as just a whole lot of fun.

The vampires are not the romanticized vamps we are used to reading about, but are instead super creepy vessels of evil, writhing and hissing and just plain ugly. In each scene where the sun was setting, I prayed Katie and Alex would find a safe place to stay before they were attacked. I cringed when the evil was scraping against their shelter, trying to lure them outside. How do humans begin to fight back? With an injection that causes a human to become naturally luminescent for defense. What a great concept! Of course, no one knows the long term effects but, why the hell not, I would totally become a human glow light if it would keep me alive, wouldn't you?

Katie is the main character, and at the heart of the story we have her struggle with her own faith. Being suddenly thrust out into a world she knows almost nothing about and then being forced to make decisions that question her previous beliefs. It takes its toll on her and this is evident. She must make choices that require her to choose between keeping to what she was raised to think was right, or adapting to this new and frightening situation in front of her. Katie grows a lot throughout the book, realizing eventually that taking the risks and making certain decisions does not mean that she is completely abandoning her faith in God. One thing I really liked about Katie was that Laura Bickle gave her this strange but wonderful combination of innocence and bad ass vampire killer, vulnerability yet inner strength. She keeps all of these traits throughout the story.

The book is definitely dark and has some intense scenes, but for me, that just made it harder to put down, even for a few minutes. Now that I have finished it, I am a bit sad there won't be a third book and I have this strange urge to re-watch the whole Buffy series, from beginning to end. ( )