See My Smashing Review Of. . .
The Girls Who Break Out
Having reviewed The Girls Who Come Back – the opening
chapter of The Beyond series several weeks ago, I was itching to find out what
happens next, in The Girls Who Break Out.
Here’s the blurb to set the
mood:
*******
Kate, Caro, and Darcy are very
special girls. They used to be dead, and now they’re not, but they are trapped
in the Institute. Dr Kerry Sullivan, Kate’s mother, brought them back. Now
she’s poking around inside their heads. And they don’t like it, especially
Kate.
Kate starts to turn the girls
against their keepers, making Kerry’s job even more difficult. And, as if Kerry
doesn’t have enough to do keeping the girls in check, another crisis erupts
threatening the future of the Institute and her work. When Kate learns their
time might soon run out, she and the others form a plan to escape. Caro and
Darcy don’t want to hurt anyone. But Kate doesn’t feel the same way. She’s
getting out. Even if it means there will be blood.
*******
So, it would seem that all is not
well in the world of Kate and Co, and they’re determined to change the playing
field so that it suits their particular needs more readily. The trouble is, to
do that, they have get out. And rightly so. The powers-that-be seem to have had
enough of their antics, and, suspicious of the girl’s real motives and
condition, are now intent on pulling the plug. Lives are in danger . . . But
whose lives? And from where does the real danger originate?
Yes, events are beginning to
spiral out of control within the institute, and everyone – living AND dead –
are becoming embroiled in a situation that is as much cat and mouse as it is a
game of chess. One wrong move and the hunters become the hunted.
But how to pick a side when the
Beyond is determined to interfere?
I rather enjoyed this second
installment of the series. The mood becomes far more menacing; the pace more
frantic; the threads binding everything together, even more intriguing and
complex than before. And that’s a good
thing. Because it’s often said that we are our own worst enemy. Do you see? We
writers have to exploit that when it comes to storytelling. Authors need to
bait their readers and trigger those parts of their imagination that conjure up
all sorts of what-ifs and what-was-that’s? Yes, we have to squeeze their
emotional triggers, because only then will we increase the tension and suspense
in the minds of our audience. And L’Erin Ogle manages to achieve this quite
well, as I couldn’t help but become involved in the fates of the various
characters portrayed, while trying to work out what they Beyond might be, and
what it is, exactly, that drives it. So kudos there.
And better still . . . there’s more to come.
(And I promise you, no mirrors or windows were hurt in making this review)
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