It is truly a sorry affair that most sequels just do not turn out right.

Well, alright, not most. Some.

Can we settle on a lot?

I can start naming now,

(The sequel to Blood Red Road, Metro 2034…)

and I am sure you can carry on with this list to eternity. In fact, please carry on in the comments! I would really love to find out what sequel drove you mad.

So basically, I think we can draw the conclusion that you pretty much have to be J.K. Rowling not to mess up the sequels.

So am I surprised that Shift wasn’t really a charming sequel to Wool?

No, dear friends, I am not. But am I disappointed?

I don’t really know where to begin with this book, or frankly – IF I should begin at all, cause you can see I just gave it 1 star, which I pretty much never do, so you must be getting the vibe that not only did this book not satisfy me, it probably even enraged me.

In fact, if that book had been a game, I would have rage quit.

This book has many very unfortunate factors that made me hate it. Part of it was that it was a sequel to a mind-blowing book. But it’s not just that! The plot dragged and dragged and dragged… I can’t think of a book that has tortured me quite so lately.

If I had to compare it with Wool, well, first of all, the main character is such a wimp that you can’t even. Literally. Second – okay, the first book is quite depressing. But it’s also uplifting in a way, cause they keep fighting. Nobody gives up. Shift though? What happens to the guy is so depressing, that if you have any empathy at all, like even the amount sea critters have, you will probably get sorely depressed from just touching the book, much less reading it.

(Hint: I totally did.)

Unfortunately, I can’t find much more to say about this book. It’s a non-story completely. I know it will not remain in my mind at all, because, well, pretty much nothing happened. Half of it was a retelling of what happened in the first book, half told stuff about a guy I honestly don’t care to hear about, and intermingled in between all of that, there was maybe a little bit about how or why the silos were actually built. Alright, I’ll give you that – there is the backstory. But hey. I could have saved so much more time (and brain cells) if that was just given to me in like 10 pages.

Now you will say, Evelina, dear friend, WHY DID YOU NOT DNF??

Well, now. I actually have a pretty good reason for that.

You might know I do not DNF almost ever, but this time I was buddy-reading this with my mom. And since I was taking my sweet time, she kept whining about wanting to talk about the story and just tortured me into finishing it! It was terrible 😀 abuse, I tell you! Here’s a GIF of me (superstar!) to show you how I felt while reading this book – I think it’s a better outlet than text:

So have you read Shift or Wool? And what sequels let you down?