Erased ~ Jennifer Rush (earc) review [@lbkids @Jenn_Rush]

Erased (Altered #2)
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
January 7, 2014
288 pages
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** contains spoilers for Altered - see my review here **

The ending of Altered brought a lot of answers but at least as many questions, as well. It's only the beginning of the questions, the things that may need to be reexamined, as Erased begins are brings even more things to light.

They thought they had escaped. They were wrong.

After fleeing the Branch with Sam, Cas, and Nick, Anna is trying to make sense of the memories resurfacing from her old life. At the same time, she's learning how to survive in hiding, following Sam's rules: Don't draw attention to yourself. Always carry a weapon. Know your surroundings. Watch your back.

Then a figure from Anna's childhood reappears. Is it a Branch setup, or could it be the reunion Anna has hoped for? Uncertain of where her loyalties lie, Anna must fight to learn the truth -- before she is betrayed again. Ultimately, the answers hinge on one question: What was the real reason her memories were erased?

Jennifer Rush delivers a thrilling sequel to Altered in a novel packed with mysteries, lies, and surprises that are sure to keep readers guessing until the last [p]age is turned.

Some lingering questions - including that I had, as a reader, not necessarily those posed obviously for-slash-by the characters - were answered in Erased. We find out much more about the characters prior to Altered. It's a slow, at times agonizingly so, unveil, but one that keeps that plot moving at a fantastic pace. The right people are kept in the dark for the right amount of time. (Maybe someone else's - or just the novel's - 'right' but still right.)

I still do not really get Sam and Anna together. I like both Sam and Anna individually plenty and Jennifer Rush does a fine job of writing how Anna sees (and thinks of) Sam, but something there just doesn't click for me. In Altered it was that the plot just didn't allow for the time or circumstances for things to develop. Here, though, I thought another character was a better fit for one of them.  It doesn't make anything with the book bad in any way, however, and I really appreciate that. They don't have to work for me for me to like the remaining story.

How the different character's stories come together, what we learn of who they were, what they learn of who they were really helps make the story fuller. Add in who they're becoming now, away from the farm house, if not, yet, from the Branch and characters that I liked in the first book became characters I started to love in this second book.

The twists and turns Erased took, some more unexpected than others, were all great. Even if one step was predicted, its ramifications or everything, everyone it affected were not. There were some great surprises in Erased that have me really looking forward to whatever is to come in the third book.

The ending of Altered had some surprises but it really had nothing on the ending to the sequel, Erased and the surprises and twists it has in store.


Rating: 9/10



Altered Series:




thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my egalley