February 12, 2013

Review: Override by Heather Anastasiu

Override (Glitch #2)
Author: Heather Anastasiu
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: February 12, 2013
Pages: 320
Source: E-ARC/Galley from NetGalley

Zoe is free. She has escaped the enslavement of the Community, disconnected from the hardware that had controlled her every thought and emotion, and evaded capture by the Chancellor intent on killing her. She is finally free, but she is far from safe.

Zoe and Adrien hide themselves from detection at the Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the Resistance movement. Together, Zoe and her new team of superhuman fighters must risk their lives to rescue other glitchers and humans from the Chancellor's control. Challenges abound at every turn, and Adrien, who has become silent, distant, and tormented by his visions of the future, only adds to the growing certainty of defeat. But worst of all, as Zoe's team fights against impossible odds, distrust and betrayal leads to the terrible discovery that their greatest threat could already be lurking behind the safe walls of the Foundation.

Full of high-adrenaline action and shocking twists, Heather Anastasiu's Override is an exciting continuation of this popular young adult trilogy.

Review: I really have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed how much action got packed into this book! It was like 10x more eventful than Glitch and that definitely made it really fun to read. There was something happening almost every chapter, if it wasn't a mission to get something or save someone, it was something just as interesting, like snooping in the leaders office, or Zoe losing control of her powers causing something huge to happen. This book never had a dull moment. So I guess since I'm already talking about these awesome action packed scenes I'll start out with talking about them. So the Chancellor is like seriously out to kill Zoe, just because of how powerful her gift is. The Chancellor stops at nothing to kill her. First she found out where Zoe was hiding out before being moved to the Foundation, and went after her, with Zoe barely escaping. And then after that, the Chancellor kept trying to do things to either find out where the Foundation was or doing something that caused the Resistance to come out after her. She would just not give up. 

When it came to the characters I felt like something was lacking. I did feel sorry for Zoe when she was having trouble controlling her gift, because it took a huge toll on not only her but the people around her. I mean, she could be having a dream, or just meditating and just because the power from her gift became to much to keep inside and handle at that moment she would lose it and end up causing a big mess (literally). I was very proud of her though when she got control over it and was able to use it for the good of the Resistance. She became a very valuable member after that. Adrien. I still liked him throughout the book. He genuinely showed how much he loved and cared about Zoe, especially in the beginning when Zoe was struggling with her gift. And Zoe tried to be there for him when he was struggling with whether he should be telling people about his visions. Though I just didn't feel like their relationship grew much. I was just waiting for their relationship to get more serious and it just didn't. 

I did however like some of the other characters that were introduced to us and were main characters. Like Zona and Ginni. I really loved these two. They are such polar opposites of each other. Zona is a non-glitcher who just has a mad hatred against the community for killing her parents and isn't exactly the happiest person. And Ginni is a glitcher, who is like, the most upbeat, happiest person you can find. These two really became Zoe's closest friends in the book and I just really enjoyed their characters. 

I also though, wasnt a fan of the General though. She always seemed to not like the Glitchers and only wanted to use them for her big plan. She did have some great ideas for missions and whatnot, but I wasnt a big fan of her as a person. I did however like that she was willing to sacrifice herself for Zoe just because she knew it had to come true thanks to Adrien's vision. It showed even she was willing to make sacrifices to further the cause. I was really happy also that Zoe became a leader at the end of the book also like Adrien's visions said would happen. I definitely Zoe is up to the task. I was so sad with the ending though when it came to Adrien! What happened to him was horrible. I dont even know how he can come back from this. I'm seriously sad over what happened to him. I also want Max to pay for what he did to play apart in Adrien's pain. The Adrien/Max thing is probably the most infuriating thing about this book. It pissed me off!!! Even though I didnt enjoy the book as much as I wanted to I'll definitely be picking up Shutdown to see what happens in the end!

3 1/2 Stars!