Renegade

January 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Picking up minutes after Reckoning (St. Martin's, 2014), this novel opens with Silver Blackthorn having poisoned but not killed, England's sadistic king. Now Silver and 11 other teens are on the lam, having escaped torturous death as the king's Offerings. Even as Silver plays cat and mouse with the king's brutal henchmen, she becomes the de facto figurehead of the underground resistance movement. As in the first novel, action and intrigue are the meat and potatoes here. Wilkinson keeps the mood tuned to a fever pitch with bouts of hand-to-hand combat, disguises, ruses, secret codes, and cliff-hangers. She also excels at world-building: the dissonance between the hardscrabble, medieval lifestyle of most people and the capital city's extravagant modernity is especially striking. The logic, however, is a bit wobbly in places. Silver is competent and smart, but her extraordinary good luck is too incredible. The locations of rebel contacts known only by (really transparent) code names are found quickly despite vague directions such as go to "the North." While Silver's character learns and evolves, other characters come across as one-dimensional, even superfluous. For instance, only about four of the escaped teens figure in as an active part of the story. Despite the weak-kneed exposition, this is a satisfying read for action fans who enjoyed the first volume.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC

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