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The Escape. Book Two: A Dystopian Thriller.
Escape was only the beginning
Tom Walker and Steph Moore were certain that their lives were destined to end in the population control centre to which they had surrendered themselves after their names were called in the lottery alongside so many others, but fate had other ideas.
During an attack on the centre by the Right to Life group, they somehow managed to escape the carnage and destruction, making a dangerous enemy in the process.
On the run, as wanted fugitives, with one particular Cull Enforcement Agent hot on their heels, desperate to re-capture them, the pair eventually locate what appears to be a safe haven, only to have their worlds ripped out from underneath them yet again.
Part two of The Cull Book Series. A Dystopian Saga.
Tom Walker and Steph Moore were certain that their lives were destined to end in the population control centre to which they had surrendered themselves after their names were called in the lottery alongside so many others, but fate had other ideas.
During an attack on the centre by the Right to Life group, they somehow managed to escape the carnage and destruction, making a dangerous enemy in the process.
On the run, as wanted fugitives, with one particular Cull Enforcement Agent hot on their heels, desperate to re-capture them, the pair eventually locate what appears to be a safe haven, only to have their worlds ripped out from underneath them yet again.
Part two of The Cull Book Series. A Dystopian Saga.
395 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2024
65 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Joanne Roach
3 books11 followersHi! I'm Joanne, or at least professionally I am. In my day-to-day life, everyone calls me Jo, unless, of course, I am in trouble! I have loved to write for as long as I can remember and spent many hours as a child writing short stories and even songs.
I live in the south of England with my four cats and more books than I can possibly count. Aside from writing, I love to read, sing, dance and spend time with my loved ones, especially my eight nieces and nephews.
As I got older and life got in the way, writing was put on the back burner until I suffered some health issues and found myself looking for hobbies that didn't require too much physical activity, and that is when I rediscovered my love for the written word and telling stories.
Shortly before lockdown, I began to write my first 'real' book series with the hope to publish and so The Cull, Book one, was born. Books two and three, The Escape and The Assault are now available with book four coming soon!
I live in the south of England with my four cats and more books than I can possibly count. Aside from writing, I love to read, sing, dance and spend time with my loved ones, especially my eight nieces and nephews.
As I got older and life got in the way, writing was put on the back burner until I suffered some health issues and found myself looking for hobbies that didn't require too much physical activity, and that is when I rediscovered my love for the written word and telling stories.
Shortly before lockdown, I began to write my first 'real' book series with the hope to publish and so The Cull, Book one, was born. Books two and three, The Escape and The Assault are now available with book four coming soon!
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2024
Really enjoyed book 1 so much potential, book 2 for me was too much about the relationships and less about how the cull is affecting the world so I didn't find it as intriguing.
December 21, 2024
This is the second book in The Cull series which I was very much looking forward to, after having extremely enjoyed the first book, however like most sequels it didn't hit me as hard as the first one.
The beginning section of the book actually felt quite slow to me and in no way pulled me in as much as the first, which I felt a bit disappointed by after the first was left on such a cliff hanger of action and tension. However the second half of the book I couldn't put down, I think the introduction of new characters definitely helped, as I got a little bored of just Tom and Steph to be honest and wanted to know more about other people living in this world and their situations - I think multiple POVs always brings a better well rounded context of world building.
If I'm honest, I was beginning to get a bit frustrated with Steph's character development, in the first book she seemed so strong minded, independent and surviving (as best she could) by herself and in this book she felt a bit lost, pathetic and dependent on Tom and his ideas and his actions, too much of a damsel in distress for me. Yes, I can understand the whole romance blossoming aspect, but I'd rather have a strong willed and full of ideas, lead female character, than one that kinds of flops about and put all their thoughts in their crush. I'm happy with how her character ended though, as maybe that will be a chance for her to find her empowered determination again, which I would very much like back.
One thing that doesn't really make sense to me, is the CEA officers personal vendetta of pure hunting of these two characters. I know he's angry about his friends death, but it doesn't make logical sense to me for a man so high in the cull programmes and (judging from his monologue chapters) an extreme believer in the culls, why he would develop such an insane hunt for these two in particular, when there's obviously better use of time and resources to further the culls. He feels a bit of a 'baddie' with less character development background than other characters.
I really loved the mole CEA agent and his background in there, that was really surprising and made a lot of sense and I thoroughly enjoyed reading more in-depth details from the RTL groups and individual people within there and their reasons for being there.
The epilogue from the prime minister was absolutely the cherry on the cake for me, I'm always gagging for a bigger context in dystopian novels, how are the people in power feeling?, what is the rest of the world up to? etc, and although I like Tom and Steph, I felt like I got quite bored with their romance storyline and found myself more engaged in the new characters situations. So the epilogue for me was exactly what I needed to read at the end, would have loved some more of this throughout the novel to give some more POVs and deeper insight into the logistics of the Cull.
Still, I very much enjoyed the second half of the book and am looking forward to part 3!
The beginning section of the book actually felt quite slow to me and in no way pulled me in as much as the first, which I felt a bit disappointed by after the first was left on such a cliff hanger of action and tension. However the second half of the book I couldn't put down, I think the introduction of new characters definitely helped, as I got a little bored of just Tom and Steph to be honest and wanted to know more about other people living in this world and their situations - I think multiple POVs always brings a better well rounded context of world building.
If I'm honest, I was beginning to get a bit frustrated with Steph's character development, in the first book she seemed so strong minded, independent and surviving (as best she could) by herself and in this book she felt a bit lost, pathetic and dependent on Tom and his ideas and his actions, too much of a damsel in distress for me. Yes, I can understand the whole romance blossoming aspect, but I'd rather have a strong willed and full of ideas, lead female character, than one that kinds of flops about and put all their thoughts in their crush. I'm happy with how her character ended though, as maybe that will be a chance for her to find her empowered determination again, which I would very much like back.
One thing that doesn't really make sense to me, is the CEA officers personal vendetta of pure hunting of these two characters. I know he's angry about his friends death, but it doesn't make logical sense to me for a man so high in the cull programmes and (judging from his monologue chapters) an extreme believer in the culls, why he would develop such an insane hunt for these two in particular, when there's obviously better use of time and resources to further the culls. He feels a bit of a 'baddie' with less character development background than other characters.
I really loved the mole CEA agent and his background in there, that was really surprising and made a lot of sense and I thoroughly enjoyed reading more in-depth details from the RTL groups and individual people within there and their reasons for being there.
The epilogue from the prime minister was absolutely the cherry on the cake for me, I'm always gagging for a bigger context in dystopian novels, how are the people in power feeling?, what is the rest of the world up to? etc, and although I like Tom and Steph, I felt like I got quite bored with their romance storyline and found myself more engaged in the new characters situations. So the epilogue for me was exactly what I needed to read at the end, would have loved some more of this throughout the novel to give some more POVs and deeper insight into the logistics of the Cull.
Still, I very much enjoyed the second half of the book and am looking forward to part 3!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2025
3.5 stars 💓 love this series! really captivating. only areas of room for improvement would be, sometimes sentences don’t make sense which impact the flow when reading, but it says that the author is independent so fair play I can cope with a few mishaps grammatically! I felt some of it was a tad cheesy like the kiss.. I feel the language used is great and love hearing about all of the characters but feel it could be a bit more snappy; in terms of describing the environment! going to read the third one now! this one was a good middle book though! would have rated 4 if there wasn’t as many errors grammatically (very long sentences at times and hard to understand the narrative!) 💓💞
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2024
excellent sequel
Having read the first book of this series I was hopeful that part 2 would be as good and believe me it is. I am not one of these readers that can read for hours on end but I could not wait to find out what fate had in store for these characters.
The situation the characters find themselves in is imagined of course but just real enough to make the reader think “what if” and the shudders of horror were very real at times, as were the tears.
Book 3 please!
Having read the first book of this series I was hopeful that part 2 would be as good and believe me it is. I am not one of these readers that can read for hours on end but I could not wait to find out what fate had in store for these characters.
The situation the characters find themselves in is imagined of course but just real enough to make the reader think “what if” and the shudders of horror were very real at times, as were the tears.
Book 3 please!
July 9, 2024
weak sequel. Found it boring without the actual cull. anti climax
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews