Inch by Inch

Step by Step #2

by Morgan Llywelyn

Bestselling author Morgan Llywelyn conintues her near-future thriller trilogy with Inch by Inch, the sequel to Drop by Drop.

Morgan Llywelyn continues her near-future, apocalyptic thriller trilogy with her signature depth and intimacy of character. In Inch by Inch, book two in the trilogy, the residents of Sycamore River have only just adjusted to the end of the Change. Until the morning people notice that metal starts to behave oddly.

It's dissolving.

The world is pushed into global war, and a small band of Sycamore River survivors only have one another. They have to survive the unthinkable.

Step by Step
Drop by Drop

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2019

About the author

Morgan Llywelyn (born 1937) is an American-born Irish author best known for her historical fantasy, historical fiction, and historical non-fiction. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International.

Reviews

[Arimathea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm doubtful that there will be a third book in the trilogy because people this clueless probably won't survive very long.

"Oh, wow, someone's dropped a few H-bombs on the town up the road! Let's go look!" Have they never heard of fallout? Out goes one of the main characters, followed by their partner, and when they return they waltz back into the "shelter" (which is apparently ventilated to the outside without any filters) and don't even take their shoes and contaminated outer clothing off.

Does anyone really think that a lead-lined barn roof would protect all the animals inside from radiation? Apparently these characters do.

I would hope that most parents, if separated from their children during a rush to take shelter from the impending bombardment, would do their best to retrieve their daughters from their captors rather than proceed to the rendezvous point. And somehow the bombardment was well-announced even though most communication devices have ceased to function, but look, some of the oldest AllComs, which a few of our lead characters happened to own, magically still work.

Minor point: exactly where is the pasta-loving curmudgeon finding pasta that's packaged in cardboard or cotton rather than plastic bags, or is he opening it all and repackaging it in glass jars?

Since the characters are too stupid to come in out of the (glowing violet) rain, I don't hold out much hope for a third book.

And I wanted to like this one.

[Jake Barney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible and not really worth your time. Nearly every bit of dialogue is written in a self-important, preachy sort of way. Like everyone is not only an expert but wish for you to receive a proper and full education on literally whatever topic they chose to pontificate about.

The author was in her 80's when she wrote these books and it makes sense as you read. Imagine your grandma got onto wikipedia, spent a day reading random pages then decided to "educate" you by reciting the words.

A guy's car is melting so of course his mechanic knows a metallurgist who spends two pages explaining the history of metal use by humans before just blaming the owner for the metal disintegrating. Which might make sense but the cast just spent over a year watching plastic and rubber melt for no reason then immediately think nah, probably vandalism...

Even by chapter 24, almost the end, they're still blaming each other when they find a warped shotgun. Yep, definitely the owner's fault for not properly maintaining the gun. The Change was plastic and synthetic rubber remember? Definitely not connected.

I'll be honest here and say that I skipped chapters. The first book was so bad I just wanted to see how bad this was and I already got the trilogy from the library so I read through most of it. Page after page of rambling about how shitty humans are, and it's all our fault, and did you know the Eiffel Tower was constructed with blah, blah blah.

To give you an idea how bad this is consider this: the entire first book and much of the second go and on about how crappy new stuff is and how awesome old stuff is. Old cars are especially awesome here because only the synthetic rubber in the tires is a problem. Grab yourself some all natural rubber tires and you're golden. As the entire world dies because of all the plastic and synthetic rubber melting you can cruise the apocalypse in your early sixties Mustang not giving a shit that your brake lines have materials that should be melting, your radiator hoses are synthetic rubber that should be melting, your distributor cap and spark plugs wires that are made of things that should be melting and the coating on every single wire in your car should be melting and shorting out. Same for your future cell phone that doesn't have any plastic at all...

End of book two and still no idea what the hell is going on except that even though plastic, synthetic rubber and metal are all melted and worthless there's still thousands of airplanes left to drop nuclear bombs all over.

I made a joke in my review about the first book being worse than The Happening and how does the third book begin? With a jacket blurb about the air killing people. If the author actually ripped off that terrible movie I will give all three books four stars just for the audacity. Fingers crossed it really is that bad.

[Thea Stevenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly kind of disappointed in this one. It seemed kind of off topic. It barely touched on the disintegration of metal like it did on plastics in the first book. Then it introduced some random sci-fi and warfare elements. Not sure what was happening here.

[Jerry Hillyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm angry that I have to finish this series of books. This story is so dumb. I'm not even certain what the plot is.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not as interesting or compelling as the first book. In this one, most of the main characters who were close to each other during the first book have weakened relationships. Now that plastic has all basically melted away people are making do with more basic and substantial materials. Then metal starts to dissolve

Most of the main characters end up hunkered down in a bunker together as the world falls apart. Of course this is a strain on many already weakened relationships. A lot of people die as climate change strikes with a vengeance.

I just didn't see the same kind of character growth or suspense, and I didn't like seeing some of the more sympathetic characters killed off. I kinda wish Llewelyn had stopped after book 1.

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sequel to Drop By Drop, which had really intrigued me. I found this one less enjoyable overall, especially the first 1/3. In the beginning, it was a lecture about humans negatively impacting the earth; yet the metal disintegration was declared unrelated to the Change (timeframe when the plastic disintegrated in the first book). The topic then changed almost completely to that of human warfare. The pace of story had picked up after the beginning; however, if a reader doesn’t want to read about possibility of Armageddon beginning, this might be a book to skip.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole I enjoyed this novel. I did not read the first one but the second does stand along. I felt the first third of the book was confusing to read although the events of the first book were outlined briefly by the characters. The dialogue was awkward and didn't sound real. Then the book became more enjoyable and I couldn't put it down. It is very interesting with this new take on the future. I will definitely read the third novel.

[Sherry Partington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable but I found it seemed shorter than the 1st book. I read it fast. Now granted, I did find it hard to out down. Because of that fact alone, I changed my rating to a 4.
Looking forward to the 3rd book already.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ll be reading any more of this series. The characters seem superficial and no one seems adequately worried about intensely worrisome things.

[Amy Teetaert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this one better written than the first - curios enough for me to want to track the next one down.

[Ron Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story pulled me in and I couldn't stop reading until the very end. Wide range of characters that got me emotionally invested.

[Lyn Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start is slow but after page 100 it gets pretty good

[Barbara Brockhaus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the premise so I keep reading the series but this book seemed like a place holder for the next book.

[Debby Kean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tedious, political, interrupted by libertarian rants. Disappointed

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take on "the end".