"Friends are important. Family is important. Maybe the most important thing. But even a post-apocalyptic action hero can't keep them safe all the time."
These books are great. It was so fun to watch Jack grow through this second book. In the first, he learned June wasn't a damsel in distress. In this one, he realized that he couldn't do everything, that he couldn't save everyone, and that his friends could feel like Jack doubted them when he wouldn't let them do the dangerous things.
One thing I didn't like so much about this book compared to the first one was that it didn't seem like the creators spent as much time aligning all the pictures with the text. Like, some of the images didn't add commentary to the story, just an image, or they repeated something already said and the picture would have been better off a couple paragraphs earlier. But I'm not complaining too hard because I can't imagine how difficult it would be to do some of that mapping. Think about it. You have everything in place. You go through the draft and revise something. Whelp, now all the pictures don't match up just right and are trying to go on different pages. Sounds like a nightmare to me.
A great thing this book did that I didn't notice so much in the first one was the use of Chekhov's Gun - the thing in theater where if a gun is placed on the stage in an act, then the gun must be used by the end of that act. So essentially, everything included must be used and have a purpose. This book did that. There were so many little things, down to Quint going ham building monster-attack weapons, that had a purpose later.
I thought the action at the end was a little drawn out - like the plot tried to have that intense climax for the last 80 pages of the book. I got that intense feeling for maybe 30 pages, but couldn't hold onto it anymore. The average middle school reader doesn't consume 80 pages in one sitting. They have a shorter attention span than I do, and I was getting tired of the action. So maybe the ending should have been a little tighter, but overall, good stuff.