“The Hunted” is the sequel to Matt de la Penas “The Living”. It takes place in California, as they return home from 40 days at sea after an earthquake. They find themselves trying to survive in a post apocalyptic type environment. When returning to the coast they realize there is no more home. Everything is destroyed, and the disease they learned about in the first book is spreading like wildfire. Their mission is to get to Arizona, but everyone is killing each other to limit the spread of disease. There are now gangs and territory running the entire west coast of the United States. You follow them through the terrifying journey, with a handful of plot twists along the way. De la Pena does a wonderful job of keeping you reading. Your constantly finding out new information, and never do you find yourself bored or reading 40 pages of one characters thoughts. I did not read the back cover of this book, and it did make it more enjoyable, I didn’t know what to expect which made it that much more entertaining. The author also manages to make you feel the same emotions as the protagonist. Even if deep down you know they won’t die, because your only 75 pages in of 300, you still feel the hopelessness of the characters. The biggest let down of this book was definitely the ending. I think the author tried to make it deep and meaningful but to me it just felt like a dream. What happens makes no sense and seems out of place, like hes trying to throw away all he worked for. I would easily give this book another 5/5, as it was a great continuation of the first book “The Living”. They are rather easy reads, but I read them ~150 pages a sitting because they were that entertaining. Both these books easily became some of my favorites.
When returning to the coast they realize there is no more home. Everything is destroyed, and the disease they learned about in the first book is spreading like wildfire. Their mission is to get to Arizona, but everyone is killing each other to limit the spread of disease. There are now gangs and territory running the entire west coast of the United States. You follow them through the terrifying journey, with a handful of plot twists along the way.
De la Pena does a wonderful job of keeping you reading. Your constantly finding out new information, and never do you find yourself bored or reading 40 pages of one characters thoughts. I did not read the back cover of this book, and it did make it more enjoyable, I didn’t know what to expect which made it that much more entertaining. The author also manages to make you feel the same emotions as the protagonist. Even if deep down you know they won’t die, because your only 75 pages in of 300, you still feel the hopelessness of the characters.
The biggest let down of this book was definitely the ending. I think the author tried to make it deep and meaningful but to me it just felt like a dream. What happens makes no sense and seems out of place, like hes trying to throw away all he worked for.
I would easily give this book another 5/5, as it was a great continuation of the first book “The Living”. They are rather easy reads, but I read them ~150 pages a sitting because they were that entertaining. Both these books easily became some of my favorites.