It picks up about ten years after the first book and Lynn is now a grown woman and Lucy is now a teenager. Water is still an issue in their post-apocalypse world and now illness has become a major issue as well. Illnesses that had been allbut eradicated arenow reappearing and no one has the knowledge or skill to fight them. Lynn and Lucy are forced to travel across the country when their community is threatened.
The journey they undertake is frought with danger, which makes for a rollerrcoaster plot, but the characterisation let the book down. Lynn is a taciturn character and always has been, but in the first book we had the benefit of her internal monologue to flesh out her character. Here we just see her as a dry, grumpy woman. I never really got a grip on Lucy's character. She didn't really have anything going for her - no wit or spark or cunning or whatever ittakes to make a character in a book interesting. And god knows Mindy McGinnis can write some interesting characters.
There was some romance in the book, but it's just announced at the beginning of the book and we don't see it build or grow so it doesn't have the emotional impact it needs for us to actually care what happens to either of them.
Ultimately, this book was only ok - the first book didn't end on a cliffhanger so it's debateable whether it's worth reading this one.
The ending confused me a lot. I won't give anything away, but it basically involves Lynn making a decision that made me stare, rub my eyes and re-read the page. It was such a ridiculous decision that even now I can't believe she did it!
2.5 stars