This was awesome. Such a good read. Make sure to start with part one and follow up quickly with this. Just crazy enough to not disappoint.

Not as good as book 1 but still decent :)

I loved the first book, so this was a bit of a let down. I love what it says about society and the way we treat our world/each other. I also love the a YA author tackled such big ideas.

Such a spectacular story and a badass girl. These books are like a big slap in the face to social standards and I honestly love it so much.

... what happened?

This is the second time this happens to me, I love the first book of a duology and then the second comes around and the main character is turned into the stereotypical YA heroine and suddenly I cannot.stand.her. and everything is annoying and cliché and the big resolution is underwhelming and things don't make sense and I just want to cry because I had such high hopes for the story.

And maybe that was my problem.

Vivian, oh Vivian, what happened to you? You were trying not to be meek and boring but you overcorrected, baby, and became this reckless moron who didn't know the first thing about being a leader.

No offense intended, Miss Apple, but I was actually hoping we'd get hold of Miss Janda first--it seems to me she's the brains of your operation.

Right? I couldn't agree more.

I guess I could see some of what Vivian would become by the end of the previous book but I had hoped it was just her gaining confidence and figuring out the type of person she wanted to be, and yeah she was bound to make dumb and selfish decisions for while, of course, of course. I just didn't expect her to get stuck in that dumb daredevil phase and be proud of it.

Vivian was a selfish ass for most of the book. A whiny baby that doesn't really think too much about the suffering of others, but pretends that she does, although she mostly acts for her own benefit and leaves the heavy lifting to Harp and everyone else who is actually trying focus on saving the world.

See, Vivian has better things to do in this book, like being angry and hurt at her immediate family & bf, putting her loyal best friend in danger whenever her mood changes, and worrying/thinking/making up/out with the aforementioned bf.

[...] even a secular society considers it pretty déclassé to give it up to boys you barely know in hotel rooms. Not a good look, Vivian. Have some self-respect.

Far be it from me to agree with religious zealots, but Vivian was being an idiot in that scene and I was embarrassed for her, so, fuck it. You tell her. This scene didn't make me angry because of what Vivian did/didn't do, but rather WHEN/HOW she decided to do it, and how it affected everyone else. It was just so colossally stupid.

Spoiler

All she had to do was deliver her message to Peter and leave (In fact, she didn't have to deliver the message as Harp pointed out, but Vivian 'I-can't-wait-for-our-first-date' Apple just haaaad to go see him in person, when he's surrounded by literally every single person who wants her dead/captured. So did she deliver her message and leave? No. She had to get emotional and then have nappy time with the boyfriend when at any moment any one of the people who wanted to capture her could walk right in. And that's exactly what happened, and she got captured, and tortured, and almost had everyone's chances for a successful operation shot to hell. I SURE HOPE THAT FUCKING NAP WAS WORTH IT.

Isn't it funny how just a couple of days ago I was happy to have read about a MC like Vivian and now I just want to forget she was even a part of this book?

Also, the family drama with Vivian was completely meaningless and a waste of time. Her family drama amounted to nothing. Zero. Nada. Just an excuse to up the word-count of the book or whatever.

And the romance, oh the roooomance.

Peter's character was stripped of any qualities that set him apart as an individual. He became a tool, a mere excuse for Vivian to be an irritating idiot. The author forgot he was supposed to have a personality, and that he used to be smart and could've contributed so much to the plot.

There's nothing to say about Peter in this book because he literally didn't do anything, he was just... there. Oh, but I'm forgetting that thing he did towards the end of the book, right? Nope, it was like the author tried to throw him a bone at the last minute but it was too late, his character had already been thoroughly ruined.

Poor boy was reduced to the most basic type of love interest. RIP, Peter Ivey.

Let's forget about Vivian and Peter now. I'm done with their characters and their "story" for good.

There were several other little and not so little things that made me lower the rating of this book.

One of them was the lack of all those laugh out loud witty pieces of dialogue and humor sprinkled throughout the first book. Where did that go in this book? Most every joke felt forced and a lot of them weren't even really funny, and don't tell me this book was darker because that was not the case. If we had time for Vivian's bs lovey-dovey escapades then we very well could have done with more of Harp's humor and banter with other characters.

There were also a lot of things left unclear and that ending was super rushed. I HATE RUSHED ENDINGS.

The plot just decided to do a 180° turn on me and the conflict got "resolved" in a very silly manner, with the participation of a character that suddenly became this big, all-important and wise figure of authority. Like, BAM have a convenient new leader who everyone will trust because it's easy. Not that I don't like said character, I do, very much, I just don't buy it.

Spoiler

This character was mostly an afterthought to Vivian, Harp AND the Reader and suddenly you're telling me she's saving the world with her 'sixteen and pregnant' maternal instincts? Talking sense into the crazies and everyone just... accepts her as the voice of reason? are you kidding me?

There's also that one unnecessary death at the end that didn't make me feel anything. But then again, I couldn't have cared less about that other death earlier in the book. Were they supposed to be relevant? Actually, the author could've killed 99% of the characters right there and I wouldn't have been affected.

While the premise of the book - the Church of America orchestrating the rapture - was interesting, it was difficult for me to really get into the story. The character development was rather shallow -very little context, history, etc. I felt like the events happened rather quickly without much build-up or detail.

Disclaimer: I received this book for free via a Goodreads giveaway.

This felt like a different book to me and I really enjoyed the previous one. In the end this one was just a disappointment.

I want more. Even if it was just a collection of blog entries from Harp. That girl is my soul mate.

Not as awesome as Vivian Versus the Apocalypse but still lots of moments where I was reading with my heart in my mouth. The whole Peter/Vivian thing continuing was annoying, as were the occasional liberal debates about whether it was reasonable to kill people - some good points were made in one of these about the workers being collateral but because it was a liberal making the point it could have been made way better! I was a bit upset that it was Harp saying this in this way, she's my favourite character and it felt like a bit of a let down. The Vivian-and-her-mum stuff was pretty intense but the direction it took towards the end was one I appreciated. There was a LOT of unnecessary heterosexuality, from people other than Peter and Vivian, which was really annoying, but apparently YA fiction in particular must include this in order to be published :/ I guess at least there isn't a love triangle ... YET.

So good! I didn't want to end yet i wanted to finish because I had to know how they were going to fix everything. Vivian Apple and Harp are literal gems and I really..really want more!