Between Burning Worlds

Between Burning Worlds starts off 2 weeks after the events of Sky Without Stars, with Marcellus wanting to join the Vanguarde, Chatine on Bastille, and Alouette run away from the Refuge, to seek more information about her past. The General’s plans for Laterre are a mystery that Marcellus wants to find out, and prevent from happening, but he constantly feels like his grandfather is three moves ahead of him in everything. Chatine is suffering from auditory hallucinations on Bastille, and the harsh conditions over there, but she notices a pattern among the older seeming prisoners over there. While the Vanguarde amping up its efforts to free Citizen Rousseau, another group emerges in the aftermath of that attempt, with a similar revolutionary streak. Some of main characters, meanwhile, have to escape the planet to find the nefarious plans the General has in store. There’s a lot that can’t be discussed in this review because of spoilers, but I gotta say, I loved that we got to see outside of Laterre in this book, and how things work on other planets. The introduction of three new major characters to be a part of the team infused it with new energy, especially the sparkling personality of self-claimed ‘criminal mastermind’ Gabriel, who just screams ‘we are all gonna die’ at every minor inconvenience, and self-claimed ‘sympathizer’ Cerise, who just wants to punch him at every instance, but you can definitely see their relationship developing in between the bickering. Etienne was also a treat, but his home especially is a symbol of hope for Chatine, who never knew such a loving society could exist where people do things for each other out of love and community. The twists and reveals in this sequel were not all surprising, since some of them had nicely placed foreshadowing at various points, so it was also fun to unravel some mysteries of the plot. It also made the long length of this book worth it, which at 690 pages, could have felt tiring but instead just allowed for more development between characters, character storylines and the world-building. Overall, it is a fantastic sequel, with an action-packed plot and the addition of new characters to love!