This Cruel Design by Emily Suvada | 5 Star Book Review
This Cruel Design by Emily Suvada | 5 Star Book Review
Hi friends! If you know me at all and follow me on Social media you’ll know that I LOVE Emily’s work. This Mortal Coil was amazing and I was so fortunate to receive an ARC of This Cruel Design! I’ve taken a while to get my thoughts together because I loved this book so much, so I hope you enjoy this review.
As always my review will be spoiler free, but if you haven’t read This Mortal Coil you should probably do that first – just know that this is just as good!
This Cruel Design by Emily Suvada Published by Simon Pulse on October 30th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Pages: 394
Goodreads
Cat thought the Hydra epidemic was over, but when new cases pop up, Cat must team up with an enemy to fix the vaccine before the virus spirals out of control in this thrilling sequel to This Mortal Coil, which New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman says “redefines ‘unputdownable.’”
The nightmare of the outbreak is finally over, but Cat’s fight has only just begun.
Exhausted, wounded, and reeling from revelations that have shaken her to her core, Cat is at a breaking point. Camped in the woods with Cole and Leoben, she’s working day and night, desperate to find a way to stop Lachlan’s plan to reprogram humanity. But she’s failing—Cat can’t even control her newly regrown panel, and try as she might to ignore them, she keeps seeing glitching visions from her past everywhere she turns.
When news arrives that the Hydra virus might not be as dead as they’d thought, the group is pushed into an uneasy alliance with Cartaxus to hunt down Lachlan and fix the vaccine. Their search takes them to Entropia, a city of genehackers hidden deep in the desert that could also hold the answers about Cat’s past that she’s been searching for.
But when confronted with lies and betrayals, Cat is forced to question everything she knows and everyone she trusts. And while Lachlan is always two steps ahead, the biggest threat to Cat may be the secrets buried in her own mind.
This Cruel Design is the perfect follow up to This Mortal Coil. Emily did it again with her amazing pacing and literal page turning action. If you think that after This Mortal Coil there can’t be many more surprises, boy are you wrong! This Cruel Design is no exception and you’ll finish this wishing the third one was ready and waiting for you to read. My mum actually rang me as soon as she finished it and asked me to ask Emily what happens next!
So Emily, can you let us know soon please? Thanks! 😂
This Cruel Design picks up right where This Mortal Coil left off. The world building is just so good. I love the melding of technology and genetics, Emily does it seamlessly and makes it seem really believable. I honestly love genetics and virus narratives so this story obviously is a favourite of mine for that alone, but the writing is just so brilliant too!
I read a thread Emily did on Twitter where she talked about her writing process, and one of the things she mentioned was that she wrote the last line of each chapter before anything else. I was just starting a reread of This Mortal Coil at the time and so I really paid attention to the last lines of TMC and TCD and honestly, she’s a genius. Each chapter ends on such a nail biting moment, you have no choice but to keep reading. Which, for me, is a nightmare because I will literally stay up all night to read a book 😅 in all seriousness though, it amped up the pacing and I really have to give it to her, this is a great method!
I’ll link the thread at the end of this post!
We get a bit more back story on the characters but it doesn’t take away from the current action as it is done so well. New challenges are introduced and honestly, fans of TMC will LOVE THIS BOOK LIKE I DO.
Ahhhhh how do I write about the characters without spoilers?! Okay so firstly, the characters are amazing. We get to meet some new people in This Cruel Design who are, let’s just say, morally challenged. They add some new dimensions to the story!
The original cast return and honestly, I just love these characters more and more everything we learn something new about them and their past. There are some real bombshells with Cat’s past that I just really wasn’t expecting, her and Jun Bei are really so fascinating and I can’t wait for more in book 3!
There’s tension, discoveries, growing…. I really don’t want to say much more other than GO READ IT NOW NOW NOW.
I hope you enjoyed this review! It was super hard to do because I just love this series so much! I also tried super hard not to spoil anything for you.
Have you read this series? What did you think? I definitely recommend!
Here’s Emily’s Twitter thread and you should follow her if you don’t already:
https://twitter.com/emilysuvada/status/1043547053886857217?s=21
12 Comments
I absolutely loved this book!
YAAAS I’m so glad. I can’t wait for the next one!
I plan on reading both soon. Thanks.
YAY you’re going to love them <3
Hey hey! I’m glad the sequel is 5 stars for you because I haven’t read The Mortal Coil yet. I’m glad it only goes up from there!
IT DOES. I can’t wait for the next one, I am SO excited. This series is sooooo good!
I love the cover, haven’t heard of this book before tho!
Xoxo
Shirley | https://shirleycuypers.blogspot.com
Whaaa! It’s amazing, check out the first one, This Mortal Coil, it’s amazing!
Yesssss this Mortal Coil was one of my favourites of the year and I’m so glad that This Cruel Design contained just as many amazing twists and turns as the first one!
Honestly it will blow your mind, I know you’re going to love it! Let me know when you’ve read it!
Great review! I’m such a fan of this series – can’t wait for the next book.
Thank you! I can’t wait either, the end of this one was just NAIL BITING AHHH!