Raging Sea by Michael Buckley

Raging Sea

Author: Michael Buckley
Publisher: HMH Books For Young Readers
Year: 2016
Genre: Fantasy
Age: YA 13+

The story picks up right where we left off in the first book of this series Undertow.
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Lyric, Bex, & Arcade have fled Coney Island & are on their way to Texas to find the torture camp, called Tempest, that the government has built for the Alpha & their families. Lyric's parents here taken there after the Rusalka attacked the beach & the huge tidal wave that everyone thinks Lyric caused hit the city. They have no money, no food, & no car so the group must resort to "borrowing" things along the way. They end up meeting new people that are friends & some that are foes, including a few unfortunate run-ins with the police.

Finally in an old abandoned theater with a group of Coasters like them, the girls are apprehended by the White Tower Organization. To Lyric's surprise Doyle, her old principal, is with them. Bex & Arcade are taken but a young boy helps Lyric escape & she makes her way into the desert to find Tempest herself. Once there it's much worse than she imagined. She is forced into a cell after being electrocuted several times, fed horrible rotting food, & she is injured from her arrival. Lyric is eventually moved into a small cage where she gets to see Bex & her Dad for a brief time. It isn't long before they start experimenting on her, something she had heard happening in the camp. Fed up with the way she & all the others are being treated she makes a plan to escape. Lyric's plan doesn't work out but she finds out what Spangler, the head of White Tower, is up to. Spangler is the head, he's using Doyle to control Lyric, but someone else is pulling the strings & paying the bills.

The ultimate plan is for Lyric to train all the other kids that are hybrids like her to fight against the Prime & the Rusalka back in Coney Island. There are several problems with that scenario however, like Spangler brainwashing the kids into thinking their families have a strange disease, when he is actually holding them prisoner at Tempest, using Lyric's family & friends as blackmail against her to get what Spangler & the mysterious "client" want, & a drama-filled love story all happening besides the obvious war.

It isn't long before the kids, Lyric & her group, & the infamous "client" are all at the front lines in the heat of battle. But is the raging Sea inside Lyric enough to save the world or will she get dragged by the undertow into the Great Abyss?

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Likes: This book was a lot more exciting than the last one. Part of that is because we already know the basics of the story & it's down to the main event.

One of the characters that was supposed to have died at the end of book 1 is actually alive!

Learning more about the Alpha was pretty cool & seeing some new species kept my interest. 

Lyric & her family are reunited...briefly.

The ending leaves you with a giant cliff hanger! Good thing I already have the final book.

The story told in this book really sheds light on some issues we are facing in our world today like racism, police violence, & civil unrest. Even though there is a sci-fi/fantasy element to it the problem is very real.

Lyric has a badass attitude & great sense of humor despite everything that has happened. 

Dislikes: -

Rating: