School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Thousands of children are sleeping, ready to be activated as perfect fighter pilots and gunners, controlled by the completely unhinged Mal Gorman. Or are they? Taking place immediately after the events in The Roar (Scholastic, 2009), the story opens with the mutant Chosen Ones (Mika; his twin sister, Ellie; Audrey; and four other kids who remain entirely interchangeable) making their plans to stop Gorman (who has overdosed on Everlife-9 and is now a 13-year-old himself) and his equally scary counterpart, Raphael Mose, by taking control of. well, pretty much everything. Meanwhile Kobi (maybe the last free 13-year-old in London) and his father fall in with terrorists who will stop at nothing to blow up the towers where the rich people live. Amazingly, Mika and company, with the help of Kobi, Grace (Raphael's mutant daughter), and a few functional adults actually do exactly what they set out to do-save the world. And no one dies. Kids who like their science fiction moving at the speed of light and chock-full of evil villains, mutants, cyborgs, Star Wars-type air battles, psychic communication, poison gas, and big bombs will appreciate this one. Who needs character development anyway? Buy where the first book is popular.-Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
In this sequel to The Roar, mutant twins Mika and Ellie use their psychic powers to unite a child army created by a manipulative tyrant and stop their government from destroying the world's remaining forests. The child army (trained by a video game battle school) and the twins' mutant superpowers evoke both Ender's Game and X-Men in this suspenseful, well-paced dystopian novel. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Most of the plotlines spun out in The Roar (2009) are resolved in this sequel, as an army of child soldiers freed and led by psychically linked mutant twins, Mika and Ellie, broker peace between the poverty-stricken millions confined behind a mammoth northern wall and the murderous capitalists who put them there in the name of environmental conservation. Readers who prefer their allegory well spiced with super science, fantastic mind powers, and large explosions will be pleased.--Peters, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
