Melissa (Mel’s Bookshelf)'s Reviews > Adulthood Rites

This was even better than the first one, Dawn!
It is awesome and terrifying at the same time.

Far out - I love books like this! Sure, I love a good mindless romance or a fun thriller. But books like these are why I love reading. Once in a while a book comes along that changes your entire outlook on life. Makes you think of things you have never contemplated before. Makes you question everything. This series has done that for me. And I am not even finished it yet.

I don't even know how to put it into words. She has described humanity so well. I watched the news tonight. Murders and assassinations, assaults and espionage. People mindlessly hurting others. All I could think about was this book.

The aliens have come and they have offered humanity a way to continue. Kind of. We would continue, but not entirely as ourselves.
But as a species, we are so goddamn stubborn. Stubborn and stupid. Yet she tries to show us the good parts amidst the savage. The hope. Will we cling to the old ways and just end up killing each other again? Most probably. Do we deserve a chance? Well that is the question, isn't it.

Again, the atmosphere that she has created with this series is so out there. But it works. You are transported to a 'saved' earth and it is almost spooky at times. And there is Akin, the first male hybrid "construct" of both alien and human. What a gripping read his journey was. What he missed out on. How much he has learned. Where his paths have taken him. The humans are so desperate to have children of their own that they welcome him just because he looks like they do. But he is not like them. Not at all.

I don't know. This series has turned my head upside down. I don't even know if I truly believe that humanity deserves another chance in this. I am pretty sure I am siding with the aliens when they say we are a doomed race. Doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Unable to learn how to live without this hierarchal "I am better than you" attitude that will surely be our downfall... Again...

Again, I think I want to be beamed up by the squirmy aliens, rather than being left on the planet with savage humans. AARG my brain hurts!

I can't wait to read the finale. But I need a brain-cleanser or two first. WOW

Note - This cannot be read as a stand-alone. You have to have read Dawn to know what the hell is happening!