Oh wow. I really, really loved this book. My heart was pounding from adrenaline or from romantic gushiness at any given point while reading. Mostly adrenaline, though. Adrenaline by far outweighs the gushiness. But, boy, did I love the gushy. I really found Cassie's voice to be authentic and I loved spending time with her. The Silencer was such a chilling, captivating and heartbreaking chapter. Zombie is such a sweetheart and Nugget is too adorable for words. The characters all completely pulled me into their stories to the point where I felt what they felt. And don't you just love it when a book does that?The action was superbly done, the writing was great, the romance was just enough, not too much...I just loved everything about this book. I stayed up all night to read this book in one sitting and that does not happen very often, let me tell you. I don't think it was possible for me to fall asleep. My heart was pounding too fast.One thing I was not okay with...I'm pretty sure that Cassie didn't actually want Evan to stop kissing her but this reinforces a dangerous cultural attitude in society. In the real world, no always means no. I worry for teen girls reading this who might get the message that it's okay if a boy keeps kissing them when they say "no" or for teen boys to think that it's okay to keep going when a girl says "no". It's never okay. Consent must be given, always. Alien or not, potential special "empath" powers or whatever that might let him know what she *really* wanted or not. The books and movies and popular culture we take in affects the living culture around us and we can't afford to send out potentially dangerous messages. Another thing that struck me was Evan's reaction to Cassie cutting her hair. It actually struck me as very bizarre that he would slam the door over that given his generally complacent and totally calm demeanor. He even brings it up again later saying "I wish you hadn't cut your hair." After thinking about this, and thinking how odd it was for Evan to have any sort of outburst let alone over a haircut...I did some speculating and I think there *must* be something more behind this. And I think that there is possibly some sort of "freeze" on all the human bodies left alive. Sort of like how vampires are stuck in the body they died in, you know? There's a lot we haven't learned about the aliens yet. What we do know is that when the human bodies they have been downloaded into die so do they. It doesn't make sense to travel all the way across the universe to inhabit the bodies of humans that have a relatively short shelf life. Especially after killing off 99.9% of them. So my, perhaps tinfoil, speculation is that Cassie's hair is not going to grow back while this freeze effect is in place. Evan is upset that she made a decision that affects her permanently without even knowing it. Yeah, this all sounds much more tinfoil-ey when I write it all down than the simple thoughts in my head. I guess we shall see!But perhaps in the end I'm just a bad feminist because I completely loved Evan anyway. I'm an absolute sucker for paranormal romance, though. I found him to be sweet and caring (even in his "stalking". Perhaps, especially then. I got the sense he was hovering in case she needed him/he just wanted to be close to her. Not really in a creepy way). There's definitely a lot of information missing. Information that I hope we'll find out in the following books that will explain a good portion of his behavior in this one. Perhaps it's just a testament to the writer for creating such an intriguing, endearing, and mystifying character that these become minor quibbles compared to my love for the character. Okay, I'll go with that.So, congrats, Evan Walker. You get put on my Book Boyfriends shelf. Please, please, please, don't be dead. That cliffhanger is killing me.Tip of my hat to Mr. Yancey. I cannot wait to get my hands on Book 2.
