I was very glad to see this book from Miranda's perspective again, I really don't like Alex very much and I can't fathom why Miranda does either. These books were much better when they were about family and survival and didn't include the romance. Not only is Alex not very likable, but their whole relationship is incredibly rushed and underdeveloped.The religious exploration made sense to me when the book was from Alex's perspective but it didn't work here with this blended set of characters nearly as well and became over done quite quickly.
There were some really excellent parts of this book, I think Pfeffer has constructed an incredibly dark and gritty but a believable situation for the most part. However, it just didn't live up to the first one. I still enjoyed it, and Miranda's moral conundrum was good food for thought but it just wasn't as good, thematically or otherwise.