Review: The Death Code by Lindsay Cummings

The Murder Complex #2

Publisher: Greenwillow Books

Publication Date: May 26, 2015

Rating: 2 Stars

Source: Purchase

Summary (from the back of the book): “My little sister Peri, stolen. My brother Koi and my father, gone. 

Suddenly the truth comes back to me. I remember exactly where I am. What I am.

I am a prisoner of the Initiative, with a connection to the Murder Complex in my brain. I came here to destroy the Motherboard, shut the system down for good.

I am the only one who can end The Murder Complex. If I die, the system dies along with me.

That is the only way.”

This book picks up like three weeks after the end of the first book. Zephyr is out searching for Lark, Meadow's mother, so he can kill her and destroy the Initiative. Meadow is locked up by the Initiative being tortured for information on her mother and the resistance. After the resistance finds a successful way to get Meadow to cooperate with them, they release her to lure her mother out of hiding. She manages to accomplish that and then Zephyr comes along and kills Lark. Then all the Patients attack the Initiative and in the chaos Zephyr, Sketch, and Meadow all escape the Shallows. Now they're setting off on Meadow's mission to find and rescue her family.

I wanted to like this book. I really did. I liked the first one. But I can't remember why. I can't remember really anything about the first one. I feel like I could have liked this one better if I could remember anything. But I just couldn't get into this book. It felt like a chore to finish this book. I kept hoping it would get better.

I did not like Meadow. I found her to be incredibly unlikable throughout the whole book. She doesn't care about anyone around her or the fact that they were sacrificing everything to help her find her family. She doesn't act grateful at all. There was not one single point in this book where I can remember feeling anything for her at all. Or even thinking anything nice.

Zephyr, I just felt bad for him. He follows Meadow around like a lost puppy, waiting for her to give him a second glance. And he acts like he’s only there because he has to be, not because he wants to help the girl he supposedly loves to find her missing family. 

Sketch, I just found her to be annoying. And her and Zephyr’s constant childish arguments. 

Something I noticed about both of these books is things are always described the same way. In the first book, there are seemingly constant mentions of how silver Meadow’s hair is. And in this one, every single time Zephyr and Sketch started arguing, it was said that they were arguing like children. 

Something that I liked about this book would be that the chapters were short so it was always easy to find a stopping spot when I had to put the book down for any reason.

I mostly gave this book two stars because of how badly I wanted to like it. I would probably not ever re-read this book. However, I did like the first one quite a bit and I liked the first book that’s out in the author’s other series. This book just was not for me.