Robin Gierse
Cineaste

Today I enjoyed

Radioactive by Maya Shepherd

3 min read

Today I enjoyed for the last time: Radioactive by Maya Shepherd.

Meaning, I finished this series after roughly two years of reading. My first port about this book series was back in 2022, and I had really just started to get to know the post-apocalyptic world around the "Legion". Now, after finishing the "Radioactive" tetralogy, the accompanying spin-off "Zoe & Clyde" duology, as well as the "Kind der Legion" prequel I can say: It has been a ride.

Let me start with a few negative aspects which I found over the course of this journey. My two main points of criticism are these: The focus on one person losing the other person and the sometimes pointless brutality. Let me elaborate:

Most of the time I appreciate the raw and barely endurable cruelty throughout the series, because that is how the world is in these books. There are situations where even I flinched and did not know if I wanted to read on. But what at some point started to annoy me, was the last half of the last book in the "Radioactive" tetralogy. Without spoiling anything, there are events happening that are hard to bear, but they do not serve any point whatsoever. All characters involved have suffered plenty already and the other characters are well established as being ruthless and cruel. We do not need any more proof. Frankly, I do not understand, why the author choose to do this.

Now, regarding the other point of criticism: The trope of people being afraid to lose each other is common to the human condition and from the get go a key element of this series. And that in itself is fine. But again, especially to the end was I getting exhausted of it. In the beginning there were good reasons for these fears and characters regularly lost each other, even if they were reunited after a brief separation. Sometimes the separation lasted for weeks or months, without knowing if either one was alive. So all fine and well dosed there. But towards the end of the story it goes on to describing this fear in excess, even if the characters literally just want to go look for someone in a rather known and manageable area. And that got tiresome rather quickly.

Now to focus back on the overwhelmingly positive aspects: I still very much like the whole "Radioactive" family of books and I can wholeheartedly recommend them to everyone who likes dystopian material. It has a fresh spin to it, is not too obvious, tells a compelling story and never gives too much away. If you never heard of it, give a try. I am certain you will get hooked after book one, just as I did.