The Moonlight Made You a Monster

Published: January 29th, 2013
Othermoon (Otherkin # 2)
By: Nina Berry
Kensington Teen
ISBN-13: 9780758276933

Everyone has secrets. I had no idea mine would lead me into shadow. Dez has found the place where she belongs. With the otherkin. With Caleb. Or so she thought. As the barriers between our world and Othersphere fall, a wall rises between Dez and Caleb, leaving her fiercest enemy her only friend. 

And maybe something more. 

Now Dez must make a devastating choice: keep the love of her life, or save the otherkin from annihilation.

Review

     Dez is hoping life might head in the direction of normal - at least for a little while.  After rescuing Siku, a fellow shifter and friend, from the Tribunal with the rest of their friends she just wants a break.  But then a stranger breaks in  and steals her DNA, and her Mom is possessed by something from the Othersphere - something that just may be Dez's birth mother.  Forced to go on the run again, Dez returns to Morphael's school so that they can make a plan to stop the Tribunal from wiping out all the otherkin in one attack.  But can Dez and her friends stop a particle accelerator or is that too big for the teens?  And will Dez be able to do the right thing for the damaged Lazar and keep her relationship with Caleb from crumbling?  I went into this with very high hopes, having really loved the first book.  I was disappointed.  Dez has almost no character development, shows signs of idiotic martyr syndrome, and moons over Caleb who treats her like dirt for most of the book.  Not that she's perfect either, as she persists in lying to him about anything involving his enemy, half-brother Lazar.  I thought that the only one who really showed any development was Lazar, who became a truly interesting and layered character in this book.  November and Siku's relationship wasn't a surprise, and Arnaldo's family issues were just another situation for Dez to meddle in when she should have kept out of it.  I was surprised by London and Amaris' relationship and how close they became, but it was extremely sweet.  It almost made up for the emotionally unstable train-wreck that Dez and Caleb were building throughout the book as I watched in horror.  The plot itself felt like a less thought-out redux of the first book, with them trying to stop the bad guys against all odds.  And the revelations about Dez's birth mother and her true origins were kind of 'blah.'  Ximon became even more one-dimensional as a villain, with even more evil deeds being added to his greatest hits.  But I am still holding out hope for the next book and thinking that maybe Nina Berry just succumbed to the disease that seems to plague YA authors.....the dreaded sophomore syndrome!  Overall, not what I would have liked to read but better than a lot of second books in series that I've read in the past.

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

* I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published January 29th, 2013.*