I appreciate the opportunity to review. Sorry for the long delay in feedback. I'm working on clearing out my Netgalley backlog. I am DNF'ing all books that just don't work within the first 50-100 pages. Trying to find the joy in reading again by going through the hundreds of abandoned books here.

Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

DNFed the first book and I am not reading this second book.

I really don’t think that it is fair to give this a star rating even though I haven’t read it yet. The first book was not really for me. I tried so hard to read it but it felt flat and the plot is not working for me.

I was really excited to read this after having read and absolutely loved Voiceless! I didn't love this one half as much in the end, sadly, but it was still a pretty awesome read. I just found Addy's escape to be a little TOO mind-bending at times. I like to be able to visualise what's going on and some of the parts where the floor was dropping away and reforming and leaving gaps and ESPECIALLY the bit with the peninsulas just weren't described quite enough, meaning I couldn't fully "see" what precisely was happening, and for me that was a little frustrating, haha.

Expression, the sequel to Voiceless, skips several years to deal with the long-term consequences of the sacrifice that Adelaide made at the end of the first book. As her brother Theo and her once-nemesis Maunga gear up to save Addy from the experiments, conducted by the Breach, we are taken into the heads of two characters that stand far apart from noble and selfless Addy. Wilson shifts quite gracefully from hopeful and idealistic Addy to angry and determined Theo, changing from a journey into a virtual reality to a rescue operation in a dark, unstable, Escherian underground facility.
What I failed to praise about Voiceless was its scope. The voice-stealing plague affected only a single country and even then the death toll was not staggering. The book was more of an exploration of power abuse, the ramifications of being attacked by those above you, and the immense strength one needs to keep going after losing an enormous part of themselves. A smartly chosen topic, eschewing the typical “the world is at stake” sentiments, delving into the personal issues of a lone wolf hero instead.
Expression is all about the horrible things that a hero like that may face and the consequences that stem from these trials. Theo and Maunga locate Addy quite easily, having had many years to prepare their rescue mission. Getting her out and acclimated to the real world, though, proves to be surprisingly challenging. Wilson cleverly dedicates the last 10-15 percent of the book to the hardships of battling Addy’s PTSD and helping her settle back into normal life. The selfless wide-eyed teen, in the time that passed between the books, has turned into a grizzled survivalist, ready to claw her way out of any situation when she’s alone but completely broken emotionally.
E.G. mostly avoids writing the rescue effort as some sort of mind-screw adventure in a dangerous complex, leaving just a couple of action sequences in the story, opting instead for confrontational dialogues and introspective narration.
Expression improves on the topics raised by Voiceless and puts a satisfying end to the adventures of Addy, Theo, and Maunga, making for a successfully entertaining duology steeped in the culture of New Zealand.

This is the follow-up to E.G. Wilson's Voiceless. If you haven't read the first novel please avoid reading this review because you'll regret it!

Adelaide is now twenty-two. She's been trapped in Caroline's testing program for six years now. Little does she know that her brother Theo and his wife Maunga have been setting up plans the whole time for a rescue mission to get Addy back.

Theo and Maunga have put together an entire team of people with different skills and assets ready to start the rescue at the drop of a hat. Addy had given her life to research in exchange for all the other Vox Pox victims to be cured. They can't stand the thought of her lifelong servitude of experimentation and having been waiting for just the right opportunity.

As soon as the rescue begins the team falls underneath all sorts of problems to overcome. Some are acceptable and others are unforgivable. Welcome to Addy's prison. Will she still be alive when they go in or will she be there at all?

This was a fantastic ending to this duology and I'm thankful I was given an opportunity to read and review them both! I highly recommend these two books!!

Given a copy of the book by NetGalley and the publisher for a fair and honest review.

So this was a very interesting route to take for a sequel. After spending a book letting us get to know Addy we’re suddenly years in the future and our main characters are now her brother and his wife Muanga. At first I was a little annoyed at this but actually I think this was a smart choice. Addy was a great character, but I’m not sure if she would have had that much development had this simply been a continuation from the story of book one. Instead we get two characters both of whom are interesting, have a great backstory and are connected enough to the plot of Voiceless that you feel the continuation.

This also felt more action packed that Voiceless which I appreciated. It has that essence of heist that I appreciate in books. It’s a prison break story, which isn’t a wholly new idea but it was handled in an interesting way, with a lot of science fiction packed in. There are also a lot of things which I would wager money were inspired by the game Portal 2 (but I have been playing that with the husband lately so perhaps that’s just wishful thinking?).

This book explores trauma in a much more in depth way than Voiceless does, there’s a psychological aspect that is more developed in the sequel. I thought this was very interesting, though as to how well researched it is I must confess I am no expert…

All in all, this was a great idea for a story to follow Voiceless, it certainly wasn’t the predictable sequel I was expecting. What could have been a thoroughly overdone science fiction YA escape story, instead was a powerful look into how sometimes you have to wait for things to happen. In the world of fiction we are so used to the instantaneous, it was a wise choice to have the passage of time as a tool both to develop plot and to build character developments and relationships.

These are nice books to read, not too difficult, not too long but with enough to get your teeth into that you feel somewhat challenged.

My rating: 4/5 stars

By the way, I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It's not exactly how I imagined this story going, but I got to say, the time jump made a lot of sense. Instead of spending forever trying to show how time passed for Addy, we get Theo and Maunga's POV, years down the line, with the knowledge that they've been working at getting Addy free in all this time.

Maunga and Theo's relationship also made sense to me! I thought something would end up happening between them when they were the only two left behind with the knowledge of what Addy had given up, but it was much better to be shown their married life than to see them fumbling through falling in love. The stakes were that much higher for them.

Seeing Addy through their eyes was also great, because it showed the stark difference in who she used to be and who she had become. It showed the strength from an outsider's point of view, and it gave a sense of realness to how much she had changed. I think if we had gotten her POV in the novel, it would not have seemed as much as if she had gone through hell. Or it would have been too overdone. This was a good way to show her trauma without too much exposition.

Still, there was something about the novel that did not click with me as much as the first one did. Maybe it was because we were stuck in a building the entire time, or maybe it was just that the physical stakes did not seem as high until the very end. The fate of Caroline was also a little dissatisfying.

It was a good read, but not as good as I had hoped.