Wayward by Blake Crouch

Wayward is the second book in Blake Crouch's Wayward Pines trilogy. After surviving a fête, Ethan Burke is now sheriff of the town of Wayward Pines, Idaho. He had woken up there just two weeks before, on a case for the Secret Service trying to find two missing agents from the Boise office, and now he is "in charge" of this charming, Stepford-esque town.

David Pilcher's experiment to save the world is perhaps not going as well as he had planned. Many residents of Wayward Pines, population 461, struggle to go along with the status quo, pretending that their former lives no longer exist. Talking about the past is forbidden. There are cameras and microphones watching and listening to everything in town, so how can anyone find an escape, physically or mentally?

Ethan struggles with the right choice. Is it more important to protect the town from what is outside the fence, or to protect them from the man who put them all there in the first place? Will his son ever have a chance at a normal life growing up in Wayward Pines? Is life even an option outside of the fence?

I really enjoyed getting to know more about many of the characters, and more backstory on how the town came into existence. Crouch's writing is magnificent. The pages fly by as the story rushes towards its cliffhanger ending. You better believe I already downloaded book three. Now I just have to figure out whether to dive right in, or save it for awhile, because what will I do when it is over?

Final rating:

★★★★★

If you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, the books are available there.

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