Book Review: The Pack by Dayna Lorentz (Dogs of the Drowned City #2)

 

Let's take a gander at book two. Spoilers ahead.

Now living apart from their humans, the pack led by Shep and Callie will have to find a way to survive. But finding enough kibble to live on is hard, especially with wild dogs and other animals on the lookout for food as well. Things get especially difficult when a sort of power struggle happens between Shep, Callie and a new dog named Blaze. Will the pack thrive?

I'd say that this is a fine second installment. I think I kinda liked it more than the first, honestly. The first one was fine, but it did have that pretty repetitive section in the middle of rescuing dog after dog. This second book feels more like a flowing, less repetitious story.

I think that the conflict here is a bit more interesting than the first. Especially the struggle of the pack of rescued dogs surviving and the power struggle between our main trio was interesting and well-written. I do like the characters of Shep, Callie and even Blaze, so seeing them disagree over the leadership was pretty engaging. They could each get frustrating sometimes, but you do still root for these characters (at least, mostly for Callie and Shep. Blaze to a lesser extent).

One thing I do find odd is that Shep hates wild dogs...yet he worships wolves. This feels weird. If anything, shouldn't this mean he likes wild dogs more than pets, because their (the wild dogs) lifestyle is closer than that of wolves? I don't know, it feels like an odd inconsistency.

The author also can't seem to make up their mind about the "yapper" term. Early on in the book it's implied to be this awful slur, with Callie calling out Blaze for using it, but than later in the book Shep uses it as a term of affection towards Callie? And no, he cannot reclaim the slur because he is not a small dog. If you're gonna put such a charged term into your book, at least have it be used consistently? 

Finally, I do also think that there are simply too many unmemorable characters here. This was an issue in book one, and they keep adding new members to the cast in book two, and it just becomes overkill after a while. Sometimes a dog will appear in a scene and I'll be like "wait, who are you again?" and have to check the earlier chapters to see which character they are. There's just too many to keep track of and a lot don't leave an impact. I will say that Honey, Fuzz and Blaze are the exceptions to this rule, though, they leave an impact at least.

But yeah overall a neat second installment with a good power struggle and character development.

Rating: 4/5