The Year of the Flood: Part 2

I ended last week’s blog on the note that the book’s first part was rather bland, and that it needed to step up for the next chapters. And thankfully, it did. Don’t get me wrong, this section of the book is not perfect, but it’s far from the dull monstrosity of a beginning. There is far more plot progression in this section, which should have been more evenly distributed across the 52 chapters.

We see Toby is still reluctant to associate herself with the Gardeners, despite spending a lot of time with them (there is a lack of reference points in terms of time, so I might be wrong about this). She is promoted the role of an Eve, but is reluctant to accept it. However, her time with the Gardeners is limited. Her ex-boss Blanco has been released from the torturous prison sport of Painball. This game reminded me of a similar concept in the Jason Statham movie Death Race, where prisoners must compete in a race with cars equipped with weapons, and kill other competitors in order to be granted freedom.

Blanco attacks the Gardener’s rooftop, who manage to fend him off. However, Toby must be sent away and given a new identity for her and the cult’s safety. This isn’t the only time that a person released from Pinball has caused trouble. We learn about how a couple of ex-Painball customers at Scales and Tails cause a riot at the club, leading the club’s owner to lock Ren in the room right before his death, so that she isn’t attacked. Since no one else knows the code to open the door, Ren is stuck there when the Flood hits. Moving back to the pre-flood timeline, Toby’s new identity is as a manager named Tobiatha at the AnooYoo (a new you?) spa. As we already know, this is where Toby will be stuck during the Flood.

Ren, who was once a Gardener, is taken back to the Helthwyzer compound by her mother, Lucerne. Lucerne had left her husband since she wasn’t satisfied with the marriage, and ran away with Zeb. Now, she attempts to slide back in to her old marriage, as if nothing had happened. She claims that she and Ren had been abducted. Lucerne is portrayed as a gold digger, and her character reminds of me Daisy from The Great Gatsby. Ren completes her secondary education, and goes to college to complete her post-secondary. At a job fair at her college, Ren applies to two booths, Scales & Tails, as well as AnooYoo. Ren notices the person sitting at the booth looked similar to Toby, but cannot recognize her since Toby had changed her skin colour, eyes and other aspects of her physical appearance as a part of her new identity. This felt like a great stop to end at, considering Toby’s and Ren’s stories converge once again, and leaves the readers suspenseful. However, we already know that Ren will end up working at Scales and Tails. We also learn that due to Blanco’s second attack, the Gardeners had disbanded, and some members formed a new group called MaddAdam. MaddAdam is also the title of the third book in this trilogy. At the very end of this section, we learn that the Flood has hit and began spreading, taking Bernice as its victim.

This should give you an idea of how dense this section was in terms of plot, even though I tried my best to condense it down. Some characters received a much needed development and backstory, and many of our questions were answered. This section has genuinely left me somewhat optimistic for the last section of the book.