Review of Nil Unlocked by Lynne Matson

Review of Lynne Matson's Nil Unlocked

Release Date: May 12th, 2015

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

On the island of Nil, the rules are set. You have exactly 365 days to escape--or you die. Rives is now the undisputed Leader of Nil City, but keeping the City united is tougher than ever.

Raiders have grown bolder, supplies are dwindling, and non-human inhabitants have taken a turn toward the deadly. New arrivals cause rifts within the City, putting the Search system at risk, and calling everything Rives knows into question. Desperate for answers, he teams up with the only other person searching for them: Skye, a new arrival with a mysterious past of her own. Soon the duo find themselves locked in a desperate race to save all the residents of Nil--and possibly destroy the island forever. But at what cost? And who will pay the price?

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As the days, weeks, and months of 2015 roll by, I realize I am getting further and further behind in my reading. I have been taking more time to watch television, sleep, relax after work... I've even been reading manga. I look at my bookshelves and the fact that they are more full is disappointing enough as it is. Knowing I am not taking enough time to buckle down and read makes me very sad. Seeing as how I absolutely love this book/series (if you can call 2 books a series), it is sad it took me a week to read it.

Matson's Nil Unlocked is not only a sequel to her first book, Nil, but it is the book that gives the reader exactly what they have been waiting for. The knowledge on what has become of the people who escaped the island, who is left still alive, and the history of why teenagers keep appearing on Nil. With Charley & Thad having caught gates home, it leaves Rives in charge of the cities inhabitants. With new kids dropping in from the incoming gates, the ever fluctuating population keeps him busy. But teenagers are not the only thing being dropped off.

Skye is on a journey with her father to find a mysterious island that his twin brother wrote about in a journal. The journal was written when his brother returned after he had been missing for 10 months around his 16th birthday. While everyone else just thought his brother was crazy, Skye's father believed that what he wrote was from experience and he was going to find this island called Nil and rescue the children he believed were left on it.

With the unlocking of the island comes new characters and shocking information on the history of how the island came to be. Expect the sequel to have all the mystery and action of the first book, but with the answers to all the questions left you may have been left with after reading Nil. This book is definitely worth picking up... I should know, I spent a week on reading it.