The ending was so depressing but in a good way, I wasn't that bothered about Lucas but I was sad for Sam not getting some happiness. I wanted less monologuing and more story, action and dialogue. There were some parts that were really slow, whenever some action would take off, Lucas or Sam would start monologuing about their life history or 'deep' feelings. I highly doubt that that many of them would feel so scared and disgusted by a bunch of kids, there would have been much more of them who showed compassion and tried to help, especially when most of them weren't there out of choice. It was frustrating to read most of the adult characters being so cold and heartless. I'm hoping he gets his just desserts in the third novel, he's too much of an evil character to not die a painful, violent death. Tildon was a right bastard, I was disappointed nothing bad happened to him. Really? All she could think about was how tough things were for Sam when she was the one in danger. I had to roll my eyes at Sam worrying about Lucas and his pain when she was faced with a psycho pervert. He grew on me somewhat towards the end when he tried to save Sam, but it wasn't enough for me to like him. When Sam was getting attacked by that pervert, it was clear he would have done nothing to stop it unless he was instructed to do so, he would have let her be humiliated and abused. Wasn't that impressed with Lucas, I never thought he felt for Sam what she felt for him.

Sam was far more of a heroine than whiny Ruby. Whereas with Ruby, I never really cared enough about her to want her to get a happy ending of any sort. I was rooting for Sam throughout, I wanted her to get out of the camp/Thurmond and beat the people who had done her wrong. Liked Sam's character in this, she was much better than Ruby from the main novels.

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken