Rex Cresting by Chrystalla Thoma

Elie's Chronicles #2

"Still recovering at a hospital on the north coast of Dakru, Elei is convinced that his part in bringing down the Gultur is over. Rex has infected the other race and their dictatorial system is starting to collapse. Not every Gultur, though, has been affected, and on top of that, inside Elei's body, Rex has matured and goes through another transformation. Elei isn't sure he can survive Rex's new strength -- but that may prove the last of his worries as the Gultur descend on him again. "

This book picks up right after the last one left off. And while I still really like this story and the world it's set in, this book did take me a little longer to get into and I started to care a little less about the characters. Part of me was wondering why three books are needed to tell this story, everything is still pretty vague.

Elei is such a bad-ass. His character has grown quite a bit in this book, and he is more sure of himself, even though he is still self-conscious about his appearance because of the snakeskin marring his back and part of his face thanks to a parasite. He starts having prophetic dreams caused by the parasite, Rex telling him what to do next to take down the Gultur. And he makes a new friend in the form of a cat that starts following him around.

Kalaes is captured by the Gultur at the hospital that was treating Elei. The Gultur drug and beat Kal, trying to force him to tell them where Elei and the resistance are. Elei, with the help of the local street kids break back into the hospital and rescue him with Hera showing up right at the end of that battle with a group of resistance members. Through most of this book, Kal is barely holding it together riddled with nightmares of reliving the deaths of everyone he's ever cared about.

Hera is dealing with her own things, by way of guilt of not being there to prevent Kal getting tortured, and Elei injuring himself even more when he busted himself out of the hospital, and when he broke back in.

While I am still wondering what is happening to make this a three book series, I am curious enough to want to finish it. I am wondering what fate as in store for Elei and the world he lives in. It's a really interesting world, I'm still not sure if it's a fantasy world, or some alternate universe set on earth, or some wacky super futuristic setting on earth.