Book Review: The Cloak Society Villains Rising by Jeramey Kraatz

Title: The Cloak Society Villains Rising

Author: Jeramey Kraatz

Publisher:  HarperCollins

Release Date:  October 1st 2013

Series: The Clock Society Book 2

Source: Paperback

Number of Pages: 311
Synopsis: The Cloak Society has finally taken down their greatest enemies-the Rangers of Justice-in a spectacular feat of supervillainy, and their long-awaited rise to power is imminent. But twelve-year-old Alex Knight has other plans-he has joined forces with Kirbie and the Junior Rangers of Justice to fight Cloak once and for all.

But fighting for the same side is easier said than done...especially when your new teammates aren't sure your days as a supervillain are over.

In the sequel to the Cloak Society, Alex’s world has been turned upside down.  Friends have become enemies, and enemies have become friends. Now hiding out on the edge of town, Alex and the rest of the Junior Justice Rangers are trying to regroup.  Their plan is to free the Rangers from the gloom, and to stop the Cloak Society. This is easier said than done. The Junior Rangers are hesitant to trust the former villains, but with The Omegas hot on their trail they will need all the help they can get.

            I really enjoyed the first book in the series and was eager to start this one. Though to my chagrin I found that this book didn’t hook me like the first one. The plot was very slow, and because of this I wasn’t nearly as drawn in as I was with the first book. Besides the ending nothing that happened was that shocking. One of the best things about the first book was the focus on the family dynamics between Alex and his parents. Unfortunately this takes a back seat in this novel. I would have loved to see what Alex’s father felt about his betrayal because I got the feeling in the first book that he really did care for Alex.   My biggest complaint is how Alex dealt with the arrival of Bug and Del.  When Bug arrives he is instantly suspicious and even when he demonstrates a useful power Alex is still wary of him.  This makes sense because they can’t know for sure his true intentions. But then when Alex meets Del everything changes. She gets the jump on him and Alex instantly wants to bring her into the team. He argues that she has some “serious skills” and that is why they should bring her in. This bothers me because it feels like Alex is changing his mind just because Del is a girl where as Bug is a boy.  He is falling into “pretty girl clouds the mind trap”.

            Jeramey Kraatz does an amazing job of making Alex and his friends realistic. Even though Alex left the Cloak Society, we do not expect him to be a total law abiding citizen.  He wants to steal a car but the Junior Rangers quickly shoot that plan down.  It’s nice that the author didn’t take away his rough edges, for he has been a villain since he was little. It was also a good touch to show how fundamentally different the Cloak Society is from the Rangers. The Junior Rangers have never sparred with each other before much to the surprise of the Betas because that’s how they trained. On the other end The Junior Rangers were taught a more all around skill set then the Betas were. This shows both the pros and cons of each training method and that each side has a lot to bring to the table.  The plot might have been slow but the ending was amazing! I guarantee that you will not see it coming and it sets up a great plot line for book three.

Rating 3.5/5 Stars