Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken (SPOILERS!)

The good:
Definitely the characters! It doesn't matter whether the characters are peripheral or integral to the story, each one of them makes an impact:
I loved Chubes (Do I smell a pairing with Vida?), Vida (she was positively hilarious!), Judes (he was so innocent; side note: I kept reading "Judith" whenever Jude's name came up because that's what Vida called him), Liam (though we don't get to see that much of him, but the parts we see are worth it), Cole (Liam's brother and basically the bad-ass version of him), Ruby (she is still incredibly conflicted by her abilities though has much better control over them), and of course, Clancey (who is just as bastardly as he was in the previous book). Even Cate became a little less grey in this book.

The not so good:
The story dragged a bit for me, though there were a couple of definite bombshells I hadn't expect (these would obviously be the good part):
1. What the heck? Cole is a Red! How is that possible if there is supposed to be an age limit? I think that definitely points to government conspiracy since now there isn't an age tropism.
2. I sort of expected this, but Liam remembers (rejoice!). Though the images are fragmented, his feelings were left intact with the mind sweep.
3. Clancey, our resident villain, killed his own mother, who had found a cure for the disease that turned all of them into Psi mutants.
4. Jude dies! I guess I should've seen that coming, but it still sucked.

Overall: This book suffers a little bit from "sequel in a trilogy syndrome" with a long quest for the MC and her band of misfits to find the romantic interest, and suffering all kinds of crap in between because Murphy's law was not a theory, but an undeniable reality in Ruby's life. I hadn't loved the first book, but the excitement from the release of the second book swept me away, and after finishing this, I can say it was above average, but still nothing spectacular. And I haven't a clue of what's going to happen in the third book. Are these kids really mutants? Do they really need to be "cured?" Part of me things the answer should be "no," but it seems many if but not all of the Colors don't want their abilities. I will probably read the end of the trilogy, but I won't be running for it.