House of El vol 2 by claudia gray

Vol 2: The Enemy Delusion, illustrated by Eric Zawadzki
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The adventure continues right where we left off - Zahn and Sera have stolen a piece of technology from the house of El, but the can't figure out how to unlock more than its surface-level recordings to what, Sera assumes, is more information on the genetic manipulation Lara did to her. Later, Zahn and his classmates are analyzing the damage from an earthquake to a vital system. Zahn proposes rerouting the system to share the resources with the lower caste, and he's punished instead of applauded. Elsewhere, Sera is likewise reprimanded for proposing a new strategy to fighting deadly pests in the upper atmosphere of the planet. Zahn gives the group of dissenters, Midnight, the idea to go after the structure his classmates were just working to fix, but they are planning to take the attack too far, and he fears how many people might be in danger.

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​Gray continues the energy and suspense from the first volume, but at least this volume has a sneak peek at volume three that allows for some reprieve from the cliffhanger (maybe they heard me about volume one!). Gray also manages to simultaneously acknowledge that most readers probably know what's going to happen to Krypton while getting us to forget what's going to happen to Krypton. I'm seriously rooting for Zahn and Sera to be able to change the society and make the ruling class see the error of their ways, so I am eagerly awaiting the third volume to see what they can get done before the impending doom!

Zawadzki's illustrations continue to be beautifully colored and full of details, especially the city-scapes. I am a big fan of the color pallette of the two leads - lighter blues and greens - and how easy these illustrations are to look at.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-10

Reviews of previous volumes in the series: vol 1

Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
ISBN: 9781401296087 (Paperback)


Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Graphic Fiction, Action Adventure, Science Fiction, DC Comics