[REVIEW] Damaged Goods

title: Damaged Goods (Blank Slate #2)
author: Jennifer Bardsley
genre: young adult, science fiction
publish: January 17, 2017 by Month9Books
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

Blanca has everything she ever wanted, a hot boyfriend and the loving support of her foster father. She’s finally escaped the abusive control of her birth father and her tortured childhood at Tabula Rasa School. 

But the scars of Blanca’s Vestal upbringing run deep, especially when the FBI start asking questions. 

Blanca feels abandoned by her boyfriend, who is hunting for Lilith, Blanca’s only blood relative. The Defectos, a support group of Vestal-Rejects, offer Blanca comfort which she readily accepts. 

While the Vestal order crumbles, Chinese rivals, the Guardians, rise to power and wrest control of important Tabula Rasa contacts. As Blanca’s life is thrown into chaos once more, she struggles to recognize friend from foe, and one miscalculation can have devastating consequences.

good follow-up for Genesis Girl.

I read Genesis Girl because of its premise --  a world where gadgets have caused cancer, that gadgets are evil and breaks relationships, and some children are sent to Tabula Rasa, a school where they are raised without connecting to any form of gadget.

You like that? Of course you do! Admittedly, it wasn't a very exciting read for me but I still enjoyed it. Which is why I read this sequel!

"Sometimes being an adult means doing things you don't want to do," says Cal. -loc103, eARC

Damaged Goods started rough for me. I think that mainly this is because Genesis Girl ended well and while the problem was not completely resolved, the ending felt good for me. It was satisfying. The sequel had to break that ending and open up a new problem -- thus the Guardians were introduced. It doesn't take a genius that they will play an important role later on in the story.

Aside from the Guardians, the Defectos were somehow given enough time to be introduced. Blanca thought of this group as the people who can truly understand her thoughts - Cal and Seth were definitely a no-go for that because they do not exactly know how vestals think despite their knowledge and all.

Vestals are always trustworthy, something deep inside me whispers. Vestals are the only people I can trust. But I know that's not true anymore. It was probably never true to begin with.  -loc541, eARC

I honestly like that Blanca is still not fully 'normal' in a sense that she's still completely paranoid and still doesn't fully trust people. There's always that lingering thought in her that what-if this person is actually this or that. People don't change overnight, we know that. And that's what's shown here. Seth and Cal did a lot of things for Blanca but of course, it will take a LONG time to change the things Blanca was taught for more than ten years of her life. Changing her in just a couple of months is too far-fetched.

One things for sure though, Blanca is braver than before. Of course, she should be because book one developed her to be one -- to be someone brave and able to make sound decisions. Blanca is a heroine to root for. She still has her faults, her lack of trust, her paranoia, and the secrets she keep to her self because of the first two things.

"You can't live in fear forever," -loc756, eARC

The romance, however, took a sad turn for me. I mean as much as I'd like to love the conflicts that were introduced, I'm not really a big fan of love triangles. Both sides, Seth and Blanca, were given past relationships, Tiffany for Seth and Keung for Blanca. There really wasn't much development on their relationship, just more trust.

The ending was satisfying although it did leave a room for a sequel which I am honestly looking forward to. However, like many second books, this basically just prepared the world for the next (or maybe final) book and maybe you can classify this as one of those books going through second-book-syndrome. It has its faults but it was still a pretty good read a whole.

OVERALL, Damaged Goods is good sequel for Genesis Girl. It followed up the story well. It shows that not everything is not immediately resolved and I like how Bianca and Seth's relationship is put to test. The ending was also pretty good and it made me look forward for the sequel.

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