Review: Quicksilver by RJ Anderson

Quicksilver
RJ Anderson
Series: Ultraviolet, #2
Release Date: May 2nd, 2013
Publisher: Orchard Books
Number of Pages: 314
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 5 stars

Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.

Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents.

Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.

She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

This review may contain possible spoilers for Ultraviolet

If you were to ask me right now what word I think best describes Quicksilver, while trying to refrain from using the inevitable words such as 'amazing', 'mind-blowing', or even the simple (but very accurate) 'OMG', the word I would choose would be 'intense'.

And quite honestly, the fact that Quicksilver is as intense as it is is quite a feat given that there is not much action throughout most of the novel and not many fight scenes. But I think the fact that there aren't many fight scenes or much action throughout Quicksilver is refreshing, and, like I mentioned earlier, quite a feat given how intense it is. One of the best things about Quicksilver is that its intensity doesn't rely on action or fight scenes like most novels do. The intensity of Quicksilver relies on, for example, something as simple and innocuous as a telephone ringing on the wall. Such suspense is brought into play with that loud, monotonous ringing of the telephone, and with it I just couldn't help but bite my nails and panic, wondering if the person on the other side of the phone is an antagonist calling to send a warning to Tori and her family, or just the next door neighbor calling Tori to welcome her and her family to the neighborhood. That type of suspense and intensity is used so often in Quicksilver, and I can say with complete and utter certainty that it kept me on the edge of my seat more than any fight scene I've read in any novel this year.


The events of Quicksilver take place months after the events of Ultraviolet; Alison is left learning how to cope with everything that happened over the past few months, unsure of what the truth is, and Tori is beginning to pack up her and her family’s belongings in preparation to escape her old life. However, with a determined cop, a few curious doctors, a relay that may or may not engage at any minute, an old enemy on her trail, and an old ally as well, Tori soon finds that escaping her old life is going to be more difficult than she thought. And this time she may bring more people other than herself down with her.

If you, too, are a fan of Ultraviolet and was left hanging by its ending that may or may not have torn your heart to shreds (it totally tore mine, not sure about you), and are expecting a continuation of Alison and Farraday's relationship and lives in Quicksilver, you will be surprised. Confession time: I added Quicksilver because I loved Ultraviolet, and I neglected to read its synopsis (this seems to be a recurring problem with me: if your book has a pretty cover or it's a sequel to a book I liked, on the TBR list it goes), so when I cracked open the (virtual) pages of Quicksilver, I was surprised to find that it was a continuation of Tori's story. At first, I was a bit worried that I might not like Tori's character as much as I liked Alison's, or that the plot wouldn't do it for me, but soon all of my worrying turned into complete adoration for the intricate and incredibly well developed story in Quicksilver and the spectacular character and relationship development.

With mesmerizing writing, genius plot twists, some reunions that are guaranteed to make you squeal, and a finale that will undoubtedly blow your mind, Quicksilver is a stunning sequel to an absolutely stunning novel. While Ultraviolet and Quicksilver are the only two works of RJ Anderson that I've read so far, I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm a big fan of hers. I mean, what's not to be a fan of when she writes books like this?