Captive (The Blackcoat Rebellion #2)

Captive by Aimee Carter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This sequel to Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion #1)? Good try. A for effort.

Captive continues the story of Kitty Doe, who lives in a caste society where your status is determined by an aptitude test and then tattooed onto the back of your neck. Because of some political issues involving the purported death of the daughter of a ranking government official, Kitty is kidnapped and her rank is changed. She is "masked" to look just like the daughter and set up as a puppet to further a corrupt official's quest for power.

This second installment involves Kitty's demand to both be able to bring down the corruption and further a brewing rebellion. She gets into a lot of trouble and sent to a prison camp. More trouble ensues and Kitty continues to work to help the rebels.

Kitty is the most frustrating, irritating, brainless main character ever. She's resourceful, but she's also impulsive and short-sighted. People in charge trust her and she manages to betray that trust time and time again in the interest of doing a good, useful thing. She never seems to learn from her mistakes - or even pay for them! She's stubborn and rebellious for the sake of being stubborn and rebellious; it continues to mystify me throughout this story as to why any of the secondary characters would bother to pay any attention to her at all.

The plot follows a great arc; the story is solid. The world building is average. This has all the potential for another interesting fantasy, but it is completely ruined by this main character. She is surrounded by good secondary characters who are infinitely more interesting (and capable and smarter) than her. This makes her actions even more pointless and rash, throwing the whole thing off.

The love interest is bland and given no power. Even the impact of the villains are diminished by their trust in Kitty Doe. This is really a shame, because many of the secondary characters are so strong. In fact, the rebellion itself is strong. Sadly, even those characters in control of it question Kitty's involvement and the necessity to keep her involved. When they don't trust her, why should we as readers?

With a strong main character this book would have been amazing. As it is, it is marginal. Aimee Carter seems to be able to write a great story - but her main characters need work. This is a missed opportunity that is just a waste. The story is strong enough to warrant reading the last book in the series; hopefully Kitty Doe will have undergone a major personality change and be smart and responsible. Probably not, but we can always hope.

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