I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity to read this book!
I've had so much trouble putting this review into words for some reason, but two Windows corruptions later, here it is!
Once I finished reading The 100, I moved on to Day 21. I wasn't a fan of the first book, but having already requested the second one, I figured I would read it next to get it out of the way. Thankfully, Day 21 was a significant improvement over its predecessor. Going into the book knowing it focused a lot more on the romance then on the science fiction aspect helped a lot too, I suspect. :)
A bunch of new characters are introduced in this one, some of them from the original hundred. I liked that we got to know more of them, but it felt like since the narrators were already semi-familiar with them, the reader never got a real introduction to them. It felt like some new names were just thrown in, and that left me feeling really confused for a while. I kept wondering if I should remember the characters from the first book, haha. But it was really nice to be introduced to more of the hundred, especially because I was hoping they'd be more likable than the main characters.
Day 21 has the same structure as The 100, with three POVs on Earth and one on the Colony. While I still felt like this was too many, at least the reader knows the characters now, and in Day 21, we finally get some of the much-longed-for character development that was more or less absent in the first book, due to the fact that the reader gets very little time with each character. I still didn't really care for the main characters much, but it was still a pretty big improvement!
In terms of world-building, there is a bit of an improvement versus what readers got in the first book, at least on Earth, though I will still disappointed on the "savage Earth" front. One entire section of the ship still remains unexplored, though, so that was pretty underwhelming.
I honestly wasn't too enthralled with this book, but about 2/3 of the way through, things picked up quite a bit, to the point that I'm interested in checking out the third installment in the series at some point. I still haven't seen any of the TV show, but I'm considering it, since I've heard it's better than the books. Day 21was, despite its faults, a solid improvement over The 100, and I am happy that I am looking forward to learning where it's all going in book three.