Book two of the Stung series by Bethany Wiggins should be read after you’ve read book one, or some of the names, events and the overall concept will be lost. This time we see in Cured how it follows a character we had seen in book one but was not important to that story arc, the two main characters of book one, a few side characters from book one and a few new people. There are some mature themes such as an event happened to Jack/Jacqui (this is not a transgender story, but the female Jacqui must hide as a male for safety issues) before the current events could be a trigger moment. And there are a few things that seem to work within the story but are not exactly a good mentality for “outside” of the story/real life (there is a bit of fat shaming). Plus, one thing I was not completely on board with was that the character Jack (see above, but from here out will be known as Jack) is way too quick to fall in love (as was Fiona in book one).
Yet the story is an interesting idea of a virus (if you have issues with pandemic stories, please do not read), the chaos that ensued because it (a dystopian world that is the “have” and “have not” people, the raiders, the beasts, and the aftermath of everything. A few points are not addressed (spoiler: Inside the city there seems to be no changes even hinted at being made to the misogynistic nature it was run under). And other bumps and bruises along the way. The ending allows for both a closed end story, but also for a book three to happen.
It is not my favorite book, but not my least favorite. The science-fiction/reality/romance nature of the book will be an attraction for some readers.