In Bergstrom's sequel to The Cruelty (2017), Gwen gh-school student turned deadly spy living under an alias in Uruguay with her ex-CIA-agent father. She splits her time between uploading her father's damning account of CIA treachery to cloud storage sites in case he's killed, waiting tables, and drinking away her nightmares. It's a life of exhaustion and paranoia, but it's all Gwen has til her Israeli handler gives her a mission that would bring unlimited wealth and wreak vengeance on their enemies. Gwen hopes the reward will be starting over with a normal life, but instead she's forced to confront the hard truth: the darkness she's cultivated within herself is here to stay. Gwen is an effective antihero, a ruthless killer both honed for and longing to escape this cycle of espionage, treachery, and murder. The convoluted plot is compelling as a vehicle for her inner battle, which is given greater emphasis in this volume, but her emotional journey is still a sidebar to fast and furious violence, with a hopelessly grim conclusion.