Are You Even Human: Volume 2

Are You Even Human, Book 2

It is ever the nature of war to continue getting worse. The war Julietta remains stuck in is no exception.

Though more and more threats start showing glimpses of themselves behind the scenes, Julietta can't deal with them while she's busy with boot camp. Even so-called superheroes need to learn how to shoot a rifle and work with a team, but the length and brutality of the war have not been kind to the training camps. Worse, after she graduates, Julietta will be thrust immediately into battle. The colony currently occupying St. Louis has been chosen as the Army's next target, but as Julietta learns more of the alien language, she starts to have many questions about the true nature of this war.

Julietta needs to survive. She needs her family to survive. But which group is actually more of a danger to her: the alien invaders... or humanity itself?

©2025 Natalie Maher (P)2026 Podium Audio

No words.

I unfortunately lack the skill the express my complete thoughts in text form. This book truly pushes the boundaries of possibility in written form. What an insane story; in all the best and worst ways.

Winding Words Evoke Joy

Absolutely brilliant, the story continues to grow, the characters are excellent, the lore impactful. The next one going to be amazing

Another amazing horror

Just like many of the author work, I really enjoy, the action, horror and characters mental turmoil. Can't wait for more.

Great book series so far

This book and the previous one was fantastic. I am concerned if it will have issues in the last book as the last series (Biomorphs) took all my hopes and dreams and shredded them. This one is setting up to be great so far. My only concern is a conflict between lovers at the end of the book that seems to be one sided against the main character with even another character noting that they literally spent a month trying to figure out a way to resolve an issue, which the other character clearly knew they were going off to do. it's understandable to have some conflict and especially some bumps in a relationship, but it not only seems unreasonable, but that it was simply placed here to create unnecessary drama. Admittedly said character arguing has been dealing with lots of bad crap and may not be the happiest, but it seems they forgot lots of stuff and also basically misattributed the blame to their love, the one who has tried to help them since the crap hit the fan.

Good, but like, why?

In general, if you listened to and liked the first book, you'll like this one. it's generally written very well, with all the same great ups and downs.

There's really only two reasons I'm not giving it 5 stars. First, we run into the same problem as the first book, where so much time is spent with the main characters thoughts, that it feels as though the story completely stagnates at points. This bothers me less than other books, because it was 28 hours long, so having a collective few hours of nothing happening is less annoying than in a book only 12 hours long.

Second, the dating/relationship stuff, is kind of just annoying and I don't care about it. It's written well, and does fit into the story, but I'm kind of just getting tired of it NEEDING to exist in books. And, considering the substance of the rest of the book, it actually feels completely out of place. Like yeah, it does technically fit into the story the way it's written, but conceptually and tonally it doesn't. It's an interesting thought experiment on someone who was previously chemically ace, shape shifting into someone who isn't, but it didn't need to be there, which makes it feel forced. I generally don't care who you are or which way you swing, it doesn't affect me, but the whole "is a shape shifter and can be anyone" makes the whole relationship thing feel like forced inclusion in a book that otherwise handles similarly touchy topics extremely well. Does it realistically change the motivations/actions of our main character in any meaningful way? No.

It gets more annoying when you consider all of the other similar things in the book that are done better. Does the fact that the MC was previously disabled affect her motivations/actions? Yes, she frequently thinks/does things that a regular (for lack of a better word) person wouldn't, because of that. Does that fact that other characters are gay affect their motivations/actions throughout the story? Yes, that's like a whole thing in the first book, and most of how Emily got Christine to cooperate in the first incursion zone. But, if we take our MC and the whole crush thing going on there, almost the entirety of her actions would have been the same in this book if that wasn't a thing. She still would have considered that person either a friend, or a part of her family, and done exactly all of the same major actions throughout the book. That is a sign of bad writing, or at least, a sign that you wanted to force something into the story, without making it actually matter.

If it was something that genuinely affected the way the story progressed in any meaningful way, I genuinely wouldn't care about it being in this book. I like plenty of books with things like that, I'm not against it, just against it feeling forced. I would have, and have had, the same negative criticisms of other books doing things straight, and having it feel forced.

I think I'm just sick of the idea that "oh my MC HAS to have a relationship of some kind", and having it not be done well. It's genuinely as annoying as harem tropes.

I lost track of the point there for a bit, but TLDR; if you liked book one, you'll like this one. it's basically the same, but just, idk, more, which is generally a good thing.