Feels like a find-and-replace edition of the first book. Same cast of characters, same bizarrely bloody death scenes, same conflict between the main character’s father and his employer, same attachment of a baby version of the central monster. Just swap plesiosaur with utahraptor and add in stuff about mutations, and boom, you’ve got Raptor. 

It’s just not very good. Uta in particular seems to be misused. What at first seems a confident, strong, resourceful native girl quickly becomes just a shrieking, emotional, scared mess who has to be comforted by the white boy hero. Kind of a bummer. I saw someone compare it to a Syfy Channel movie(post SciFi Channel, RIP), and that feels very true.