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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Oh my gosh. This series has made it to the top of my favourites, and the final was not a let down. If I'm being honest, the dreams.. or genetic memories of 'Mara's' Grandma ruined the flow of the plot for me. I realise they were important as a part of the back story but they always appeared when things were really getting going.
This book, and series, broke my heart, had me soaring and then slammed me straight back down to earth. It was funny and creepy, with a nice amount of grimm for effect. I'm not happy it is over, but it was a near perfect ending, tied things up nicely and rounded back to the beginning of book one! I do have some questions, like, What is her real name? What happens in the future? Does she really love dear Noah to ruins!? I guess I might never know, but Michelle Hodkin is a genius. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, despite finishing the whole series in a matter of days!
This book, and series, broke my heart, had me soaring and then slammed me straight back down to earth. It was funny and creepy, with a nice amount of grimm for effect. I'm not happy it is over, but it was a near perfect ending, tied things up nicely and rounded back to the beginning of book one! I do have some questions, like, What is her real name? What happens in the future? Does she really love dear Noah to ruins!? I guess I might never know, but Michelle Hodkin is a genius. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, despite finishing the whole series in a matter of days!
This one was insane amounts of weird, confusing and morbid, even in comparison to the two earlier books.
I FREAKING LOVED IT.
I FREAKING LOVED IT.
4/5⭐️
honestly... I was disappointed. I simply did not care enough about Jamie and (I forgot her name). I did love it though when King Daniel showed up and was like "surprise, bitches!" all in all, it felt a little dragged on, and I feel like the conclusion wasn't even a conclusion. I know that Noah's books are next, and they continue on with the story, but COME ON, this is the final book in her trilogy, give me a little something! Yes, the ending was happy(ish), but really, I needed more. So many things were left unanswered, and I still have so many questions. Side note, though, I love that on the last page, she did her little thing and was like
honestly... I was disappointed.
Spoiler
where was Noah? huh? why was he missing for literally 340 pages of a 470-page book?Spoiler
"ayo, bitches, my lawyer told me I needed to choose a name, so here you go."
Okay, I'm nit going to write a full review for this book because I will probably be here all day.
However, I must say for 90% of the book I was confused. I felt the medical terms could have been explained much better because all it did for me was leave me more confused and with a headache. Also, I don't know if it was me but the actual reason why everything is happening was a little confusing too. I didn't understand half of what was going on.
And the ending just made me want to throw the book at the wall.
However, I must say for 90% of the book I was confused. I felt the medical terms could have been explained much better because all it did for me was leave me more confused and with a headache. Also, I don't know if it was me but the actual reason why everything is happening was a little confusing too. I didn't understand half of what was going on.
And the ending just made me want to throw the book at the wall.
no puede ser es el mejor libro que leí en mi vida no me voy a cansar nunca de releerlo, mara dyer te amo daría mi vida por vos reina
Lord, this sucked.
It's no secret that I've never been the biggest fan of this trilogy, but it always had potential brewing somewhere underneath the surface. The premise in the first two novels was actually fairly solid, but it was so bogged down by a stereotypically grating, YA-bating love story that it never reached fruition. The Evolution took a strange turn toward the end, revealing that all of the crazy events (i.e. Jude essentially coming back from the dead) that have occurred were not all in Mara's head (which would have made a better story) but were rather part of a larger scheme by Dr. Kells and company to keep all these teenagers (Mara, Noah, Jamie, etc.) that have special abilities under control. The ending was typical second-novel-in-a-trilogy, shocking-yet-predictable-cliffhanger fare, but I found myself invested enough to know the answers to the questions that have driven this series thus far.
Well, folks, there are no (worthwhile) answers to be found in The Retribution. I bring up this example a lot, but as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there's sometimes a need in a series' final volume to break up the artistic unity of the series and try something new. Taking Harry and gang outside of Hogwarts for the majority of that novel felt off-kilter in an effective way; in the case of this story, however, it was not. Any residual conflict from The Evolution is "handled" (ahem, killed off) within the first fifty pages, leaving Mara and friends to embark on a cross-country mission to find Noah, which takes up the bulk of this nearly-500-page novel and is tedious to say the least. Jamie essentially acts as a walking deus ex machina with his ability to persuade people to do his bidding, which makes the conflict of three escaped asylum patients getting caught feel much less urgent. So much of the rising action is a boring, 350-page blur of Mara, Jamie, and Stella wandering from hotel room to hotel room searching for answers to their condition, with random encounters with "bad" civilians randomly peppered in to, quite frankly, give Mara an excuse to kill people with her mind while still maintaining her image as a morally sound protagonist.
This leads to one of the main issues I have with this series: Mara is never held accountable for the horrible things she's done throughout this trilogy. It's easier to swallow when she keeps conveniently encountering conventionally Bad People - animal abusers, rapists, etc. - but as is typically revisited throughout this novel, her ability is getting uncontrollable. If Hodkin wanted to take a darker route with this series and make Mara a morally gray protagonist I would've been all for it, but she stays firmly planted on the Mary Sue pedestal. Ironically, she faces no retribution for anything she's done, nor do any of the other characters. Jamie seems to have some physical side effects from using his ability on others, but it never infringes on the plot; his character is always there to swoop in and cleanly wrap up any conflict before it begins.
The climax dissolves into a scene out of a soap opera, complete with characters pointing weapons at one another delivering long, ~dramatic~ monologues and then dying and miraculously coming back to life without any real sense of logic. Once we do finally get answers to some of the questions behind the mythology of this series, they're lackluster. As it usually does in YA paranormal romances, so much seems to hinge on this allegedly earth-moving love between Mara and Noah, but I've never been able to buy into them as a couple. The flashbacks to Mara's grandmother build some intrigue in the previous novel but failed to reveal anything worthwhile by the series' end (including... why Mara was having extremely detailed flashbacks about her grandmother's life...?). The answers we did get would've worked out so much better in a darker, fleshed-out series, but as is, they're shrouded under the guise of "Noah and I are so in love that everything will work itself out eventually," which felt like an aggravating cop out.
As Mara narrates in the novel's closing paragraphs, "This is a love story. Twisted and messy. Flawed and screwed up. But it's ours." Unfortunately, the love story was the weakest link of this trilogy, but it ended up being the only piece of its plot that reached a conclusion. Everything else got thrown to the wayside in half-baked resolutions.
It's no secret that I've never been the biggest fan of this trilogy, but it always had potential brewing somewhere underneath the surface. The premise in the first two novels was actually fairly solid, but it was so bogged down by a stereotypically grating, YA-bating love story that it never reached fruition. The Evolution took a strange turn toward the end, revealing that all of the crazy events (i.e. Jude essentially coming back from the dead) that have occurred were not all in Mara's head (which would have made a better story) but were rather part of a larger scheme by Dr. Kells and company to keep all these teenagers (Mara, Noah, Jamie, etc.) that have special abilities under control. The ending was typical second-novel-in-a-trilogy, shocking-yet-predictable-cliffhanger fare, but I found myself invested enough to know the answers to the questions that have driven this series thus far.
Well, folks, there are no (worthwhile) answers to be found in The Retribution. I bring up this example a lot, but as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, there's sometimes a need in a series' final volume to break up the artistic unity of the series and try something new. Taking Harry and gang outside of Hogwarts for the majority of that novel felt off-kilter in an effective way; in the case of this story, however, it was not. Any residual conflict from The Evolution is "handled" (ahem, killed off) within the first fifty pages, leaving Mara and friends to embark on a cross-country mission to find Noah, which takes up the bulk of this nearly-500-page novel and is tedious to say the least. Jamie essentially acts as a walking deus ex machina with his ability to persuade people to do his bidding, which makes the conflict of three escaped asylum patients getting caught feel much less urgent. So much of the rising action is a boring, 350-page blur of Mara, Jamie, and Stella wandering from hotel room to hotel room searching for answers to their condition, with random encounters with "bad" civilians randomly peppered in to, quite frankly, give Mara an excuse to kill people with her mind while still maintaining her image as a morally sound protagonist.
This leads to one of the main issues I have with this series: Mara is never held accountable for the horrible things she's done throughout this trilogy. It's easier to swallow when she keeps conveniently encountering conventionally Bad People - animal abusers, rapists, etc. - but as is typically revisited throughout this novel, her ability is getting uncontrollable. If Hodkin wanted to take a darker route with this series and make Mara a morally gray protagonist I would've been all for it, but she stays firmly planted on the Mary Sue pedestal. Ironically, she faces no retribution for anything she's done, nor do any of the other characters. Jamie seems to have some physical side effects from using his ability on others, but it never infringes on the plot; his character is always there to swoop in and cleanly wrap up any conflict before it begins.
The climax dissolves into a scene out of a soap opera, complete with characters pointing weapons at one another delivering long, ~dramatic~ monologues and then dying and miraculously coming back to life without any real sense of logic. Once we do finally get answers to some of the questions behind the mythology of this series, they're lackluster. As it usually does in YA paranormal romances, so much seems to hinge on this allegedly earth-moving love between Mara and Noah, but I've never been able to buy into them as a couple. The flashbacks to Mara's grandmother build some intrigue in the previous novel but failed to reveal anything worthwhile by the series' end (including... why Mara was having extremely detailed flashbacks about her grandmother's life...?). The answers we did get would've worked out so much better in a darker, fleshed-out series, but as is, they're shrouded under the guise of "Noah and I are so in love that everything will work itself out eventually," which felt like an aggravating cop out.
As Mara narrates in the novel's closing paragraphs, "This is a love story. Twisted and messy. Flawed and screwed up. But it's ours." Unfortunately, the love story was the weakest link of this trilogy, but it ended up being the only piece of its plot that reached a conclusion. Everything else got thrown to the wayside in half-baked resolutions.
I really like this series of books, they are all really strange and are borderline crazy. The main characters are all borderline crazy themselves so you find them doing unimaginable things and having zero regret about them. At first, when I started this book Mara was so different I couldn't really identity with this Mara from the Mara we read in the previous books. I was at a loss but then I realized that the author wants Mara to seem unhinged. She is changing, morphing into a new Mara but I never thought she would be scary? Sometimes I feel like her behavior goes a little far and it is hard to really see a character that can save herself and the boy she loves. She just seems scary. As for Noah, he is missing and then when we find him he seems like the same old person. He recounts that Mara has changed and seems to be ok with it, which, in its own way, is telling the reader that we should be ok with it too. I am curious to know how their relationship will pan out, I am curious as to why Noami wanted to give birth to a son and just die? Wouldn't some mothers have some kind of issue with that, how did Mara (Grandma) and the Professor convince her? The necklaces at the very end of the story were a bit strange to me, like all three (or four if Stella was there) were meant to get necklaces and if they don't wear them then they are choosing to be wards but if they put them on then what they get to go home and never speak to one another? Yeah see, I am confused. I did like the ending though and thought that Noah and Mara actually getting to be together was appropriate, if they couldn't be together then Noah should have lived on to cure humanity like he was supposed to.
I loved the first two books so so much, that reading this one felt a little disappointing. I wasn't given enough explanation on some "stuff" and I found it really different, it was like I wasn't reading the last book of a great trilogy at all.
Need to better think about my feelings about this.
Need to better think about my feelings about this.
The New Concepts of this series finale were too much for me...
Too much going on in one book in my opinion.
Too much going on in one book in my opinion.