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sam_hartwig's review against another edition
5.0
What a perfect ending to a perfect series! I have fallen for these characters, I feel like starting all over again because I don't want to say goodbye. There were almost tears, lots of breaths held, butterflies swimming around in my stomach and plenty of smiles.
Froi & Quintana, Isaboe & Finnikin, Lucien & Phaedra are couples to look up to and admire for all different reasons. Love them all!!
This has been one of the best series I've listened to on Audiobook because the narrator helped bring everything to life and help my imagination run wild.
I want everyone to read this! It deserves so much more than 'other' series out there that people have read and think are great ::cough twilight cough::
It always amazes me how Melina Marchetta can write about people and their lives in a way that digs deep into your heart and wedges itself in there forever.
I feel complete now...sigh...
Froi & Quintana, Isaboe & Finnikin, Lucien & Phaedra are couples to look up to and admire for all different reasons. Love them all!!
This has been one of the best series I've listened to on Audiobook because the narrator helped bring everything to life and help my imagination run wild.
I want everyone to read this! It deserves so much more than 'other' series out there that people have read and think are great ::cough twilight cough::
It always amazes me how Melina Marchetta can write about people and their lives in a way that digs deep into your heart and wedges itself in there forever.
I feel complete now...sigh...
bookdevouringmisfit's review against another edition
5.0
A+++++ to the whole series and Melina Marchetta. I hold these books so deeply in my heart and there is nothing more that I want in this world than to reread these books over and over again for the rest of my life. Excuse me for being sentimental. I believe I have the right to be since I just spent hours sobbing over this story and its characters. Never will I be ready to depart from the wonder that is the Lumateran Chronicles.
andiemags53's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic 3rd and final book. So sad to see it end, but what a beautiful ending! Loved it!
alicebme's review against another edition
5.0
So good! So intricate, yet I fell right back into the characters, even after all that time. Every thread was rich with story, and I never found myself wishing Marchetta had followed a character more or less than she did. I love this world she's created. Beautifully resolved.
halynah's review against another edition
5.0
OUTSTANDING ending of the trilogy! That's the best high fantasy I've ever read! Perfection in every aspect! Melina Marchetta is a pure genius!!!!!!!!!!!!
yuzujam's review against another edition
5.0
I LOVED it.
I JUST finished this one. Before I start reading what others' thought, I will say this. I started the series a few days ago and then read nonstop, not looking ever at goodreads. Usually, I am quite critical, and probably after a while I may start being so, but... these books just enraptured me, captured me, and reduced me into a mere captivated spectator of the plot unfolding. It never occurred to me to criticize anything. Well okay a few parts, but only a few for all three books!
The first book was so good, I could not put it down and immediately went to the second and then the third. I loved how the author took the time to wrap up everything well. Not just tie the loose ends, but tie them prettily in ribbons if you like.
Probably it's personal tastes, but I loved it. This third one especially. Thank you for all the pleasure that this book gave me in reading it. It was so incredibly enjoyable to keep reading this book, this series... enough for me to reread the series over again now.
-083113 120pm
I JUST finished this one. Before I start reading what others' thought, I will say this. I started the series a few days ago and then read nonstop, not looking ever at goodreads. Usually, I am quite critical, and probably after a while I may start being so, but... these books just enraptured me, captured me, and reduced me into a mere captivated spectator of the plot unfolding. It never occurred to me to criticize anything. Well okay a few parts, but only a few for all three books!
The first book was so good, I could not put it down and immediately went to the second and then the third. I loved how the author took the time to wrap up everything well. Not just tie the loose ends, but tie them prettily in ribbons if you like.
Probably it's personal tastes, but I loved it. This third one especially. Thank you for all the pleasure that this book gave me in reading it. It was so incredibly enjoyable to keep reading this book, this series... enough for me to reread the series over again now.
-083113 120pm
alanahay's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
renuked's review against another edition
5.0
This series has been a true roller-coaster. It was going up and down, upside down, and the end was nearly impossible to see. Over the course of this book, dozens and dozens of characters were introduced, and their stories were so entwined that it was almost impossible for the book to have any sort of happy ending.
I first met the majority of characters in Finnikin of the Rock, and it was impossible not to love all of them and just want them all to be happy. When I learned that there would be a sequel I was thrilled. When I learned it was told from the point of Froi I was a little put out, but by the end the book completely changed my mind. I NEEDED to get hold of Quintana of Charyn. I had fallen in love with a completely new set of characters and it looked like they were being pitted against each other.
It was stressful.
Honestly, it looked as if they would all end up killing each other, or never finding their true loves and it was just awful. But Melina Marchetta is some kind of fantasy book goddess and managed to wrap it up. When books say they're satisfying they're usually wrong, but this one was deep, complex, confusing, at times humorous, at other times (the majority of the book actually) heartbreaking, and very very satisfying.
The countries of Charyn and Lumatere will forever be making repairs after the years of struggle they went through, and there will always be problems with neighboring countries, but I loved these broken lands with a passion fueled by the inhabitants. Each inhabitant had a story (usually a painful terrible story) and they created the overall story of their nation.
The story wasn't always pretty, it showcased some ugly sides of human nature, it addressed mature topics such as rape and genocide. It forced you to put every inch of your soul into the book and care so much that you thought you would self-implode at times. And that's what makes it one of the best series I've read.
I first met the majority of characters in Finnikin of the Rock, and it was impossible not to love all of them and just want them all to be happy. When I learned that there would be a sequel I was thrilled. When I learned it was told from the point of Froi I was a little put out, but by the end the book completely changed my mind. I NEEDED to get hold of Quintana of Charyn. I had fallen in love with a completely new set of characters and it looked like they were being pitted against each other.
It was stressful.
Honestly, it looked as if they would all end up killing each other, or never finding their true loves and it was just awful. But Melina Marchetta is some kind of fantasy book goddess and managed to wrap it up. When books say they're satisfying they're usually wrong, but this one was deep, complex, confusing, at times humorous, at other times (the majority of the book actually) heartbreaking, and very very satisfying.
The countries of Charyn and Lumatere will forever be making repairs after the years of struggle they went through, and there will always be problems with neighboring countries, but I loved these broken lands with a passion fueled by the inhabitants. Each inhabitant had a story (usually a painful terrible story) and they created the overall story of their nation.
The story wasn't always pretty, it showcased some ugly sides of human nature, it addressed mature topics such as rape and genocide. It forced you to put every inch of your soul into the book and care so much that you thought you would self-implode at times. And that's what makes it one of the best series I've read.
stephxsu's review against another edition
4.0
How do you follow up perfection? It’s usually impossible—but this is Melina Marchetta we’re talking about, and she can do anything she wants to when it comes to writing. Still, when she actually managed to write a second book in a trilogy that was so astoundingly amazing, it was going to be a hard one to follow up for sure. While QUINTANA OF CHARYN didn’t do it for me as [b:Froi of the Exiles|10165727|Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles, #2)|Melina Marchetta|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1306866851s/10165727.jpg|15064442] did, it was still an overall satisfying ending to one of the most emotionally draining and ambitious YA fantasy series in recent publishing history.
QUINTANA OF CHARYN made me think for the first time in this series of why I like these characters when most of them can be so horrible, to themselves and to one another. Because in this installment, I think I was removed enough from their situations to be appalled at how they talked to and treated one another. If they were real, they’d be given restraining orders. We’d think they are off their rockers. We’d hiss in their faces about how they should be ashamed of themselves, about how saying you’d be willing to destroy yourself and others out of your love for her is more scary than romantic. Marchetta’s characters often seem like they’re acting out a dangerous dramatization of romance, one that borders on mentally abusive.
So how come Marchetta gets away with writing arguably abusive characters that we (hopefully) intelligent readers support fiercely, when we’re the ones who skewer portrayals of abusive characters as love interests in YA fiction? I don’t know. I’ve been turning this over and over in my head ever since I finished reading, and I still haven’t figured out why I’m okay with loving Froi, Quintana, Lucian, Isaboe, and the others, when in any other circumstance I would’ve condemned the sympathetic portrayal of such characters. Is it because I sympathize with their horrifying childhoods and feel that their experiences explain the way they interact with one another? (But the children of abusive upbringings can grow up to be positive role models.) Is it because they are good with no one except the few that they love with all their broken hearts? Possibly. Quite possibly that.
Reading what I’ve written, this probably doesn’t qualify as an actual review, more like my musings on my confusion over my feelings for the book. Stylistically and emotionally, QUINTANA was a lot like [b:Froi of the Exiles|10165727|Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles, #2)|Melina Marchetta|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1306866851s/10165727.jpg|15064442] for me: in the beginning I was frustrated with how unlikable so many of the characters were, and in the last hundred pages I was tearing up at every sentence on the page. While it didn’t have that Punch for me as FROI did, it’s still Melina Marchetta. It’s still the Lumatere Chronicles. It is so worth reading and falling for.
QUINTANA OF CHARYN made me think for the first time in this series of why I like these characters when most of them can be so horrible, to themselves and to one another. Because in this installment, I think I was removed enough from their situations to be appalled at how they talked to and treated one another. If they were real, they’d be given restraining orders. We’d think they are off their rockers. We’d hiss in their faces about how they should be ashamed of themselves, about how saying you’d be willing to destroy yourself and others out of your love for her is more scary than romantic. Marchetta’s characters often seem like they’re acting out a dangerous dramatization of romance, one that borders on mentally abusive.
So how come Marchetta gets away with writing arguably abusive characters that we (hopefully) intelligent readers support fiercely, when we’re the ones who skewer portrayals of abusive characters as love interests in YA fiction? I don’t know. I’ve been turning this over and over in my head ever since I finished reading, and I still haven’t figured out why I’m okay with loving Froi, Quintana, Lucian, Isaboe, and the others, when in any other circumstance I would’ve condemned the sympathetic portrayal of such characters. Is it because I sympathize with their horrifying childhoods and feel that their experiences explain the way they interact with one another? (But the children of abusive upbringings can grow up to be positive role models.) Is it because they are good with no one except the few that they love with all their broken hearts? Possibly. Quite possibly that.
Reading what I’ve written, this probably doesn’t qualify as an actual review, more like my musings on my confusion over my feelings for the book. Stylistically and emotionally, QUINTANA was a lot like [b:Froi of the Exiles|10165727|Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles, #2)|Melina Marchetta|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1306866851s/10165727.jpg|15064442] for me: in the beginning I was frustrated with how unlikable so many of the characters were, and in the last hundred pages I was tearing up at every sentence on the page. While it didn’t have that Punch for me as FROI did, it’s still Melina Marchetta. It’s still the Lumatere Chronicles. It is so worth reading and falling for.