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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Compared to rest of the series, this book felt super rushed. I was slightly confused throughout most of the book and a few of the events in the book that were meant to “hit you” didn’t land fully (for various reasons).
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a disappointment.
This book gets three stars because it wasn't bad. But it wasn't what I wanted for the conclusion of a series.
It truly hurts to write these words, especially coming up on the 7 year anniversary of me finding this book, but this was not what I was hoping for from this series.
I had an inkling that this was gonna be bad when my mom got me this book and began reading it herself. She loved it - and wasn't confused at all, which doesn't make sense when you know that this is the conclusion of a trilogy. Reading it confirmed my worries; this book has almost nothing to do with the original duology and didn't resolve most of the plot points I wanted to see resolved.
First of all - Oya now is in storms? Something never before discussed until this book? Checks out for Adeyemi not knowing where she was going and retconning something.
Second of all - we're getting other countries and their magic involved? Kay, why were they never even mentioned before this book? Another instance of convenient retconning
Third, the reason I loved this series was because it was all about black people and characters. The magic, the setting, the villains, the heroes - all represented black fantasy and fiction. Now, we've got a white villain who is literally putting black people in cages - AND trying to get brown people in those cages as well. Fantasy should hold a mirror to the real world, but it should also provide some escape and this slammed me too close to home as a woman who have been seeing Mexican children being put in cages in the real world. Now I get to see it - and horrible body mutilation - done to black bodies in a book where I did not expect it.
I honestly think that Adeyemi wrote herself into a corner in the second book. She made the titans and the magi hate each other so much that she couldn't figure out how to make them work together. So she created an outside force that would force them to work together, but it didn't work. It would've been better if this book was a timeskip - Zelie became queen, but Orisha was still at war over the past 20 years. An outside force takes advantage of it and the kingdom finally is put together.
Also Inan's death was stupid and I hated it but that's personal bc he was my favorite character
If you read this book without the first two, it's decent. I liked seeing more of Tzain, the other magical world was really cool with a different magic system, and I enjoyed how fast paced this story was. As a conclusion to a series that I've been reading since 2018, this was disappointing and didn't answer the major questions I had - how was Orisha going to thrive when not everyone is a magi? Bardugo, in the Shadow and Bone series, has a somewhat similar world building issue and I really liked how it was discussed in her series and wish that Adeyemi took time to figure it out and write it out for this series. She had the time but I'm not sure what she was doing with it.
contains violence, torture, magic, romance, gay characters
This book gets three stars because it wasn't bad. But it wasn't what I wanted for the conclusion of a series.
It truly hurts to write these words, especially coming up on the 7 year anniversary of me finding this book, but this was not what I was hoping for from this series.
I had an inkling that this was gonna be bad when my mom got me this book and began reading it herself. She loved it - and wasn't confused at all, which doesn't make sense when you know that this is the conclusion of a trilogy. Reading it confirmed my worries; this book has almost nothing to do with the original duology and didn't resolve most of the plot points I wanted to see resolved.
First of all - Oya now is in storms? Something never before discussed until this book? Checks out for Adeyemi not knowing where she was going and retconning something.
Second of all - we're getting other countries and their magic involved? Kay, why were they never even mentioned before this book? Another instance of convenient retconning
Third, the reason I loved this series was because it was all about black people and characters. The magic, the setting, the villains, the heroes - all represented black fantasy and fiction. Now, we've got a white villain who is literally putting black people in cages - AND trying to get brown people in those cages as well. Fantasy should hold a mirror to the real world, but it should also provide some escape and this slammed me too close to home as a woman who have been seeing Mexican children being put in cages in the real world. Now I get to see it - and horrible body mutilation - done to black bodies in a book where I did not expect it.
I honestly think that Adeyemi wrote herself into a corner in the second book. She made the titans and the magi hate each other so much that she couldn't figure out how to make them work together. So she created an outside force that would force them to work together, but it didn't work. It would've been better if this book was a timeskip - Zelie became queen, but Orisha was still at war over the past 20 years. An outside force takes advantage of it and the kingdom finally is put together.
Also
If you read this book without the first two, it's decent. I liked seeing more of Tzain, the other magical world was really cool with a different magic system, and I enjoyed how fast paced this story was. As a conclusion to a series that I've been reading since 2018, this was disappointing and didn't answer the major questions I had - how was Orisha going to thrive when not everyone is a magi? Bardugo, in the Shadow and Bone series, has a somewhat similar world building issue and I really liked how it was discussed in her series and wish that Adeyemi took time to figure it out and write it out for this series. She had the time but I'm not sure what she was doing with it.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Culminating in an explosive ending. The Children of Anguish and Anarchy brings readers into the final chapter in a gut wrenching story about what it takes to survive when you’ve already given everything
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated