Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - Defiant

Final book in a series that I absolutely loved. Spensa, Doomslug, and Mbot are some of my favorite characters of all time.

I have to say though, the first third of this book was suuuuuper slow. It seemed to be this attempt at character development for Spensa with her warring feelings of needing to do things on her own and not wanting to hurt or leave behind those she loves. Great in theory, but the execution was just like SO obvious and redundant. Way to much time spent on Spensa's inner thoughts.

The last half of the book though kicked ass. So fast paced, so fun. I loved the ending. Made me cry so that's a win.

SPOILER INCOMING:

MUSHROOM BOT?!?! I LOVE IT.

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bergha1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I’m not going to lie this one took me a bit to get into. I don’t know if it was because it’s been awhile since I read the first three books in the series, but this one just dragged in the first 1/2 for me. After the 1/2 way point I really enjoyed it.

Coming of Age, Romance Subplots

“I don’t think most people want to do what’s right. That’s what makes doing the right thing noble. It’s a conscious choice. A hard one. If it were easy, why would we respect it so much?”

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aileron's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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katrinarose's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-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

4.0

A really solid conclusion to this series! I love the growth Spensa has had since book one, it really shows in a believable way in this book. There are several really emotional and wholesome moments that feel a liiiittle corny, but I’m not gonna lie, it did make me emotional. I think the climax was well done and the ending satisfying. The first third of the book felt a bit slow and like not much was happening, but I still flew through it, and the second half was a blaze of action. I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading the next series in this world since Brandon Sanderson won’t be the primary author, but I am intrigued!

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frozenjedi's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book a wild ride. Honestly this whole series is, in the best way possible.

The characters are easily the best part, I love all of them. Even Brade as a villain, she was so interesting.
Spensa's growth from who she was before to who she is now was compelling to read (even though she was very frustrating in the first part).
You could see how much Spensa, Jorgen, and the others have grown and it was great experiencing their character arcs that spanned over the past several books. It definitely got me in the feels lol

I was on the edge of my seat pretty much the entire time reading this (with the exception of the middle part, which did slow things down, but fortunately everything kicked off after that).

Even nearing the end of book, I wasn't sure how it was going to end (which admittedly made me nervous it wouldn't be satisfying) but I was wrong.

The series ended pretty perfectly, a very satisfying ending, while still leaving a few loose minor mysteries to pick up in the sequel series (which I'm excited for after the epilogue!).

Anyway, if you've never read Skyward I definitely recommend to read this series. It's one of my favorites of all time :)

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readwithria's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What a conclusion!

Defiant was the last book in the Skyward series, and it took the story and characters we know and love and put them to the test. There are so many things about this book that I love, and while I will try my best to avoid spoilers I can’t guarantee that the lost below will be 100% spoiler free for the other book pls in the series

Things I loved
🛰️ getting the flight back together! I wish we had spent more time with them, because Skyward Flight is one of my favorite parts of this series
🛰️ SLUGS (iykyk)
🛰️ new POVs from characters we know and love, plus characters we love to hate
🛰️ big growth from Spensa
🛰️ Hesho, M-Bot, and Doomslug
🛰️ themes of loneliness, war, and sacrifice
🛰️ FM in the epilogue! Great! I loved it, and loved her

There were a couple things that kept this from being a 5 star book, here’s what I wish were a little different
💫 another 5-10 pages in the last action sequence would have been great. It wrapped up really quickly, and I wanted more resolution
💫 y’all we already know this, but romance is not Brandon Sanderson’s strength. I can’t be the only person who thinks the relationship between Spensa and Jorgan is a little underdeveloped, right? It feels like I missed a lot of it
💫 the amount of times Spensa thought about how a piece of information would be important if she could figure out what it meant. I don’t know why, but that felt so silly to me 😂

All in all I’m so pleased with how this series ended. If you haven’t started the Skyward series you should do it asap! 4 stars

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