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4.38 AVERAGE
4.38 AVERAGE
Hold on tight, it’s a long book! But overall, I didn’t really feel like it felt too long. There were parts that seemed a little slow but overall I never noticed it feeling overly slow or long. The multiple POVs really help keep the story flowing.
Who knew that Thorne would end up being my favorite character!
I also loved the relationship between Jason and Winter. It felt a little bit like someone being in love with someone with mental or physical illness and it was a beautiful picture of love seeing beyond that and truly caring for them. Overall such a great end to a great series. I’ll miss these characters for sure.
Who knew that Thorne would end up being my favorite character!
I also loved the relationship between Jason and Winter. It felt a little bit like someone being in love with someone with mental or physical illness and it was a beautiful picture of love seeing beyond that and truly caring for them. Overall such a great end to a great series. I’ll miss these characters for sure.
I was looking forward to this book a lot. I loved the three books that preceded it. I even enjoyed the novellas and short stories a lot, although they're not really my thing. Unfortunately, this conclusion was a bit of a disappointment. I still enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I had been expecting. I had thought I would breeze through this in days, unable to put it down, like I had with the other books.
That didn't happen. Instead, I took almost a week to read it. It was still fun, don't get me wrong. I love the characters and I was happy to read the conclusion to their story. But this book has a pretty serious pacing problem. It is almost 300 pages longer than the book prior to it, Cress. That's a big jump, and the book suffers for it. There's a lot of action, but somehow the book still feels slow.
I think that the biggest contributing factor to the pacing is the sheer number of perspectives that this book contains. Winter. Jacin. Cinder. Kai. Iko. Levana. Scarlet. Wolf. Cress. Thorne. No sooner do you get into a character's story, then you're hopping into someone else's mind. It gets tiring, and it makes the scenes drag. I wish that Marissa Meyer had chosen to stick more closely to Winter and Jacin, as this is their book. I think it would have allowed the narrative to be tighter and the story to be more intense. It's hard to worry about what's happening to characters when you know exactly where they were and what they were thinking 10 pages ago. Also, I thought Winter and Jacin were both excellent characters, and I just didn't feel like we got to spend enough time with them.
I also had a few misgivings about the treatment of Levana through the book.because she wasn't beautiful. Like, how dare she pretend to be this beautiful woman, when she's really this ugly creature? I know that Cinder explicitly said that the burns weren't the problem, but there was probably a 100 page stretch where I still felt that uncomfortable undertone.
That said, I did enjoy the book. I think it was a worthy conclusion to the series. I liked the ending. I love the characters and I'm so glad to see how things were able to work out for them, especially Cinder. I had incredibly high expectations for this book, so it's not too shocking that it fell a little short. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future works from Meyer. I really like her style, and I look forward to seeing how she will continue to develop it in the future.
That didn't happen. Instead, I took almost a week to read it. It was still fun, don't get me wrong. I love the characters and I was happy to read the conclusion to their story. But this book has a pretty serious pacing problem. It is almost 300 pages longer than the book prior to it, Cress. That's a big jump, and the book suffers for it. There's a lot of action, but somehow the book still feels slow.
I think that the biggest contributing factor to the pacing is the sheer number of perspectives that this book contains. Winter. Jacin. Cinder. Kai. Iko. Levana. Scarlet. Wolf. Cress. Thorne. No sooner do you get into a character's story, then you're hopping into someone else's mind. It gets tiring, and it makes the scenes drag. I wish that Marissa Meyer had chosen to stick more closely to Winter and Jacin, as this is their book. I think it would have allowed the narrative to be tighter and the story to be more intense. It's hard to worry about what's happening to characters when you know exactly where they were and what they were thinking 10 pages ago. Also, I thought Winter and Jacin were both excellent characters, and I just didn't feel like we got to spend enough time with them.
I also had a few misgivings about the treatment of Levana through the book.
Spoiler
I was kind of disturbed by the reactions to Levana's unglamoured form. I can understand horror as a reaction. Levana's severely burned, and the contrast to the beauty of her glamour is huge. But at the same time, I felt like there was a weird undertone of hate for herThat said, I did enjoy the book. I think it was a worthy conclusion to the series. I liked the ending. I love the characters and I'm so glad to see how things were able to work out for them, especially Cinder. I had incredibly high expectations for this book, so it's not too shocking that it fell a little short. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future works from Meyer. I really like her style, and I look forward to seeing how she will continue to develop it in the future.
I absolutely love this series. I really do. The characters, the plot, the humor, all of it. This was my second reread and I listened via audio book and enjoyed every minute. Is this a deep make you think book? Nope, but it’s adventure and fun and found family and everything I love in a book.
Too much blood and fighting for my taste...and so drawn out!
One of my goals this year was to start and finish a full series. I chose this one because it was all available at the local library and it was YA so I thought it would be easy. Plus, fairytales. Haha! I wish. This final book was SO long. 680 pages on my e-reader. Too long, in my opinion, and full of too much faffing and padding. While I enjoyed the earlier novels of the series as silly fun, this book just draaagged. It felt like the author turned away from the silly fun of earlier books and suddenly tried to turn serious at the end.
My other problem was that EACH book had to push a romance between the title character and someone else. After the 3rd or 4th time this happened, it grew frustrating, and felt somewhat contrived and forced. Each character seemed so unconfident in their own romance/part/worthiness even when it was obvious that it grew frustrating and boring.
Also - why didn't the evil queen just kill them? I went back and checked, and EVERY single character at some point had been caught and imprisoned in some way by her during the series and they always seemed to get away - and easily enough too. For an evil queen not afraid of blood and cruelty with a love of control, she was really, really bad at keeping control of a clutch of fairytale characters.
Anyway, if the book had been half the length I may have liked it, but it just took too long to read. This is always my issue with series' - my interest wanes in them as the number of books grow. Hence why I rarely finish a series. Hence my goal to finally finish one. But hey, I did it! I still think that Cinder/Book 1 was the best. (given my reading patterns, not a surprise at all....)
My other problem was that EACH book had to push a romance between the title character and someone else. After the 3rd or 4th time this happened, it grew frustrating, and felt somewhat contrived and forced. Each character seemed so unconfident in their own romance/part/worthiness even when it was obvious that it grew frustrating and boring.
Also - why didn't the evil queen just kill them? I went back and checked, and EVERY single character at some point had been caught and imprisoned in some way by her during the series and they always seemed to get away - and easily enough too. For an evil queen not afraid of blood and cruelty with a love of control, she was really, really bad at keeping control of a clutch of fairytale characters.
Anyway, if the book had been half the length I may have liked it, but it just took too long to read. This is always my issue with series' - my interest wanes in them as the number of books grow. Hence why I rarely finish a series. Hence my goal to finally finish one. But hey, I did it! I still think that Cinder/Book 1 was the best. (given my reading patterns, not a surprise at all....)
Une super clôture pour cette saga que j'ai adorée !
Si je lui mets 4 étoiles, c'est parce que ce tome était peut-être un peu long, certaines intrigues auraient pu être raccourcies, et les agissements de certains personnages manquaient de logique à mes yeux. Mais ce fut malgré cela un plaisir d'enfin découvrir le dénouement de cette histoire, et je lirai probablement le préquel Levana.
Si je lui mets 4 étoiles, c'est parce que ce tome était peut-être un peu long, certaines intrigues auraient pu être raccourcies, et les agissements de certains personnages manquaient de logique à mes yeux. Mais ce fut malgré cela un plaisir d'enfin découvrir le dénouement de cette histoire, et je lirai probablement le préquel Levana.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
This is such a great series- and this was a great final book. Love.
This was truly amazing. Full review- http://wp.me/p4LMeC-l0