Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Finale by Stephanie Garber

23 reviews

1_800_fuck_off's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

what a ride 
i can't really collect my thoughts right now nor do i have the energy to do so 
i'll come back once i've recuperated from this devastatingly draining book

- 
where should i start? 

first of all, the age difference bothered me so much once i realized how old tella was and that legend was.. who knows how old but definitely old enough to make their relationship creepy. of course, i understand there's many books that do this but that doesn't make it okay. 

secondly, there was a disgustingly, pathetic attempt at having some diversity in the characters' sexualities. "he doesn't like girls in that way" legend says something very similar to this to tella when she says something along the lines of "I like nice boys, like
caspar
" referring to
caspar
, a background side character. in fact, he is such a side character that the author has to remind the reader who he is and what relevant thing he did back in the first book. i strongly dislike when authors, especially cis, straight authors, try to do this thing where they make a whole book with only straight characters (which is fine) but then they try to throw in a little "let me add a queer character so it doesn't seem like i'm homophobic" or "let me add this queer character so i can get some ally points" and then makes the most irrelevant-to-the-story, forgettable character queer and it's only revealed way later and in one passing line like "he doesn't like girls that way" not even fully addressing it, just so passive about it. it just fucked me over. i felt so frustrated and disgusted i had to put the book down for a while to compose myself.

thirdly, what the fuck, legend? he is so consistent with the "do you want to collect your prize now?" question he asks tella
when he visits her dreams for /months/.
he is persistent when he finally tells her that the prize is
immortality so they can stay together forever just being obsessed with each other as immortals can't love.
when tella finally says yes he has the audacity to say "yknow what never mind lol" i understand his reasoning of you deserve better than that" but he's a fucking immortal i would assume he would have the mental capacity to have been able to think about that much earlier at some point in the months of practically begging her to
become immortal like him.

 
fourthly, scarlett and the fallen star. what.. what happened there? okay, so he's
her dad.
he's cruel,
he wants to practically take over the world with the rest of fates who are basically under his control, allowing them to do their cruel acts on mortals for their own pleasure.
okay, i get that. scarlett, tella, legend, and julian are trying to stop them with the help of
the assassin and the maiden death,
understandable. scarlett risks her life by trying to get
a vial of the fallen star's blood, temporarily kills him with the help of the lady prisoner and gets her head encased in a ruby prison or whatever as punishment. she risks changing the whole timeline and never getting back to this present one by going back in time to observe how her mother acted and steal a dress so she can deceive the fallen star that her mother was brought back by the assassin as a present to him. she breaks out of character for some dumb reason and guess what guys? she changes the whole character that is the fallen star with a powerful speech of friendship and magic.
okay, so maybe it wasn't friendship and magic, but it was definitely just as cringey as those are. i wouldn't have been bothered if it hadn't been so wrongly executed. it was bad timing and it seemed rushed. if the author had added at least 3 more pages to smoothly transition to it, to make it make sense, then it would have been fine. but one second the fallen star is about to
burn them alive and the next he's crying from how beautiful the paragraph long speech is, that somehow made him feel love again, and tella stabs and kills him.
it just didn't seem right to me. it felt rushed and wrong. the author went through great pains to make him the big antagonist by showing his cruel acts and in the end <spoilers>he turns good with a few words?</spoilers>i don't know, just seems kind of silly to me. 

fifth, that whole part with tella
being under the prince of hearts' emotional manipulation state
was annoying too. it was just put there to prove that her love for legend was stronger. i think it could have been executed better or should have been scrapped entirely. there's better ways to show how in love tella was with legend, imo. i thought it was just a bit of a waste.
 
sixth, i understand why the prince of hearts just disappeared after that event, as i assume it's to be explained in his series, once upon a broken heart, but it still kind of left a sort of disorienting feeling. like, the man didn't even say anything or was mentioned in a small way at all. he just ceased to exist. 

seventh, that whole thing with nicolas was confusing, too, and i think that could have been done better as well.
he was killed off so fast when we barely met him for like two pages.
he could have been a better character but he was clearly just put there to show how much scarlett loved julian. i'm seeing a pattern here now that i think about it. it's kind of frustrating. that whole thing where scarlet tried to put julian and nicolas against each other was a good incentive for something dramatic and exciting but it was cut so short and it was just a waste of a potential character development moment. 

I will say that julian and scarlett are cute together though. more because they're heavily portrayed as the soulmate, meant to be, kind of a couple where it's kind of hard to find flaws in their relationship other than it's kind of basic and an overwritten, cliche type of relationship. 

the only really positive feelings i have towards the couples in these books are under the influence of a love song i was listening to while i thought of julian and scarlett, legend and tella, which was 'everyone adores you (at least i do)' by matt maltese. i could imagine them with the song and it made me feel a bit better about the characters, so much so that i considered bumping my rating up to three whole stars. i still don't know if i'm going to. i'll give it another listen while thinking about the characters singing it to each other or just a cute romantic scene of them with the song playing in the background and see if it changes my heart. (damn, i just looked up fanart of the characters and it made my heart skip a beat.) anyways, yeah, i'll bump it to an at least 2.75 rating. 

all in all, i'm kind of scared of reading the 'once upon a broken heart' series because there were many instances where this series disappointed me and since the author miraculously made one of the characters my favorite, i don't want to be disappointed or feel negative emotions like annoyance or frustration toward him, or his love interest, so i really don't know. i usually feel compelled to read all the books of a book universe once i've started it but i'm greatly hesitant to do the same for this world. 

while i was ranting to my mother about this series she said "at least you feel something for it. that means it was good writing. books are supposed to make you feel something so if they do it's a job well done. even if they're mostly negative." and i kind of agree with that because i couldn't stop thinking about the world and the characters for a while. even if most of the thoughts i had about them were spurned from frustration, i felt something close to fondness for them. it's like when you see a pug. they're so ugly that they're cute, in a way. 

ultimately, i don't regret reading this series. i'm glad i gave it a chance. maybe with time i'll look back on it thinking of only the positive events that happened but, for now, i still feel a flush of irritation thinking about them lol. 

anyways. on to the next book.
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lynnloveshobi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

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emmacartlidge's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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cady_sass's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

This was disappointing. Messy and convoluted, confusing yet boring. I was kinda down for the love triangle, actually, but if you want to effectively close the triangle you can’t make me love the bad guy and then undo all the character work in one confusing chapter. Maybe that’s an unpopular opinion? The immediate swap from “bad guy goes good for love” to “just kidding he’s 100% evil” did NOT read. Meh. 
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piperplanes's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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dannilmp's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

After I found Legendary weaker in comparison to Caraval, I wasn't expecting much from Finale. I am glad to say I was pleasantly suprised. Following Scarlett and Tella in their biggest game to date, with the entire world and life as we know it at stake. Can they overcome their own weaknesses to combat something greater than both of them? 

While the start of this book may feel slower than the pacing of the previous two, it is worth perservering as the second half of the book (at least to me) felt that was where all the action was. The real beauty of this book is the bond that two sisters share and the extents they would go to in order to protect and defend each other. The cryptic mentions of almost and true endings was interesting, however I wish there was more
especially as I wanted to see the Almost Ending that The Lady Prisoner mentioned that Scarlett could have been heading for when she attempted to escape
 

Other than feeling very cringe like at some of Tella's actions and choices in the book, there was only one more section that unnerved me and while I will state the specific in the spoiler, it involves a relationship dynamic between two characters later in the book
I felt a little uncomfortable that Scarlett didn't even seem to bat an eyelid at the thought of trying to get Gavriel to love her as if she was her mother, I would have thought there would have been some repulsion or at least hesitance going about the plan
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anton13's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Amazing. Just the best way to end such an amazing trilogy. I’m kinda sad that it’s come to an end but so glad to have read it. These books have been like emotional support for me and I’m telling you it works. The twists and turns keep coming and despite having been worried at the end that it all wouldn’t be tied together the end was magnificent. I really recommend them to everyone.
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izzie_chamomilletea's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Of all the books in the Caraval trilogy, this one was my favorite. I was so happy that this book included the pov of both sisters, allowing for a more complete plot progression. This book actually made me like most all the characters, and was most fun to read.  It was a great way to wrap up the series. Filled with non stop adventure, new developments, and interesting characters, this book completes the series…. Almost. I love Legend but am also apart of Team Jacks so
What I’m saddest about is the ending Jacks got. I feel like he deserves something better and more complete. I understand if he doesn’t end up with Tella… but idk… I feel sad I wanted more then just “he was never seen again”.
he’s my favorite villain, he’s the one I love to hate(but mostly love). but I look forward to reading the prequel Once Upon A Broken Heart. Anyways slay this was good! If I were to rank the books I’d go 3>1>2. Sad this series is over and happy.. happy about something for sure. 

In my review for book 2(3⭐️), I wrote that I hoped things made more sense in the third book… they didn’t really. I do have some qualms with the writing (namely with what I feel is a misuse and overuse of metaphorical descriptions), but i was just reading this a fun read so me personally, I don’t really care.
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ssuummeerrn's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

Wait…hold on…do I have a new favorite series? 

Do I dare admit that this is my favorite series? 

Yes

Yes, I do believe that the Caraval series is my favorite.

I can’t wait to re-read this series again! The romance! The villains! The sisters! The magic! Everything about it was just *chefs kiss*. 

Can I touch on Scarlet’s and Tella’s relationship really quick? It reminded me so much of my relationship with my younger sister and maybe that is why I loved this book so much! “There is nothing quite so precious as the love of a sister” when I read that line I started to cry! The whole prologue of Finale is one of my favorite things I’ve ever read! 

Well done Stephanie Garber! Bravo! I need to order Once Upon a Broken Heart immediately! Her writing style and storytelling ability is amazing! But my favorite thing about these books were the descriptions! I have never seen so many unique adjective and such magnificent imagery. 

The descriptive parts might even be better than the exciting, action filled, plot driven scenes! 

No, that’s not true…but I loved every word, when in other books I often just skim the descriptive paragraphs. 

Ugh! I’m so sad this series is over!
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vaniavela's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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