Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Very dissapointing
This was a fun and light ending to the Alcatraz series, which ended so horrifically in the previous book. But I was disappointed, for two main reasons:
1. I love the end of Brandon Sanderson series because everything suddenly makes sense, and all kinds of random things prove to be part of a glittering whole. Here, at the end, I was still left with questions, like "Why did what Alcatraz do work?" and "How did Biblioden target only the Free Kingdoms?" and. Everything was left up in the air, and left me with a feeling of profound dissatisfaction.
2. Alcatraz's writing style makes him look smart, funny, and depressed. Bastille's writing style simply makes her look dumb as a plank, which is sooo not what I thought of her before.
A disappointing end to an entertaining series.
This was a fun and light ending to the Alcatraz series, which ended so horrifically in the previous book. But I was disappointed, for two main reasons:
1. I love the end of Brandon Sanderson series because everything suddenly makes sense, and all kinds of random things prove to be part of a glittering whole. Here, at the end, I was still left with questions, like "Why did what Alcatraz do work?" and "How did Biblioden target only the Free Kingdoms?" and
Spoiler
If Biblioden could target only the Free Kingdoms, why couldn't Alcatraz?2. Alcatraz's writing style makes him look smart, funny, and depressed. Bastille's writing style simply makes her look dumb as a plank, which is sooo not what I thought of her before.
A disappointing end to an entertaining series.
A good story to teach kids about grief and shame, albeit rather on the nose. I do think it makes things too easy.
The ending we deserved. I thought Bastille's narration was fun and believably Bastille, well also lending some nuance to her character. I wasn't sure how the co-authorship would play out, but this one felt perfectly in line with the rest of the series.
The conclusion to Alcatraz and Bastille's story! And it is... well, not perfect, but it is a satisfying conclusion.
This is the only book of the series with a shared authorship, and you can feel the difference in writing - which actually has an explanation in-world, since the book was written by Bastille. You can feel the difference in style, but I feel Janci did a wonderful work with the world and tone itself - the main difference here is on the change of main PoV character, and how much you like Bastille. While I like her well enough, I feel that by the end of the book, it kinda became a bit too much.
It's a good book, and if you liked the previous ones, you'll probably like this one a lot. It's good, just not the best of the series.
This is the only book of the series with a shared authorship, and you can feel the difference in writing - which actually has an explanation in-world, since the book was written by Bastille. You can feel the difference in style, but I feel Janci did a wonderful work with the world and tone itself - the main difference here is on the change of main PoV character, and how much you like Bastille. While I like her well enough, I feel that by the end of the book, it kinda became a bit too much.
It's a good book, and if you liked the previous ones, you'll probably like this one a lot. It's good, just not the best of the series.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
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
Three and a half stars.
I very much enjoyed the other Alcatraz books, and like many other people, was very excited about the note at the end of the fifth book. I'm not sure if it's the time I waited, or the plot, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others. I don't think it captures the humor of the other books as well, and while getting Bastille's POV is nice, I think we miss a lot of what gave the previous books their heart.
Nevertheless, I'm glad to finish out the series!
I very much enjoyed the other Alcatraz books, and like many other people, was very excited about the note at the end of the fifth book. I'm not sure if it's the time I waited, or the plot, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others. I don't think it captures the humor of the other books as well, and while getting Bastille's POV is nice, I think we miss a lot of what gave the previous books their heart.
Nevertheless, I'm glad to finish out the series!
I’m impressed that Brandon and Janci managed to find a balance of writing in Bastille’s voice but not straying too far from the tone of the earlier books in the series. Although, it isn’t quite as over-the-top constantly trying to be funny, so I imagine some people were disappointed with that. For me though, I wasn’t too bothered. I do think I might forget the plot of this series beore too long though - it was fun but nothing mind-blowing.
Worst part of the book: the unnecessary wedding/marriage (from an anti-fan of weddings perspective)
Worst part of the book: the unnecessary wedding/marriage (from an anti-fan of weddings perspective)
This was a solid ending for this series, that is much like the rest of the series - silly and ridiculous.
Literally nothing happened for 90% of the book. The only actual events occurred in the last 50 pages. Those last 50 pages though were good; I liked the endnotes. But unlike all the previous Alcatraz books, this one wasn’t funny. There were a few moments that I silently laughed but nothing compares to how funny the previous books were. Those had me laughing in every page.
I don’t like how Bastille is portrayed as “haha I stab things.” That’s just a surface level understanding of her character, and I expected more. Even when Alcatraz was the narrator, I felt like Bastille’s character was much deeper. Honestly in this book she just felt mean and dumb.
Plus much of the Alcatraz series is based on cleverness and subverting expectations of what could happen. This was not that. There was nothing clever about it. That thing with the Gak was the most boring and stupid thing I had ever read. All the clever usage of Talents were things that happened in previous books. They basically just solved everything by luck and it wasn’t gratifying in any way. Biblioden was defeated by just being eaten by a stupid Gak? Literally what is this.
And then there’s this abomination: NO CHAPTER INTRODUCTIONS. I’m pretty sure that there were only three or something, and THEY WEREN’T EVEN GOOD OR CLEVER IN ANY WAY. The rest of the chapters Bastille ‘makes excuses’ as to why she won’t write an introduction. Huh? Alcatraz always writes an introduction for each chapter, it’s one of the most important things about the series. It’s MY favorite thing about the series. The fact that they just brushed past that was so annoying and it made the book even less enjoyable.
The cast of characters was SEVERELY underused. It was just Bastille and Alcatraz for the majority of the book having the same conversation they had a hundred times. Where’s Leavenworth? Draulin? Sing Smedry? In the last book of a series one expects the characters that we have grown to know and love to make a meaningful appearance and help solve the problem. And let me not speak about Alcatraz’s mom… um actually I will. There was so much foreshadowing in the previous books about how important she is/if she cares about Alcatraz/her general character. She always shows up in every book. There’s supposed to be some kind of conversation or resolution between her and Alcatraz in this book, to tie up the ends of the series. But NO! She is just mentioned in passing.
The illustrations were pretty as always but I felt like they were too dark in this one and there was something strange about them. Like the characters look like themselves but there’s just something wrong and I can’t pinpoint what it is.
Anyways this book was pretty boring and not that funny, but the ending was cute. I’m gonna miss my babies Alcatraz and Bastille<3 Can’t believe I don’t have any more Alcatraz books to read. Oh well. I guess I can reread the first 5 books again.
I don’t like how Bastille is portrayed as “haha I stab things.” That’s just a surface level understanding of her character, and I expected more. Even when Alcatraz was the narrator, I felt like Bastille’s character was much deeper. Honestly in this book she just felt mean and dumb.
Plus much of the Alcatraz series is based on cleverness and subverting expectations of what could happen. This was not that. There was nothing clever about it. That thing with the Gak was the most boring and stupid thing I had ever read. All the clever usage of Talents were things that happened in previous books. They basically just solved everything by luck and it wasn’t gratifying in any way. Biblioden was defeated by just being eaten by a stupid Gak? Literally what is this.
And then there’s this abomination: NO CHAPTER INTRODUCTIONS. I’m pretty sure that there were only three or something, and THEY WEREN’T EVEN GOOD OR CLEVER IN ANY WAY. The rest of the chapters Bastille ‘makes excuses’ as to why she won’t write an introduction. Huh? Alcatraz always writes an introduction for each chapter, it’s one of the most important things about the series. It’s MY favorite thing about the series. The fact that they just brushed past that was so annoying and it made the book even less enjoyable.
The cast of characters was SEVERELY underused. It was just Bastille and Alcatraz for the majority of the book having the same conversation they had a hundred times. Where’s Leavenworth? Draulin? Sing Smedry? In the last book of a series one expects the characters that we have grown to know and love to make a meaningful appearance and help solve the problem. And let me not speak about Alcatraz’s mom… um actually I will. There was so much foreshadowing in the previous books about how important she is/if she cares about Alcatraz/her general character. She always shows up in every book. There’s supposed to be some kind of conversation or resolution between her and Alcatraz in this book, to tie up the ends of the series. But NO! She is just mentioned in passing.
The illustrations were pretty as always but I felt like they were too dark in this one and there was something strange about them. Like the characters look like themselves but there’s just something wrong and I can’t pinpoint what it is.
Anyways this book was pretty boring and not that funny, but the ending was cute. I’m gonna miss my babies Alcatraz and Bastille<3 Can’t believe I don’t have any more Alcatraz books to read. Oh well. I guess I can reread the first 5 books again.