Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
My physical copy of the book won't arrive until next Monday, so I've made do with the Kindle version for now. I've been looking forward to this book since preorders were announced last year. In some ways the book lived up to the hype; in other ways, I was disappointed.
After spending so many books in this series as a doormat, Sophie has finally snapped. She spends a lot of the book yelling at people to do something, simmering with anger, and wanting to commit bodily harm on someone at least once. It is beautiful. She is so done with everything and everyone and I only wonder what took so long.
Highlights include:
- Internally wanting to, in her words, sucker-punch Fitz
- Expressing a desire to destroy all the gifts Fitz gave her
- Threatening Forkle while attempting to contact her
- Leaves a message to Forkle threatening to fill his office with an undesirable substance if he doesn't answer her attempts at communication
- Thinks of an undesirable substance the moment Fitz enters her mind
Seeing Sophie stand up to everyone and to Fitz--even acknowledging that she still resented what he said to her during Exile and throughout the rest of the series--was so cathartic. She spent so much of the series being led around by the nose, having things happen to her and not being able to do anything to stop them. I loved seeing her argue with the other characters, berate them for just letting Keefe run off into another dangerous situation, and in general point out everything they've been doing wrong and how little progress they've made.
In regards to Fitz, I appreciated that his behavior and its effects on Sophie were addressed. I never cared for him (in the first book he just seemed full of himself and that never got any better) but here it seems he's actually acknowledging some of what he did wrong. There was surprisingly little of Keefe in this book, but I didn't mind as that gave the other characters some breathing room. When he finally did show up again, and when he and Sophie confessed their feelings to each other, I was pleasantly surprised. It felt like less of a love triangle situation and more of a 'I need to come to terms with these new feelings while grappling with the sense of grief over my relationship with Fitz imploding' sort of vibe from Sophie.
Sadly, we don't get a Keefe and Ro reunion, which I would've liked seeing as they've clearly become close friends. Ro and Sophie's interactions were amazing and I loved seeing Ro egg Sophie on and tease her, but also give her some pretty solid advice and helping her cope with everything falling apart around her. Them having sleepovers and Ro teaching Sophie about bonding with a weapon was really sweet.
There's also a sense that the plot is finally progressing. We finally learn the motivation of several characters. Some plot points are finally explained. Most notably, towards the end of the book, they finally find Cyrah's missing starstone. They need this in order to go to Elysian, a hidden place with a secret power source that is either heavily implied or outright stated to unlock the hidden potential of elves (I'm not sure on this one, but I read all 732 pages in a single day so my brain is fried).
We learn that Elysian is the villains' attempt at a human sanctuary, and that the power source inside of it is powerful, dangerous, and has something to do with Gisela's plans for Keefe. My best guess is that Keefe's legacy is probably to brainwash humans into going to Elysian, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.
At this point in the series, with only one book left to go, I just a clear cut explanation for what Gisela is doing. There are still a ton of questions I have that haven't been answered: why haven't the elves' war crimes in Atlantis been addressed? What is the significance of the humans Gisela killed in London, and why did she send Keefe to deliver a letter to them? What other information is hidden in Sophie's mind? What else is hidden in the caches?
We get dozens of pages of conversations, where the characters are sitting and standing around arguing and waffling around what they should be doing, while much more interesting things are happening off screen. I would've liked to see what Ro did in Ravagog! Or how Marella interacted with Fintan and the discussions they could've had about pyrokinetics! Or Keefe's adventures in the human world! There's a throwaway line that he made friends while hiding out. Are we not going to address that? So much is happening in this book, and even its 732 pages (at least in the Kindle edition, we'll see about it when my hardcover gets here) didn't feel like enough. I was honestly so bummed out when I reached the end of it, I was in the zone. I couldn't tear my eyes away from my Kindle.
It kicks me how there was this big build-up to Keefe running away, but halfway through he just comes back to the Lost Cities no problem. At least this time it didn't feel like returning to the status quo--but he makes some comments about how gross human water is and like. Come on. We're still doing this? The characters still haven't changed their attitudes about humans, even after learning about the human experimentation and meeting Amy and I just. For Christ's sake.
The big thing with Sophie is how living with humans gave her a unique perspective on the world, but she's the only one whose perspective has changed. The bodyguards have a somewhat positive reaction to the idea of imprisoning all of humanity in one place, because, uh, holy shit? These are characters we're supposed to root for and sympathize with. And then you have them saying that a human prison is somewhat reasonable, or what human food/water is gross and that it's all polluted, etc., etc.
I don't understand. Sophie mentions at one point that they need to expose the truth about the Nightfall facility and is immediately shut down. Forkle makes a half-assed attempt at defending humans when, keep in mind, this is the same character who implanted an elven embryo into Emma Foster without her knowing it was an elf or that the resulting child would be taken away from her. The same character who cited Twinkies of all things as a reason that humans don't deserve elven medical technology when he and other members of the Black Swan have seen their suffering firsthand.
In the first book there was clearly some sort of attempt at making this an important plot point, that changing the elven attitude towards humans was a big step in bringing progress to the Lost Cities, but then the series got bloated with so many other plot points that it can't get the attention it deserves.
After spending so many books in this series as a doormat, Sophie has finally snapped. She spends a lot of the book yelling at people to do something, simmering with anger, and wanting to commit bodily harm on someone at least once. It is beautiful. She is so done with everything and everyone and I only wonder what took so long.
Highlights include:
- Internally wanting to, in her words, sucker-punch Fitz
- Expressing a desire to destroy all the gifts Fitz gave her
- Threatening Forkle while attempting to contact her
- Leaves a message to Forkle threatening to fill his office with an undesirable substance if he doesn't answer her attempts at communication
- Thinks of an undesirable substance the moment Fitz enters her mind
Seeing Sophie stand up to everyone and to Fitz--even acknowledging that she still resented what he said to her during Exile and throughout the rest of the series--was so cathartic. She spent so much of the series being led around by the nose, having things happen to her and not being able to do anything to stop them. I loved seeing her argue with the other characters, berate them for just letting Keefe run off into another dangerous situation, and in general point out everything they've been doing wrong and how little progress they've made.
In regards to Fitz, I appreciated that his behavior and its effects on Sophie were addressed. I never cared for him (in the first book he just seemed full of himself and that never got any better) but here it seems he's actually acknowledging some of what he did wrong. There was surprisingly little of Keefe in this book, but I didn't mind as that gave the other characters some breathing room. When he finally did show up again, and when he and Sophie confessed their feelings to each other, I was pleasantly surprised. It felt like less of a love triangle situation and more of a 'I need to come to terms with these new feelings while grappling with the sense of grief over my relationship with Fitz imploding' sort of vibe from Sophie.
Sadly, we don't get a Keefe and Ro reunion, which I would've liked seeing as they've clearly become close friends. Ro and Sophie's interactions were amazing and I loved seeing Ro egg Sophie on and tease her, but also give her some pretty solid advice and helping her cope with everything falling apart around her. Them having sleepovers and Ro teaching Sophie about bonding with a weapon was really sweet.
There's also a sense that the plot is finally progressing. We finally learn the motivation of several characters. Some plot points are finally explained. Most notably, towards the end of the book, they finally find Cyrah's missing starstone. They need this in order to go to Elysian, a hidden place with a secret power source that is either heavily implied or outright stated to unlock the hidden potential of elves (I'm not sure on this one, but I read all 732 pages in a single day so my brain is fried).
We learn that Elysian is the villains' attempt at a human sanctuary, and that the power source inside of it is powerful, dangerous, and has something to do with Gisela's plans for Keefe. My best guess is that Keefe's legacy is probably to brainwash humans into going to Elysian, but I'm not a hundred percent sure.
At this point in the series, with only one book left to go, I just a clear cut explanation for what Gisela is doing. There are still a ton of questions I have that haven't been answered: why haven't the elves' war crimes in Atlantis been addressed? What is the significance of the humans Gisela killed in London, and why did she send Keefe to deliver a letter to them? What other information is hidden in Sophie's mind? What else is hidden in the caches?
We get dozens of pages of conversations, where the characters are sitting and standing around arguing and waffling around what they should be doing, while much more interesting things are happening off screen. I would've liked to see what Ro did in Ravagog! Or how Marella interacted with Fintan and the discussions they could've had about pyrokinetics! Or Keefe's adventures in the human world! There's a throwaway line that he made friends while hiding out. Are we not going to address that? So much is happening in this book, and even its 732 pages (at least in the Kindle edition, we'll see about it when my hardcover gets here) didn't feel like enough. I was honestly so bummed out when I reached the end of it, I was in the zone. I couldn't tear my eyes away from my Kindle.
It kicks me how there was this big build-up to Keefe running away, but halfway through he just comes back to the Lost Cities no problem. At least this time it didn't feel like returning to the status quo--but he makes some comments about how gross human water is and like. Come on. We're still doing this? The characters still haven't changed their attitudes about humans, even after learning about the human experimentation and meeting Amy and I just. For Christ's sake.
The big thing with Sophie is how living with humans gave her a unique perspective on the world, but she's the only one whose perspective has changed. The bodyguards have a somewhat positive reaction to the idea of imprisoning all of humanity in one place, because, uh, holy shit? These are characters we're supposed to root for and sympathize with. And then you have them saying that a human prison is somewhat reasonable, or what human food/water is gross and that it's all polluted, etc., etc.
I don't understand. Sophie mentions at one point that they need to expose the truth about the Nightfall facility and is immediately shut down. Forkle makes a half-assed attempt at defending humans when, keep in mind, this is the same character who implanted an elven embryo into Emma Foster without her knowing it was an elf or that the resulting child would be taken away from her. The same character who cited Twinkies of all things as a reason that humans don't deserve elven medical technology when he and other members of the Black Swan have seen their suffering firsthand.
In the first book there was clearly some sort of attempt at making this an important plot point, that changing the elven attitude towards humans was a big step in bringing progress to the Lost Cities, but then the series got bloated with so many other plot points that it can't get the attention it deserves.
adventurous
mysterious
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:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
I was going to rate this a 3, because it was just dragging on with nothing happening. I'd say it's a 3.5, so I'm rounding up. Also, I can hardly stand the teenage angst anymore. But the book got better, and I appreciated that Sophie finally was honest about her feelings, and then of course, the annoying cliffhanger. Sigh. When will this be done??
adventurous
medium-paced
The award of the most evilest author goes to: ... Shannon Messenger! I love this series so much. This book was fine, but I think everyone would have given it a 4 or 3 if there was no chapter 42. I was reading bad reviews about the series and realized some things. But I'm warning you it might change your view on the series... Okay, for starters people say the series starts to drag, but no one says why. It's because she keeps adding mysteries and never solves them. What I mean by mysteries is things they're focused on. One second she focused on finding who her biological parents are the next second opening caches. That's just one I can think of right at this moment, but my guess is that she wants to make it interesting and then realizes that she doesn't know how to solve said problem, so she makes a new one to focus on. That's what it feels like. I also want to touch on one thing, people have also said the she is racist. They say that because she only describes people of color or Tam and Linh. I don't think this is true. I think she finally realized she needs to describe characters, by the time she introduces those characters she learned to describe characters more. I don't know about you, but I thought Keefe looked like Fitz untell a friend corrected me. Though that could have been a reading error on my count. All in All I think this series is good for elementary aged kids, but as you get older you start to see the flaws it has. Team Foster-Keefe! (How could anyone be on team fitz?)
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
adventurous
emotional
tense
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
A lot of moments that felt repetitive, but in ways that felt intentional. The characters and readers equally frustrated at lack of progress. Great emotional moments.
2.5 ⭐
Ich tu mich schwer eine Bewertung für ein Buch zu schreiben , wo ich ganz offensichtlich nicht die Zielgruppe bin. Dennoch bin ich der Meinung, dass auch Kinder dieses dicke Buch zum Großteil langweilig finden.
3/4 des Buches war Geschwafel, nichts ist passiert. Sophie und ihre Freunde diskutieren einfach alles zu Tode und selbst dann passiert einfach nichts. Die reihe ist meiner Meinung nach mittlerweile einfach nur unnötig in die Länge gezogen worden, hier hätte viel früher eine Ende kommen müssen.
Ich tu mich schwer eine Bewertung für ein Buch zu schreiben , wo ich ganz offensichtlich nicht die Zielgruppe bin. Dennoch bin ich der Meinung, dass auch Kinder dieses dicke Buch zum Großteil langweilig finden.
3/4 des Buches war Geschwafel, nichts ist passiert. Sophie und ihre Freunde diskutieren einfach alles zu Tode und selbst dann passiert einfach nichts. Die reihe ist meiner Meinung nach mittlerweile einfach nur unnötig in die Länge gezogen worden, hier hätte viel früher eine Ende kommen müssen.