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agnesgailx's review
2.0
Eh. I really, really struggled with this book. I had to skip entire paragraphs just to get through it. How disappointing.
I did not like who Mara had become. What she has been through does not justify anything that she did. And how she thought over and over that she would make whoever took Noah from her pay? Wow, talk about desperate. There are other factors in this world, little lovesick girl, get that through your head.
This book, overall, was just ridiculous. I absolutely loved the first book in this series. I think I liked the second book more in my head that I actually did. But this last one just fell waaaay low.
I did not like who Mara had become.
Spoiler
Good on you, Stella, for leaving the group. Who does Mara think she is? Oh I really hate this person, I think I'll kim him.This book, overall, was just ridiculous. I absolutely loved the first book in this series. I think I liked the second book more in my head that I actually did. But this last one just fell waaaay low.
sklus's review
3.0
So, I think I like the first half of the book better than I did the first two books. Then, it got kind of boring towards the end. People were dying and coming back to life left and right. It's a bit overdone. The book could have ended about 13 chapters earlier and it would have been a more compelling ending.
I'm not a big fan of the characters in this series either. I'm only really a fan of the side characters. Mara just bugs me; she has absolutely no redeeming qualities. Noah was even worse at times. Like he says all the right "romantic boy" phrases which are probably why he's a fav, but his self-destructive nature while simultaneously being perfect. He and Mara's characterization make me wonder whether this book is a positive mental health representation. Most books don't cover mental health at all, so this book is a step up in one regard. My issue comes with the fact that .
I'm not a big fan of the characters in this series either. I'm only really a fan of the side characters. Mara just bugs me; she has absolutely no redeeming qualities.
Spoiler
She murders several people, only a few of them for good reason. She is selfish and super murder-y, which isn't my favorite traits when it comes to characters.Spoiler
health issues are part of their "powers." So it's more of a character quirk. It disappears for most of the characters after their powers become complete. I also dislike how mental health workers are the evils one in this.babytaytayx's review
5.0
Tropes/ TW: young adult, mystery, romance, opposites attract, mentions of suicide, self harm thoughts
Mara is looking for Noah and answers with Jamie. Jamie is hilariously inappropriate.
People put pressures on on this group of kids and treat them like less of a being. The audacity. I really enjoyed the mystery. Loved Mara’s villain arc! I support women’s wrongs a majority of the time
Mara is looking for Noah and answers with Jamie. Jamie is hilariously inappropriate.
People put pressures on on this group of kids and treat them like less of a being. The audacity. I really enjoyed the mystery. Loved Mara’s villain arc! I support women’s wrongs a majority of the time
kendalliskiwii's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
abbyl819's review
4.0
I loved this series so much! I do think that this book is the weakest one in the series though. There were so many of the memories of the past that I thought it interrupted the story more than it added to it. I really didn’t like how frequent they were. This part of the series also got weirder than it has been before, and I’m not sure what I think about that yet. The characters got put in a lot of impossible situations, and I wasn’t even sure most of the time that what I wanted them to do. The first book starts with a sentence that has plagued me since then, but it all comes full circle at the very end of this book and ends with that same sentence and I am shook. I can hardly comprehend it because it is such a good way to end it. It completely blew my mind.
akookieforyou's review
2.0
*2.5*
“I love you. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If I were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.”
The best thing about this whole book? Noah Shaw. And he was only in roughly 150 pages. That is greatly upsetting to me. I'll be honest, this book didn't compare to the other two, a key element that made them so exciting and fun was just gone from this one. A lot of the characters felt really weird and off at times to me, and Mara was just plain irritating most of the time. I actually liked her for the most part in the other ones, in this one she acted like a murderous robot the entire time. I can kinda see what the author was going for, but you end up losing all sympathy for a character when they act like the devil the entire time. The only reason I didn't give this book just two stars was because of Noah, and how near the end I got a taste of the story that I signed up for, not this strange mess.
P.S. That cover is gorgeous!!!
“I love you. Today. Tonight. Tomorrow. Forever. If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If I were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.”
The best thing about this whole book? Noah Shaw. And he was only in roughly 150 pages. That is greatly upsetting to me. I'll be honest, this book didn't compare to the other two, a key element that made them so exciting and fun was just gone from this one. A lot of the characters felt really weird and off at times to me, and Mara was just plain irritating most of the time. I actually liked her for the most part in the other ones, in this one she acted like a murderous robot the entire time. I can kinda see what the author was going for, but you end up losing all sympathy for a character when they act like the devil the entire time. The only reason I didn't give this book just two stars was because of Noah, and how near the end I got a taste of the story that I signed up for, not this strange mess.
P.S. That cover is gorgeous!!!
zoekatetrezise's review
4.0
Finally the third and final book!!!!
Let me just say I LOOVVEEEDDD this book and I don't think I've ever been more satisfied with an ending. I really like the whole writing a book thing that mara had going on that linked back to the very start of Unbecoming. I was really confused as to how Michelle was going to put that in the third book and she did it so well!!!
I found that in Retribution I loved the flash-backs to her grandmothers life even more than I did in Evolution. It really added to the story and gave a clear cut explanation to all the powers that Noah, Mara, Jamie, Jude etc have. It was also nicely used to break up Mara's story and tie in a bunch of loose ends, like the note in the doll Noah and Mara burned and how Mara's grandmother killed herself.
My only problem with this book? NOT ENOUGH NOAH. My favourite parts of the book were when he and Mara were interacting. I get why he wasn't in it (for suspense, make us think he's actually dead blah blah blah) but like c'mon.
Once again Daniel was the best brother one could imagine. The rest of Mara's family were pretty absent in this book, but I didn't really mind because THEY SENT TO HER A CRAZY ASS ISLAND?!?! Like her mother got on my nerves so much....
Anyhow I liked how at least someone besides Stella, Jamie and Mara were trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
So Mara became a tad murderous in Retribution and I found that I didn't exactly mind... In fact I kind of liked it. It was like she for the first time was strong and on the offence, she wasn't taking any crap. And she only ever really did it in self defense. Like the man who helps Kells was going to die anyway, she just sped up the process. One might even call it a mercy killing. Dr Kells needed to rot in hell. Off topic for a bit but THE EXPERIMENTING ON TWINS AND KILLING THEM?!?! I didn't see that coming. Anyway back on point and then there was the crazy serial killer. Once again he needed to go. And this was a bit ambiguous but I'm pretty sure she also killed that one nice cop that stopped to hear was Jamie was saying in the warehouse.
Speaking if warehouses PLOT TWIST Noah's father was behind the whole thing. I always thought that guy was sketchy but I certainly wasn't expecting him to do that.
J. U. D. E. Well isn't he just a bag full of happiness. It dawns on us in this book that he was probably the one to kill Claire and Rachel, not Mara. He's still psycho as sh*t. I can understand why now at least because once he was normal until he was experimented on. I quite enjoyed how he changed and started helping Mara, even if it only was because he wanted to kill himself but couldn't because only she could.
The death thingy for Mara and Noah for some weird reason reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. But like the Baz Lurmann film version. At least in this one they live.
The ending was so great, like so incredibly great. We didn't get all the answers in the world but enough that we're happy. Everything that needed to be answered was.
Let me just say I LOOVVEEEDDD this book and I don't think I've ever been more satisfied with an ending. I really like the whole writing a book thing that mara had going on that linked back to the very start of Unbecoming. I was really confused as to how Michelle was going to put that in the third book and she did it so well!!!
I found that in Retribution I loved the flash-backs to her grandmothers life even more than I did in Evolution. It really added to the story and gave a clear cut explanation to all the powers that Noah, Mara, Jamie, Jude etc have. It was also nicely used to break up Mara's story and tie in a bunch of loose ends, like the note in the doll Noah and Mara burned and how Mara's grandmother killed herself.
My only problem with this book? NOT ENOUGH NOAH. My favourite parts of the book were when he and Mara were interacting. I get why he wasn't in it (for suspense, make us think he's actually dead blah blah blah) but like c'mon.
Once again Daniel was the best brother one could imagine. The rest of Mara's family were pretty absent in this book, but I didn't really mind because THEY SENT TO HER A CRAZY ASS ISLAND?!?! Like her mother got on my nerves so much....
Anyhow I liked how at least someone besides Stella, Jamie and Mara were trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
So Mara became a tad murderous in Retribution and I found that I didn't exactly mind... In fact I kind of liked it. It was like she for the first time was strong and on the offence, she wasn't taking any crap. And she only ever really did it in self defense. Like the man who helps Kells was going to die anyway, she just sped up the process. One might even call it a mercy killing. Dr Kells needed to rot in hell. Off topic for a bit but THE EXPERIMENTING ON TWINS AND KILLING THEM?!?! I didn't see that coming. Anyway back on point and then there was the crazy serial killer. Once again he needed to go. And this was a bit ambiguous but I'm pretty sure she also killed that one nice cop that stopped to hear was Jamie was saying in the warehouse.
Speaking if warehouses PLOT TWIST Noah's father was behind the whole thing. I always thought that guy was sketchy but I certainly wasn't expecting him to do that.
J. U. D. E. Well isn't he just a bag full of happiness. It dawns on us in this book that he was probably the one to kill Claire and Rachel, not Mara. He's still psycho as sh*t. I can understand why now at least because once he was normal until he was experimented on. I quite enjoyed how he changed and started helping Mara, even if it only was because he wanted to kill himself but couldn't because only she could.
The death thingy for Mara and Noah for some weird reason reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. But like the Baz Lurmann film version. At least in this one they live.
The ending was so great, like so incredibly great. We didn't get all the answers in the world but enough that we're happy. Everything that needed to be answered was.