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morgan_ryan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
5.0
blurrypetals's review against another edition
5.0
"Come together, leave together."
In 2015, when I first read the original trilogy and then again in 2017 when I re-read it, I never imagined we would get a full-blooded fourth book like this and then, when I did find out we were getting an actual real full sequel and follow-up to In the Afterlight, I got nervous. I was nervous that this was an effort to breathe life back into the series to cash in on the movie that was coming out the same week (of course I had this thought before The Darkest Minds and its box office numbers came through) and, since it wasn't going to be from Ruby's point of view, I didn't know how to feel about this, which is why it's taken me over two weeks to get to listening.
And the current verdict? Well, this book is oodles more fun than Never Fade and In the Afterlight put together and that might mean this book was better to me. I'm not certain about that, but I do know this breathed tons of new life into the established world and the characters we all know and love while also introducing a whole ton of great new stuff, not the least of which being Roman, the Russian cinnamon roll that could definitely kill you who has the most adorable and strange idioms and is definitely joining Liam and Chubs at the top of the Best Character roster, and Priyanka, whose personality is big and loud and weird and she's absolutely amazing. It actually took me a hot minute to warm up to Priyanka, but at a certain point I was delighting in how odd she was rather than cringing at and distrusting her for her quirks.
I really, really loved this and was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that the stakes still felt as though they were raised while some of the lightheartedness and road trips to save the world I've been starving for since finishing The Darkest Minds was able to return, blending those tones together seamlessly for the first time in what feels like a very, very long time.
I'm excited for the future of the series and intrigued to see where it takes us because, if this is anything to go off of, great things lie ahead.
In 2015, when I first read the original trilogy and then again in 2017 when I re-read it, I never imagined we would get a full-blooded fourth book like this and then, when I did find out we were getting an actual real full sequel and follow-up to In the Afterlight, I got nervous. I was nervous that this was an effort to breathe life back into the series to cash in on the movie that was coming out the same week (of course I had this thought before The Darkest Minds and its box office numbers came through) and, since it wasn't going to be from Ruby's point of view, I didn't know how to feel about this, which is why it's taken me over two weeks to get to listening.
And the current verdict? Well, this book is oodles more fun than Never Fade and In the Afterlight put together and that might mean this book was better to me. I'm not certain about that, but I do know this breathed tons of new life into the established world and the characters we all know and love while also introducing a whole ton of great new stuff, not the least of which being Roman, the Russian cinnamon roll that could definitely kill you who has the most adorable and strange idioms and is definitely joining Liam and Chubs at the top of the Best Character roster, and Priyanka, whose personality is big and loud and weird and she's absolutely amazing. It actually took me a hot minute to warm up to Priyanka, but at a certain point I was delighting in how odd she was rather than cringing at and distrusting her for her quirks.
Spoiler
I also really love their powers and what it means for the future of Psi. I thought the big reveal on it was spot on, too. Alex is very good at withholding things like that and then revealing them at just the right moment to pack the biggest punch.I really, really loved this and was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that the stakes still felt as though they were raised while some of the lightheartedness and road trips to save the world I've been starving for since finishing The Darkest Minds was able to return, blending those tones together seamlessly for the first time in what feels like a very, very long time.
I'm excited for the future of the series and intrigued to see where it takes us because, if this is anything to go off of, great things lie ahead.
bigfatfruitsalad's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
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
3.5
cls34's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
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
4.5
shes_book_obsessed's review against another edition
5.0
God, I’ve missed this so much!
It wasn’t ever boring and it kept me on the edge. I’m going to reread the series soon cause this was absolutely everything!
It wasn’t ever boring and it kept me on the edge. I’m going to reread the series soon cause this was absolutely everything!
abbyl819's review against another edition
4.0
The Suzume that is in this book is completely unrecognizable from herself in the original trilogy, and I haven’t decided yet if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I sometimes forgot that she was not a completely new character, but in reality we never really know much about her since she couldn’t talk and we didn’t get insight to her thoughts beforehand. I thought it was good that Liam and Ruby and the characters from the other books were barely in this one because it really helped develop Zu and the new characters without the familiar ones stealing the spotlight. I struggled to get into it, but once the action of the story actually started to get more intense, I really enjoyed it. One complaint that I have is the pacing of the passage of time in this book. It would take only a sentence or two for them to travel by car to another state whenever they went somewhere else, and they traveled a lot from Philadelphia to Georgia to Louisiana to Oklahoma and back to Philadelphia, but a single day at other times would last for many chapters. For as much as they travel in this book, I can understand why it wasn’t written to take a long time, but it really threw me off and threw off the pacing.
xxmelxx's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
glyounger's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0