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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
ARE.YOU.KIDDING.ME. This is a very sweet ending to a wonderful series, but I'm not sold on the ending. We all knew something was going to happen with the timeline but a complete erase?! And no one remembers except Kelsea? I suppose there is something refreshingly hopeful in this so I will praise it for that, but still not completely in.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
While the ending wasn't what I expected, it also didn't surprise me, if that makes sense? But I actually think the ending was perfect overall.
Not sure how I feel about the ending...didn't love it, didn't hate it. I really enjoyed the rest of the book, Katie's story in particular, and the writing was engaging. This is a unique world and I'm glad I decided to stick with this series. I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this author in the future.
An altogether fantastic series, which tackles some very relevant topics, from feminism to fear-based religion, human trafficking to the duality and fluidity of good vs. evil. This series is awesome. UNTIL THAT LAST CHAPTER. Seriously, the last chapter has the power to ruin it all. I give the entire series a 4 star rating, but the final chapter gets no stars.
1.4 ☆
So actually wanted to give this book something around the 2.5 mark because it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either and certainly better than the 2nd, but then the ending happened.
[EDIT]
Okaaaay, I promised an in-depth review of the series as a whole and this is what you’re gonna get!
Spoilers will be littered throughout the review. (Also I'm not a native speaker, so that may or may not have influenced my opinion).
For starters, a quick disclaimer in case anyone reads this except my like..two friends:
If you liked the series, then please keep on doing your thing. That’s fine.
I’m mostly trying to dissect why I disliked it so much.
While there were some minor grievances I had with the book (like parts of the writing, the lack of research on part of the author, non-sensical world-building, pandering to the reader, the constant time jumps, etc.), my biggest gripe can be summoned up in the fact that my expectations weren’t met at all. Neither the plot, nor the characters delivered what the book promised me and I feel so-fucking-cheated.
I was basically tricked into reading a dystopia. There was absolutely no foreshadowing, no explanation, you basically find out halfway through the 1st book, that this is, in fact, a dystopia. I did not sign up for this. I’ve had it up to ⇡⇡⇡⇡⇡ here with dystopias. Sheesh.
But I have to say, I was somewhat intrigued by that time. And the stakes were super high and I was interested to see how the characters would solve this mess. Spoilers:
Which brings me to
THE CHARACTERS
Kelsea
So this hurt the most because I actually liked her no-bullshit attitude in the first book. It was good to see a character taking the reigns immediately and not having to get over her fears and insecurities first for a change. In the end I desperately wanted to strangle her.
The book constantly tells you how intelligent and cunning she is, other characters talk about her in awe, she’s such a good leader, bla, bla. Not ONCE in the series does she make a meaningful, intelligent decision (save for stopping the shipment maybe), she’s brash, loud, aggressive, takes on the church and the nobles (and let’s be honest in the real world she wouldn’t have lasted a month without their support) and whatever she does is reactionary and due to her temper. She never formulates a plan to deal with the Red Queen, until the very end of the second book, and that basically consists of handing herself over.
In the first book she is described a ‘plain’ over and over again. She keeps going on about her appearance, grappling with the the fact that she isn’t beautiful and, instead of finally coming to the conclusion that - I don't know - Queen Elizabeth I. wasn’t exactly pretty either and still managed to rule her kingdom, she is magically magicked into being beautiful. Wow. Alright. I guess that’ll send the right message.
And I’m not even gonna go into all the hysterical shit that entails.
(I’M PRETTY - THIS ISN’T ME - WHY DID YOU CALL ME PRETTY NOW AND NOT BEFORE - WAS I NOT PRETTY BEFORE?? - YOU’RE MY PERSONAL BODYGUARD WHY WON’T YOU SLEEP WITH ME AM I NOT PRETTY ENOUGH????)
Then there’s this whole “Queen of Spades” business, which I just found cringeworthy. She did some messed up stuff, but no it wasn’t actually her, some evil necklace made her do it. Again, her agency is taken away and all forms of character development or responsibility with it.
The Red Queen
The first book promised me a headstrong, cruel, morally oblivious ruler who would stop at nothing to keep her kingdom in check. We were told she encouraged rape and slaughter in the first raid, her most trusted general is a pedophile and she basically installed a continent-wide slave trade.
What I got in the end was a weak woman begging for Kelsea to save her and then begging for her to kill her.
And what’s worse, Kelsea actually sympathises with her because ‘she had a bad childhood’ and ‘she used to be ugly too’. I am fucking insulted I had to read this bullshit.
And that’s just the two main characters.
THE GODDAMN STUPID SAPPHIRES
I don’t even know where to start. It makes no sense and I have so many questions.
So like…does every sapphire have these properties? Then there must be more necklaces, no? Where does this magic even come from? Does it come from Kelsea or the stones? Are they a catalyst? Why can only she use them? I thought only Tear-heirs can use them? Then how was Katie able to curse her former friends? She’s not a Tear, right? Or was she? Because if she had been that would have been fucked up. Is there anything these things can’t do? Why not crack down on the Red Queen’s army if she has all that power? So the Red Queen can pull up shields strong enough to shield her soldiers from Kelsea’s magic, but not strong enough to keep some vampire child from eating her??? How did Tear open that portal thing in the first place? They say he warped time or something, but I though only the crown could do that?? Johansen, pls explain.
THE POLITICS
To start this off, I want to say I am not religious and I wouldn’t touch anything even related to organised religion with a ten feet pole.
But even I was put off by how Johansen portrait religion in this book.
Yes we get it, the church is corrupt, but do you honestly think killing one man spewing hate in the name of god would automatically create an utopia? In many countries in Europe religion and state are strictly separated and still they find reasons to go at each other’s throats. Then it’s ‘for the security of the state’ and not ‘because god said so’, but it basically boils down to the same.
THE ENDING
That ending. THAT ENDING. That’s just the icing on this steaming pile of shit cake.
I’m royally done with this series.
And all of that doesn't even scrape the surface, but I think I already wasted enough of my time on this series.
So actually wanted to give this book something around the 2.5 mark because it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either and certainly better than the 2nd, but then the ending happened.
[EDIT]
Okaaaay, I promised an in-depth review of the series as a whole and this is what you’re gonna get!
Spoilers will be littered throughout the review. (Also I'm not a native speaker, so that may or may not have influenced my opinion).
For starters, a quick disclaimer in case anyone reads this except my like..two friends:
If you liked the series, then please keep on doing your thing. That’s fine.
I’m mostly trying to dissect why I disliked it so much.
While there were some minor grievances I had with the book (like parts of the writing, the lack of research on part of the author, non-sensical world-building, pandering to the reader, the constant time jumps, etc.), my biggest gripe can be summoned up in the fact that my expectations weren’t met at all. Neither the plot, nor the characters delivered what the book promised me and I feel so-fucking-cheated.
I was basically tricked into reading a dystopia. There was absolutely no foreshadowing, no explanation, you basically find out halfway through the 1st book, that this is, in fact, a dystopia. I did not sign up for this. I’ve had it up to ⇡⇡⇡⇡⇡ here with dystopias. Sheesh.
But I have to say, I was somewhat intrigued by that time. And the stakes were super high and I was interested to see how the characters would solve this mess. Spoilers:
Spoiler
They didn’t.Which brings me to
THE CHARACTERS
Kelsea
So this hurt the most because I actually liked her no-bullshit attitude in the first book. It was good to see a character taking the reigns immediately and not having to get over her fears and insecurities first for a change. In the end I desperately wanted to strangle her.
The book constantly tells you how intelligent and cunning she is, other characters talk about her in awe, she’s such a good leader, bla, bla. Not ONCE in the series does she make a meaningful, intelligent decision (save for stopping the shipment maybe), she’s brash, loud, aggressive, takes on the church and the nobles (and let’s be honest in the real world she wouldn’t have lasted a month without their support) and whatever she does is reactionary and due to her temper. She never formulates a plan to deal with the Red Queen, until the very end of the second book, and that basically consists of handing herself over.
In the first book she is described a ‘plain’ over and over again. She keeps going on about her appearance, grappling with the the fact that she isn’t beautiful and, instead of finally coming to the conclusion that - I don't know - Queen Elizabeth I. wasn’t exactly pretty either and still managed to rule her kingdom, she is magically magicked into being beautiful. Wow. Alright. I guess that’ll send the right message.
And I’m not even gonna go into all the hysterical shit that entails.
(I’M PRETTY - THIS ISN’T ME - WHY DID YOU CALL ME PRETTY NOW AND NOT BEFORE - WAS I NOT PRETTY BEFORE?? - YOU’RE MY PERSONAL BODYGUARD WHY WON’T YOU SLEEP WITH ME AM I NOT PRETTY ENOUGH????)
Then there’s this whole “Queen of Spades” business, which I just found cringeworthy. She did some messed up stuff, but no it wasn’t actually her, some evil necklace made her do it. Again, her agency is taken away and all forms of character development or responsibility with it.
The Red Queen
The first book promised me a headstrong, cruel, morally oblivious ruler who would stop at nothing to keep her kingdom in check. We were told she encouraged rape and slaughter in the first raid, her most trusted general is a pedophile and she basically installed a continent-wide slave trade.
What I got in the end was a weak woman begging for Kelsea to save her and then begging for her to kill her.
And what’s worse, Kelsea actually sympathises with her because ‘she had a bad childhood’ and ‘she used to be ugly too’. I am fucking insulted I had to read this bullshit.
And that’s just the two main characters.
Spoiler
The Fetch, a supposedly cunning outlaw, was reduced to a frightened church boy, Aisa was pointlessly murdered by a random dude in the last 50 pages, after finally standing up to her molesting father, Father Tyler sits in a hole for most of the book, after gaining courage enough to stand up to the church (and then dies), Pen isn’t mentioned at all until he decides he’d rather guard the queen than be her fuckboy, and honestly I could go on.THE GODDAMN STUPID SAPPHIRES
I don’t even know where to start. It makes no sense and I have so many questions.
So like…does every sapphire have these properties? Then there must be more necklaces, no? Where does this magic even come from? Does it come from Kelsea or the stones? Are they a catalyst? Why can only she use them? I thought only Tear-heirs can use them? Then how was Katie able to curse her former friends? She’s not a Tear, right? Or was she? Because if she had been that would have been fucked up. Is there anything these things can’t do? Why not crack down on the Red Queen’s army if she has all that power? So the Red Queen can pull up shields strong enough to shield her soldiers from Kelsea’s magic, but not strong enough to keep some vampire child from eating her??? How did Tear open that portal thing in the first place? They say he warped time or something, but I though only the crown could do that?? Johansen, pls explain.
THE POLITICS
To start this off, I want to say I am not religious and I wouldn’t touch anything even related to organised religion with a ten feet pole.
But even I was put off by how Johansen portrait religion in this book.
Yes we get it, the church is corrupt, but do you honestly think killing one man spewing hate in the name of god would automatically create an utopia? In many countries in Europe religion and state are strictly separated and still they find reasons to go at each other’s throats. Then it’s ‘for the security of the state’ and not ‘because god said so’, but it basically boils down to the same.
THE ENDING
That ending. THAT ENDING. That’s just the icing on this steaming pile of shit cake.
Spoiler
Again, no solution, no explanation. Instead of the heroes vanquishing the evil (or at least succumbing to it), Kelsea resuming her throne and ushering her kingdom into a new era of peace and maybe paving the way to a democracy in the end (like the text blurbs at the beginning of each chapter promised (!!!)), we get a fucking cop-out if I’ve ever seen one. Let’s just not solve anything, let’s go back in time and change everything, rendering the entire development of the first two books absolutely meaningless, instead! That’ll certainly satisfy everyone!I’m royally done with this series.
And all of that doesn't even scrape the surface, but I think I already wasted enough of my time on this series.
I understand why people hate the ending. It has a very atypical/unexpected ending for a fantasy trilogy. But these stories were unique and I totally appreciate it. The sad thing is the first book is long and seems like unoriginal YA garbage so most won't see the subtlety she laid out to bring to fruition later. (Okay, maybe not most but I didn't catch it)
So five stars for producing something original. Even if the ending doesn't strictly make any sense.
So five stars for producing something original. Even if the ending doesn't strictly make any sense.
By the end of book two, I was pretty convinced that Johansen had way too much left to tackle and she'd never be able to end it in a satisfying way. I admit it, I was quite wrong. I'm sure some will disagree - the end to the series is likely to polarize folks, but I tend to like endings like that. I often think that if you're pissing people off then you are probably doing something right, because they're at least responding to the piece in a major way. (Not always, but.)
Not much else I can say hereout except that this was a fantastic series, and now that I don't have to wait for the books, I'd love to revisit them and read them back to back. Looking forward to whatever Johansen comes up with next.
Not much else I can say hereout except that this was a fantastic series, and now that I don't have to wait for the books, I'd love to revisit them and read them back to back. Looking forward to whatever Johansen comes up with next.
Last of a trilogy, it answered all the questions the reader wants to know but it left me a bit deflated. One of my favorite characters became completely different for no apparent reason. And the ending reinforced my moderate dislike of time travel as a plot device.