Reviews with content warning for War - Aurora's End

Reviews tagging 'War'

Aurora's End by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

18 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

The Aurora Cycle books just keep getting better. The stakes increase, but the Squad 312 keeps finding new ways to battle them. I devoured this book, and I hope I still had more to read of the Squad. I guess I will see them in the stars.

The plot ties all the loose ends from the first two books into an ornate and tidy knot in a way that I'm in awe witnessing. The last book in this trilogy is the most ambitious one in the series, but it holds up to every expectation I had for it, or even exceeds them. Aurora's End made me hold my breath, gasp, tear up, and laugh. It takes a very capturing and entertaining book to evoke so many visible emotions in me.

I usually greatly dislike the main characters being separated for the bigger part of the book, but in Aurora's end I enjoyed that concept. That may be mainly because the characters all have someone with them to have their back, which made me very happy, and I adore the Squad 312 so much I'll gladly read any added snippet of their lives. I loved following the different plot lines — and

time lines

of the charaters'. The hints in the previous books made me think of

time travel

already before, but I could not anticipate the way it is executed in this book. So great!

Content Warnings

lawbooks600's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

4.0

Representation: Biracial (half Asian and half white) character
Score: Eight out of ten.

Okay. This one was outstanding. I can't believe it's over though. I wanted to read Aurora's End to finish the trilogy after enjoying the two previous instalments: Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning. After months of putting it off, I finally got my hands on Aurora's End, and when I closed the final page, I thought it was compelling.

It starts (more like finishes) with the characters that need no introduction, Aurora, Tyler, Kal, Zila, Finn and Scarlett picking up after the events of the previous part of the series. All six characters are now separate as Scarlett and another character are in a spaceship that explodes at the end of a weird repeating time loop that gets shorter every time the cycle starts. Aurora and Tyler work with the antagonists while the other characters do the best they can do with the situation. Like other books I've read from these authors, they generally have a slow pace spanning the first 400 pages, before ramping it up in the last 100. That's what I got there. I felt suspenseful as I knew the big battle was coming to decide the winner of the intergalactic war between two powerful groups, the Eshvaren and the Rahaam. The finishing pages were full of action, and fortunately, the conclusion is a high note. Now that The Aurora Cycle is done, perhaps it's time to try the Illuminae series.

Content Warnings

natashalg's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was a wonderful read; definitely a tear jerker at times! I'm glad everyone has a happy ending, and I was disappointed to not be able to see how the journey continues after the last chapter of the book! The time travel/middle of the book seemed to drag on for a little while, but it wasn't boring enough to make me want to stop reading it. Overall, a fantastic end to a great series!

Content Warnings

kathrynleereads's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

In Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, we follow our favorite six Legionnaires as they make their final stands against the Ra’haam from three different decades.

So much happened in this book that I had a hard time wrapping my head around all of it. I don’t just mean that it was fast-paced (which it was), but that it was almost hard to keep track of what was going on.

As a general rule, time travel is something I stay away from in books. The laws and rules involved are always so specific but differ so greatly from story to story that I find it easier just to steer clear.

With time travel being introduced at the end of the second book, I didn’t really have a choice here but to accept it.

And, I’ll admit, Kaufman and Kristoff did a really good job keeping the details and rules of the time jumps clear for the readers (mostly through Zila).

It did lead to me getting turned around quite a few times though.

When Auri and Kal were in the future with 40-year-old Tyler, and then we jumped back to Tyler’s POV in the present, I got a bit of whiplash.

As far as the characters went, I really enjoyed the development we saw (with two exceptions)

Auri - Auri continued to get stronger, while also fighting against the suggestion from the Eshvaren that she burn away everything that makes her her.

I will say, however, that I was a little disappointed in Auri toward the end.

After realizing that love was the tool necessary to defeat the Ra’haam, she brings together all the people she loves… and leaves them?

That development made no sense to me.

And while she did end up staying with them in the end, it wasn’t by her choice, it was by the will of her squadmates.

Kal - I didn’t feel like Kal really changed at all in Aurora’s End.

He continued to fight for his squad and for Auri, but it felt as if his growth kind of plateaued here.

Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, it was just different for him compared to Kal’s growth in Aurora Rising and Aurora Burning.

Tyler - Tyler definitely took strides in terms of his confidence and his willingness to bend the rules to do what’s right.

For most of Aurora’s End, Tyler was flying pretty blindly, with an objective and little to no plan, and somehow he made it work.

Scarlett - I don’t know if Scarlett’s change in Aurora’s End can really be described as growth, as I think it was more just realization.

With Fin’s help, she came to understand her incredible value to the squad, which she hadn’t seen before, and she opened her eyes enough to see Finian in front of her.

Finian - My favorite wiseass. Finaian kicked butt in this book and finally got Scarlett to see how amazing he is. What more can be said about Finian de Seel?

Zila - Zila’s transformation throughout The Aurora Cycle series was honestly incredible.

She accepted the squad as her family, learned how to open up with them, and allowed herself to lower her emotional barriers.

Zila Madran does not feel nothing.

Saedii - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I love this woman.

Saedii (obviously) has her issues, but she doesn’t let them stop her from being a total badass and choosing her own path.

Finally, the ending. It took me a while to sort out my feelings about the end of Aurora’s End, and I think what I’ve boiled all my emotions down to is: satisfaction.

This ending provided me with all the answers I had been looking for, and with enough heartbreak and happiness for it to not feel like a cheap shot.

Do I wish some things had been different? Of course.

But overall, I’m happy with the ending Squad 312 got.

Content Warnings

tranquiltides's review

Go to review page

adventurous 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? N/A

4.0

I’m not crying, you’re crying…

And tha us about all I have to say on the matter.

Content Warnings

axel_p's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I am kind of sad that Squad 312 wasn't together during most of the book.
The ending was confusing.
ZILA IS MY QUEEN!!!

Content Warnings

kaelielily's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny 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? No

4.5

Alle vorangegangenen Plot Twists, Rätsel und Geheimnisse sind im Finale der Aurora Trilogie zum Zug gekommen und bilden einen erfüllenden Abschluss ohne offene Fragen.
Lediglich das Ende selbst war sehr kitschig und hätte gerne anders ablaufen dürfen. Genauso wie sämtliche Szenen zwischen Aurora und Kal.
Viel besser fand ich die Kapitel von Tyler und Saedii, von denen ich schon im zweiten Buch ein großer Fan war, und von Scarlett und Finian.
Die Geschichte hinter der Gründung der Aurora Legion sowie den Gegenständen, die dem Squad hinterlassen wurden, war super interessant und berührend.

Content Warnings

briely's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Content Warnings

notacartoonyet's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

Content Warnings

summer_19_'s review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

**Disclaimer**
Jay Kristoff, one of the authors of Aurora's End, is very problematic. So, if you are interested in this book series buy them secondhand or get them at the library.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This series was very enjoyable to me and the final book did not disappoint. Of course not everything was amazing and there are some things I would change. Multiple times throughout the series, and especially this book, I felt like the characters were reduced to a few traits or people. I also didn't love the time travel route they went with. I overall liked this book, but it wasn't the best I've read.

Content Warnings

More...