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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
“Empathy. Carlin always said it was the great value of fiction, to put us inside the minds of strangers.”
This book was a ride. This whole series surprised me so much, it was so much more than I ever could expect.
For now, this is the last book, but Erika Johansen has said that we will hear more from Kelsea. I've read a lot of comments about people dislike the end and even though I can see where they come from, I did not dislike it. There are still questions left unanswered.
Overall, I find the series baffling and possibly one of my favourites. It feels very original, all of the characters feel so real and always act like their personalities. The cast of the book is pretty big, with many viewpoints. The world is vast and interesting, the history of the world is the most creative thing I have ever read. Her writing style is slightly complicated. As a non-native English speaker, I had to look up several words throughout the book. Except for that, however, it was written beautifully.
Personally, I didn't find all the characters that interesting. Reading from the point of view of Javel and Hall wasn't that important to me. They mostly were meant for foreshadowing events that would happen not that long after.
The Red Queen and Aisha were by far the best characters in my opinion. The Red Queen is strong, but that strength ended up being her weakness. She was written very cleverly and felt different from the standard evil queens. She taught me some important life lessons. Aisha is this anger-filled twelve-year-old that goes on unbelievable adventures and learns to deal with her past through them. She thought me to let go and to never let my age define my possibilities.
I can't wait for the next book that comes from this author's hands!
This book was a ride. This whole series surprised me so much, it was so much more than I ever could expect.
For now, this is the last book, but Erika Johansen has said that we will hear more from Kelsea. I've read a lot of comments about people dislike the end and even though I can see where they come from, I did not dislike it. There are still questions left unanswered.
Overall, I find the series baffling and possibly one of my favourites. It feels very original, all of the characters feel so real and always act like their personalities. The cast of the book is pretty big, with many viewpoints. The world is vast and interesting, the history of the world is the most creative thing I have ever read. Her writing style is slightly complicated. As a non-native English speaker, I had to look up several words throughout the book. Except for that, however, it was written beautifully.
Personally, I didn't find all the characters that interesting. Reading from the point of view of Javel and Hall wasn't that important to me. They mostly were meant for foreshadowing events that would happen not that long after.
The Red Queen and Aisha were by far the best characters in my opinion. The Red Queen is strong, but that strength ended up being her weakness. She was written very cleverly and felt different from the standard evil queens. She taught me some important life lessons. Aisha is this anger-filled twelve-year-old that goes on unbelievable adventures and learns to deal with her past through them. She thought me to let go and to never let my age define my possibilities.
I can't wait for the next book that comes from this author's hands!
3.5/5. Not that it's poorly written - when you're immersed everything seems to make sense, but then you back out of it and realize, What The Hell.
This series was not what I expected it to be but it’s one that will stick with me for a long time.
Apparently people are really angry about the ending. I don't have the time to read through all the other reviews to see if they mean the sad bit about the ending or *the whole ending*. I agree that that the sad part is super sad and no one wants to see such a sadness come to their main character after 3 books... BUT. It was a good ending (albeit got a little Japanese Horror Flick there a few times out of nowhere, WTF/Lolmy). This book was social/political commentary. If *the whole ending* was different, then it would have been shit political/social commentary, and that is the main theme of the whole series!
Anyway, Love this series. Love the politics and social/personal commentary & there was a lot of cleverness/complexity in there that surprised me for a YA. I was also certainly left with some questions.. but overall I do love this series and will probably re-read it in a few years all at once, as I feel like the gaps between reading each book threw off the flow a lot for me.
Anyway, Love this series. Love the politics and social/personal commentary & there was a lot of cleverness/complexity in there that surprised me for a YA. I was also certainly left with some questions.. but overall I do love this series and will probably re-read it in a few years all at once, as I feel like the gaps between reading each book threw off the flow a lot for me.
I could not have been a bigger fan of the first two books in this trilogy. I could not have been a bigger fan of the first 1/3 to 1/2 of this book. But then when I saw where the conclusion was headed, I just kept hoping that I was wrong. But I wasn’t. Maybe I’m just not smart enough to “get it” and realize how deep and resonant the final message was. But for me, the ending felt very similar to “and then I woke up and realized the whole thing was just a bad dream”. It is one thing to provide a story that isn’t neatly packaged, that’s representative of how a story would unfold in the “real world”. But I think it missed the mark. It came across as if she wrote 300 pages in this third book, then realized she’d need another 1,000 pages (probably 1-2 additional books) to organically wrap up the story she’d started in books 1 and 2, decided it was too much work, and just asked a ghost writer (it truly felt like a different author) to wrap it up as quickly as possible in a way that allowed her to sidestep finishing any of the stories that were started. And in that way, the author ultimately delivered the exact thing she set out not to do: delivered a story (and a beautiful world that she built) in the sort of neat packaging that answers every easy question to which the reader already knows the answer or you which the answer does not matter to the reader.
That being said, I would snatch up any prequels that she writes and desperately hope that at some point in the future she’d consider writing another book or two with an alternate ending to this, mostly wonderful, trilogy.
That being said, I would snatch up any prequels that she writes and desperately hope that at some point in the future she’d consider writing another book or two with an alternate ending to this, mostly wonderful, trilogy.
I've been absolutely captivated by the world and characters of the Tearling created by Erika Johansen. This was not at all a conclusion I expected, but I was surprised by Kelsey's ultimate fate and really enjoyed it. I liked how the past and present come together and mysteries are explained. Kelsey Glynn is such a great character. She is not perfect at all. She's powerful, passionate, brave, smart. I hear Emma Watson is attached to a movie version of Queen of the Tearling and she'd be perfect!
Okay, so I really really super dislike this. Like, 2.5 stars at most dislike this. The medieval style fantasy parts are great, but that's pretty much it.
Johansen tried to cram so much emotional and ethical stuff in here, that it was choking the entire story. There were way too many strands of story happening simultaneously and I couldn't even bring myself to care for half of them.
The whole time traveling shtick was weird and everything about the crossing and pre-Tearling history felt so cobbled together and not well thought though.
The ending felt so weird in my opinion and again just like it was quickly cobbled together without much thought.
In general, I'm mad that I even read the second book, because it ruined all my enjoyment of the first one, and this third book intensified that.
Johansen tried to cram so much emotional and ethical stuff in here, that it was choking the entire story. There were way too many strands of story happening simultaneously and I couldn't even bring myself to care for half of them.
The whole time traveling shtick was weird and everything about the crossing and pre-Tearling history felt so cobbled together and not well thought though.
The ending felt so weird in my opinion and again just like it was quickly cobbled together without much thought.
In general, I'm mad that I even read the second book, because it ruined all my enjoyment of the first one, and this third book intensified that.
I finally got around to finishing this trilogy. I really enjoyed it. Kelsea is such a refreshing protagonist. She’s smart, dedicated to doing what’s right, brave, and just a general badass. But she also wrestles with flaws and tough decisions. The world building is really interesting. I also like what the author has to say about society and community. The only thing holding back a star on my rating is that the story can get confusing with the amount of characters it follows while jumping back and forth through time. I understand why but it was sometimes confusing.