A review by ginnyb412
Finale by Stephanie Garber

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book for sure isn't bad, but imo it's definitely the weakest in the trilogy. I think the biggest issues stem from the structure and pacing of the story; this is the only book without Caraval as the skeleton around which to construct the plot and it feels scattered and untethered without it. It felt like a lot of characters just walking around and talking, and the actual interesting parts of the story suffered from playing second fiddle to a repetitive and rather dry love story between Tella/Legend. Tella's repetitive agonizing over Legend took up the vast majority of the book which started to annoy me pretty quickly, especially as it became clear that the actual action of the plot wasn't going to happen with her. Scarlett's entire arc felt rushed and underdeveloped, despite it being the actual plot/solution to the problems in the book? Garber should've delved more into Scarlett's time being trapped by the Fallen Star, her powers, and the planning to defeat the Fates. That all felt very haphazard, like she was just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck. The book also imo would've been better if it were around 70 pages shorter and forced to cut a lot of the unnecessary ramblings. Garber, based on her other books in Caraval and ouabh, can be a very good writer, which is why Finale felt particularly weak to me. Overall, I enjoyed the first part of the book where they learned more about the lore of the Fates, but it lost me around the middle when it started to make less sense and get more repetitive. 
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