A review by keu482
Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce

5.0

This is the last book in this quartet and it's suppoded to feel like the end (although she did end up writing more about them later). This last book deals with Briar and a magical plaugue. I think one of the main themes in this is finaly opening up to people after being hurt for so long, and how to someone jaded that might seem like a stupid thing to do but it's actually nessecary. So I guess this book is about growing up (of course) and about choosing who you want to be as an adult.

I'm not as certain what Briar brings to the quartet as I am for the others. He's certainly got street smarts, but I'm not sure what he has that they need. I think Briar might be stability, because he changes but always stays himself. He's also a boy when the others aren't but I know there's more to it then that so I'll have to think on it.

So this book brings the danger right home to roost for the four protagonists. In fact because of his connections with the street kids of the city Briar is the first to find and report a victim of this plague. That first victim is his friend and he spends most of the book caring for one person after another as the entire city slowly succums to the disease. Briar's book feels the most personal because his enemy is something he can't see or fight, but that kills people he's close to. Briar isn't one for feeling helpless, and so for most of this book he's forced into a kind of numb idleness of working on something that doesn't really help solve the problem but is also vitally necessary. In the end it's the four's unwillingness to give up that saves the day and ends the series on a great note.