A review by aspoonfuloflanguage
Aurora's End by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

 Ouf. Im not mad I’m disappointed. Where do I begin? So it’s not that this book was bad it’s… there were so many little things that annoyed me that, when all added up, it kind of. Eh? It also probably didn’t help that I read this in 10 hours. I needed to know what happened ok? With further reflection I’m not *as* disappointed about this book as I was when I first finished, but I’m still grumpy. 
 
Let’s talk about the negative first so we can end on a high note. 
 
This book was long. 493 pages long. Space time anomalies are cool. This book didn’t need to be that long because of it. The same effect could have been had without umm… *that* much repetition. 
 
Please has anyone in the future heard of biohazard containment?!?!?! Please why WHY in the name of all biologics would that be a good idea??? I don’t care if it was for an emotional impact and plot progression it was dumb and the only emotion I had was “y’all are nincompoops”!! Agh! 
 
*Flips chair* now this?! I’m not disappointed. I’m mad. They did my boy Kaliis dirty. His character growth was so beautiful and it reached a brief climax in this book but after that?!?! AHHH! They just made him… simple? When he’s! so! complex! He’s his own person!!! Please!! De’sai. 
 
The uhh… conflict resolution of the Ra’haam. I can’t rant about this without giving spoilers. But let’s just say, I see what they were trying to do. I understand it. But it came off as borderline cheesy and slightly underdeveloped. I think there were relationships and character progressions that were lacking or disregarded throughout this book that really could have bolstered this part as it is IF they were properly explored. But alas, they weren’t. This is mostly in relation to Auri. I think they did a great job at growing her in book 2 and creating empathy for her, but there was a disjoint between her then and her now. That, Kal, and their relationship really had a chance to shine here. While they did an okay job at pulling it together, I was left feeling unsatisfied. It was not bad, it was just not… entirely logical given what they presented us with and it could have been made stellar. That’s all I’m saying. 
 
OK SO now let me tell you what I loved and why I think this still falls in the “ok maybe this book was mildly satisfactory but the series still remains one of my favourite to date.”
 
Tyler and his chapters. I can’t anymore at this point. I loved him. Literally everything he’s been through and how he handles it is so *waves hands around incomprehensibly*. This little blurb can’t fully express all my thoughts, but a big blurb couldn’t either. Plus, yanno, trying to avoid spoiling y’all. 
 
Ohh Saedii. She’s dark, she’s dimensional, she’s tearing herself apart and pulling herself back together. She started growing on me after book two but now? Yeah she’s a favourite now. 
 
Finian and Scarlett and Zila I’m crying I love them SO MUCH!!! Heartbreakers, the lot of them. Their relationship with themselves and with each other. Their chapters (while slightly redundant) were some of my favourites, which made the redundancy a lot more bearable. 
 
The end. Like, the end end. The prologue at the end. I’m torn about this but it erred on the side of “I like it” so it’s going here. It was emotional and definitely a bittersweet but feel good wrap up. Plus it was super touching. Can’t be mad about that. That said (this part of the “I’m torn” sentiment and has MAJOR spoilers so read on with caution if you choose to. Like probably don’t read this unless you’ve read the book and are curious what’s beneath the cut. It’s up to you tho.)
I would have loved it if they took the time to explore Auri and Kal’s relationship post everything-that-happened. Up until this point their relationship was pretty well founded, mostly in part to the telepathic aspect of Auri’s powers and Kal’s Waywalker abilities. While they did have good communication throughout the series I would have loved to see how their relationship developed positively after Auri made the choice to cut herself off from the Ra’haam rather than join it, her subsequent loss of powers and return to Kal, and ultimately the trauma they went through together throughout the series and this book in particular. I think it could have made a really beautiful addition to the story, and I’m only kind of harping on this part because I loved how strong and well developed Finian + Scarlett, Tyler + Saedii, and even Zila + Nari’s relationships were, even though we don’t know Saedii or Nari for nearly as long as we do the others. Again, it’s not bad per se, but I think there was a significant aspect left unexplored and in all honestly it probably would have added 1/2 to 1 star on to my overall review if this were touched on (even if everything else was left the same).
 
Overall while I’m not entirely satisfied with this book, it was still a decent conclusion and this series overall has weaselled its way to being one of my favourites. I highly recommend the series and it's probably something I'll reread, which is saying a lot.
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