WOOOOOOO get ready for a RANT because I. AM. FURIOUS.

So I have 1 hour left of this in audiobook and I'm still marking it as read, but I will not be finishing either the book or the series. I'm SAD. I LOVED Red Queen and I immediately added the rest of the series to my tbr but OH MAN. I'm furious.

I've been avoiding spoilers for this series like the plague since I started Red Queen and I blocked every tag on tumblr, but when I got to the (near) end of this one, my resolve broke. I was so mad that I read everything that happens in the rest of the series to see if I could even BEGIN to think about finishing it out but no. That's not gonna happen. Before I get into the last two books in the series, lemme start with this one.

First off, OH MY GOD did this book D R A G. Red Queen had me super hyped for the majority but this book was torture for me to listen to. There was SO much description and too many characters and NOTHING was happening. It was the same thing over and over again and I felt like the book was going on FOREVER. I didn't understand why so many people were annoyed by Mare in the first book, and I'm not sure if it was just the overall pacing and plot but she started to grate on my nerves in this one. There were even parts where I was just CONFUSED. Like, WHAT EVEN HAPPENED after the second run-in with Maven when he used that machine and branded her??? She literally blacked out for DAYS and then the explanation I got from it was that Shade SOMEHOW got all of them out? uhhhhhhhhh? how. what. huh.

Second, SHADE. Ugh. U G H. Shade quickly became my favorite character and I had a dark feeling that he was going to die because all my faves die and it just seemed inevitable. But GOD. I KNEW it was coming and I'm still so frickin mad. First of all, he DISAPPEARED OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET after about halfway in and him and Mare BARELY interacted, let alone talked. But I KNEW. I KNEW when they were at the prison and suddenly Shade is there and Mare is narrating about how he's valuable and shit like that, I KNEW. And when the knife was thrown at her, I KNEW. But it still BROKE me when I heard his name. God. What bullshit. Shade single handedly saved everyone like 3 times and I literally have no idea how Mare even makes it out alive of the next two books without him to save her. And everything else would suck without Shade around.

So I was mad about Shade, but I probably could have moved on and finished the series if the next conversation that Mare and Cal had wasn't so HORRENDOUS. Her brother just died and Cal tries telling her that she should be nice to Farley because they were in a relationship??? And then proceeds to throw the whole thing about her killing the prison guards in her face?? and THEN proceeds to talk shit to her about Maven's letters???? OH. oh my god. I lost my goddamn mind.

Moving on over to the spoilers I read about the last two books: To start, I had conflicted feelings for Maven throughout this book, even though he was barely in it. I didn't LIKE him but I didn't hate him either because he is an interesting character and I could tell that Mare was going to give herself up at the end of this book so the next book would mean learning more about this dark side of Maven and all that jazz. I could see a possible redemption arc and putting Maven and Mare in another romantic situation. But then to find out that there's ALOT of weird shit that goes down (I honestly don't even know what cause it all sounds MESSY) and he ends the series trying to kill Mare with his bare hands??? Yuck.

ALSO, Mare and Cal don't even end up together???????!!!!!!! WHAT?!? They're like more than half the reason I liked Red Queen and after ALL THE CRAP that goes down they don't even end the series together?! EW. EW EW EW.

(Typing all of this out is very therapeutic, btw.)

Other quick, random character things: I did NOT like Kilorn in the first book, but he was better in this one. I actually really liked the pairing of Shade and Farley but I would NOT LIKE the pregnancy that happens after this and it's one of the reasons I don't want to continue. A lot of the spoilers I read just seemed batshit crazy to me. Like, the whole "redemption" of Evangaline and the re-engagement of Cal and Evangaline and trying to have Maven help her save Cal or something else weird was just like, WHAT. (PS I listened to this on audiobook so I have actually no idea if I'm spelling anyone's name right). Also, I learned that the next two books have multiple POVs and just like, why. Why switch that mid-series. I don't even like Cameron so I would be suffering through her chapters. And then FIVE in the last book? Ugh. No. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl into myself.

So to sum up, I'm furious and sad and disappointed that this was such a letdown and angry that it gets even more insufferable to the point where I can't finish out the series. Wah.