3.5 stars

CW: gore, torture, war, explosions

WHAT THE FIG WAS THAT?!

I’m so confused. I’m kind of sad, a bit relieved, somewhat frustrated... who knew this series would give me so many feelings even after Manchee died in book one?? I didn’t.

A list of my thoughts/grievances:

1. Patrick Ness needs to be forbidden from including animals with personalities in his books. Manchee dying was the worst plot twist ever and even six months later I’m still devastated and oh so very bitter. I had a feeling Angharrad would die, but no, it was Acorn. And for such a dumb reason! Don’t get me attached to animals and then kill them! #rude

2. Todd died. Todd was dead. Now Todd isn’t dead. I’m legit confused. I have problems with this. First, it felt kind of like a cop-out. All of this work and build-up, especially after a 575 page war, and Todd died because 1017 was impulsive. Disappointing, but whatever. I can’t do anything about it, and I wasn’t *super* attached to him anyway. But if you’re going to kill a protagonist, stick with it!!! All of a sudden he’s alive? How? HOW? There were a few pages of him miraculously regaining consciousness, he’s officially pronounced alive, the end. And in the last book of the trilogy! Excuse me?! I need details!

3. The pacing left something to be desired. It was almost 600 pages of just war, and it didn’t have the intrigue the second book did. After 250-300 pages, it kind of got old. Explosions, fire, death, betrayal, ambushes, floods, poison… this book had it all, but unfortunately, not much more.

3b. If Todd had just killed the Mayor at the end of book two, half of this crap wouldn’t have happened. He literally brought the end of the world on himself and everyone else.

3c. What the fig was going on with the Mayor?? He could hear the whole world so he tried to control the whole world and it drove him mad. Todd apparently helped him keep it at bay, but without Todd, he was, well, mad. He could see and hear everything, basically, and had these messed up, maxed out mind powers. Noise x1000000, but as a weapon. I still don’t really get it, to be honest. And his death was anticlimactic.

4. The best surprise of this book was that Ben was still alive. I loved his reunion with Todd. It was as close to happy as anything in this story.

5. Todd and Viola kissed. Their relationship is beyond platonic, after all. I was hoping it wouldn’t be romantic, but not much I can do. At the very least, I’m glad they weren’t mushy. Their judgement was bad enough, so at least I was spared the PDA.

5b. I have nothing against their relationship turning romantic, it’s just not what I hoped for personally. If the ending was better, I might’ve been more on board.

6. Over time, the Spackle POV chapters grew on me. It allowed me to learn about their species and their culture without info-dumping. I’m still not a big fan of 1017, but he had a decent character arc.

So I finished the Chaos Walking trilogy. It was good overall, but I think this was my least favorite and, in my opinion, the ending definitely could’ve been better. It didn’t really do the story or the characters justice. In terms of plot and intrigue, I have to say the second book was the best, but the first will always be my favorite because Manchee. He deserved better.