“I am different from what my world demands I be. And I am not worse for it.”

Stars (Out of 10): 7.5/10 Stars

Spoiler Free: Surprising myself and everyone I know, I actually really enjoyed this book? Which is surprising considering I wasn’t a fan of book 2 at all, and book 3 ended up frustrating me a lot. However, that did mean I went into this book with either low expectations (in terms of characters/relationships/etc.) or no expectations (in terms of plot, as I never actually spent any time theorizing what would happen), and this could be the reason why I enjoyed it so much.

Firstly, I loved the plot itself. Due to aforementioned lack of theorizing, not only did I not have any idea what to expect going in, I also wasn’t stuck on certain hopes or wishes for how it would all go down. Additionally, this installment, compared to book 2 and 3, was much more action-packed, and didn’t have any of the lulls I had issues with the other sequels. The battles were really fun to read, as not only did all the Silver powers get showcased, but they got played off Ardent/Newblood powers in interesting ways. To continue, these battles also had twists within them as well, keeping my eyes glued to the page to see if these characters would make it out of these tense situations alive and well. I’m also quite happy with how it “tied up”, even though the ending leaves a lot of questions unanswered/open for developments.

Secondly, I both loved and hated the characters. To preface, the hate mainly comes from prior feelings in books 2 and 3, as everyone was at least bearable in this novel, whether it be bearable as a villain or as a hero (as I have different standards for each). I also loved how snarky everyone was towards each other, especially in the beginning. The constant tension and competition between the Silver/Newblood/Red Alliance was constantly offset with these sarcastic/snarky comments towards figures of authority/parents/each other, and it really helped with easing me back into the storyline. The romance was also an interesting one, and while I was extremely frustrated with it in the first few books, as I was trying to read it and cheer for it as a normal YA romance, I did not feel that same frustration in this book. While that may just come from me detaching from it/realizing it is a much more complex and complicated romance than most YA fantasy, I think I was also just happy with how it tied up/was used within the novel. Lastly, I also felt that most of the characters held to their ideals/developed in logical ways all throughout the book, meaning that this feeling also extended to their actions/how the book ended because of them.

Additionally, this book saw the introduction of a lot of new viewpoints, but I think Victoria also did this fairly well. She didn’t worry about balancing them at all, and only utilized them when it was actually necessary. For example, Cal and Maven only really had POV chapters near the ending, and it ended up adding to the story rather than making it seem more confusing. We also got quite a variety of viewpoints, and everyone sounded quite distinct within their own chapters. It gave us a larger view of the story and conflict as a whole, and how it would affect each individual party. I also enjoyed the addition of Iris as a POV, even if I don’t like her as a person/agree with her, as it added another level of depth to the new players on the battlefield that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to get, especially considering the Lakelands didn’t play as active roles in the other books.

Lastly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the world building. There was a lot introduced, and a lot that was skipped out on. Since this war contains almost all of the kingdoms/countries within the geographical area, we had a lot of culture and people to catch up on. While we did get some of this before, a lot of the countries hadn’t played all that big of a role yet, leading to readers needing to learn a lot. Not all of our questions were answered either, specifically about how the Silver and Red distinction even arose, and why Newbloods are suddenly appearing. This was such a hot topic for foreshadowing, especially by Julian Jacos, so I’m hoping we get a novella or something in the future that finally explains this, even though it was unfortunate that it didn’t make its way into the mainline story.

Overall, I’m really glad that this series ended on a good note (for me, it seems a lot of people are polarized by this book like the rest of the series), and that I’m able to say all that waiting and frustration was worth it in the end!

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers:

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Interestingly enough, even though not a lot of people died in this finale, and possibly no known “good” characters, I didn’t really see an issue with how realistic it felt. I think this was due to the fantastic job Victoria did with humanizing those that did die, even if we didn’t know their names/they died in large amounts. Specifically during battle or during the loss of the Piedmont base, you could still feel a sense of loss even if only unnamed characters were lost. This was probably due to the fact that Mare felt the loss of every Red life very personally, as well as the fact that the war was very much a numbers game, one that our Cal/Rebels Alliance was often losing.