This was the worst, most boring, least inspiring, series-torpedoing finale I have ever read. I want my time back >___<*!!!

Remember how our heroes spent the entirety of Cress figuring out how to rescue Kai from his ill-fated engagement to a mind-controlling evil queen?

Yeah, in Winter, they retcon that, and send Kai right back into her clutches, to be manipulated and threatened and rendered useless for 800 pages.

Remember the rebellion Cinder and crew promised to insight on the moon, to rid the Lunar subjects of the same evil queen, and her army of witches and werewolves?

Yeah, no, Cinder and co. have no plan, sit in their spaceship for a month, and a shack for a little bit, stumble into Snow White for awhile, make a Youtube video, then immediately surrender.

Ooo, speaking of Snow White, were you excited for the introduction of the final, all-important, mega-moon-princess to help our heroes from the inside?

So was I! But, turns out, she's only out for her traitorous boyfriend, and HE'S only here for her, and they will both let EVERYONE and ANYONE die so that they can make-out for a little bit. ALSO, despite having magical abilities, cunning, AND the zealous love of her people to empower her, Winter is not a strong person. She is, in fact, infantalized, and her boyfriend needs to carry her, feed her, bathe her, medicate her, swaddle her, etc.

OH! Speaking of boyfriends, did we like all those ships that had been building over the course of the series? Nice combinations of young women growing into their identities, gaining confidence, forming friendships with capable but emotionally tumultuous young men who ALSO grow and mature for having opened up their minds and hearts to another? Did we like that?!

Great! Because they are all rendered drooling monkeys in this book, either because a hott Lunar smiles at them, or because an invasive doctor pumps them full of steroids, or a mind-controller hijacks their hormones. It's so fun when a character you care about is rendered the opposite of who they've grown to be. Also, what message are we setting here? "Boys will be boys", they can't be blamed for eye-banging someone who's not their girlfriend? Really? Really?! It's 2022, respect your audience, do better.

Oh hey, speaking of hott Lunars and a modern audience: Were you hoping for a local culture that's different from Earth? Especially where glamours run rampant, and the fashion is bright and whimsical. Maybe gender fluidity and LGBTQA relationships are more accepted?

Too bad. Lunars are presented as trans predators... Because the world needed more of that... X_X;;; . And all of our heroes are cis :/. No shame to heteronormative couples! <3 But with so many diverse characters... would have been great to reimagine a classic, fairytale princess/prince somewhere on the LGBTQA spectrum. Missed opportunity.

Hey, just a thought: This is a sci-fi book that takes place centuries in the future ON THE MOON, where people have evolved magical powers of persuasion and manipulation. Maybe, our heroes will have to invent a way to intercept glamours, like a visor with software like Cinder's eyes, which can decode glamours. Or, maybe citizens on the moon outlawed weapons a long time ago, because there is no need for primitive, Earthen guns and such, when EVERYTHING is a weapon if you have mind-control, and can just trick your opponent's brain into feeling pain? Maybe our heroes have to teach people to overcome their own delusions, like snapping out of hypnosis, with a code phrase, a mantra, a rallying cry.... the power of love.... Something? It could be a nice metaphor for believing in /yourself/, not some fairytale savior to come to your rescue?...

No. Nope. There are no sci-fi tactics in this book. It's straight up knives and rifles and axes and punching and wild wild west. Our heroes are taken advantage of again and again, and turned on each other, because they never come up with a plan for how to circumvent the mind-control powers of their enemy. And the enemy never gets creative with illusions and creates multiples of people or weapons, like Loki, or a doppleganger to trick the heroes into harming a friend who looks like an enemy, or HARBORING an enemy who looks like a friend - nothing. Nothing. No sci-fi in this sci-fi. And in fact, what sci-fi was introduced over the series, like Cinder's cyborg attachments, are rendered useless. No creativity, no message... Such. Sloppy. Storytelling.

But hey, there's at least a twist happily ever after, right? Cinder never wanted to be queen of the moon, she would be much happier as a mechanic on Earth, or at least on The Rampion. She hands the moon over to Winter, right? And lives happily ever after with Kai?

No. Winter goes nanners after murdering a dude who wanted to rape her. She becomes a zookeeper. Cinder really does inherit the moon and gets left behind by her boyfriend and all of her friends. And then, after totally destabilizing the government, and nominating herself to be...the government, Cinder decides she's only going to be a temp at this job before abdicating and abolishing the monarchy all together.... The moon would be in complete chaos and civil war, and still, NOTHING STOPS THE MIND-CONTROLERS EXCEPT INVASIVE SURGERY!

Okay, not great, but a happy-ish ending. And the plague, the antidote gets distributed?

Sure... but it's harvested from test-tube babies. The version Dr. Erland was working on... vanished?

O_O;;;... Is there anything that wasn't terrible in this book?

... Scarlet and Wolf have a really great reunion kiss... And Iko, as always, is amazing.

An 824 page doorstop >_<. Do. Not. Read. Imagine your own ending for this series, folks. Because any fanfiction would be better than this.