-I loved Glenn's perspective the most, honestly. It was such a weird and strange experience to see his twisted perspective of "love." It was interesting.
-I honestly have like, nothing else to say other than this was a Ted Dekker book and I love almost every Ted Dekker book on the planet, so, yeah, great book. Loved the perspective on addiction, loved getting the backstory of Helen's knees, loved Janjic as a character. Just loved it. Ivena is a darling.


*mic drop* 

 As always, the ending of a book by Ted Dekker was fantastic, and the book was a great reminder of God's love. The rest? Not so great. So, quick review, if you want to read a Ted Dekker series that's truly a five star read, go read the Circle Series and the Lost Books. Not this.

 

  The events of this book happened very fast. With the reveal that this was a reverse Job situation, it does make sense, but it's still kind of jarring. And with everything going so fast at the beginning, the rest of the book was really tedious to get through. I often wanted to DNF this book while reading it, as I have other books that I think I'd enjoy more on my TBR. But I kept going, and I'm glad, because the ending was what I expect out of a Ted Dekker book.

Throughout the book, Kent was SUCH an unlikable character. Even before his family died, he was arrogant and a jerk and he just got worse as the plot went on. It's not even like we get to see him get better as the plot goes on- it just abruptly ends and we go back to the prolouge scene that I completely forgot about over the course of the week I spent reading this book.

This book was just so hard to get through. Out of pure stubbornness, I think I'll finish the trilogy and hope that the other books are better, but I'm really dissapointed in Ted Dekker right now.

 ** spoiler alert ** *

 The way the book is written so that it’s third person and from everyone’s perspective, but mainly Brystal’s, is a little jarring
* Some of the format choices were really weird. Like italicizing whispers and having Brystal speak her thoughts constantly if she was alone and sometimes with others, but they wouldn’t say anything about it, instead of thinking. It was just a weird choice.
* Madame Weatherberry is a fountain of cheesy quotes and I am HERE FOR IT (honestly so is Brystal)
* “It took all six children to lift Mrs. Vees’s unconscious body and transport her out of the dining room. She was much heavier than they expected and it required all their strength...By the time they plopped her down on her bed and tucked her in, the students were all sweaty and out of breath. “‘Wait a second,’ Lucy said. ‘Why didn’t we just use MAGIC to transport her ?’ Her classmates groaned at their own collective stupidity. ‘Aw, man,’ Xanthous said. ‘I keep forgetting that’s an option.’” (-Lucy Goose, Page 374) BEST LINES I’VE EVER READ IN A BOOK
* The pacing of this book was a little wonky. Out of my 481 page book, it took 150 pages for Brystal to even meet Madame Weatherberry, 210 pages until they get to the academy, and 317 pages until they even left to help Madame Weatherberry, which was supposed to be the main plot of the book. The final battle was also really short for final battle standards. Not that I’m complaining. The things that are going on during these timeframes are enjoyable, they just make the plot stand still, quite often for the sake of Brystal reading and developing/explaining relationships. They were genuinely entertaining to read and were really cute, like the thunderstorm scene.
* One of the things I didn’t particularly like about the book was that nobody had to struggle for anything. If any of the students needed to do magic once they were at the school, they could immediately do it. Sure, Brystal needed help the first time, but once she did it ONCE, she didn’t struggle. They don’t have to struggle to find their magic or struggle within themselves to find out who they are, they can just do anything with a snap of the finger or the wave of a wand. They also defeated the villains WAY to easily. They all pretty much knocked all the opposers down like bowling pins.
* None of the classmates really had a personality except Lucy, who was sarcastic and kind of nasty to people. Brystal was pretty textbook protagonist- not like other girls, special, good, kind beyond belief, and the other characters had the personality as a piece of bread, except for occasional moments of jealousy or small moments like Xanthous’ shame over playing with dolls and Tangerina and Skylene thinking they were better than others because they were “born” fairies.
* “‘We’re all just a couple of mistakes away from becoming the people we despise,’ she said. ‘So don’t think WORSE of yourself, but let this change HOW you think of yourself. Start valuing WHO you are, more than WHAT you are. Prove you’re better than most people by showing more ACCEPTANCE and EMPATHY. And fuel your pride with what you EARN and CREATE, instead of what you’re born with.’” (-Brystal Evergreen, Page 411)
* I was genuinely surprised by the plot twist of the witches actually siding with the Snow Queen, and it does make sense. This was a good plot twist.
* I think the twist on magic that if you practice witchcraft, your body gets more and more animal like is really interesting and unique. I really like that.
* The Madame Weatherberry/Snow Queen plot twist was written really well. It was set up really early in the book, and it came out of nowhere. Fantastic writing there. 

 I've read this book multiple times. It's a perfect, cheesy, philisophical, summer romance book that has less of a romance aspect. I love the parallel worlds, and I love how they merge at the beginning and end. We really get to explore what happens in each version of Summer's summer.

I also love how the same thing happens so that they merge. Ruby tension, the revelation about Eloise and "Fille", Hugh (even though in the France version, it feels a bit rushed, the epilogue makes more sense in the context of the Hudsonville version). The fact that she can't run from the truth. I love her character development.

The ending gives you this warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feeling inside, and I love it. Great summer read, and it was a great book to reread especially this year, with 2020 being what it was and with me going into 9th grade this year. Definitely one of my favs. 

 I have both praise and criticism for this book, so strap in.

Let's start with the bad:

The games were very, very quick. If I'm reading a Hunger Games book, I want it to be about the Hunger Games. And there was SO much suspense lost from having a spectator viewing the games be the perspective we view from. It's not scary, and you could tell from the beginning that Lucy Gray was going to win. I would have been more surprised had she died and Snow had to deal with that. It would have been better to have an outside view like Haymitch during the 74th games. With him wondering if these kids will survive, or if he'll have another bunch of kids die in from of him. Dealing with trauma from his games. Or if the book had even taken place DURING his games. That would have been more interesting than this. And the lack of combat especially made the book drag. If you're trying to add suspense, at least try to make it look like the others are targeting Lucy Gray. She was in danger once or twice, not enough to actually make me scared for her.

The Capitol was a lot less sophisticated than I wanted them to be. The scary thing about the Capitol in the original books was that they treated the slaughter of children like entertainment. They LOVE the Hunger Games, and the Gamemakers view the games as a show for the people. The brainwashed nature of the Capitol citizens was what made their small portion of the book terrifying. And this Capitol just doesn't care. I wanted more of the scary Capitol citizens. And the Capitol was so much less sophisticated. Maybe it's because Snow wasn't at the head of the government, but after ten years, you'd think that the Capitol would find a way to get people to watch the games. I was just so disappointed in the politics side of this book.

How in the heck did the starving people of District 12 get microphones? This made no sense and it bugged me. Anytime they sang I just wanted to scream "How they heck did you get microphones when you can barely feed yourselves?" Just a little detail that irked me.

I feel like there were certain things that were supposed to scream "Hey look at me, I'm a connection to the original series, which is WAY better than this!" It was cool, I guess, but also kind of annoying.

Now on to what I liked:

Snow's narcissism near the end was PERFECT. I liked it when he was preening himself as "The youngest to ever past the test" and other things like that.

I loved the last twenty pages of the book, with him ending up (most likely) killing Lucy Gray. Him turning on her was terrifying to read and it was GREAT. THIS was what I expected from this whole book, and I'm glad we got a taste of it, even if it was only at the end.

Lucy Gray was a pretty good character, and I loved how they tied it in with her writing "The Hanging Tree", even though it was a little predictable once Arlo was hung. You could also make up an argument for it working for Lucy Gray and Coriolanus, though that is tenuous.

The cover is beautiful, and will definitely be displayed on my bookshelf.

Sejanus is a cinnamon roll and I love him

There's probably more, but for right now I can't remember that. This book was okay, but I think a Haymitch prequel would have been better. There were just a lot of things that didn't make sense, and the twisting of Snow felt really rushed in the last 20 pages. There were somethings leading up to it, but he just all of a sudden had a change of heart and turned on Lucy Gray because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in the woods. 

 I love that Sanderson gave Steris more of a personality in this book. It was fantastic seeing her emotions and her sarcasm and wit. She's my second favorite character now, after Wayne. Can't wait to see how Sanderson ends the series.

  One thing that I didn't really like though was that Wax was resurrected. I knew from the moment he got shot that he would survive miraculously or be resurrected. I don't really like this trope. Just kill and commit or have them survive, dang it!

 A few of the plot twists were very predictable, but others had the Sanderson unpredictability that I'd expect out of a Mistborn book.

And TenSoon was back!!! TenSoon is honestly one of my favorite characters from the first generation Mistborn books, and I was so glad to have him back. It was kind of weird to hear him talk about Vin to Wax, when he didn't know her but we did. But this was a good book.

 This book felt like less of a fantasy and more of a Western, but it was still really good. Allomancy was present a lot and was a big part of the story, as well as Feruchemy, but guns were still used more often than not and I love Mistborn for it's unique magic system, so I was kind of sad that guns had taken over. I loved all of the references to the original story, and I love that Vin has a gun named after her. Wayne was absolutely my favorite character in this book. He was so funny,

[ making up backstories for and thinking like the people he was impersonating. He was great. 

I did really like the book though. 

 Wow. That was... I have no words.

  I LOVE TenSoon. Like, he's fantastic and one of my favorite characters. Like, favorite to the point that I would count how many more pages there were until I got to read from his perspective again. And then he died. I knew he would, but it was sad nonetheless. And then, Vin turned into a god. I didn't really like the way the story was heading at that point. And then Elend died. And I was so pissed. And then Vin died. And I was even more pissed. Then Sazed became a god. I'm honestly not sure what I think about that. And then Vin and Elend were laying together in a field of flowers, holding hands, with Sazed's note saying he knew they were happy, and I was so sad. I'm happier now, but WOW did this book leave me feeling numb when I was done. This book gave me a hurt that I haven't felt since I finished the Harry Potter series. Because Sanderson had the BALLS to kill off ALL OF HIS MAIN CHARACTERS (which are, at least to me, Kelsier, Vin, and Elend). Wow. That left me crushed. My initial plans were to read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes before continuing on to the Wax and Wayne series, to not give myself a reading slump, but boy, I don't think I will be able to do that now. Sanderson, you have left me dumbfounded. I applaud you. 

 ** spoiler alert ** I feel like this book was kind of pointless. In "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," Eddie gets his whole life explained to him, and he learns that he saved Annie to make up for the death of Tala. But in this book, we're explained all through Annie's life, and then she ends up living. Why? That made her whole journey kind of pointless. What happens when she actually dies? Will she meet five more people, or will she go straight to her duties and explain another person's life to them? I just don't really see why this book was written other than to cash in on nostalgia. Eddie's story made sense. Annie's really didn't (At least in terms of Eddie actually dying and Annie just being in the afterlife for a few seconds and then continuing her life). I will admit however, that this book was pretty sweet. I just don't know why it exists.