I liked this one the best of all three, probably because there were more fantasy elements, at least in the beginning. The end of the book was rather blah and I was zoning out through it because the fantasy kind of disappeared in favor of the real life aspect of the battle and even that was just kind of mediocrity.

But I found the relationship between the priest and the bear uncomfortable; it started as a manipulation and then suddenly the bear loved him? Kinda? I dunno, it was weird and made me squirm and I just didn't care for it and it was literally only added to make the bear seem to have some bit of "humanity" which could've been accomplished another way aside from him kissing him without consent and only being upset once he'd slit his own throat.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more uncomfortable it makes me. I thought it was icky at the time, but as I write this out, I'm more icked than before. Overall, this series just wasn't really for me. (And if I hadn't committed to read it all for a reading challenge, I probably wouldn't have read past the first book, tbh?) 

 I liked this one more than the first book, but if it wasn't for Kitay, I'm not sure I would even be able to put up with Rin a lot of the time. I understand she's not meant to be your average "good" heroine, per se, but instead of having a proper motivation of her own, she just sort of flip-flops around, always snatching to whatever is closest at the time.

The beginning of the book was boring as hell and I almost didn't continue on (this was a quality of the first book as well). I started tuning it out while playing a game, but once the Republic actually got started, it began to get really interesting to me.

I find Rin's complicated relationship with Nezha to be the most interesting in this one. It was really flimsy in the first book, but this time it felt more engrossing. They are always coming together on some things and clashing on others which makes it very interesting to parse through. I feel really sorry for him, a lot of the time, especially toward the end of this book because he definitely began to see the extremes of his father's regime and was helpless to do anything about it.

I love Kitay a lot and I feel like his character gets the short end of the stick. He's the sidekick who is just 'useful' and sacrifices a lot of himself for Rin when she definitely doesn't deserve it. It's hard to tell if they are really even friends, half the time, but that's Rin with everyone, really. Obviously Kitay deserves better than putting up with her.

This is a terribly written review and I almost didn't write anything at all, but I wanted to get some thoughts down before starting the next book. 

 I liked this one better, though there will still parts I felt like I was tuning out to. The ending was probably the most interesting part to me, all told, and some of the simpler bits here and there of just family spending time together. I like the characters a bit more now, but plot is still kind of meh in most places. I guess we'll see what the last book has in store. 

 I liked this one a bit more, though it was pretty FUCKED UP, geez. It felt a little more character-oriented, though, rather than trying to focus on the outlandish story (not that that part doesn't exist, just that the bonding of the characters are always going to be more grabbing to me than the plot).

The ending made literally no sense to me, though. Especially since it was like maybe 10 minutes of explanation and then it was time-jumped and it wasn't really explained before or after as to why the hell it happened or what purpose it even served.

I don't see how forcing some kids to play for a sports team does any crime bosses any good. And they try to make it seem like it's Riko's territory, so then why does "The Master" even bother to get involved? Why would he even care if he's a fucking crime lord? Makes basically no sense.

So somehow I had the romance of this book completely wrong. It took me 1 1/2 books to realize that the love interest was NOT who I thought it was. Not really sure how I missed it, but it's kind of hilarious in hind sight. 

 I liked this much better than The Girl in the Sea. Not sure why it felt more impactful for me, but it just had the punch that the other did not. It is a good way to look at gender roles for trans and nonbinary without actually saying it. The boys-this, girls-that situation was pretty heavy-handed and got not just ridiculous, but annoying after a while, though. Also why the hell would magical abilities be tied to your gender assigned at birth anyway? It just seems pretty arbitrary.

I enjoyed the world and would like to see more than just the one family and the one area. They mention other families, but not really how they keep in contact with them or why they seem so isolated from everything. Why is it that they can walk outside the boundaries during the day and be safe but it wasn't safe that one night?

I enjoyed the art, of course, as I usually do like Molly's art. 

 I liked some parts of this and felt like other parts were a long slog. I actually started falling asleep more than once listening to it and had to step away for a while and come back to it, which generally isn't a good sign for me. It's not bad, but I think it goes on for a little too long and tries to be a little too convoluted which becomes a detriment to the story itself. 

 I like the song, the rest is kinda meh. 

Like I said before, same thing as The Hunger Games and The Will of the Many. Another Gary Stu who's too smart and too strong to be bested by anybody else. 

 I like the interesting aliens and technology in this. The cultural aspects shine really well and make the main character both stand out but also fit in in many ways (strange, I know). I think with the shortness of the story, it's difficult to really understand some things.

How could a mud mixture possibly just cure an alien race's ailments? And how could the slaughtering of an entire ship full of people be so easily forgiven? Yes, it was over something that was stolen, but that's a large loss of life and then they offer one of the aliens a place at the university? Who helped murder tons of students?

Plus, they didn't give Binti the choice of just altering her biology. And she's just like "well, alrighty then".

As many others said, it was weak as a scifi novella overall. 

 I like stories about the human condition regardless of where they are set. This one felt like it would be that way, but when you reach the end, you don't feel like the characters have grown. And the ending is so unfulfilling that it made me dislike having gone on the journey at all. It felt like it was a waste of my time.

Maybe this could be a condition of it being YA, but I don't feel like I ever connected with any of the characters. At least with books like The Wanderers, the characters were intriguing even if the story was also flat and went nowhere. This one just didn't come up with any redeeming qualities in the end. 

 I know the message in this is meant to be inspiring, but it's so uncomfortable to be in the headspace of someone like this knowing that the man on the other side of the relationship is a manipulative piece of shit. I have luckily never found myself in this type of relationship, but I can just imagine how awful it has been for others who *have* been in this situation. It really hurts and I count myself irrevocably lucky that I've never had to go through this.