4.5 stars
I’m not sure what else there is to say about this series. This finale definitely lived up to everything that was set up in the first two novels and then some. The stakes, which were already high, shot into orbit with this final installment.

I liked that we got to see Ragnar’s birthplace in this book, and his sister and the Valkyries were a great addition to this story.

Once again, political intrigue is a huge part of this book. So many schemes and double crosses. You never knew exactly what was happening.

I will say there is one reveal near the end that I had guessed early on, and was satisfied when it actually happened.


At the end of the day, my favorite thing about this book is its characters and the way they relate to one another. Darrow is such a dynamic main character. I love his brotherly relationship with Sevro and the conflict he feels toward Cassius and Roque is just so complex.

The intricacy with which Pierce Brown wrote this series is truly impressive. It has cemented its place as one of my favorite series of all time. I will definitely be picking up anything he writes from now on.

4.75 stars
This series is intense in its brutality and l love every second of it. For anyone who hates action books where everyone makes it through unscathed, this is the series for you. I am completely undone by that ending, and my only consolation is that I have the third book in my possession ready to go.

What I liked:

1. The scope of this story is huge. There are billions of people on several planets who are directly affected by the actions in this book and it really feels that way as you read it.

2. Political intrigue. This story is so intricate. You never know whose side anyone is really on and who you can trust, and even when you do, circumstance sometimes changes allegiances. It can’t be a little confusing to remember who is used on which side, but politics can be confusing as it is, so that’s pretty authentic!

3. World-building. This world (galaxy?) is so complex. From social customs to history to entertainment, this series explores virtually every aspect of society.

4. Action. I don’t read many ‘war’ books. Some books may have battle sequences, but it’s usually the climax of the story. This book was battle after battle. And I really enjoyed it. I didn’t feel confused by what was going on, which tends to happen to me. I feel like Brown’s writing was interesting and informative while still being entertaining.

What I didn’t like:
Even though I’m giving this book 5 stars, I’m not going to sit here and pretend it is a perfect book:

1. I still feel like the female characters are underdeveloped, especially Mustang. I did really love their last scene in the book. That was really well done. But still, many of the female characters in this book seem to just be there to prop of Darrow. Not cool.

I am so thankful that I have the third book in my possession so I don’t have to wait to finish the trilogy.

4.75 stars
I did not know what to expect when I picked this book up, but I can say that the immense amount of hype surrounding this book is well-deserved.
Maybe once I can get my thoughts in order I will be able to write a more cohesive review, but I loved everything about this book. From the flawed characters to the rich world-building to a plot full of action and political intrigue, Pierce Brown was able to construct a complex and engrossing story that I’m going to be thinking about for a long time to come.

I do have a couple of criticisms, even though neither took away from my enjoyment of the book.

The first is that none of the female characters in this story aren’t as well-developed as any of the male characters. They don’t really have any agency, and are used almost as catalysts for the main character’s actions. I’ve heard that this gets better as the series continues.

The next is that the beginning of this book is a little confusing. We are dropped into this world with no setup and the characters speak using slang that takes a bit to get used to. Darrow refers to different things in his world with no explanation, so we have to figure out what he is talking about by the context of the conversations going on around him. However, I feel like if you just go with the flow for a short period of time, it all starts to make sense as you become engrossed in this world.

This books is reminiscent of the Hunger Games, but far more brutal. It would be like Hunger Games and Game of Thrones had a book baby with a little Lord of the Flies thrown in for good measure. I loved every second of it, and am so glad I have the whole series!

This one really bums me out. This series showed so much promise after the first book. It reminded me of The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which is a series I really enjoy. Unfortunately, the second book definitely suffered from second-book slump. Going into this third installment, I was hopeful that it would get back on track and end on a high note. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.

I would like to say right of the bat, I listened to this book on audio, so I won't have many (or any) specific examples from the text, and it's totally possible that I missed something during the course of the 12+ hours of audio (I listened at 2x speed, but still. This was a long audiobook.)

What I liked:
1.

I liked that the author had the guts in the end to raise the stakes and kill off a major character. At first, I thought it was going to be two, which would've been even more badass, but no, just one. I like when books about battles and war actually go there and acknowledge that in a war not everyone is going to make it to the end.

What I didn't like:
1. Too much focus on romances.
None of these relationships really did much for me. I started to like Caius and Echo a little more I guess near the end of this book, but I just didn't really feel the chemistry. The same goes for Jasper and Dorian. I actually was enjoying Ivy and Helios's interactions, but then the author

decided to make Helios a traitor. Even though it seemed like Ivy wanted to forgive him, it wasn't something that was ever addressed again. That's another issue altogether.

There are people dying all around them and all of these awful things being done by Tanith, yet all these characters can think of is making out with each other's faces. I'm just saying, they need to reprioritize.

2. So many loose ends.
-What happens to Helios? Does he get his trial? Did he die in the battle?
-What happens with Ivy? Does she forgive Helios?
-Why did they reintroduce Quinn just to never mention him again? I couldn't stand his character, but they completely ignore him for the course of this entire book just to bring him in right before the final battle, and then that's it...who knows what happened?
-Rowan is helping Echo at the beginning of the book, then he disappears for like 400 pages until the final battle. I actually was wondering if I missed something when I was listening. I thought he died or something, because he just seemed to disappear.
-Did the guy who was young but growing older in the hospital because Tanith was sucking him dry live? Did he die? Again, it's totally possible I missed this being explained while I was listening to the audiobook, but still. There were way too many things left up in the air. And I'm okay with a vague ending. But if you are going to set up all of these characters and then not pay them off at some point in the story, that's not good writing.

3. The pacing
This book was far too long. This ties back into my first gripe about too much focus being placed on the romances. We would take these long breaks from the action in order to read a chapter about Jasper being petty because Dorian wanted to rescue Caius. Then a chapter about Dorian feeling conflicted about the fact that he has feelings for Jasper, mixed with his guilt for letting his prince and former crush get kidnapped while he was canoodling with Jasper. Then there is a chapter about Echo and all her feelings about Rowan and Caius. Then it might finally get back to the actual plot of the story (what there was of a plot) for a chapter before getting started all over again. There is no way that this book needed to be 500+ pages. That is silly.

4. Deus ex machina in the extreme.

Oh, the final battle is about to start and you are WAY outnumbered? Well, look over there! There's a dragon that we didn't bring with us but just somehow knew what was up, and then this pink-haired mage we met awhile back that I literally had no memory of at all! They're joining the fray!! And then she's never mentioned again and the dragon disappears and no one knows where it is. A FUCKING DRAGON. Just...gone.

5. The ending (specifically the epilogue).

I did not have a problem with the fact that the author chose to kill off one of the major characters in the last chapter of the book. I actually appreciated it quite a bit. However, I didn't like that it felt like she was trying to mitigate it in the epilogue with the whole 'Rose is going to find Caius' thing. It made no sense. It was confusing. So, Caius sacrificed himself to save the universe and went into the in-between, but somehow his long-dead ex-love is going to 'find him'? How? What does that even mean in the grand scheme of things? And then she has a conversation with Rowan. Are we supposed to hope she settles for him, then? Because I just don't care.

6. The audiobook.
This is the second series I've listened to with this narrator. When I realized who the narrator was, I actually decided to read the physical copies of the second and third books instead because I just don't like her voice acting. Unfortunately, this last book wasn't readily available on ebook or physical copy, and I didn't feel like waiting, so I went into the audiobook. Her characters show very little emotion, and the voices she uses for the characters isn't distinct, unless she is doing some kind of accent. The Ala did have a different cadence to her voice, but Ivy and Echo sounded identical. The same thing is true of her male voices. Also, several of the characters in this series are supposed to have Scottish accents. There are certain times when the accent kind of comes out, but it is not consistent at all. I just don't think I'll listen to another audiobook narrated by her.

7. Not enough Ivy. Ivy is my favorite character throughout the books. And she's not in them enough. I'm really annoyed that we didn't get to see her in the epilogue. I don't even recall if she got more than a passing mention. And as much as I roll my eyes when a series will have all of the major characters coupling up, I preferred her and Helios to any of the other various romantic couplings that occurred in this series. I also loved her friendship with Dorian.

I almost wish I would've read a physical copy of this so I could've referred back to it or taken notes more easily. I feel like there is a lot that I could talk about in this review that I'm skipping over. Suffice it to say, I was really disappointed by this book. I kind of wish I'd just read the first book and pretended that Echo defeated Tanith at the end and that was it. It would've saved me so much time.

Jessie is still grieving the loss of her mom and trying to navigate a completely new city, home, school, and family after her father's re-marriage. One day she received an anonymous email from someone referring to themselves as 'SomebodyNobody' (SN) and she begins to get to know this person online.

What I liked:

1. You've-Got-Mail trope. I freely admit this is one of my favorite tropes, when done properly. Books like P.S. I Like You and Letters to the Lost are two examples of this concept that I really liked. You could probably also put Eliza and Her Monsters in there as well. I thought this was the strongest aspect of this story. I knew as soon as the character was introduced that they were SN, and never wavered from that at any point in the story. However, this doesn't negatively impact the book for me because I liked this person and their relationship with Jessie both in real life and also through email and IM. The 'three things' game made me smile every time. I just loved their interactions.

2. The discussion of grief. Jessie's mom passed away a couple of years before the beginning of the book. Her step-brother Theo's father also passed away. And SN lost a sibling also, which is something they are able to bond over. Also we get to see how those losses affect Jessie's father and step-mother. I do wish that maybe the author had dug a little deeper into this, especially with SN, but I get that she was trying to keep it mysterious throughout the book so people would be surprised about SN's identity.

3. Text speak. It's definitely not going to be everyone's favorite thing, but I liked the text-speak in this book. It's authentic to the characters and authentic to the time. Also, it's super easy to read, which is one thing I was looking for in this book.

What I didn't like:

1. Mis-communication or non-communication as a plot device. So, this book not only contains one of my favorite tropes (see item #1 under 'What I Liked') but also one of my least favorite. There are sometimes viable reasons that characters do not relay information to each other. In this book, the sole reason is that any type of real communication would've led to Jessie figuring out who SN is about 50 pages into the book. Say it with me folks: If your entire plot revolves around two or more people keeping information from each other for no reason whatsoever...it DOESN'T WORK!

Spoilery example below:

As Jessie begins to get to know Ethan, everyone tells her to be wary of him because of his past, saying he's 'troubled' and 'damaged'. Does she ONCE ask any of these people to expand on what they're referring to? Nope. Why? Because then she would learn that Ethan had a brother who OD'd on heroin and that is supposed to be a big twist in the story. But if you're paying attention, it's not a big twist AT ALL. It's obvious. At one point when Theo tells her that Ethan's family is "so screwed up', instead of asking him what that means she simply says, "I'm so tired of the Wood Valley learning curve." Well -- it wouldn't be if she would just ASK. QUESTIONS.

SN staying a mystery to Jessie (not that they are really a mystery to the reader. Again -- it's completely obvious who SN actually is.) only happens because she doesn't ask obvious questions at obvious times. It's aggravating.

2. Inconsistencies. This is specifically in reference to Jessie's relationship with Scarlett. Through the first half of the book, she and Scar text each other all of the time. They both talk about what is going on with them. Jessie talks about her issues with her new living situation, and Scar talks about her new relationship and going to Homecoming and possibly losing her virginity to her new boyfriend. It seems relatively equitable to me. Then Jessie goes to visit Scar half way through the book and Scarlett is immediately rude and passive aggressive toward her, after being ecstatic about it in their texts. I even went back and looked through their texts and didn't see anything that indicated that Scarlett was feeling resentment toward Jessie. In fact, early in the book Jessie actually apologizes for monopolizing the conversation and 'whining' and Scarlett says, "That's what I'm here for." Then Scarlett freaks out on Jessie, accusing her of making everything about herself and not caring how Scarlett was dealing with everything. It felt very inconsistent and out of nowhere.

3. Crass language. For starters, I am not a prude. I don't mind swearing in books. At all. Even YA books. I remember being 17 (oh, so long ago) and we used all sorts of 'bad' words. However, it felt to me like the author was trying too hard to sound young and it ended up awkward and forced.
Examples:
a. "The band's logo is a big vaginal-looking O, with a tongue through it." Describing a band some of the character's are in called 'Orgasmville'.
b. "Agnes got half penetrated. She got slipped a half peen." Discussing whether or not this girl was technically still a virgin or not.
c. "My life is a shit sandwich, with a side of jizz veggie burger." Um, WTF?! I don't know any 17 year old girl who thinks this way.

4. Cliches. While I loved all of the interactions between Jessie and her friends via digital means, I felt like most of the scenes that took place at the school, particularly the descriptions of the students, to be really cliche. For example, Jessie does that thing where she talks about all of the cliques and where they hang out at lunch, i.e. 'The popular kids hang out on this hill and the nerds go to the library while the jocks throw the football around the quad.' This is not actually a quote from this book, but it may as well have been.

Here is the actual quote: "Next day at lunch I sit with Dri and her friend Agnes, who is probably her Scarlett. I'm still too new here to see where this table fits into the high school hierarchy. It seems none of my old rules apply. Back in Chicago, the athletes, who gathered Saturday nights in the bowling alley parking lot to sit in open hatchbacks and drink cheap beer by the case and toss their empty cans at the Dumpster were the popular kids, and the theater dorks, who had ill-placed piercings and one silly streak of cotton-candy-colored hair were, well, the dorks."

Later, she says, "I was in that middle clique that every school needs to function efficiently: the worker bees. We took honors classes, ran the newspaper and the yearbook and the student government. Not popular, but at least indispensible. (Back at my old school, it was important to distinguish the worker bees from the straight-up nerds: the nerds were even less cool that the theater dorks, but they were too busy learning how to write code and nurturing dot-com fantasies to care.)" Also, "The burnouts have colonized the back lawn..."

Okay. We get it. In high school people hang out with people who have similar interests to them and see other people not in their group as cooler or not as cool as them depending on whatever criteria they've settled on for what defines 'cool'. There's nothing super offensive about this (even to me, a self-proclaimed nerd) but at the same time, it's totally unoriginal. Every 80s and 90s high-school movie has some version of this scene: the camera pans the lunchroom/ classroom/ grassy outdoor study area and we see all the different groups of people: jocks, popular kids, tech nerds, drama geeks, music nerds, and outcasts. IT'S BEEN DONE.

5. Body-shaming/slut-shaming

"All the girls here are thin and half-naked."

Describing the main antagonists: "Oddly big boobs. Short skirts that I'm pretty sure violate the school's dress code, and four coats of makeup that was probably applied with the help of a YouTube tutorial."

"I don't fit in here. Everyone is a size 0. Or 00."

"Blond-bimbo squad"

"So my sister goes to UCLA, and she's like this big hobag there, right?"

It's not all through the book, but these few instances were bothersome for me.

6. WTF sentences/scenes.
I just...

"He has what Scarlett and I would call penis fingers. Dri would call them manly."
Ummm...what? I don't understand what attributes these fingers have that would make someone else refer to them as 'penis fingers.'

"I've worked here for weeks and I can't remember her name." Jessie referring to her boss. She doesn't remember her boss's name. That's weird.

"I wouldn't mind touching the rough texture of his cheek, feeling the knot where bone meets bone." Jessie talking about wanting to feel up Ethan's jawbone. Awkward AF.

"He looks like the kind of guy who might ask before kissing you."
Is that the bar we're setting on whether a guy is decent or a scumbag? Because...that's a pretty low bar.

The scene where Jessie's father announces that he's gotten a new job really annoyed me. First of all, Jessie makes it clear that her new step-mother is the bread winner of the family. She says that what her father will be making at his new job is probably what her step-mother pays the housekeeper. If that's true, I want to be their housekeeper. Jessie's dad is a pharmacist. The *average* pay for pharmacists in the US is between $112,000 and $119,000. You have to go to medical school to become a pharmacist. It's not like it's a minimum-wage type of deal. Even working at an in-store pharmacy like Walgreens or Ralph's, the actual pharmacist (not the pharmacy techs, that's different) are making around $50/hour. To have Jessie and Theo act like it some shameful, low-paying job is ridiculous. Jessie later in the book says that her dad could write a self-help book called Marry Up. It's obnoxious.

So, as much as I nitpicked this book, I actually ended up liking the main part of the story, which is the friendship/romance between Jessie and SN. I just wish that some of the secondary stories would've been as engaging as the main story, because I don't think they served the story well at all. That being said, 3 stars is not a rating I give to books I didn't enjoy at least in some aspects, so I will probably check out more from this author in the future.

"It's basic physics really. We all need an equal and opposing force."

I read Julie Buxbaum's Tell Me Three Things earlier this month. I liked it. I wasn't in love with it. What To Say Next is a really good follow up to her previous novel. Again, it wasn't perfect, but there was so much to like here.

I knew by the second page that this book was special. For the most part, it delivered.

What I liked:

1. David. Just, everything about him. I thought his voice was so clear and unique, and I loved learning about him and how he saw the world and his honesty. Just everything. When he hurt, I ached for him the same way I ache when I see my son hurting. Where you just want to gather them up and tell them everything is going to be okay and then go kick the ass of whoever hurt them in the first place.

As far as the austism rep goes, I do not have autism. I do know some people with autism and it's very true what he says in the book: "If you meet one person with autism, you've met one person with autism." It's a condition that affects each person differently. From what I could see, this looked like a very sensitive and intricate portrayal of autism that didn't seem to get entrenched in all of the cliches and stereotypes that people think of when they think of a person with autism.

I did see one person, who identified herself as someone with autism, saying that while the rep was actually amazing, she was really upset because in the beginning of the book, he claims that he does not have autism. He says that the closest diagnosis for his behavior is Asperger's, but that since it's not in the DSM anymore there isn't something that clearly defines him. I understand why she would be upset, but I do think that the author may have done this intentionally to show his growth in the story because as he learns more about the people around him and attempts to integrate himself into the world, he comes to terms with the fact that he does have autism, regardless of any specific diagnosis. Now, that being said, I don't know how successful this is, but I don't think that the author was trying to say that David doesn't have autism, only that David, who is a very precise person, didn't classify himself that was at the beginning of the story.

2. Friendships.
I really loved David and Kit's friendship. She was going through something truly traumatic and didn't feel comfortable with her friends, even though they weren't being anything other than loving and supportive. I totally get that. Sometimes so much love and support can be overwhelming, to the point that it feels undeserved. David is the only one who wasn't handing out a bunch of meaningless platitudes. He was honest to a fault, and I loved that she appreciated that.
I also thought that her friends Annie and Violet were really good. At first I was nervous that they were going to have a bunch of high school drama and turn the two of them into mean girls. I'm so glad they didn't. They are there throughout the book to support Kit, even when they may not exactly understand what she is going through and the choices she is making. That's what real friends do.

What I didn't like:

1. The main conflict between Kit and David (because there has to be some sort of obstacle) in this book hinges on a twist revealed near the end of the book. My problem is that when this twist was revealed, it wasn't anything super surprising to me. I had actually predicted it near the beginning of the book based on things Kit and her mom talked about. Actually, I predicted it and then forgot that it wasn't already known information so when it was revealed, I was like, "Why are we going over this again?"

2. Kit in the last quarter of the book was frustrating. I mean, she's a mess through most of the book, but it's understandable. Her dad has just died. But the way she reacts to David after the twist was just aggravating. She knows that he isn't neurotypical, and that he won't always react the way many other people would, and yet she acts like he maliciously tried to cause her pain. I wish they'd shown her going to counseling or maybe meetings in a group setting, because she definitely needed some help.

One more thing. I saw a scathing review of this book comparing it to the 90s movie She's All That. In the book, David does get a haircut and some new clothes. Afterwards, he does get noticed quite a bit because of it. The reviewer went off on this 'trope' and how it was a ripoff of the movie...I do not get that at all. The 'makeover' is such a small part of David's story. It happens more than half-way through the book. Also, Kit didn't start liking him or thinking he was cute after the makeover. She had already admitted multiple times that he was good looking and a really good guy. But honestly, if all you get out of this book is She's All That...I just don't know what to say. We'll have to agree to disagree on that one.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. Let's be honest. I mostly loved David.

For about the first 70% of this book, I thought I was going to give it a full 5 stars. I feel like it lost a little bit of steam near the end of the book, however, and that coupled with a lackluster twist made me knock this rating down to 3 stars.

What I liked:

1. Characters, specifically the titular character of Evelyn. She was a phenomenal character. So complex and layered. This book is the perfect example of a great book with an unlikable main character. The candor she shows in relating all of the details of her life to Monique — good, bad, and ugly —was so engaging. I couldn’t put this book down. I didn’t really care about Monique, but the story wasn’t really about her.

2. The setting. I love the golden era of Hollywood. The movies, the celebrities, the scandals — it’s always been intriguing to me on so many levels. I love that this book explores all of that.

3. Diversity. The main characters in this book were both women of color, and there were several characters who identified as gay or bisexual. The latter is focused on extensively throughout this novel, as the characters attempt to navigate Hollywood and being in the public eye while still being true to who they are behind closed doors.


What I didn’t like:

1. It started to become repetitive. I was totally fangirling over this book until about the 70%-80% mark. Earlier in the book, Celia and Evelyn are separated by the fact that Celia can’t accept that Evelyn was intimate with a man in order to provide a distraction to the public so their own relationship would remain secret. They are apart for five years. Then they get together again after they marry men who are also in love. They part after Evelyn doesn’t ask her permission to do a graphic (simulated) sex scene for a movie. Then they are apart for ten years. At that point, Evelyn and Celia start to talk again. Celia convinces Evelyn to marry her brother and move to Spain altogether so they can be together. It was during their third reconciliation that I just became weary of where the story was going. It was only 391 pages, but it felt longer.

2. Celia. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to root for Celia and Evelyn, but I just kept finding myself thinking that if Celia was a man treating Evelyn the way she did readers would be freaking out. Just because a relationship consists of two people of the same gender doesn’t mean it can’t be dysfunctional. First, I will say that neither of these women are perfect, not by any means. But, Celia was insufferable to me. I didn’t understand the appeal at all. Her insecurities regarding Evelyn and how she treated her because of those insecurities was not romantic. She was emotionally and verbally abusive, and very possessive of Evelyn. It bordered on controlling. The fact that she was so unreasonable about Evelyn’s work was ridiculous, considering they were both actresses and should be able to keep a clear head and understand that it isn’t reality. Every time they get back together Celia gets jealous about the men Evelyn slept with or had connections with during the separation, despite the fact that she also had other intimate relationships.
I didn’t like how she blew off Evelyn’s assertions that she wasn’t gay. In the end, she came around to acknowledging that Evelyn identified as bisexual, but by that time I was over it.

3. The twist. I knew there had to be some sort of reveal because of all the focus being put on the idea that Evelyn had ulterior motives for hiring Monique to write for her. The moment the groundwork was laid for the twist I knew what was going to happen. So when it actually did happened, it fell incredibly flat for me. Also, the whole cover-up aspect of the twist was absolutely unrealistic. Just because there wasn’t really DNA testing at that time, I just don’t believe that Evelyn and her lackey would’ve been able to rearrange the scene in a way that wouldn’t have been uncovered by investigators. Also, everything they did would’ve taken time. How on Earth did no one see what they were doing? It’s just not realistic.

And, what would make Harry think that his plan to have his boyfriend marry Celia would ever work?! This is still the 1980s, and interracial couples in the public eye are not a common sight. For a screen legend like Celia to marry an African American man who isn’t even another well-known actor seems like it would’ve invited more questions than it would answer, especially since that man would have to divorce his wife and leave his daughter to do so.

One more thing about all this. We are supposed to believe after all of this that Monique’s parents were as close as two people could be. He romantically brought her presents every year on a day that has nothing to do with their relationship or any recognized holiday. He just did it because he decided she needed a holiday just for her. But, we are also supposed to believe that they didn’t have real passion for one another, that their relationship was more about being comfortable with someone. Um...this struck me as being revisionist history. Again, this is the 70s-80s we are talking about. Interracial couples were not the norm. Many faced huge amounts of bigotry and racism. Earlier in the book Monique even mentions that she was the only girl she knew ‘like her’ until one other biracial girl came to her school. It just doesn’t make sense to me that two people who are undoubtedly facing prejudice from the society around them got together and stayed together because they were such good friends. I don’t think I’m articulating my feelings well, but it just doesn’t sit right with me.

This is my first Taylor Jenkins Reid read (see what I did there?) but it won’t be the last. And I absolutely loved the first half of this book. I do feel like it lost its way at the end though, hence the rating.

I listened to the first 20 chapters of this on audiobook. I almost DNF’d at that point because I just could not focus on what was going on. I decided to pick up my physical copy to see if it was just one of those books I need to actually sit down and read to connect to. I’m not sure if that was the case, but the last third of this book was really engaging and kept my interest.

I don’t know that this book brought anything new to the YA fantasy table. Elements of it reminded me of the Grisha trilogy and any other number of series. It just wasn’t super unique. I found the middle third of the book pretty slow.

There is a love triangle in this book which is just completely unnecessary. I would’ve preferred if her crush over Mather would’ve remained just that, a crush. I really didn’t care for Mather. He was bland and forgettable for a majority of the book. I did end up liking him better near the end of the book, but not as a romantic interest. Why does every YA fantasy do this?!
I did like Theron as a love interest and wish Mather had been left out of the equation altogether. I liked that his relationship with Meira feels genuine. He sees her and treats her as an equal. I also like that, while he is fully capable of fighting and protecting himself, he is more interested in artistic and intellectual pursuits.

There is a twist near the end of the book that I completely saw coming almost from the beginning of the book. There are many not-so-subtle attempts at foreshadowing this twist. That being said, I thought the actual revelation was handled pretty well, and knowing it was coming didn’t make it feel anti-climactic to me.

I was excited to pick up the second book until I found out it is from both Meira’s and Mather’s perspectives. And I have read a couple reviews saying the love triangle drama increases. Whyyyyyyy??

DNF’d at about 50%

I had so many problems with this book. I rarely rate books that I have DNF’d, but when I

2.5 stars
To anyone who is reading this, there are massive spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read this yet and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now.

Also, this is very long. I had a lot to get off my chest about this book, so you may want to grab a hot beverage and a snack.


This one is tough. I really enjoy Merphy’s booktube channel. She talks about books I don’t hear every other booktuber raving about, and her critiques are very thoughtful and thorough. I’ve picked up several books on her recommendation and enjoyed them.

I wanted to support her writing because I think that it’s important to support self and indie-published authors and creators.

Also, the concept of this book was intriguing to me. I love dystopians. I don’t care if people are burnt out by them. I am still a sucker for a good dystopian.

Unfortunately, Perfection just didn’t quite work for me.

What I liked:

1. The concept. A walled-off country is supposedly the last civilization left after everyone else has died. There are two types of people in this society: Perfects, who are beautiful, agreeable, docile, and well-liked; and Non-Perfects, who are none of those things. Ashton, a young Non-Perfect of 18, is approached by two young men and told that there is a whole group of people living outside the walls. They are called the Keuse, and they’ve made it their mission to Warn (the capitalization is hers, not mine) people when they turn 18 that their government has been lying to them their entire lives. The Perfects are genetically engineered from the DNA of nearly-dead people, and all of the babies coming into Perfection are Keuse-born children who have been kidnapped.

That’s the short version. I wasn’t completely blown away by the idea, but I felt like it had a little potential. It actually reminded me of Westworld in a very small way. The Perfects are human, unlike the Hosts in Westwood, but they are designed for the specific purpose of pleasing the Non-Perfects. I was intrigued.

2. The twist near the end was pretty good. I didn’t find it mind-blowing when I realized what they were doing with the grown Keuse they were snatching, but I thought it was an interesting twist to the story. I actually thought the story had decent momentum at the end that made me want to pick up the next book to see what happens next.

3. Characterization for many of the characters. It was obvious to me that the author spent a lot of time on her characters. And I think that was one of the stronger aspects of this book. Some of the dialogue was actually pretty fun, and I was interested in their backstories.

4. The Keuse. I really liked learning about this group and their customs. I wish we’d seen more.

What I didn’t like:

1. Grammatical/spelling errors. Listen, I’m not trying to be a grammar nazi, okay? I’m really not. I’m trying to take into account that this was a debut novel that was probably either self or indie published and didn’t have a lot of intense editing. But wow. There were a lot of typos and mistakes in here, to the point that it took me out of the story, even when I was enjoying it.
The following are a few examples:

A. She refers to her parents as mom and dad. Without capitalization. When you are using Mom and Dad in place of their actual names, it’s a proper noun, and should be capitalized.

B. She uses the word ‘that’ when she should use the word ‘who’ (ex. Page 325 of kindle edition): To my left was the bushy haired girl that liked to read...

C. She leaves out hyphens that should be used in descriptions (See above. ‘Bushy haired’ should be ‘bushy-haired’. It’s done over and over again.

D. Misspellings. This includes the use of incorrect homonyms in some cases.

Page 12: peaked instead of peeked
Page 27: ally instead of alley
Page 92 and 405: programed instead of programmed
Page 123 and 375: heals instead of heels
Page 153: permanente instead of permanent
Page 158 and 308: awe instead of aw or aww
Page 172: complement instead of compliment
Page 189: A instead of I
Page 203: payed instead of paid
Page 313: ahold instead of ‘a hold’ or just ‘hold’
Page 315: Cicilia instead of Cecilia (it was spelled Cecilia earlier in the book)
Page 403: leaver instead of lever

Yes, I know this is nitpicky and some people will probably think I’m being petty. But it really affected my ability to immerse myself into the story.


2. Ashton. I know we are supposed to be rooting for this main character, but she was insufferable to me. She was selfish, petty, and stubborn to the point that she blinded herself to very obvious truths.
I feel like I could write a book on all the things I disliked about this character.
She overhears her father ordering his minions to go and attack the Keuse, and spends the next couple hundred pages denying that her father could possibly be a bad guy:

Page 231
Ashton: The Keuse think they’re killing them
Declan: And you don’t?
Ashton: I-I don’t know. The Titan are doing a lot of things to hold onto their control here but murder? I’m not sure.

Ummmm...yes you are, Ashton! You heard your father, with your own stupid ears, order the murder of the Keuse. This is not the only instance where she is basically in denial of her father’s murderous nature.
It was so aggravating, because she would learn something, then spend the next several pages, of not chapters, denying or rationalizing it away.

She did the same thing with her Perfect boyfriend, David. She knew from the time she met the Keuse that David, like all Perfects, was genetically engineered to be docile and agreeable. Then she finds out that each Perfect is specifically designed for one Non-Perfect. But she still continues their relationship, even after she begins to have feelings for Kaleb. Even after she tells Kaleb she is going to break it off with David, she gets sucked into David’s obsequious nature and agrees to marry him. It’s totally bizarre. At first I wondered if maybe in the genetic engineering process they play around with pheromones or something to make the Non-Perfects fall for the Perfects, because the second she would get away from David she barely thought about him. But no...that wasn’t it. She was just wishy-washy as heck.

She was also incredibly rash. This, mixed with her stubbornness and relative stupidity, made her do things that got other people hurt and killed. Simple as that. Every single time someone told her not to do something, she did it anyway, and it almost always blew up in her face. Meanwhile, people are fawning all over her like she single-handedly saved their people. Her actions cost several people their lives. She has absolutely terrible judgment.

Also, the whole klutzy thing was so overdone. I hate that cliche in the first place, and this bordered on obnoxious. She trips and falls and stubs her toe and all of this garbage, but by the end we’re supposed to believe she’s the best fighter they have from Perfection. Ooookaaaaay...

As far as the romance goes, I liked Kaleb and he deserves better than Ashton. I honestly don’t really understand what he sees in her.

3. Plot holes/contrivances/questions
I had a lot of questions as I was reading this book. Very few were answered in a satisfactory manner.

-If the Perfects are ‘the Perfect Race’ and they don’t want them breeding with the Non-Perfects because the result would be less than perfection, why the heck were they also making Non-Perfects in the first place? Why weren’t they just making everybody Perfects? I don’t understand that at all.

-Why are the Non-Perfects so antagonistic toward one another? I suppose this could just be Ashton’s character, although it is mentioned in the book that Non-Perfects don’t usually hang out with other Non-Perfects. But then when Ashton goes to the Keuse she doesn’t seem to have any problem getting along with them.

-Why do the Keuse wait until the NPs (got tired of typing Non-Perfect.) turn 18 before approaching them? Wouldn’t it be smarter to go grab them when they are younger and potentially less brainwashed?

-Also, how would they possibly know when each NP is turning 18?

-In that same vein, why don’t they break in and take back their babies?! They seem to have no trouble breaking in at other times, and I would not just let my child be kidnapped without raising hell.

-Why and how was Ashton allowed to wander all over the Kwaad facility with no one knowing? They don’t have cameras? I find that very hard to believe. This is a technologically-advanced, super-oppressive regime that dictates its citizens actions, to the point that they make their partners for them in a lab. But they don’t have cameras in their government facilities?

-There is, conveniently, a room full of files for each person in Perfection. They aren’t stored somewhere safe, like in a computer, but just laying around a random room. Again, this is supposed to be a high-tech futuristic society. But they can’t even get a couple big file cabinets?

-At the beginning of the book, Ashton tears up her arm in a way that is described as ‘raw and bloody.’ Afterwards she goes home and falls asleep without as much as a towel wrapped around it. The next morning she says she forgot about it. Huh?!

-Why did they need to kill people to use their DNA to make new NPs? Why couldn’t they just use artificial insemination?

-Why create the brother character just to forget about him after chapter five. His name is only mentioned in the book 15 times and only once after chapter 5. When it was mentioned, I’d completely forgotten who he was and had to search for his name in the kindle. I feel like there was more to that than we got to see, because it’s mentioned that he and Ashton have similar features. Maybe he and she are actually genetically related? I don’t know. Either way, to introduce his character and then never think about his again was weird.

-Why on Earth would the Keuse stay in a place that was within reach of the Tiran? I simply do not understand. It makes no sense whatsoever. Unless the world really is desolate, and somehow this is the only bit of habitable land left...but I don’t know if I’m buying that. Why would they not pack up and move away from Perfection? Yes, they had their children kidnapped. But they weren’t actually doing anything to stop that or try to get them back, so why stay? Why not get far away? I just don’t understand.

-Why did no one comment when people went missing? And if the NPs didn’t know that the Perfects were genetically engineered, how did they think the Perfects came to be?


4. Setting/world building. I just feel like this wasn’t enough of a focus. We were kind of thrown into this world with very little foundation. Is this supposed to be a futuristic United States? Everyone speaks English, so I’m assuming it’s either the US, the UK, or Ireland. Now, there is a character that speaks with a strong accent that I’m assuming is supposed to be Scottish. But no one else in this book has a discernible accent. Which to me is another plot hole. If this is supposed to be several generations removed from the beginning of Perfection, where did this man’s accent come from?
I wish there had been some clarity on this. In one of those repetitive scenes where Ashton wandered around a super-secret facility couldn’t she have found a room that had some old texts or something. I still don’t feel like I really understand the backstory of this civilization.

I feel awful that I had so many issues with this book because the author seems like such a wonderful and genuine person. I will most likely pick up the second book because I am legitimately curious to see not only the end of the story, but also her growth as an writer. I’m also hoping that some of the questions I have will be answered in the second book. Unfortunately, this one didn’t quite hit the mark for me.