reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

Ugh... 

This was a nice enough YA, a mediocre 3 stars and readable.

At least until the last few pages...

The ending was so contrived, cheesy, and flat. No thank you.  

*Edit*

I've had to move my rating from 4 to 4.75 stars. I wrote my original review just as I had finished the book, and the dust had indeed not settled. I was left emotionally spent after finishing this, and I don't think I realised how much it was impacting me until I finished reading it.

This rating change is a reflection of my thoughts about whether a book is good because you enjoyed it, or good because it made you feel really intense emotions. I enjoyed most of this book, and when I didn't it was because I felt everything so deeply, and I think that is the sign of a great book. 

*Original*

I'm really torn about my rating for this novel. If I gave each book a separate rating, these would be: 
 
 Book 1 - 5 stars
 Book 2 - 4.75/5 stars
 Book 3 - 3.5 stars 
 
However, as a novel combined I'm not sure where this leaves me, and may come back to alter my rating once the dust has settled.  
 
I thought the audiobook narration for each section was really strong, especially in Book 3. 
 
I loved the writing style, and thought the way stories were told within stories was beautiful. 
 
Book 1 was one of the best things I've read in a very long time.

I'm not sure I've ever been more shocked a cliff hanger ending, I had to stop what I was doing just to process the pure horror of knowing we weren’t going to have an answer, and the way their story was brought up in Book 3 through one of the story-tellers just made me feel all of that again.

 
Book 2 was also really strong, though the story hasn't stayed with me as well as Book 1.
 
Book 3, in my opinion, could have been much shorter and still accomplished a lot of what it has. I didn't have a problem with the Charles/Nathanial/David storyline, but Charlie just got on my nerves SO MUCH. I think much of this was due to the narrator doing such a good job of portraying Charlie's deadpan voice/lack of feeling. This was impressive, but started to feel very oppressive after a while, and towards the end of the novel I just was so frustrated with her and every decision she made. If her sections had been shorter, I think the same effect could have been achieved, but I wouldn't have been as frustrated. I understand that this may have been very intentional, but it just riled me up too much and for far too long. I also didn't care as much about her storyline as a whole, and found it the least compelling. In addition, I felt quite uncomfortable at times with the similarities her illness had to autism, and how this was caused by an illness and not her being born with it. If autism had been brought up, and any differences had been explained, this would have solved this unease, but it wasn't. However, with all this being said and done, the novel was ended really skilfully, and I was in tears by the end. 

In conclusion, Books 1+2 are a masterpiece, Book 3 let it down for me. 

This is the second Emily McIntire 'Never After' book I've read, and I can't help but notice the similarities between this one and Hooked. A powerful business man, a rich yet kinda pathetic daughter, an emotionally distant father figure. The male lead trying to win over the female lead in order to have influence over the father, a finale of a kidnap and fight at gunpoint. 
 
If this continues to be a trend in these books I can see it getting old, but it was bearable reading it for a second time.
 
I'm just glad this one didn't end with a 'happy' ending of them having children, which meant I gave it a slightly higher rating than Hooked, and I did think the plot was more interesting than Hooked. 
 
However, the last three lines of this one made me cringe so badly - they just felt so out of place and performative... I actually howled and grimaced with second-hand embarrassment when I read them. 

This one didn't hit as hard as I hoped it would on re-read.
 
I think it may be because a lot of the tension in this book comes from the darkness, and not knowing what’s going to happen. Because this was a re-read I knew the ending, so most of the tension was taken out of it for me. 
 
I also remember Drake to be a much more intimidating character. I would think this is because I'm just older now and have read a lot more horror, but during this re-read I have been more creeped out by him in earlier books, so it might just be that this one is lacking. 
 
It may also be because I seem to be in a bit of a slump. Not necessarily with getting through books, but I don't feel as immersed in stories at the moment. 

Either way, still a great book with great concepts. 

I really don't know how to feel about this book.

I enjoyed the writing style, though I found it a slog to get through at some points. 

I appreciated the changing formats of the chapters, and I didn't feel this confused the narrative line, as it has done in similar books I have read. 

I definitely enjoyed the first half of the novel more, and enjoyed it less as I read on. 

I didn't ever really feel connected to the characters - it was as if I was watching them from behind a screen, rather than experiencing things with them. I suppose this could be a deliberate choice, but if so it didn't work for me. Reading other reviews, people seem to find this very emotional, but I thought it was pretty clinical, and it didn't make me feel much of anything.

All of the characters were pretty awful people, yet presented in a way that made me feel like we should like them and feel sympathy towards them. They also didn't have an iota of character development, especially in the second half of the book. 

Like most popular books I've read recently, I just don't understand the hype. My theory is that people who don't read much pick up these books and don't have as much to compare them to, so they become popular and more highly rated. Yet when people who read a lot read them they are left disappointed as they have read many better books and can see the faults more easily. 

 I did enjoy this book, I liked the writing style and it was very readable - I read it in one day.
 
 I appreciated all of the interconnecting puzzle pieces, and didn't see most of the 'reveals' coming. However, I also didn't feel particularly shocked by them. As a relatively avid sci-fi/fantasy reader, all I can say is that this concept has already been done so many times, and I don't know that this book did anything that broke the standard mould. I found myself hoping that the stakes would be higher, or that I'd feel more emotionally connected to the characters. 
 
 

I also had a couple of questions that I hoped would be answered - especially for a book that is all about giving the answers and wrapping everything up neatly (and maybe too nicely) - but they weren't.
 
 1. How does Gaspode make sure he has the right clothes for the time period he's in?? This isn't mentioned at any part during his training, though we are told about his learning of the time periods/people he may meet. I understand that this book isn't particularly descriptive about the character’s appearances, but his clothes are mentioned twice and seem to fit with the time period. However, it's never mentioned how he bounces between times and seemingly immediately has switched to the correct clothing?
 
 2. We don't get to find out what happened to Olive? She was the character I cared about the most and I was really hoping for a little information about her life after the pandemic, but we get nothing?? It could have been a really interesting section about her life knowing she was meant to die, or even just one sentence about how she dies, but we don't get to see that for some reason.

 

I was left feeling almost nothing after reading this (and not in the fun emotionally deranged way), which means it will unfortunately never rate too highly for me. 

My god, they weren't lying when they advertised this book as addictive. I started reading it, and pretty much didn't put it down until it was over. So good. 

I thought I'd give this a try seeing as it is/was everywhere. 

I'm either too old for it, or have read far too many better YA fantasy books to find this one interesting. I'm only 23 pages in and everything seems so contrived and childish. 

I already feel like I know exactly how the story will go, and the characters aren't anywhere near intriguing enough for me to continue just for them.

This is exactly why I don't trust hype.

I think this may be my favourite instalment of this series so far! Maybe apart from the first two, which have a special place in my heart. Everyone seems to think Guards! Guards! is the best, but this one was way superior in my opinion.

I haven't ever laughed out loud so many times reading one book. It also has a really strong plotline, which I don't remember being as impressed with in previous stories.

Banged grains and a grumpy talking dog, what more could you ask for?

This book did absolutely nothing for me, especially compared to the previous trilogies.
 
It has none of the depravity that made the previous series' good, which just turns it into a miserable fantasy rather than an interesting/challenging one.
 
Because I've been in this world so much and know the lore well, I've learned basically nothing new about the Land in this book, which is one of the things I enjoy most in fantasy. The second trilogy had a lot of new things to process with the Sunbane, travelling to new places etc., but this one has nothing apart from moodier Haruchai. 
 
At 50% there's basically no plot. They've just been traipsing through mountains and giving confusing explanations about ur-viles and demondim spawn.
 
Linden as the main protagonist is BORING. Thomas Covenant was interesting because he's a pure anti-hero. Yes, it could be difficult to read at times, but at least it was interesting. Linden has nothing apart from sometimes mentioning her son - but she doesn't worry about him enough to make that an interesting characteristic. 

Maybe I'll pick it up again at some point, as I glean from other reviews that Thomas Covenant does actually return. But at 50% with literally nothing happening, I'm just done.