Haddix really is a master at middlegrade. She manages to convey mature topics like propaganda and corruption in logical ways, as well as some fairly complex parallel universe ideas. I realized at some point that this is actually surprisingly dark for a childrens book, I mean, mind control, and brainwashing? Not themes you'd expect, and yet they are conveyed very well. It was a good ending I think as well, although my more jaded point of view would say that it was unrealistically positive (or I've just been reading too much YA with tragic endings), but seriously, you're telling me two dimensions signed a peace agreement after like a week, despite our dimension being made up of a ton of different countries? Doubtful.

At first, I thought I wouldn't like this book because of all the negative reviews complaining about the repetitiveness, the strikethroughs, and the prose. I was 10 pages in and I was thinking how I really hated the book, then at about 70 pages I got hooked, 100 pages and I was sure I would like this book. The strange writing style is intended to show how Juliette is not sane, which is expected when you haven't talked to another human being in 264 days. As you go through the book, the writing gets clearer and more normal, and I thought this was a genius way of showing how Juliette's mind progresses. People claim that it's not dystopian and more romance, and I have to say I agree. The dystopian aspect is the whole "Take over the world and erase all diversity and history to create a perfect society" which sounds like it would work, but only if the government wasn't as corrupt as it is in this book... I thought it was interesting how judgmental I was of Juliette at first, thinking I would do better in her situation, but I doubt that is true. She had a very traumatic past and arrival to the prison, so that made her sanity even worse.
TL;DR: You either like it or you don't, but please go in open minded and stick around for the first 100 pages at least. If you quit after the first 20 you won't like this book. It's very unique in characters, but not in plot.

I really hated Warner. Then I read this. At first, I hated him even more. Simply said, he's a coward and that's not what we want in a love interest. He's never stood up to his father, which even unstable Juliette did by escaping. But later, you start feeling kind of bad for him. His obsession with Juliette is kind of creepy and not healthy at all, but healthy relationships in YA Romances... not expected. Her journal entries are heart wrenchingly painful, and Warner reading them leads to him becoming unstable. He admits to not knowing the difference between right and wrong, which is concerning of course, but to be expected of someone raised by a father like his. I still don't like him, but we'll see.

This book is so. damn. quotable. I wrote down like 20 different quotes to take note of. My favorite is probably "Do you like Shakespeare?" but Kenji says a lot of funny things as well (my fav character for sure). Another interesting thing is despite the fact that Juliette has become more stable than the previous book, where she had entire pages crossed out, her excessive use of metaphors hasn't changed (in fact I'd say it's improved, she makes less illogical comparisons now). It's basically poetry at this point. The writing style is one of my favorite things about this series, I've never read something formatted this way, and it really adds to the story. I have always liked poetry and especially free verse, so I appreciate the elements of that in the book.

As JB said, everything turned out so perfectly. This is definitely my second favorite book in the series, and it’s interesting to think how much the characters have learned through eight books. I also enjoyed the symbolism at the end, how JB thinks that time travel could be made safe again after a while. Jordan definitely had a lot of character development, and even Jonah seemed to be less whiny than at the start. Really enjoyable series, recommend for ages 9-13 or so. Not any younger than 9 because it might be a bit confusing and complicated.
TL;DR: I'm sad that it's over but glad that it happened

Well that was a ride! This book scrambled my brain. And I thought time travel was confusing before that! Anyway, I once again enjoyed the plot twists and surprises, and Jonah just keeps on developing as a character. And that ending! Perfect.

I expected that the Romanov siblings would be included in the missing children, and I expected correct! I didn’t know about the recently found remains however, so that was interesting. One of the things I love about historical fiction is how it’s able to fill in the gaps where things are unknown or lack detail, and feel completely natural doing so. I can imagine Alexei giving away part of his toy soldiers, or the servant boy (I don’t remember his name) going to investigate when he heard the shots. Overall, I didn’t learn much of anything new that I didn’t know about the royal family or the Russian revolution, unlike the previous book, but it was still interesting.