Um. Yeah. I have to say I was a little underwhelmed.
This started off strong. Don’t get me wrong. There were so many players still left in place, so much tension, and I knew the vandals would be more involved.
I don’t know when it went downhill specifically..
I think it has something to do with the fact that all of these people. King, Harper Reed, Wallace Graham. They were all built up to be these powerful, unapproachable, not to mention dangerous people in not only this book series, but in the vandal series as well (more specifically King in this instance)
And this series has spent five books talking about how they were up to their necks in trouble with these people.
And yet, when it was time to deal with all of them, it was like they just went from door to door, rang the doorbell, and executed them.
I get that Andrea being taken was a big deal, and made for a good plot. But it did not have to take two full books. Especially considering she was basically fine when they found her, and we weren’t a part of her healing journey at all.
We were told she went to therapy, but we got absolutely no insight into what had been going on during the time she was taken.
It wasn’t like they had a lot of intel about what was being done to her before they found her. They were pretty much stumbling around in the dark actually.
Bodhi finding his own brother has also been a side plot for several books, and we got like, three pages of them actually talking.
And then it’s Emerson and Milo’s brother Theo. Why was he even a part of anything? There was never any indication previously that they had another sibling, but when it was brought up that King had another child I thought it would be important in some way.
Turned out he was only there for a few pages, mouthing off to Milo (which he didn’t deserve because of how difficult it was for him to connect with Emerson/Ivy), and then we hear that Theo wanted to go live with Emerson and the Vandals, but we won’t get to see any of that, because that series is already finished.
I was so happy when I found out Margareta was Lainey’s grandmother. And then thoroughly disappointed when we didn’t get to see them explore that relationship AT ALL. Literally not even a conversation about it.
It was also just the ending of the book.
It was just a summary of how everything came together, rather than actually showing it in present time.
Does that make sense?
I am under the belief that a book is better when the author shows, instead of tells.
And, at the end of the summary everything was wrapped up in a nice little bow, but it wasn’t so satisfying.
I could go on about everything I liked in the book, but the truth is that it’s quite simple. The things I liked in the previous books regarding build up and the relationships were all done great. And I loved these characters and are very emotionally invested, which is why, despite not liking it as much as I wished, I can’t bring myself to rate it lower.