Reviews

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

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maddiereadswords's review against another edition

4.5

Great news!! Even after reading this book three times and fully knowing what's coming, the ending of this book can still make me cry. It's fine, I'm totally fine.

This doesn't have the same creepy, haunting vibes as the first two books, and the two parts feel a little more disconnected to the point where I almost wish it had been two separate books (mostly because the back half in particular is so fast-paced and plot heavy that it really loses those spooky vies, and also partly because I selfishly can never get enough of these characters.) This is easily the darkest and most "adult" installment so far, and while it doesn't hit quite as hard as the first two for me, it's still an absolute powerhouse of a book that drags me through the full spectrum of human emotion every time I read it. <3

Content Warnings

kristenmtan's review against another edition

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3.0

3. maybe even 3.25…..
this was the first real book in the series

booksandwhimsy's review against another edition

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5.0

The audiobook version is amazing. I had to read summaries to remember what happened in the first two books, but between the summaries and reminds throughout this book I felt like I knew what was going on. I love most of the characters. They feel so well rounded and real. I was no ready for that ending! And now to wait for the next book!!

thereadingwren's review against another edition

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4.0

4/5

The Diviners finally working together as a team and solving mysteries!! I really loved the Scooby-Doo vibes of this book with all the ghost hunting - and those ghosts were pretty freaking terrifying. It was everything I wanted it to finally be and yet there was still a few bits that left me a little less giddy with the series.

I still don't like Evie, and I doubt I ever will. She definitely had a LOT of growth in this book and everything we learnt about James was great but Evie and I will never be pals. I am also 1000% not loving what Libba Bray did to Jericho and how she ruined that ship for me (fair warning for sexual assault, btw) and then threw together the obvious couple that honestly does not make sense to me! I just don't understand the 'I love you but I don't actually like you as a human being' thing.

There's a section in the book where all the characters are hooking up and it's honestly so boring and unnecessary. I did love the snippet of Ling's and Henry's love lives but still.

There were still way too many story lines and POV's but I'm learning to deal with it. Another thing I didn't like about the writing was the lack of villain take down? In the first book the point was to stop the Pentacle murders, the second book was to stop the sleeping sickness.... there was no one to stop in the third book and that made it a little lackluster for me. There were plenty of awful people to stop but all of them are still around and able to make trouble. It just made the book feel like a filler between the second and fourth books.

THETA IS A QUEEN, EVERYONE SHOULD BOW DOWN TO HER GREATNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If it's not already obvious Theta is amazing and this book she really got a chance to shine! She owned this book, she broke my heart and healed it, she came into her powers and her confidence, she found her family and learnt to trust, she was a star and no one needed to tell her that for her to know it. I love Theta.

This kind of felt like a final book because of all the characters that got killed off and yet we still haven't actually gotten to the true big bad yet. I feel like for the final book to be amazing it has to really, REALLY, go all out... but that's a little terrifying.

This was my final read of the craziness that was 2020... makes sense that I ended on a weird-ass book.