atthelibrarywithmegan's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This was a conclusion to a trilogy that I fell in love with last year. This book came out in December 2022 and I was so excited to see how Melissa Caruso was going to wrap the story up. While I’m sad the story is over, she wrapped up Ryx and her friends’ story so well. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, so you’ll just have to trust me when I say you need to read this trilogy. It’s got magic, demons, chaos, love, LGBTQIA+ representation, politics, and adventure. I’d never read a world like this one before, and I can’t wait to do a reread in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Blood, and Death
greymalkin's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ahhh what a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy!
The reveal about Gloaminguard was utterly delightful because it brought a certain unexpected other genre (giant mecha! one of my favorites!) into the story. And it worked so well and made total sense.
Spoiler
I love where the various characters ended up and the little moments that they got to have. And I'm so happy that we got to see Ryx finding a balance between her political skills, her aethling duties/instincts, and her demon nature. I'm also really happy that Severin's growth in book 2 paid off here. What happened to him was not a surprise but it also needed to have all those little moments leading up to it. I really enjoyed the way the romance was present and important but didn't derail them from saving the world as it so often does in books with high stakes and slow-burn romance. I was happy to see Foxglove finding a new way to handle his disparate lives and making choices that don't slowly crush his soul. And thrilled that Ashe got to go all-out at last. It needed to happen and it was very very cool. I was really worried that Carnage would deliberately let Ashe kill them so that they could jump into Ashe and then they'd blend because of that similarity they share in violence.The reveal about Gloaminguard was utterly delightful because it brought a certain unexpected other genre (giant mecha! one of my favorites!) into the story. And it worked so well and made total sense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Torture
Minor: War
aelis_'s review
adventurous
dark
emotional
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Death, and Blood
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