ericadawson's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
My gripes: the occasional too-long sentence and the fact that this book felt like it was fitting a *lot* into its pages, especially at the end.
But those mean nothing in the face of everything else.
I'd had to stop for a moment roughly halfway through because I got distracted. My own fear of not being able to dive back in after that break held me back from picking it up, but two days ago I insisted, and I cleared this thing in record time.
Caruso was able to weave complex politics and magic together with interpersonal conflicts without making everything over-written and confusing. It's a fact that I appreciate greatly, since it means that across three books, Caruso was able to lay the foundation for a whole world and not once stray from it. Any information that was added on only served to enrich the story.
There were no characters that annoyed me (well, except Farrow, but he's excusable). I loved the characterization of the demons; they weren't all styled with the same brush, so they had different motivations, temperaments, and personal morals that lead to their defeats in different ways. I was afraid every demon would need to be brute-forced into defeat, but that wasn't the case. Reason, trickery, and brute force were crucial to saving Eruvia.
While I felt that there were a few too many fake-out moments of a character appearing at the last moment to turn the tide of the argument/battle, that only pulled the potential rating down from a 4.25 to a 4--still an excellent book, in my view.
I loved that Ryx's undying love for her friends was what pulled her through this series. Friendship being more important than romance is something we don't see often in many series where romance is present. What I also loved deeply was the fact that a) basically all of Ryx's family was alive, and b) she loved them and they loved her. The relationships were complex and they were often fraught, especially between Ryx and her grandmother, but they didn't dissolve into anger or hatred, instead helping to drive the plot and the characters forward.
Whisper has to be one of my favorite characters, although I do also love the Lady of Owls and Kessa. And Foxglove and Hylah and Ashe and Bastian. All of them. Well done.
But those mean nothing in the face of everything else.
I'd had to stop for a moment roughly halfway through because I got distracted. My own fear of not being able to dive back in after that break held me back from picking it up, but two days ago I insisted, and I cleared this thing in record time.
Caruso was able to weave complex politics and magic together with interpersonal conflicts without making everything over-written and confusing. It's a fact that I appreciate greatly, since it means that across three books, Caruso was able to lay the foundation for a whole world and not once stray from it. Any information that was added on only served to enrich the story.
There were no characters that annoyed me (well, except Farrow, but he's excusable). I loved the characterization of the demons; they weren't all styled with the same brush, so they had different motivations, temperaments, and personal morals that lead to their defeats in different ways. I was afraid every demon would need to be brute-forced into defeat, but that wasn't the case. Reason, trickery, and brute force were crucial to saving Eruvia.
While I felt that there were a few too many fake-out moments of a character appearing at the last moment to turn the tide of the argument/battle, that only pulled the potential rating down from a 4.25 to a 4--still an excellent book, in my view.
I loved that Ryx's undying love for her friends was what pulled her through this series. Friendship being more important than romance is something we don't see often in many series where romance is present. What I also loved deeply was the fact that a) basically all of Ryx's family was alive, and b) she loved them and they loved her. The relationships were complex and they were often fraught, especially between Ryx and her grandmother, but they didn't dissolve into anger or hatred, instead helping to drive the plot and the characters forward.
Whisper has to be one of my favorite characters, although I do also love the Lady of Owls and Kessa. And Foxglove and Hylah and Ashe and Bastian. All of them. Well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
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
displacedcactus's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
A satisfying conclusion to an enjoyable trilogy. The ending was perhaps a little too neat, but y'know, sometimes it is nice to see everything work out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Blood
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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