giorgioamani's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
3.75
effie_reads's review against another edition
Dnf @43%
I am so bored, there is a really big lack of characters development and explanations.
I am so bored, there is a really big lack of characters development and explanations.
natcommon's review against another edition
4.0
4.5
Favorite in the series. That last part makes me very excited to read the last book.
Favorite in the series. That last part makes me very excited to read the last book.
swiftreader_'s review
4.0
i’m trying not to worry about the fate of my babies in the final book while I write this review (please let them be happy)
from the beginning, i was much more interested in the plot than in the previous book, and every twist and turn left me begging for more. where this story may lack in world building, it makes up for in the intriguing, incredibly well-written characters which I feel so connected to, even the side characters had so much depth. the three pov's kept me engaged throughout but at points i felt like some of elian’s ghostly troubles were just space-fillers (up until near the end where i loved them). helene and laia’s however, were action-packed from beginning to end and gave me everything i wanted out of this book.
overall this was a really enjoyable read which I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come. beyond excited for the last book to (most likely) hurt me in the best possible way.
~ 4.5 stars
from the beginning, i was much more interested in the plot than in the previous book, and every twist and turn left me begging for more. where this story may lack in world building, it makes up for in the intriguing, incredibly well-written characters which I feel so connected to, even the side characters had so much depth. the three pov's kept me engaged throughout but at points i felt like some of elian’s ghostly troubles were just space-fillers (up until near the end where i loved them). helene and laia’s however, were action-packed from beginning to end and gave me everything i wanted out of this book.
overall this was a really enjoyable read which I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come. beyond excited for the last book to (most likely) hurt me in the best possible way.
~ 4.5 stars
bookedbyruqs's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 / 5 ⭐️
This series just gets darker and darker. Literally so emotionally draining. If torch against the night was the start of the fall then this book is definitely the fall. It is so dark and gruesome.
okay, so this book starts off with a chapter from the nightbringers POV. Low key if u think about it can u really blame the nightbringer for what he is doing. I mean the augurs/scholars destroyed his Jinn people way back in history and now he is getting vengeance for his people in order to bring them back to life from the tree prison that they are stuck in from when the augurs trapped them there in the forest of dusk. The whole point of the Jinn was to pass people on from the living to the dead. When the augurs got rid of them there was no one to do that and so they designated one person to do it instead aka the soul catcher. Now it used to be shaeva but then the nightbringer kills her before she can teach Elias everything and so Elias becomes soul catcher even though he doesn't really want to. He has to learn everything and he makes so many mistakes along the way, therefore, throwing the world into chaos since the ghosts keep passing through the wall, possessing people and then getting people to kill themselves and each other. That was so freaky.
I loved Musa in this book and I'm glad Darin finally was able to make the Serric steel.
The biggest plot twist of this book that literally had me shook was Cook being Laia's mother. I was hypothesizing who cook was in the previous books and I wanted to know more about her. Finally, in this book, we get that. Cook is Laia's mother who has been enslaved to Keris this whole time. That scene where we find out the truth was done so well. I loved it. I can't believe Cook actually killed her husband and her eldest daughter Lis at the time when they were being tortured in Kauf prison. I was like what the heck. I could understand why she did it but can't believe she actually did it by snapping off their necks. LIKEEE HOWWWWW. That was messed up. This whole time I thought it was Keris. I don't know how Cook lived with Keris this whole time. Literally. It was so weird how Cook kept referring to Laia as "girl" instead of calling her by her name. Those scenes where they reunited were weird but at the same time heartbreaking to see Cook being afraid to be close to her daughter cause she feels guilty at what happened in the past and feels like she doesn't deserve to be a mother. That ending though when Cook sacrificed her life so Laia and the blood shrike can escape got me emotional. I absolutely love how they came clean and voiced out what was bothering them. It was so good yet so sad.
There was literally barely any romance in this book. Elias gave up his humanity to become soul catcher and get this mauth power. therefore there was barely anything from him and Laia. The only brief romance we got from this book was towards the end when Helene survives death and she and harper kiss. that was so cute but then she switches it so fast and goes back to being the shrike. I'm like girl u deserve some love. I felt so bad for Harper.
Regarding Helene, I loved her in this book. She was my favorite character to read about. At first, she is completely broken because Marcus killed her family at the end of the 2nd book. Now he is using her sister against her. Every time Helene doesn't follow orders or fails at her orders, Marcus abuses Liv. I love how strong she is, how she fights for her people. I loved her at the end as well when she joins forces with Laia and how they bond over the death of Cook. I love how Helene is going to teach laia how to fight with a crossbow and arrow like her mother. I cant wait to see that and their relationship develop. I Love how they both have been through so much and can relate to one another. I love how she becomes unmasked, since her mask was the final thing the star needed to be complete and she has to tear it off her face to give to the nightbringer. HOWEVER this whole time we think it is Helene's ring, that laia is able to steal it when delivering Liv's baby (which this baby is the heir to the throne). When she runs away with that ring and we find out it is nothing, I was like what the hell was the point of that.
DUDEEEE finally Marcus dies. I was like if they let him get away I was gonna fume. It wasn't until Marcus saw his heir where I low key started feeling bad for him. How he sent them all away so he can distract Keris long enough so that they can escape and ensure that the baby is safe. When Helene comes back and sees Marcus stabbed to the wall. I thought she was gonna heal him back thank god she didn't. Instead, he told her to make sure his heir becomes emperor. He then demands her to give him a quick death. That he wants to die. He was asking for mercy via a quick death even though he knew he doesn't deserve it. Now we just need to get rid of Keris, that fucking bitch and then perhaps the nightbringer.
Keris becomes the so called Empress. That bitch needs to go down. She's so fucking heartless. I need her destroyed.
Felt so bad for Elias in this book. He ran away from the martials cause he doesn't wanna be a monster, then he helps the girl he loves by breaking her brother out of prison, then he dies, then he gets roped into being the soul catcher if he doesn't want to die and then to be the soul catcher and get that magic he needs to free all the ghosts he needs to switch off his humanity and not care which is what he ran away from in the empire to begin with. idk man, hopefully, he can get out of that place man. I hate him being there.
Anyways in the end the nightbringer manages to put all the pieces of the star together, he releases the jinn, kills all the augurs except cain. He comes clean by declaring that he ruined Elias by binding him to the waiting place, he stole a piece of Helenes soul by taking the mask and now he vows to destroy laia. ARGHHHHH
what a book. It was enjoyable. So much happens however as a whole it is around 3.5 out of 5 stars. This is because it was way too dark. It was hit after hit. I thought the 2nd book was dark but this was on another level. While I understand that was the hole point, I believe the author could have eased off. Honestly, it made the book so hard to get through and literally made me depressed. Honestly, u can still get these messages across without being so messed up and dark. In addition to that this book was too long and the first chunk was so slow to get through despite so much happening. In fact, I think there was way too much things going on that it made it overwhelming. Things that were just mentioned in previous books, such as wraiths, efrifts, ghosts, jinn blah blah come out center stage here. I was like what the heck. Don't even get me started on the whole traveling to different places and all the world building around that. Like she world builds a whole city just so the characters go there for a limited amount of time. and it happened so much where I was like what the heck. there's no point of this. For eg navium, then all the tribal places, then dephimum then antium, then she goes back to that waiting place forest then the caves then there and that. It was way to overboard.
Hopefully this series gets better for me cause low key its been downhill since the first book.
This series just gets darker and darker. Literally so emotionally draining. If torch against the night was the start of the fall then this book is definitely the fall. It is so dark and gruesome.
okay, so this book starts off with a chapter from the nightbringers POV. Low key if u think about it can u really blame the nightbringer for what he is doing. I mean the augurs/scholars destroyed his Jinn people way back in history and now he is getting vengeance for his people in order to bring them back to life from the tree prison that they are stuck in from when the augurs trapped them there in the forest of dusk. The whole point of the Jinn was to pass people on from the living to the dead. When the augurs got rid of them there was no one to do that and so they designated one person to do it instead aka the soul catcher. Now it used to be shaeva but then the nightbringer kills her before she can teach Elias everything and so Elias becomes soul catcher even though he doesn't really want to. He has to learn everything and he makes so many mistakes along the way, therefore, throwing the world into chaos since the ghosts keep passing through the wall, possessing people and then getting people to kill themselves and each other. That was so freaky.
I loved Musa in this book and I'm glad Darin finally was able to make the Serric steel.
The biggest plot twist of this book that literally had me shook was Cook being Laia's mother. I was hypothesizing who cook was in the previous books and I wanted to know more about her. Finally, in this book, we get that. Cook is Laia's mother who has been enslaved to Keris this whole time. That scene where we find out the truth was done so well. I loved it. I can't believe Cook actually killed her husband and her eldest daughter Lis at the time when they were being tortured in Kauf prison. I was like what the heck. I could understand why she did it but can't believe she actually did it by snapping off their necks. LIKEEE HOWWWWW. That was messed up. This whole time I thought it was Keris. I don't know how Cook lived with Keris this whole time. Literally. It was so weird how Cook kept referring to Laia as "girl" instead of calling her by her name. Those scenes where they reunited were weird but at the same time heartbreaking to see Cook being afraid to be close to her daughter cause she feels guilty at what happened in the past and feels like she doesn't deserve to be a mother. That ending though when Cook sacrificed her life so Laia and the blood shrike can escape got me emotional. I absolutely love how they came clean and voiced out what was bothering them. It was so good yet so sad.
There was literally barely any romance in this book. Elias gave up his humanity to become soul catcher and get this mauth power. therefore there was barely anything from him and Laia. The only brief romance we got from this book was towards the end when Helene survives death and she and harper kiss. that was so cute but then she switches it so fast and goes back to being the shrike. I'm like girl u deserve some love. I felt so bad for Harper.
Regarding Helene, I loved her in this book. She was my favorite character to read about. At first, she is completely broken because Marcus killed her family at the end of the 2nd book. Now he is using her sister against her. Every time Helene doesn't follow orders or fails at her orders, Marcus abuses Liv. I love how strong she is, how she fights for her people. I loved her at the end as well when she joins forces with Laia and how they bond over the death of Cook. I love how Helene is going to teach laia how to fight with a crossbow and arrow like her mother. I cant wait to see that and their relationship develop. I Love how they both have been through so much and can relate to one another. I love how she becomes unmasked, since her mask was the final thing the star needed to be complete and she has to tear it off her face to give to the nightbringer. HOWEVER this whole time we think it is Helene's ring, that laia is able to steal it when delivering Liv's baby (which this baby is the heir to the throne). When she runs away with that ring and we find out it is nothing, I was like what the hell was the point of that.
DUDEEEE finally Marcus dies. I was like if they let him get away I was gonna fume. It wasn't until Marcus saw his heir where I low key started feeling bad for him. How he sent them all away so he can distract Keris long enough so that they can escape and ensure that the baby is safe. When Helene comes back and sees Marcus stabbed to the wall. I thought she was gonna heal him back thank god she didn't. Instead, he told her to make sure his heir becomes emperor. He then demands her to give him a quick death. That he wants to die. He was asking for mercy via a quick death even though he knew he doesn't deserve it. Now we just need to get rid of Keris, that fucking bitch and then perhaps the nightbringer.
Keris becomes the so called Empress. That bitch needs to go down. She's so fucking heartless. I need her destroyed.
Felt so bad for Elias in this book. He ran away from the martials cause he doesn't wanna be a monster, then he helps the girl he loves by breaking her brother out of prison, then he dies, then he gets roped into being the soul catcher if he doesn't want to die and then to be the soul catcher and get that magic he needs to free all the ghosts he needs to switch off his humanity and not care which is what he ran away from in the empire to begin with. idk man, hopefully, he can get out of that place man. I hate him being there.
Anyways in the end the nightbringer manages to put all the pieces of the star together, he releases the jinn, kills all the augurs except cain. He comes clean by declaring that he ruined Elias by binding him to the waiting place, he stole a piece of Helenes soul by taking the mask and now he vows to destroy laia. ARGHHHHH
what a book. It was enjoyable. So much happens however as a whole it is around 3.5 out of 5 stars. This is because it was way too dark. It was hit after hit. I thought the 2nd book was dark but this was on another level. While I understand that was the hole point, I believe the author could have eased off. Honestly, it made the book so hard to get through and literally made me depressed. Honestly, u can still get these messages across without being so messed up and dark. In addition to that this book was too long and the first chunk was so slow to get through despite so much happening. In fact, I think there was way too much things going on that it made it overwhelming. Things that were just mentioned in previous books, such as wraiths, efrifts, ghosts, jinn blah blah come out center stage here. I was like what the heck. Don't even get me started on the whole traveling to different places and all the world building around that. Like she world builds a whole city just so the characters go there for a limited amount of time. and it happened so much where I was like what the heck. there's no point of this. For eg navium, then all the tribal places, then dephimum then antium, then she goes back to that waiting place forest then the caves then there and that. It was way to overboard.
Hopefully this series gets better for me cause low key its been downhill since the first book.
diananoriega's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this. Sabaa Tahir is a pacing master, the action scenes are written to perfection and the painful ones do not allow any slip of your consciousness away from them. Like I assumed from the first book, Helene is a fantastic character though her failures in this book ended up irritating me because I felt like there was no way for her to get a break or a minuscule victory. Elias and Laia just keep hurting me and then making me extremely happy and then hurting me again. I know the next book is going to stress me out and I am going to suffer but I’ve loved every second of reading this series and I really want all the plot threads to come together and all my questions to be answered.
beard31's review against another edition
Couldn’t get past the characters. There was so much that the story didn’t need.
renata08's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
4.75