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lais's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Slavery
readwithria's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
I always appreciate when series keep getting stronger as they go, and the Daevabad trilogy does just that. Chakraborty pulls together all of the elements of her world and gives them all the time they deserve. Characters make hard choices that have serious consequences and those consequences continue into the resolution. The end of this series doesn't equate to the end of the growth of these characters, and even in the epilogue, I could see and appreciate where they were heading.
One of the things I really like about this book is that it gives a significant amount of time to the aftermath. A full 70ish pages (about 10%) of the book takes place as the dust is settling and gives us readers a chance to see how the characters we've grown to love are going to shape their world. It was necessary, especially for an 18k page series, and it was done extremely well.
While this series isn't one I would seek out again on my own, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Murder
chaptertraveller's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
hanarama's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
• Sympathetic opposing POVs
• Interesting setting and world building
• Pleasant writing style
• Satisfying ending
The Bad:
• Portions or the final showdown felt overly convenient.
• Information kept from reader.
You Might Like this if You Like:
• Epic fantasy
• Unique world building
• Big final battles
As the conclusion to the Daevabad trilogy, I feel mostly positive, but a tad mixed.
Coming off of the excellent second installment, Chakraborty initially allows her readers a well needed chance to breath and absorb everything that happened thus far. This also gives her ample time to set up the different factions as they were left off. This allows the reader to really absorb the growing threats and to see the characters in new settings.
And this book brings a few new settings that really help to flesh out the world. While the previous books took place mostly within Daevabad, this book takes place mostly outside of the city. It was really cool to see parts of the Djinn world that have only been mentioned previously.
However despite the great first and second acts, I felt like the final showdown was a bit lacking. Though the overall conclusion was satisfying, I rolled my eyes a couple of times during the battle. It felt as though it were written as a screenplay rather than a book. Some key information wasn't given to readers beforehand, leading to some silly, Marvel-style reveals. Further, it felt like everything and anything went right for the heroes, erasing a good chunk of the tension I had felt leading up to the conclusion. It felt really out of left field as Chakraborty has previously written very tense and engaging battle sequences.
Non-battle reveals did shock me though, and felt well executed, and satisfying. The mains all got appropriate endings. Overall, a good read.
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Gaslighting
totallyshelfaware's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
micheala's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
There really is no way to talk about the finally in a series without spoiling the rest of the series, so if you haven't read the Daevabad Trilogy, all I can say is I highly recommend it.
I'm not a particularly fast reader, but I finished this 750+ page book in 4 days. The pacing never feels like it's dragging or like any of those pages are simply filler. Everything feels important to the plot and necessary for this rich world and this stunning conclusion to an amazing trilogy.
We continue to have the three alternating POVs of Narhi, Ali and Dara and all three of those POVs feel like they were given equal importance (not like the author had a clear favourite that they wanted to spend more time with, like I'm currently encountering with another book)
I did spend a LOT of this book very frustrated with Dara, in that he keeps being willfully naive about what is going on and what he is assisting with. I mean it makes sense for his character, it's just annoying wanting him to get with it already. Plus spending so much time with Manizheh was infuriating - like I'm sure it was meant to be.
I liked seeing all the threads that were laid in the first two books concerning Ali and Narhi start coming together. Finding out the truth about both of their histories was very satisfying.
I also really appreciated the way things wrapped up. It's not all sunshine and rainbows (there was a genocide and civil war that just happened so it would have felt out of place if it had), but there was that hopeful tint to the events.
Overall this was a very satisfying conclusion to a series that I've very much enjoyed and I'm glade to finally have read it.
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
icfasntw's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
VERDICT: I really cooled down on this book. The first two featured a lot of politicking, which is always my favorite. The third book felt like part adventure novel, part "hanging out with the bad guys so you know how bad they are," and part wrapping up a bunch of threads that were introduced in earlier installments as quickly as possible. The result felt a bit rushed and didn't hold my attention like the first two.
SERIES: Overall, I think the series is all right. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books and I love seeing fantasy stories from perspective other than "Western European." My biggest complaint is that I wish some of the longer threads, like
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Medical trauma