Reviews

THIS BOOK RIPPED MY HEART AND PUT IT BACK IN. I cried so many times, so many moments of triumph and pain. The deaths and the horror but also the prose? Pierce’s words cut me. It depicted the war in such an intimate and horrific way. Everyone POV rocked me and it was a page turner. It was Golden Son on acid but 1000000 times worth. The pacing was incredible! I’m not the same and I won’t be. STILL WOULD RECOMMEND HEHE

Also I loved how the different POVs intersected and came to together (plus character interactions), so many interesting arcs that played role in such a great book.

seriuzbiznus's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

zoe2000's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Oh man, Pierce

kjbreton123's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

5.0

fromspartamarta's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.25

fictionalcass's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Obviously this has spoilers for the previous books. Hard to write a review for book five that wouldn’t have spoilers.

This book was an absolute rollercoaster, but one that exclusively went up and down in bad feelings. The title being Dark Age is really on brand for this one, and this is the first book in the series that feels definitively like a war book, despite war being a heavy theme throughout the whole series. This was also the first book in the series that felt difficult to follow. Not in sense of plot, but in the timeline. The way the different points of view were interspersed felt a lot less smooth in this book overall, and it did feel a bit disjointed at some points.

That being said, some of the team ups we got in this book were absolutely stellar. It was interesting to finally get a Virginia point of view, and I loved her relationship with Holiday and the way that they worked together. My absolute favorite sections were the Lyria POVs, especially when she linked up with Victra and Volga. Truly an iconic trio, and the sections of them were definitely the highlight for me, despite having some of the toughest parts to read. The Darrow and Lysander parts were not bad, and they certainly had me stressed. The plot certainly took some interesting turns with these two.

Along with the ladies, I can’t leave out my main man Ephraim. Mans has been through it and honestly he’s made it into my top five favorite characters in the series thus far.

This book was hard to get through, and it was absolutely brutal. It definitely has a lot less of the fun that can be found in the earlier books, and the plot was quite frankly bananas. The amount of times I actually yelled as a result of this book was incredibly high, and despite some of the issues with the actual cohesiveness of this installment, I think it might be my favorite so far???? Maybe because of the constant state of anxiety it forced me to be in? I did feel so many feelings for truly every character, which is impressive in Pierce’s because these characters are all over the board in morality. All of the POV characters (and all the side ones, especially Victra and Sevro) had me uniquely invested in their journeys and Pierce wrote them in a way that I did become attached to them all.

Trying to write a cohesive review for this one also feels like a challenge. There were so many moving parts in this book and it was honestly a bit of an overload but at some points felt like nothing was advancing. Like I said, I did legitimately love it, but it felt a lot messier in comparison when lined up with the rest of the series. 4⭐️ for this one, but again…it might be my favorite???? Ask me in two weeks and maybe I’ll know for sure.

Content Warnings

kelseybe's review against another edition

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5.0

Literally one line cemented this book as my absolute all time favorite. I was loving this novel from page 1. Then on page 704, my mind was utterly shattered, and there was no turning back.

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