Reviews

I read A History of What Comes Next quite a while ago and absolutely loved Mia’s journey to find herself and accept her role within the 100 and the epilogue where we see Mia become a mother. Now, this book is continuing Mia’s journey with her enemy bearing down on her once more but unlike before Mia isn’t going to run away, she is going to stand her ground and I couldn’t wait to get into it. The opening to Until the Last of Me was interesting as we are reintroduced to Mia and her now seven year old daughter, Lola. Mia has been trying to give her daughter a normal life before she loads the pressures of the Kibsu onto her but when she bumps into a Tracker one day despite him not recognising her they flee. In these years, Mia has witnessed a man going into space and the Moon landing but not done much to advance the technology further. Now, she has the idea of visiting the outer planets thanks to Lola and realises that they can do it but only when the planets are aligned as they won’t be able to carry enough fuel to get there and will need to slingshot themselves from one planets to another. They now have eight years until the alignment and then they won’t get another chance for almost two centuries so they move back to America to give it a go. We also learn more about the Trackers through their mother who has given birth to three identical sons, Raphael, Uriel and Samael. Her two older sons are like their father and crave violence but her youngest, Samael has more patience and the ability to control the violent urges with in him much like Lola and I have a feeling this might be significant later on.

As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, I was feeling conflicted as Lola reads and feels like an exact copy of Mia in the first book but her focus in on a bow uncovered in China covered in symbols belonging to the Kibsu. She believes that there might be a message there about their true purpose and how to achieve it and wants to translate it even though this isn’t Mia’s goal. I also enjoyed reading from the Tracker’s perspective since each of the three brothers feels like a unique character despite all being clones of their father. It is Uriel who discovers a possible connection in Egypt as he believes a century old priestess was actually three generations of Kibsu pretending to be the same person. The only reason to do this would be if something important was there like the orb they are looking for. The brothers decide that Raphael will go kill their mother, Uriel will head to Egypt and make preparations there while Samael follows up a lead in Miami meaning he might interact with Mia and Lola in the near future since they are in California.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, things are taking a different turn as the Kibsu are falling behind in their knowledge as humans have overtaken them for the time being, but Lola has some ideas but is reluctant to work on them as she is going through her rebellious phase, much like her mother did in the first book. Uriel and Samael are now in Egypt but we learn that Raphael was killed in Prague before he could get to their mother, this makes Samael feel both relieved and guilty, relieved for his mother who he helped escape but guilt at losing his oldest brother but he knows there are more of them making Uriel the Prime now. However, compared to Samael, Uriel is completely airheaded focused more on money than their purpose meaning that Samael is essentially the Prime despite being the youngest of the brothers.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things get interesting again as Mia has become obsessed with the bow now while Lola is believing there is more to life than being a clone of her mother. It is Mia who figures out that the writing on the bow isn’t a poem but a map, however, things take a drastic turn when Lola screws up badly. Lola at a party ends up taking some drugs and thinks she kills a lot of people turning herself into the police, which is very bad since the Kibsu can never have their blood taken as it will expose what they are. Mia goes to retrieve her daughter but literally has to fight her way out of the police station before explaining to Lola that they are moving to Russia making a brief stop in Berlin first. It is in Berlin that Mia learns her mother was keeping a lot of secrets from her and was investigating the origins of their kind. This deeply hurts, Mia but they head to Russia to continue their research, but Lola feels more like an outcast than ever since she doesn’t really speak any Russian unlike her mother and is completely isolated but understands she only has herself to blame for it given her earlier actions. Meanwhile, Samael in Egypt discovered that he can’t control his violent urges in the heat and tries to stay out of it as much as possible. He also learns of a painting of the Priestess holding an orb which he knows is the same one they have been hunting for. He also believes that there might be some worth in talking with the Kibsu before killing them as they have a lot of knowledge that could be useful to them.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Mia and Lola are continuing their research into the bow which has led to China where they need to see the rest of the poem to figure the direction out. Mia comes up with a plan but it is going to be tricky when Lola goes out and gets the pictures herself with a far simpler plan and they finally learn the full inscription written on the Eight’s bow. Mia was right as it is a set of directions to something using the stars to guide them but before they can set off on this new adventure, tragedy strikes. Rioting breaks out in China and Mia is unceremoniously killed in the crossfire completely devastating Lola, who ends up returning to America and wallowing in her depression for the longest time. During this time she does met a man and falls pregnant with the One Hundred and One but she isn’t ready to let go of her mother yet.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Lola figures out the directions the bow gave her and begins following them spending this last few months before becoming a mother herself with the memory of her mother. However, things aren’t going to plan as she gets abandoned in the desert, attacked by a wolf and almost dies but she is led to the place the Eight was pointing her too. She has also uncovered the very place that Eight instructed her to dig up and I believe that the orb is here. Uriel and Samael have also been following the trial of the Kibsu, especially those that lived in the spotlight and are being led to the same place but whether they will interact is unknown. Uriel isn’t taking to being the Prime, falling into vices like drink and drugs but Samael continues moving forward but when Uriel vanishes one night he knows he can’t continue without his brother. Heading into the final section of the novel, I am expecting Lola and Samael at least to come into contact with each other as the orb is discovered and maybe they won’t kill each other but send a message to their home planet but I’m not sure what is going to happen.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, the ending honestly intrigued and infuriated me at the same time. Seeing the Kibsu and Trackers come face to face for the first time but each doing so to protect someone else was amazing. However, it was infuriating because it took so long to get here with little action or interesting scenes in between. That being said, the ending was terrifying as they realises what their final battle has done and what it means going into the last book. I’ve tried to keep this vague for anyone that hasn’t read the series yet but this book definitely suffers from middle book syndrome and honestly could have been condensed to about 100 pages a split between the first and last book, so in my opinion it should have been a duology not a trilogy but I am excited to see how Neuvel ends this series in For the First Time Again.