A review by chasinggrace
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What do you even say about this book, the ending to this trilogy? All I know is that it is cemented (get it?) as some of the best writing, storytelling, and character building that I’ve experienced. 

This story explores a breadth of themes: motherhood (reluctant, surprising, unfortunate, all-encompassing), oppression, climate change, revenge, found family, survival, hatred, guilt, and GRIEF. 

So much grief, so much love. My heart absolutely shatters for the main character - we follow her entire life in these three books and I don’t know if I’ve ever truly understood a character more than I have come to understand her. You fall in love with her broken, imperfect self. 

But I also deeply understand the other main POV in the second and third installments. I get her - she demonstrates the consequences of experiencing endless tragedy and oppression in childhood. Her decisions make perfect sense when you know her, just like the decisions of the main character. I saw myself in both characters time and time again. 

I’m also pretty sure I’ll never ever ever get over the “love interests” (questionable title) of these books. Innon, you will ALWAYS be famous to me!!! Lerna, you were too pure for this story. Baster, you bastard, I love your crazy ass. Any time I read about these men I was close to tears! 

All of this being said, there are of course have imperfections in this trilogy that I want to state:
  • Hoa’s POV frustrated me in this book - I found myself not caring enough during his chapters, even though they are the most important to understand what the fuck is happening and why. I feel like the author could have explored literary devices other than lengthy flashbacks to communicate Hoa’s purpose. 
  • The literary device used in Book 1 made me obsessed with the series, and I found myself missing it in Books 2 and 3. 
  • I know this is ultimately a story about motherhood, but for a girl who never actively wanted children, this bitch gets pregnant a LOTTTT. By the fourth one I was OVER IT and I found the last one to be so unnecessary. We already know that Lerna is a great guy, we didn’t need this emotionless realization of procreation.
  • It took 3 books to understand what the fuck the whole war is about, and even now I don’t think I get Steel’s POV or reasoning for manipulating Nassun. I couldn’t explain to you all the sides/motivations of this war if I tried. 

This trilogy is fucking emotional and I can say now that I get the hype. 
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