effy's reviews
771 reviews
3.5
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Mal and Alina as endgame (I would have loved Nikolai and Alina as the eventual pairing),Spoiler
Alina had loved being Grisha but the epilogue did paint a beautiful picture of life where their friends still visited.I am frustrated that this book featured
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the resurrection trope - even if the reasoning seemed pretty solid - and the fact that the price of war wasn't very severeMy review seemed to have mostly been griping but those were my only real issues with a book that was actually a pretty compulsive listen and kept me guessing for most of the story.
I also loved how much Nikolai and Genya we got!
Favourite quote:
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I am not ruined, I am ruination.
Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Rape, and Grief
2.5
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dislike of Zoya was because she was being territorial.I literally finished this book this morning and I am struggling to think what happened in this book.
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I know there was questing for amplifiers, most of the second army dies, Mal is a dick and doesn't listen to Alina, the Darkling and Alina have some chats... tbh, that basically summarises this book in fewer words!The only redeeming thing about this book was that we meet the amazing character that is Nikolai.
Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Incest, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Torture, and Grief
3.25
I ended-up being really pleasantly surprised as we had an interesting cast of characters and a magic system that felt fresh. The only thing that I did not enjoy was the romance between
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Mal and AlinaSpoiler
whilst not biologically related, they had been raised as siblings and that just felt uncomfortable.I did feel somewhat confused by how this series was going to be a trilogy as I was reading because there didn't seem to be enough story for 3 books.
Favourite quote:
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Fine! Make me your villain!
Graphic: Sexual assault, Animal death, Incest, Murder, Slavery, and Rape
3.25
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Rod is gay in the book which we definitely don't see in the show although we do see Simone having a much more complex queer love story... why could they both be gay?I think because I have just watched the TV show and basically seen a polished version of the story where characters have more agency and the fatphobia (the way Teddy is discussed in the book is so gross!) has been removed, it was hard to enjoy this book as much as the first time that I read it. It is definitely a compelling story with lots of twists and turns but the flaws were a bit more obvious now.
Favourite quotes:
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Men often think they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.
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When you're in a situation like that, when you have a man looming over you, it's as if every decision you made to lead to that moment - alone with a man you don't trust - flashes before your eyes. Something tells me men don't do the same thing. When they are standing there, threatening a woman, I doubt they count every wrong step they made to become the asshole they are. But they should.
Graphic: Cancer, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Abortion, Alcoholism, Death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault
0.5
The issues that I have with this book can be largely split into three areas: the book was more focused on interpersonal dramas than the "haunted house"; there was a really nice, organic finish point for the book but then the story had another 3 hours after that; and
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the house wasn't haunted, it was a possessed puppet.The
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possessed puppetSpoiler
giving the puppet a whole backstory about an uncle who died as a childHonestly, I could rip into this book more but I just don't feel that it deserves any more of my time.
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Child death
3.5
I feel like a lot of my brain power reading this book was spent trying to match the characters to the historical people even though their names weren't exactly changed by much 🤦♂️ I think this book did a good job of reimagining these historical figures in a contemporary setting. Overall the story didn't hold too many surprises as the two dead queens are the ones that Henry famously beheaded however I did like the fact that
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Henry didn't died at the end of the book but had his reputation left in tatters so it was a social death.Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Child death, Murder, and Infidelity
2.75
The fact that our main characters were absolutely besotted with one another after only 14 days (with a 15-year gap in the middle) was a really hard sell for me. I also hated the way that
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Ty was killed because Shane was happy and distracted; the point was that he was too involved in his mentees' lives and there was a co-dependency but it just felt too surface level the way that it was handled.I also felt unsatisfied by Eva's whole situation.
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I find it hard to believe that she could just choose to not write the next book in a series that she is probably under contract for. I also wanted to see more of her family history story. And then I also felt unsatisfied by her situation with her mother, I think I needed some catharsis of her letting her mother truly have a piece of her mind or maybe establishing healthy boundaries?Ultimately, it was the ending that destroyed my opinion of this book as it did exactly what I hated in Twisted Love and kinda fast-forwarded through a lot of the romance and truly building and developing a relationship. We did get to see a bit more development in this book than Twisted Love but it just kinda felt like a love story in bullet points.
Graphic: Self harm, Pedophilia, Child death, Racism, Misogyny, Grief, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, and Gun violence
4.0
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but then suddenly they connected.I thought this book did a great job of tying the series together and closing this chapter but I am very excited to see what is next in book 4 later this year. I hope that we get to see more of Xander and
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his father. I also hope we get to see some of the yearly games that Avery promised at the end of The Final Gambit.
4.0
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Avery beliveved Toby was her father (the fact that he was not biologically her father but saw her as being like a daughter was a really beautiful touch).I think I enjoyed this book a lot more than the first one because I have a clearer understanding of the dynamic with the games and the puzzles. I also felt as though the love triangle was basically gone;
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Avery and Grayson clearly still had feelings for one another but the choice had been made and Avery was with Jameson and that was that.Overall this book was a fun ride.
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Cancer, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Kidnapping
3.5
Because I had certain incorrect assumptions going into this book, I found it to be a lot less pacey than I was hoping for. There were definitely multiple threads happening at once where we are wondering
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who is trying to murder Avery, as well as the death of EmilyWhilst I understand the reason why we don't get the answer as to why Avery was left almost everything until almost the end of the book, it was frustrating to have to wait. I think part of the frustration is due to the fact that there wasn't really any way that it could be guessed or theorized. Well, I'm sure some smart people put it together but I didn't 🤣
I am glad that the story was relatively wrapped-up in one book rather than trying to stretch things out for the trilogy.
Graphic: Murder, Drug abuse, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Grief, Cancer, and Fire/Fire injury