Storyline: 4 Stars
This book had been on my list for years. I remember when the first installment came out and I put it on my list. I have a general rule that I don’t start series unless the whole thing has been written because I have been burned too many times, which is why it took me so long to read this one. The downside is because it had been on my list for so long, I had really high expectations. I would not say it was a disappointing series, but I had thought it would be a 5 star series when it was more of a 4 star series.
The storyline and world had so much potential. I just wasn’t a fan of the direction that it took all the time. I felt like the world has so much potential and so many characters were great, but there just was not quite enough depth to everything. Character motivations were confusing, the whole supernatural and fantasy part of the book was confusing and was not really clear. The magic system was not flushed out at all. In my opinion, the first two books were definitely the best. The last book was somewhat disappointing and the finale was really confusing.
Overall, I would recommend this series as it was a solid young adult series, but I would not say it was one of the best series that I have read. I think that it had some of the best ideas as far as young adult fantasy series go, but the execution was just not quite at 5 star level.
Parental Guidance: 65% Recommend
I would recommend this book 65% of the time for parental guidance. The language was fairly mild. There were a few instances of swearing, but they were far and few between. The world has its own version of swearing which I think helped alleviate the need to use our owns swear words.
There was romance, which included some kissing and a couple very, very closed door intimate scenes. It was appropraite for young adult content and nothing was graphic. There was some alluding to there being a rainbow character, but nothing was every fully determined and nothing came out of that.
The biggest part of the series to be cautious about is the violence. There was a lot of violence, specifically there was a huge emphasis on violence being towards children. There were adults fighting as well, but there were some pretty disturbing parts that had to do with children. Children being tortured and killed. Children in prison. Children as slaves. There was pretty much everything, and it was disturbing to read at times because there was for sure a fixation on showing how terrible the villains were towards children.
Real Book Chat
*Spoilers Ahead*
Like I said above, this series was solid, but it was not a 5 star series. It had a 5 star world and potential with about a 3 star execution which is why I gave it 4 stars.
The world was really cool, and I thought that the series was really well set up after book 1. There was so much potential and the story could have gone in so many different ways. Even after book 2 I thought things were on track and doing pretty well. I thought that the characters and plot progressed at a good pace in both of those books.
I liked book 3, but I was a little disappointed because I did not feel like the story had progressed much outside of Helene’s point of view. Ezra was figuring out his soul catcher thing the whole time and I don’t even remember what Laia was doing because it was so boring and worthless. I was hoping that Darrin would take a bigger role when he was broken out of prison, but no, he just kind of did nothing except forge stuff. Helene’s storyline and character development with the battles and rivalry with Keris was really the only thing that progressed. I think there was wasted potential. Plus, the whole Nightbringer/Jinn storyline was really confusing, and I wished it had been more flushed out in book 3 before the crazy parts in book 4.
Book 4 . . . I was disappointed. Again, Helene was interesting, although I was super upset when Harper was killed off! It was just needless, and Helene did not even try to sing him back. Plus, there was so much potential with the Ezra and Harper being brothers storyline that was just wasted. I was pretty annoyed with that. Again, Ezra did really nothing except soul catcher stuff, and again, I don’t even remember what Laia contributed outside of her weird Rehmat thing. I was disappointed because I loved Ezra’s point of view in book 1 and 2, and he was okay in book 3, but I did not like him in book 4. Laia was always my least favorite point of view, but she was worse as the series went on as well. Helene was the best part of everything.
Okay also . . . the Nightbringer and Jinn thing makes no sense. And the whole ghost thing and the maelstorm? I really had no idea what was going on in the climax of the book. It made no sense. I like fantasy, but the magic system was not flushed out enough for something weird like a maelstorm to happen. I was really confused the whole time even after reading it several times.
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