WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Star Wars Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade tells the story of young Jedi Padawan Iskat Akaris, who is thrust into Knighthood at the beginning of the Clone Wars after the death of her Master. Iskat has always felt different from every ideal she is supposed to live up to, left emotionally cut off by the unyielding restrictions of the Jedi Order. But soon, a new opportunity arises. A chance for Iskat to explore the depths of the power she has always felt inside of her, to take what she has always wanted without having to ask for permission. With every choice she makes, Iskat drifts further away from the morals she has been taught to hold on to all her life, and darkness takes its root. OverviewI always love a good descent into villainhood story, and such stories set in the Star Wars universe are pretty much the best kind. Just reading the synopsis of this book, there are the obvious Anakin Skywalker parallels right off the bat, and it does turn out to be a similar story. What was interesting about how this story was told, is that it overall feels very much on the side of our main character embracing the dark and freeing herself from the oppressive hold of the Jedi Order, thus finding her true self in the process. While it is most certainly not on the side of the path she ultimately takes with the Inquisitors, it’s still very much not on the side of the Jedi. I enjoyed that aspect a lot, since there are endless faults with the Jedi Order that helped lead to their ultimate downfall. This was a dark, tragic story that explored some new and classic themes of Star Wars that were interesting to consider in the context of this world. I enjoyed it a lot overall, particularly the last half where the atmosphere and suspense were at their thickest. Iskat AkarisIskat Akaris is an interesting character to follow because of just how unhinged she is, but also with a lot of relatable aspects. Her species is unknown, and the Jedi of course have no interest in discovering or explaining to her the answers she seeks, because Jedi are supposed to forgo where they came from and embrace only the Order as their home and family. The main theme with Iskat’s character is that she wants to be allowed to be curious. She wants to explore where she came from, who she is, and why her power in the Force feels different from what she is told it’s supposed to be. A big thing is the calling she feels towards violence and killing, which is where she feels that her power is at its strongest and she is at her happiest. Obviously, a Jedi is not supposed to feel this way about physical combat, so this deepens her already shaky trust in them. While Iskat’s story is intriguing to follow along, this is mostly where her character stops. She has desires that the Jedi are holding her back from and this ends up driving her into the hands of the Dark Side. Throughout the story, it can get repetitive when we’re constantly being told all these facts about her (like that she enjoys killing and has two hearts, which are the facts repeated the most throughout the book) but she is still intriguing to follow just to get another person’s perspective during the fall of the Jedi Order and how Anakin was not at all an isolated case, proving the multiple levels of the Jedi Order’s failure to do the one thing they allegedly hold most important: protect people from harm. She is very different from Anakin though in the fact that it seems she was very violent from the start. There isn’t a time she ever really wants to be a great Jedi or follow their moral code. She just thinks she has no other choice, since she was ripped from her home, has no one else that she knows of like her, and would essentially be entirely lost if she left the Order. I thought that was pretty fun, since we essentially spend the first half of the book waiting for her to let loose and go crazy, and you sort of root for it in a way because of how we see her fellow Jedi through her perspective. A descent into madness While starting off a bit slow, I think the story had enough going on to keep it interesting, and it really took off in the second half. Most of the journey is internal, seeing Iskat get pushed further and further until she finally snaps. Iskat’s growing bloodlust throughout the story was incredibly fun to follow, first as she envisions violent things happening to people in her head, making her guilt grow, and then when she begins to take revenge on everyone who has wronged her once she is adopted into the Inquisitorious after the war. Star Wars books can famously be a lot more violent than the films, and I was pleased with how dark and gory this got at times. And the revenge was both parts tragic and satisfying, as any good revenge story should be. One point that becomes extremely important is her romantic feelings for a fellow Jedi named Tualon, who also frustrates her because of how perfectly he is able to exemplify the Jedi Code. You all know by now that I love a good romance. I am always pleased whenever we get a romance subplot in a Star Wars book, and a villain romance? Even better. I loved how this was sort of an enemies to lovers tale, with Tualon and Iskat at first being rather cold and distant with each other because they cannot understand how the other’s mind and morals work, to then actually hating each other when they’ve both been tortured and abused after the war, until finding some violently flirtatious, Natural Born Killers type of relationship. It’s definitely more in the background of the story, but it is yet another element that relates to Anakin’s story, where repressing feelings of attraction only end things in violence. Another part of the story I enjoyed was Iskat’s journey to discovering her home world and where she came from. I found that to be the most emotional part of the book, and really makes you almost hate the Jedi just as much as Iskat grows to. Especially when you find out how loving and peaceful her people are when Iskat finally finds her home planet. How they act is further proof of how cold and almost unfeeling the Jedi are, which is the opposite of what they should be if they claim to walk in the Light Side of the Force. I loved how this was done so that we could mourn along with Iskat for what could have been had she been left alone to grow up in her culture with her own people and language and lifestyle. However, because of the violence and darkness that has always existed inside of her, it is suggested that this path would probably not have made her ultimately happy either. But she was never given the chance. My only gripes with the story were some pacing issues here and there. There were times when things suddenly felt really rushed, and Iskat would make a very dark decision completely out of the blue when she had been worrying so much about what other people would think before. This feels especially prevalent when she just decides to leave Tualon to die during Order 66 when everything is happening so fast and she doesn’t even seem to question the decision at all. Another thing that confused me was the timeline at two points. The first was in the beginning when the Jedi are all preparing to head to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé from being executed in the arena. It’s explained in this book that the clones are the ones flying the Jedi over in their transport ships. But wasn’t Yoda the one who brought the clones to Geonosis? Hence how they were saved at the last minute when it looked like they were all going to be wiped out by the droids? It even talks about in the book how dire it looks with the number of Jedi growing smaller and smaller in the fight, but according to this story, they have a bunch of clones just waiting in the background who brought them all here in the first place. Why didn’t they step in to help earlier? Or you know, like, right at the beginning? Another weird moment is just before Order 66, when Iskat and Tualon are sent on a mission to a planet called Frong in order to supposedly capture General Grievous. If this scene is supposed to take place just before Order 66, the Jedi knew long before this that Grievous was on Utapau. Not only that, but they would have already sent Obi-Wan to go after him. So unless it took Iskat and Tualon weeks to get to this planet and this was supposed to be a point on how the Jedi Council is just really bad at communicating, this timeline made no sense. Both of these things could be just me missing something entirely, but I was confused nonetheless. The light and the darkOne thing that I have noticed with pretty much every Star Wars novel I’ve read, is that there is always tension within the Master and Apprentice relationship. Iskat’s relationship with her Master, Sember Vey, very much mirrors the tension between Obi-Wan and Anakin, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, Yoda and Dooku, etc. Again, this is showing just how emotionally stunted the Jedi are dooming their Padawans to be throughout their lives. There are concerns, but no one is allowed to address them. A Padawan is encouraged to turn to their Master with any questions or troubles they have, and yet serious questions and troubles are encouraged to be ignored and discussed as little as possible. This is one of the main faults of the Jedi: trying to force unanimity in a galaxy filled to the brim with all different kinds of beings. The nature of the Force is meant to be something that encompasses all living things in all of their different ways. The Jedi Order skews this to decree that there is only one way to live purely with the Force. A lot of this ties in with themes of religion, especially the question of using the Force for violence during war times. There are big themes of guilt and shame as there often are with any stories concerning the Jedi Order from this era. Any single feeling of darkness or questioning is met with immediate shame, and ironically, fear. Iskat doesn’t want to ask for help from the Jedi because she is afraid of what they’ll do, and any small bit of help she does ask for is immediately shut down, showing she is pretty much perfectly justified in her fear of her Jedi superiors. You also get a lot of in depth exploration of the isolation and depression that follows such treatment. Iskat is made to feel “other” her entire life, not only because of her personal feelings, but also because of the fact that she is the only one of her species that she knows and no one will tell her or care at all to understand what she is feeling. These are themes that can be incredibly relatable in real life which is what makes Iskat easy to sympathize with. It can almost get too real at times with these tragic realities of mental health and how they can completely derail someone’s life. Despite how much this book makes you sort of despise the Jedi Order, Iskat’s journey to the Dark Side is not seen as completely good either. Essentially, the message seems to be that spending her entire life being brainwashed by the Order led her to more easily being brainwashed and controlled by the Inquisitorious. This was very much a theme with Anakin as well, showing how forcing someone to conform to a set of beliefs they don’t understand or identify with only leads to them being more isolated and more vulnerable to other forms of brainwashing. There is a section of the book where Palpatine throws Iskat into a cell for possibly months, which forces her to now fully believe she can not trust anyone but herself, but the metaphorical cage the Jedi had built around her for her entire life already did most of that work for Palpatine. He only finished her off. The same was done with Anakin, though not as simply as that, and I imagine the same was done with many of the other Inquisitors. The Jedi pretty much do all the work for Palpatine and he swoops in at the perfect time. Ultimately, the Sith and the Jedi use the same tactics to control those they want to manipulate, even if it may be unintentional on the Jedi’s side. Both use fear and hatred to otherize anything that is different or goes against their moral code, making their disciples believe there is only one path to living a life that is “right”. They entrap those who are vulnerable and mold them into thinking the way they do and that there are no other options where they will find their true purpose, creating a fear of any outside desires or questions. Of course, this leads to the Jedi Order and the Sith’s ultimate downfall. A dark fateThe story concludes with Iskat and Tualon trying to break away from the Inquisitorious in order to finally find the freedom they have been yearning for their entire lives. This ultimately results in them trying to kill Darth Vader and escape to find new lives. I think we can all predict how that ended up going down. While I thought it felt a bit rushed, I really enjoyed this ending. We get Iskat embracing her evil side and officially going full dark before she tries to break away from her new oppressors with the man she loves and with whom she has formed a connection she never could have predicted, since they are essentially now on the same level within the Inquisitorious. I think this was honestly the best ending Iskat could get, because after all she’s done, she can’t really have a happy ending. But at the same time, the happiest ending she could have gotten, the only way for her to truly be free and at peace, is in death along with Tualon. And Vader forcing them to stab one another on each other’s lightsabers is even more fitting, since they ultimately were each other’s downfall at the very end and throughout the story. I really loved the entire tone with the final act of the story, with the various Inquisitors and their brutal revenge tactics. We know there is no way Iskat is going to escape once we get into this side of the story. She had a chance before, but the fear and guilt about turning away from the only home she’s ever known was too overwhelming, until eventually, she waited until it was too late to ever escape. Final thoughtsThis was an incredibly dark and tragic story, as it should have been. This is probably one of the darkest stories I’ve read in the Star Wars universe, because there really are such few moments of levity or hope. But I really enjoyed the themes explored here and the point of view from Iskat, who was an interesting character to follow along and sympathize with.
Aside from some pacing and timeline confusions, I really enjoyed this story a lot. As I’ve said before, I’m hard-pressed to find a Star Wars book I don’t like. The universe is just too rich. It was fantastic to once again get a little piece of a different point of view within this grandiose space epic. I hope everyone had a terrific Star Wars weekend!
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WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Love Theoretically, the third full length novel from Ali Hazelwood, follows main character Elsie Hannaway, a struggling adjunct professor who moonlights as a fake girlfriend for hire. But Jack Smith, rival physicist and grumpy older brother of her favorite fake-dating client, not only stands in the way of her dream job, but also begins to crack away at her people-pleasing facade. DisclaimerIt’s time for the month of romance! February is one of my favorite months not only for the final burst of winter, but for the cozy love in the air that I take the effort to inject into my life at every opportunity throughout the month. Alright, I do that anyway. I’m intensely obsessed, fascinated, and made bubbly by fictional romance. So, it’s best that I come out now as a cheesy romance novel fanatic. I love them unironically, and Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis is a big reason why. Yes, I am well aware of the reylo fanfiction roots. But as a fellow fanfic writer myself, I have a bit of a soft spot for the subgenre (especially anything reylo related). I have read all of Ali Hazelwood’s previous works after being such a fan of her first novel. I will defend The Love Hypothesis until the day I die. Love on the Brain and the collection of novellas in Loathe to Love You were definitely more on the silly and cheesy side for me, but I still had loads of fun with them. This is an author who knows what she likes and has found an audience who will eat it up… and I guess it’s me. For that, I have loads of respect. Fluffy escapism is my comfort food. OverviewI was hearing a lot of good things about this when it first came out, which made me incredibly excited. People were saying it was even better than TLH, which really got me curious. And while I personally wouldn’t put it on the same level as TLH, I did enjoy this one quite a bit, and thought it was a big improvement from Love on the Brain. Yes, it is the same set up as any other story by this author, with a quirky (excuse the phrase, I’m so sorry) main character and her quirky best girl friend, the science jokes that we all pretend to understand, the duel man-hating/man-obsession, gratuitous descriptions of the large and tall romantic interest, and making STEM sound like the absolute most painful and soul-draining career field to go into in the history of ever. While some of these staples I like and some I don’t care for, it makes the novel feel familiar at this point, which isn’t a bad thing. I like familiarity every now and then, especially when it comes to contemporary romance, which I am usually reading as a way to unwind for a little while. And there were some things in this particular book that were a bit different than the ones before. First off, as someone who obviously did not read very far into the description (not even the one on the back of the book) I fully expected the introductory description of our love interest, Johnathon Smith-Turner, to be for the antagonist of the book. And came to find it is for the love interest! Maybe that makes me gullible, but I loved it. We hear how this infamous Johnathon Smith-Turner wrote an article that sent a crushing blow to Elsie’s field of Physics, and ruined the reputation of her mentor. The way they describe Jack at first makes him sound like a loud-mouthed man-child, which I suppose was the intention, and sent my brain in the direction of thinking this would be the Tom character from TLH. So I was very caught off guard when I realized this was going to be one of the main tension points for our enemies-to-lovers. I’m sorry, I know, I’m a literal child. But reading the back of the book would have robbed me of this revelation. After this inciting incident, I was super intrigued to see how all of this would get resolved and how a romance would blossom out of this rivalry. For me, it didn’t seem like the answers were obvious, like in Love on the Brain, except maybe towards the third act. And I very much enjoyed getting to know Jack’s character as time went on and discovering how the messes and misunderstandings occurred. Main CharacterI really did enjoy Elsie as a main character. She seems like a genuinely good and kind person, and I can definitely relate to her struggle with wanting to please everyone so much so that you outright lie about who you are. What comes with that are some nice messages about relying on the fact that the right people are going to stick around in your life no matter what, even if you aren’t the “perfect” version of you. Having this character have diabetes as well puts another layer of stress on the situation, because if she can’t get her dream position, then not only will her career and mental health suffer, but quite literally her physical health as well. It definitely made me a lot more engaged in what was going on in her life and made me all the more passionate about her getting the job as well (and made me pleasantly hate Jack whenever he appeared to get in the way). I felt this character was a big improvement over Bee from Love on the Brain. While that character definitely leaned towards grating at many times, Elsie seems very aware of herself and confident in her abilities without seeming like she thinks she’s the best thing to grace the Earth. Being classified as STEMinist novels, these books always bring up the topic of women in STEM. I know next to nothing about the issue (being allergic to anything math or science related), so I can’t say what’s accurate and what’s not, but the main characters of any Ali Haazelwood work are always bringing up certain points throughout the books about the unbalanced climate. And when it comes to Elsie, she is very aware of her own faults. There is a point when she realizes she has her own biases about women in STEM, despite being an avid feminist, in a scene towards the middle of the book when she finds out that the person who got her coveted job was another woman. A woman she admires. But her moment of anger and devastation causes her to accuse the woman of basically sleeping her way to the job. I really liked how not only was this something that happened, but Elsie had to realize what an awful accusation she just made and how she directly fed into the stereotypes about women in STEM that she so adamantly propagates against the rest of the book. It was a nice moment to show that, no matter how generous we might be, frustration and jealousy are often what lead to the sort of reactions that prejudices arise from. If Bee from LOTB made a comment like this, I feel like she would have just made up an excuse for why what she said technically wasn’t bad at all and why she is actually correct in her awful statement. Elsie isn’t perfect and doesn’t pretend to be. But she wishes she was. So she has to learn to be okay with who she is and recognize that she can mess up and say the wrong things, and the people who care about her will forgive her and stay with her. The RomanceNow, let's get to what really matters. I did really enjoy the romance in this. Jack makes for a pretty likable romantic lead, who also is not always perfect himself. I like that we see his attraction to Elsie is at odds with his protectiveness of his brother (who he thinks Elsie is for-real dating for a large part of the book) and there is this odd tension when he thinks she has been lying to his brother because he is angry about that, but also a bit relieved because he hopes they will break up and he can be with her. It was an interesting dynamic, again showing that we humans are not at all perfect and have some very not-ok thoughts sometimes. But of course, everything works out. There are many heavy Twilight references in here that I feel like point towards the kind of partner Jack is. When he and Elsie first get together, he can be a little overprotective. He knows Elsie has trouble expressing what she wants, so at times, he makes the decisions for her. Sometimes this helps her, and other times, it ventures into dad-like territory. The book (and Elsie) are thankfully not ok with this. Without being too preachy in my opinion, it is made clear that he has no business deciding things for her just because he thinks it’s best. While his intentions are good, again, it feels like he’s trying to be her father sometimes. So it was nice that those boundaries were set in place and he learns to take a step back and trust her to be honest with him. This can be something that stories either don’t address at all, or instantly vilify and label the guy as a psychopath, end of story. (By the way I am talking about fictional relationships here, not real ones). It’s nice to see a story that takes the in-between road, in addressing the unhealthy behavior and then working to move forward. It makes the relationship between Jack and Elsie seem a little more believable because things aren’t just instantly perfect. And this is in many different ways (yes, including the sex). They know they have things to work on, and that’s part of the excitement of the relationship. You don’t always just find your groove instantly. Another message brought in that I thought was nice comes when Elsie and Jack go through their third-act breakup separation, and Elsie considers how she used to want to rush and fix everything immediately when something was wrong. But this time, she is content with letting herself be angry for a bit and have some space. I can’t recall this aspect ever being specifically pointed out in a romance book I’ve ever read, but again, I thought it gave a really powerful message about not having to have everything always be perfect all the time, especially in relationships. You can get mad and take some time being mad by yourself before you are ready to talk and patch things up. Again, I’m certainly no expert on real life relationships, but this seems like a good piece of advice. I also want to say, similar to other books by this author, the two main characters actually spend the majority of the book together. Hello. Romance. I get we all like the slow burn and the pining, but good lord, it’s nice to actually see the main couple spend at least eighty percent of the story together, rather than just thinking about each other every now and then. They don’t just get together for the last page of the book or any horribleness like that. I mean, maybe one day I will be in the mood for a romance where the main characters are never actually romantic with each other, but that day is not today. That ending?So, one of the big plot points is how Elsie’s mentor, a guy who is pretty soon obviously going to be the surprise villain, has to do with something in Jack’s past that made him angry enough to try to destroy his career. Once we know that Jack is not in fact the main antagonist and we get a hint that he has a grudge against Elsie’s mentor, we can all guess where it is heading. Again, I don’t mind this that much. A little familiarity is good every now and then. But that does mean you spend a lot of the book ten steps ahead of Elsie on this revelation, which you have to be ok with. I didn’t mind it an awful lot, but I did find it odd how flabbergasted and disbelieving she was that her old, white, male mentor could be this cruel when she seems very untrusting of old white men in the STEM field. I guess this was just to show how blindsided she really was by him, and again, how she falls into these traps even though she is aware of them. It was a little odd though why it shocked her so much, especially when he pretty obviously never treated her great. What would have made that a bit more shocking so that we could feel betrayed with her, was if we had maybe a scene or two more with this mentor character showing him being incredibly benevolent and always checking in with her to see how she’s doing, which would seem like genuine care, but we would soon realize were just more ways of controlling her. Having him be dismissive and always getting her name wrong doesn’t exactly evoke much sympathy for their relationship, so I think having him seem more kind and attentive would have been a better path to then revealing that he is really just trying to manipulate her the whole time. Similar to the Tom reveal in TLH, which came as much more of a shock than this. Everything also seemed to wrap up pretty quickly and conveniently after Elsie learns the truth. I’m not sure what I was expecting, maybe something similar to the very bizarre but welcomed surprise of the climax of LOTB, which turned into a complete Lifetime movie. All Elsie does is confront her mentor, who confirms that he is a creep, and then she just leaves his office. And we find out immediately that he is going to receive his comeuppance off screen (or… off page?). I would have liked a bit more drama there, but again, maybe it’s the Lifetime fan in me. I just want to see a character pull a gun or jump out a window or something. Final thoughtsI really did enjoy myself with this book. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than exactly what it is: a comfort read at heart. And boy do I need plenty of those.
The characters I found all very likable and pleasant to follow (even the side characters, which I usually have an aversion to). The romance was very cute and developed nicely, and also handled some interesting and important topics, like being authentic with the people you care about and who care about you, and some issues that can come up in relationships that you may want to ignore but should take the time to feel and address. I think most people will know right away if this book is for them or not, and it won’t break the mold for you if you’re not into this kind of contemporary romance. But I love it, and I will definitely continue looking forward to more books from this author in the future. Sometimes, all I ask for is an easy enemies-to-lovers to snuggle up with whilst I eat my snacks after a long day. WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS In the third chapter of the Bayview Crew, all our favorite beloved characters return just in time for a new game to begin. It all begins with a mysterious billboard message and the return of a familiar face to shake things up in Bayview once again, with the promise of more secrets to be revealed and more deadly rules that the Crew must learn in time to try to put a stop to the increasingly fatal plot. OVERVIEWIt’s my first blog post of 2024! And what better way to commemorate that than by reviewing a book that I read several months ago? Yes, yes, this review has been sitting in the vault for a bit. But I still wanted to share my thoughts on this book since it was a pretty big deal for me over the summer, being a very big fan of this author. I can not tell you how excited I was once I heard there was going to be a third book in this series. I have been an enormous fan of all of this author’s books since the first one, and to see a third installment in the One Of Us story that started it all made me giddy with book-joy. This was yet another fun teen mystery story that hooked me with the likeability of the characters and the interesting setting. I have always thought that McManus’ books succeed because of these two components specifically, and while this book didn’t necessarily focus on setting as much, and the characters are all ones we know already, the strength from the previous stories carries over. Bayview in these books is a cool, creepy little town that feels like the perfect place to set a mystery involving young people who feel even more trapped because they often can’t get any help from the adults around them. Honestly, Bayview feels a bit like Derry in It in that way. Aside from a spare few, all the adults either seem brainwashed, or like they might be in on it all. Overall, it was nice to see the original Bayview four as semi-functioning adults themselves now and teaming up with the younger generation we got to know in One of Us is Next. I am a fan of epic crossovers, so this was all I ever wanted as far as I’m concerned. As usually, there will be casual and big spoilers throughout this review, so be warned. CHARACTERSI was extremely satisfied with the WTF ending of the second book, even more so because nothing was even close to being resolved with it. I liked the bizarre horror of Phoebe and her sister finding that their seemingly innocent little brother had a huge yet unintentional part in their classmate being killed and their friends almost being blown up. There was this daunting question if things were really going to turn out ok, which you certainly got the idea that they weren’t going to be. And this continuation confirmed that. Though I liked the ambiguity of the second book, it is very nice to pick up where we left off and see how keeping this secret has affected Phoebe. We get to see how the guilt of protecting her brother is weighing on her relationships with the others in the group, and her questioning of whether hiding her brother’s secret was really for the best, now that it seems he might be heading down a dangerously dark path. This makes her a great character to focus on throughout the story, since a lot of the tension comes from her carrying this secret and wondering if perhaps her brother is involved in the disappearances that start happening. We also get to go back to Addy and Nate as our other two main POV characters, which was a great choice. They are the ones who have still remained in Bayview after graduation, and with the gap of the second book, we get to see a significant change in both of them. Nate feels like he has matured a lot and isn’t doing his mopey teen angst thing anymore, which is great, and Addy is a take-charge badass now, which is a satisfying development from way back when she felt like she had to do everything anyone else told her. I absolutely loved getting to read from their points of view again and see how differently they handle the new threat in this novel. I adore all of the characters in these books, so it’s too bad we don’t get as in-depth with characters like Cooper or Bronwyn, but Addy and Nate are the ones who had the need for the greatest character development, so they were definitely the right choices to be the main focus, as well as Phoebe because of the secret she is carrying. Though each of the other characters get a fair amount of time to shine, one I felt was lacking was Knox. He was a great character in the second book, and I adore his relationship with Phoebe. But here, it really felt like he had very little to do or say, and I honestly forgot he was even in the book a lot of the time. It felt like even Luis, who has always been a side character, had more to do than him. I wish Knox had maybe a bit more in this story, perhaps a bit more sleuthing with Phoebe or something, especially since this is the last book. But at least their relationship is touched upon and they do have at least one meaningful conversation towards the middle of the book that was nice to see, but again, could have been expanded upon a bit regarding Phoebe’s guilt and Knox’s hurt over her keeping things from him causing a rift in their relationship. Lastly, I like the addition of Vanessa’s character. It was nice to see a minor villain from the first book get some redemption and join in the crew to help solve the new mystery. I liked that her interactions were mostly with Nate as well, seeing as no one else in the group probably would have wanted to give her the time of day. But Nate always seems to have a soft spot for everyone (though he would never admit it). MYSTERYRight from the start, I liked the direction the mystery went this time around. Once Phoebe is the first person to go missing pretty early on in the story, we get the feeling that things are going to be deadly at every turn, and that no one is safe. Not only is someone from the Bayview Crew the first victim, but it is one of the main narrators. I thought that was a great way to show how unpredictable this was going to be, and I genuinely didn’t know what to expect from the rest of the story. Once Phoebe is recovered safe and sound and the next victim goes missing, only to be found dead, I was honestly starting to get sort of a Saw vibe, which was very fun. Obviously there are no gory and glorious death traps or anything, but with the continuous mentions of a “new game” and “rules”, coupled with the random abductions and finding a victim dead in a locker room surrounded by their own blood, I was sort of questioning if we had a Jigsaw equivalent killer on our hands in this one. Because of course, the perpetrator behind everything in these books is out for revenge against dishonest and morally corrupt people. So… interesting connection. Overall, I did like the development of the mystery a lot. I genuinely had no idea who to suspect, or what the big secret was this time. But to be fair and transparent, I have never been great at figuring out mysteries. So me being surprised by an ending is not exactly an uncommon occurrence in everyday life. I’m just a wide eyed, innocent little reader/viewer who is usually too busy focusing on the wrong things to catch any clues as to what’s actually going on. But in all seriousness, I did really like how this all played out, especially with the addition of the multiple flashbacks bringing us years back, to Simon and Jake’s point of views. I thought this was a really fun element to bring in, since we can get a little sneak preview into Simon and Jake’s heads and get some more interesting context to not only the events in this book, but the events in the first book as well and why this all started in the first place. Yes. Jake is back. I was floored. I really didn’t know what to expect this time around. Is his supposed turn to the light side all a farce? Is he behind everything again? Is he a complete red herring and not involved in any way at all? The answer of course ended up being a combination of all three, which was probably the best way to go since he had to be really at the center of all of this in order to justify bringing him back into the story, but at the same time it wouldn’t have been as exciting if he was the big bad villain all over again. ENDINGI found myself a bit torn when I first got through the ending of this and saw how much they were sympathizing with who turned out to be the villain. It felt a bit odd with everything she had done (literally planning to and succeeding with murdering someone). But what was interesting is there was also some sympathy for Jake from Addy’s perspective. I realized it sort of humanized all of these villains a bit, especially with wondering if things could have been different for all of them if they had simply been raised differently. It made them feel a bit more real when putting the question out there of how such horrible people come to be, and that the answer is not just because they were born a bad seed. I liked that all of this is from Addy’s head, showing how she can finally get some closure and begin to move on with no malice in her heart, proving she will not go down the same path of revenge and destruction after being wronged. And even more proof of this is the fact that there is no stinger or secret reveal at the end that hints at the suggestion for the story to go on because of some unresolved, overlooked loose string that is still threatening the characters. It is simply Addy moving on. In fact, I think this is the only Karen McManus book without a stinger at the end, which signified to me that this is the firm conclusion of this story and these characters. It is really nice to see Phoebe’s family come to a happy conclusion after all the tension from both her sister and brother having been involved in the crimes in the previous book. It’s satisfying that they get to all come together and agree to work past everything (for real this time). It is equally satisfying to get a happy ending for Addy’s family as well. Addy’s mother seemed a bit of a lost cause in the first book, so it is nice to get to see her and her daughter connect and have a serious conversation about the past, about Jake in particular and the unhealthy pressures she put onto Addy throughout her life. I wasn’t expecting that and it was definitely a pleasant surprise. And finally, the confirmation that Nate and Bronwyn are indeed going to be a forever couple, is magnificent. They really are sort of the characters that started it all, and they are the ones we care about the most, so it is beyond lovely to see that they have moved past the angsty stage of their relationship and feel like they are ready to move into the next phase, as adults. Hopeless romantic that I am, that was the greatest ending I could have asked for. FINAL THOUGHTSI have such a guilty pleasure for any teen mystery/thrillers, and this series started that obsession for me. They may not be ground-breaking storylines or the most genius twists and turns, but they are filled with likable and comforting characters, atmospheric settings, lovely romances, and of course, that jaw-dropping teen drama mixed in with a dash of murder.
I am obsessed with epic finales, and bringing all these characters together for the conclusion of this trilogy was super exciting to see, with all of their contrasting personalities and the different things they bring to the story. I think this author does a brilliant job with balancing different points of views and keeping the characters’ different voices consistent (something I as a writer struggle severely with). And I have always liked how her books know exactly what they are: they are just serious enough, but there is always a firm undertone of that fun, dramatic, teen craziness. This book showed great development for my favorite characters and gave a very satisfying conclusion to many things that were previously left up in the air in the other books. We even got some nice closure with Jake’s character and some extra Simon content that added to his scheming personality, which I absolutely loved. Overall, a very fitting and fun conclusion to this series. I will be waiting anxiously for the next Karen McManus book to come out. And the next, and the next, and the next. |
AuthorCertified non-professional who just enjoys giving her random thoughts on movies and books. Archives
June 2024
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