The Towering Sky by Katherine McGee

SPOILERS BE HERE

I expected this series to be of the typical dystopian fashion that was all the rage a decade ago, but was pleasantly surprised by it. I'll admit that I'm entertained by rich kid, CW-esque drama, so these were nice guilty pleasures.

This review is specifically about the final book, though, and sadly it was the worst of the bunch. It wasn't awful by any means, but there was a noticeable decline in quality. Part of that stems from how obvious certain "mysteries" were—Nadia had clearly murdered Mariel (which was plain as soon as it happened in the previous book) and Avery was unquestionably alive. Another part of the quality decline came from the pacing. I really think The Towering Sky and The Dazzling Heights could have been one book; there just wasn't enough story content for two.

I wasn't thrilled with some characters' choices. Max was a perfect gentleman (too perfect?), so I was disappointed that Avery still couldn't get past Atlas. That plot line never was my favorite, so them ending up together—or at least ending up searching for each other—wasn't my cup of tea. Actually, off the top of my head, maybe I was only disappointed in Avery. I'm glad Watt finally got rid of Nadia and that Leda was finally finding some peace. I'm happy Rylin and Cord finally worked through their issues. And it's great that Beth/Calliope finally struck out on her own and gets to discover who she is (although I'm not convinced Brice isn't conning her). All in all, it was a nice wrap-up with some decent character development.

Completed: 28 November 2020

Rating: 3/5

Recommend: If you like cheesy YA melodrama

Comments

The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

**SPOILERS BE HERE** I am whelmed. I'm also ignoring that this is a fictionalized account of William and Kate. The beginning of the book was great! I was super into it and it was cheesy cute, which was exactly what I needed after reading the very dry Presidency of William Howard Taft . I love how Bex and Nick bonded over a trashy TV show and Twinkies. They were so cute together. But it went south pretty quickly after Part 1. This book was just so long . It does span eight years, but I couldn't have told you that because the time jumps were difficult to follow. Has a year passed? Have three? Who knows? What could have been the most interesting parts were completely skipped over—Bex goes home to finish university but it's only briefly mentioned. Visit the long-distance relationship and her decision to move to England! Her father dies but we barely get to see her grieving (not due to a time jump). What about her settling into a new country full time? Or her job, which is ju...

Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline

SPOILERS BE HERE Trash. This book was trash. I had no idea what it was about beyond it probably being a sequel to Ready Player One , which I really enjoyed. But this was just a rehash of Ready Player One , and done really badly. Wade was awful. The relationships were awful. The story was awful. That Prince segment was sooooooooooo overly long. It would have been much better if we could have followed a different set of characters on the quest (those five who called themselves something I can't remember). Or if it had just been about how the winners were using their money to try to help the world. Or a prequel. Anything but what it was. That's it. That's the review. It doesn't deserve anything else. Parts were fine but overall it was just plain bad. Completed: 7 March 2021 Rating: 1/5 Recommend: Absolutely not

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

SPOILERS BE HERE I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it fell flat for me. I 100% believe part of that was due to me listening to it rather than reading it—I drifted in and out and couldn't keep the characters straight, specifically Izzy and Lexie; something about their names is too similar. I think the plot was interesting, but actions were random and didn't make sense. Why did Mia keep Pearl? I never felt like that decision was fully explored—she just up and left. And why did Izzy (...not Lexie, right?) set fires in the house? That seemed like such an extreme response to the things that happened. The characters were not fleshed out enough. I also felt like I was being led a little too much to sympathize with certain characters and dislike others. I said the plot was interesting; it was also clunky. It jumped around from one thing to another so sporadically that it felt like a different book at times. It could have been handled a lot more smoothly by cutting some of the ...

Manuscript Musing

Search This Blog