thoughts & things

the first 3 books are pretty okay (minus some negative language around mental health that was very common in those early 2000’s books). Everything is written to be fast and leave you hanging on every end of the chapter. There is some vague overarching plot. Then it gets worse lol.

Book 4 is insanely bad and most of the next few books (4-8) have the same plug and chug formula with absolutely no plot or consistency. It’s insane how there can be so many plot holes in a book with no plot. Not only that, but the amount of retconning is mind boggling. So much so I thought at one point the actual ending was going to be max waking up from a white coat induced dream where all her adventures never happened and it was a simulation. And somehow that would have made more sense than book 8’s ending. I won’t even mention the climate change soap box these books adopted here. Like it wasn’t out of place but it did get old as every villain/evil group wanted to save the world by killing more and more humans. oh yeah and the less evolved enhanced people (max and her flock) which makes absolutely no sense. I will say max addressing the us congress was insane and she made some good points.

Marketed as the “last maximum ride” novel I know I was pissed when I read that ending of max failing to save the world lol. Which leads us to the insane shift in tone in the actual last novel where everyone is fake murdered one by one and it’s very detailed about how it happens. But then everyone is ok except fang who is actually dead. But he’s not because Dylan kills himself to revive fang. So dark and insane. The whole series max is told that she’ll save the world and I guess she does it by being pregnant with fang and his immortal dna? I’m still unclear. Let’s just say I was hoping for something more uhhh cool? and less teen pregnancy saving the world lol. At least the epilogue was nice.

Just a fun fact about me if you made it this far, I’m pretty sure max and fang (fax) were the first fictional characters I shipped lol and they were the only reason I was reading the later books both in the past and now tbh. low key it is watered down twilight for teens but I was/am here for it. who needs actual character development when fang leaves all the time just to come back, make up with max, and leave again? not me, I was there for the drama. I do feel really bad about Dylan and his imprinting and lack of free will situation now that I have a fully developed brain. I really thought he’d end up with max’s clone but no happy endings for them I guess

there’s a ton more I could say about angel, the voice, jeb etc, but I’m already rambling as is, feel free to ask specifics.

the trilogy was a solid 3.75/5 and saved only by nikolai for me. If I was 10 yrs younger I think I would have liked it a lot more. I listened to all 3 on audio which was amazing for making the less exciting parts feel more interesting. Sadly, alina made me equal parts frustrated and disappointed. It seems that every time I thought she learned something, her character arc just plummeted back to before the thing™️ occurred. She did surprise me some and sometimes she was hilarious. Her light vs dark struggle was interesting especially with the darkling intertwined as well. And I am a Mal hater! Lord every male character was infinitely more likable to me. At some points I was rooting for the darkling to end it all and my suffering of mal’s wishy-washiness. Lastly I was not a big fan of the trilogy’s ending in general but I get it and it made sense I just thought it would be better.

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom felt like they were written by a completely different author to me. So much better than the trilogy. Maybe it was the multiple pov’s and shift to third person but whatever it was worked. finally a cast of interesting characters that were incredibly fleshed out. a high stakes world altering plot that 6 teens didn’t really care about because they each had their own agendas and motivations. absolute perfection 6 star reads. I’m done reading it but I cannot stop thinking about those characters and their world. on my best books list. No notes.

the king of scars and rule of wolves duology was solid. 4/5 stars. I enjoyed learning more about zoya and getting a nikolai pov was a dream come true for me. hiding intense worry and guilt with humor? it’s like he is me. I enjoyed a broader view into the politics of all the countries and getting a better look into each one. for me nina’s pov was always the least interesting even if her new powers were cool. In the end I’m glad her story ended happily. She really almost single handedly turned the war for ravka so slay. And dragon queen zoya finished what nina put into motion. and lol the darkling really just loves to show up and ruin things and then somehow fix everything and get what he wanted in the first place. pop off I guess. Somehow LB manages to tie up all loose ends even the ones I had forgotten about. A perfect ending, leaving the door open to more adventures should LB choose to write them. I would love to read about kaz leading his team to the relic zoya requests but I’m very biased towards my fav characters.