My Rating: ★★★
Weak, powerless, and frustrated, Alina finds herself trapped in the clutches of the Apparat somewhere deep underground. The Apparat offers protection… at a price, and that price is following his orders while isolated and kept on a very short leash. Thankfully, Alina has a small group of friends and allies who are following the Apparat’s instructions while plotting to get out of there and go find the final amplifier so she can face the Darkling one final time.
It took me sometime to get into this book because the first 35% or so was dreadfully slow. I was rather disappointed that the opening chapters was mostly exposition letting us know what transpired during the short period of time between the second and third book. This would’ve been okay if the Apparat and his followers made a huge showing later in the book. Instead, it didn’t really pay off and I found myself bored and feeling like the story wasn’t going anywhere until almost halfway through the book.
I am also disappointed in how little Alina uses her powers and how much she relies on finding the third amplifier to give her strength. Even with the amplifiers, you’d think she’d want to focus on practicing her abilities, sharpening her skills, and pushing those abilities to the limit to see what she could achieve. The amplifiers to increase her strength, but what’s the point of that without putting in more effort on her end? It just seemed kind of odd, especially since she craves the increase in power. You’d think she’d want to also put more effort in to maximize her abilities, but maybe I’m expecting too much from
Complaints aside, once the story picked up, it really picked up. I was glued to the pages and excited to see where the story was Alina and company. There were some shocking events that took place. One event had me thinking this was the end for this character for sure. I wish what happened to them was further explored, but I’m happy with the information we got and how it was resolved.
I am surprised with how the final events unfold. I both like and dislike this because I think they’re excellent twists, but the way one of them plays out needed more of an explanation. The more I think about it, the more it doesn’t make a single ounce of sense. However, if I don’t think much about it, I guess I can live with it. I just wish we had some information to expand on how A led to B and C because it doesn’t make sense and seems like it wasn’t well thought out.
Wait. I thought I wasn’t complaining anymore… I swear I did enjoy the second half of book! I loved many of the characters and where the story took them. I was sad to see some of them injured and others killed, but I’m also surprised that so many of them survived to the end of the book. We also got some very interesting backstory that I was very excited to see. I’m a little sad to say goodbye to these characters now that it’s over, but I can’t say this was my favorite book in the series.
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