Review: Charlotte's world is at the worst place it's ever been
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
Elemental Light is the last book in the Paranormal Public series, and, oh, what a long way we have traveled. Charlotte's world is at the worst place it's ever been, and it seems impossible that she and her friends will triumph over evil... especially since her most powerful friend may BE evil. She's not even at school anymore but is instead trying to navigate her way among the various factions who combat the darkness---many of whom don't seem to be on the same side, either.I fluctuated between appreciating that Charlotte was an atypical heroine in that she was not particularly strong or effective and getting annoyed that she was not becoming more awesome. I think it's definitely typical in a series like this for the heroine to start off weak but to progress to a point where she has great powers that can awe her enemies, but this is definitely not the case with Charlotte. To the very end of the book, she does her best but is often lacking and has to rely on other people to save her. For the most part I am okay with this and find it interesting, but there was one moment where it bothered me.Let's talk about Keller. He was absent for the entirety of Elemental Darkness, and his return was... not what I expected. So for the first seven books, I often jokingly complained that Keller had no flaws. He was awesome at everything and shouldered increasing responsibility with ease. Well, we find out in Elemental Light that Keller has a flaw, a really all-encompassing one, and for me, it was almost a deal-breaker. I was seriously on Team Charlotte Can Do Better for a bit. But then I thought about it and realized that this flaw made him even more perfect for Charlotte, because it made him, in a way, ordinary. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean that in a "Neither of them really wants to fight evil. They just want to go have normal lives together" way. So I'm okay with Keller.I confess that once I knew the gender of the Darkness Premier, I knew who it had to be, though I did still have a bit of uncertainty.I found Elemental Light to be a satisfying conclusion to the Paranormal Public series. And after meeting the main characters of the spinoff, the Devious Chronicles, I'm excited to read that too. Though I still want to know what the dealio was with the cat.