Review: So much story...so much sadness! Worth reading every word of it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
My heart is broken.For me, for Addy...for all the characters.This book is much darker and more serious than the previous two books, as the big, super-evil but undeniably smart bad guy is revealed. In fact, saying the villain is 'revealed' is deceiving because this book basically covers the entire story-arch: history, followers, how followers are gained; basically all the W's and then some. So, in addition to everything that was already happening in the previous books, this one continues those storylines and adds this one. I didn't realize how complicated this book was until almost half-way through! That said, even though there's lots going on, things are pretty easy to follow (even if you have to dig around in your memory a bit to remember who's who and who did what however many years ago). AND I absolutely love that this author doesn't go for the big cliff-hangers, yet leaves the end of the book open. Her books are so good, you just WANT to keep going to find out what happens to the characters, not just because you're left in a lurch.I have to say this book really got under my skin - more so than the other books. Probably because, as the third book, you really get to know Addy. Plus, I think almost everyone out there has felt the pain of heartbreak, so I definitely related to that. I started this book late at night and finally had to go to sleep. But of course, I couldn't because I was just imagining what it'd be like to be Addy - to make the decisions she had to, to feel the loneliness and confusion she was experiencing...yeah it took awhile to play through all those scenarios and get to sleep (I blame you Colee Firman!).Anyhow, without giving anything away, this book covers a lot of ground in a lot of different story lines: Addy and just about every character (Tanner, Jax, Gage, Mr. Evil, etc, etc), Brutal Ball, Tournament of Lost Souls, the villain...just about everything mentioned in both previous books, and probably some things I'm forgetting about. One thing that really struck me was the motives behind the villain. It was unusual and really chilling (and very Joker-esque...aka creepy).As with the previous books, the pacing feels right (matches the story). The story itself...do I like everything that happened? Nope. Not at all! But I'm not the author. I'm putting my faith in her; she's built such an awesome world and such dynamic character that I'm just going to have to follow her lead.At the end of this book, there's a preview chapter for #4. I couldn't stop myself from reading it even though I know it will be slowly burning away at the back of my mind, so I'm starting a count down until December 1st!