Hello Rad Readers,
I have reviewed the previous two books in this series very thoroughly, so I didn't feel like this one really warranted a full in depth review. Nonetheless, I do have a few things to say on it.
So, as you all know I really enjoy this series despite its harsh criticisms from what I simply blame on pretentious ban wagoners. The author's goal is to entertain, not write some deep commentary on life and some people just don't know how to appreciate a regular old fun character driven book. Anyways, despite my many defenses of this series as a whole, though I did enjoy this book, I found it lacking in comparison to the others.
So, Nora loses her memory of what has happened since the beginning of the series. At first I was like wow, pretty good way to make this more of a plot driven book as apposed to its character driven tendencies. However as a result of her memory loss, Patch wasn't present for the majority of the first half of the book. Unfortunately this story does not really hold up without his presence. Nora simply just is not interesting enough on her own. Not to say that there is a problem with that, I mean the entire purpose of this book is to show how this girl's life had changed when she was accidentally introduced to this supernatural world. So, when she forgets this super natural world and is suddenly just a girl with PTSD, a bad best friend, and a lying mother... I don't know, it just wasn't doing it for me-- At first that is. Only at first. Once she starts to learn the truth, I do think that things got very exciting!
What I did appreciate about this major set back in Nora's life was that it made her much stronger. She had always been a little too soft for my liking. Quick to talk a bit but not really stand up for herself. It was really nice to see that shift and that character development this time around! Honestly, that is what I felt like I had been waiting for in the past two books-- some character development on Nora's side. Girl power!!
What I kind of hated was how the people in Nora's life were treating her after this traumatic experience that legitimately left her with amnesia. The two people who she was closest with in the entire world, lie and manipulated her without even blinking an eye, and then when she confronted them about it, they had the AUDACITY to defend themselves!?!?! Ummmm... ABSOLUTELY not! I always found Vee to be a bit annoying, but this really pushed me over the edge in my disdain for her. You just do not mess with a real friend like that in their most vulnerable moments. As for her mother???? HORRIBLE! WRETCHED! TERRIBLE! There are not enough adjectives to get across my true feelings, but I think you get the idea. She is literally trying to manipulate her daughter's lost memories, LIE to her about what happened in HER OWN LIFE, to make Nora more docile and to mold into to what she actually wants in a daughter. Genuinely so frustrating and utterly disgusting. I do imagine though, that this is exactly how Becca Fitzpatrick wanted me to feel when she was writing this book, so props to her for eliciting genuine hatred from me!
The only other thing that I would say is that Scott has probably come to be my favorite character in this series. I always seem to appreciate the comic reliefs more than the core characters, so this will come as no surprise to consistent Rad Readers that I wish we got to hear more from Scott. Though from the little teaser for Finale at the end, it seems like he might in fact be playing a bigger role!
Read on!
- C8 ;)