In the Afterlight

14 year old me would've liked this.. but I'm nearing 22 and it's showing because YA doesn't hit like it used to.

the characters lost all personality in this book, they were all stereotypes (chubs= no longer a character, just a guy that pops in to say something smart) etc.

I'm sick of YA characters having morals 24/7
“Oh I can't kill this villian! That will make me as bad as him!” No it won't, KILL HIM, you'd be saving more lives but killing the villian omg

I want to thank Erin from Reading With Wrin for buddy reading this with me. We also buddy read book 2 which we both really enjoyed which is why we pretty much immediately jumped into this one.

To my understanding this series was originally only supposed to be a trilogy so this was the original ending to it. I could be making that up so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I can't really say a whole lot about this one because of spoilers but I really enjoyed this one as well. Pretty much the entire time I was reading this I was sure it was going to end up being just as good as the previous book but unfortunately it was lacking a little for me. Just a little though because I still really enjoyed it.

First off a lot of stuff that happened in this book could have been avoided had the characters just talked and listened to each other. I realize that's pretty much been the case in all of the books but at some point it gets really annoying and that happened for me with this book.

Next up one of the villains in this series. Ugh I was so over him in book two and he was still up to his no good ways and I was just like why? Why keep him I wish y'all would just kill him already. I will say though he makes for a great villain because I really hated his character.

Lastly the ending. Overall I loved the way the book ended but I was a little underwhelmed by it and I wanted more. I would have liked a time jump into the future to see where everyone was and how/if things changed.

Those are my only complaints which are really minor considering how much I was invested in the characters and how much I enjoyed reading it.

These books will definitely make you go through every emotion and it's possible you might shed some tears. I highly recommend!!

4.8

BEST YA DYSTOPIAN SERIES SINCE THE HUNGER GAMES!!!

This final book is a satisfying end to a fantastic series. At first, I was thinking of rating this a 4... by the second half of the novel, everything was tied up neatly and going at a much better pace which bumped my rating to a near perfect score. It was beautifully written and it naturally flows in a deep, heart-wrenching manner. I have grown to love Ruby and the gang. They literally have the greatest character developments among a sea of characters in YA dystopian novels. I love you Alexandra Bracken! You've written one of the most compelling books I've read in a very long time. You know that bittersweet moment when you finish a series? Yes, I'm in that same boat right now. I don't want this to be a long review because I've already said most of the things I wanna say in the previous books. Buy the books, read it, and enter this awesome, gripping, roller-coaster ride of a world that Bracken has created.

READING THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS JUST MADE THE ENDING EVEN BETTER! IT WAS AMAZING BEFORE, BUT THE VERY LAST SENTENCE IN THE ACKNOWLEGDEMENT, AW, THE FEELS, MAN, THE FEELS WERE SO REAL.

Carpe the hell out of that diem.

Maybe I took too much time between reading [b:Never Fade 16150830 Never Fade (The Darkest Minds, #2) Alexandra Bracken https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1368460550s/16150830.jpg 21986942] and this book. Because I remember caring about these characters and what they went through, but I wasn't feeling a whole lot of that here.This is an enjoyable, thrilling book once it gets started. Unfortunately, it doesn't really start until about 250 pages in, which if you can do math you'll note that that's about half the book. The first chunk of the book is made up mostly of Ruby's thoughts of self-doubt, some character based stuff, some plotting and planning because hey a bunch of kids trying to overthrow a corrupt and cruel government is actually really difficult, as well as developing a new relationship with a great character who will be killed off-screen in the second half of the book. Oof. It took me a while to get through that business. Once the action kicked in, things moved quickly and with purpose. We go back to where things all started, Thurmond, and some loose ends were tied up that I was really happy about. There was something about the action though that felt really stale, and it might have been that there wasn't a whole lot superpowers involved.If [b:The Darkest Minds 10576365 The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1) Alexandra Bracken https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343178841s/10576365.jpg 15483434] was about the end of days, and In the Afterlight about revolution, then Never Fade was anarchy. That book was deeply entrenched in the kids' raw abilities, in the broken landscape and society that was left behind by IAAN. Ruby came into her powers, she discovered how devastating they could be and how terrible the gifts of others could be as well. But in In the Afterlight, all that felt incredibly neutered. There's a lot of military and political strategy involved instead, which is cool and slick and sophisticated but I guess not what I love about these books. One of the big teases of the second book was the Reds and the role they would play in the climax - as it turned out, that role was largely insignificant. Ruby uses her abilities gently for the most part, there's nothing like the kidnapping/car crash scene from Never Fade or the scene with Mason. Even with how angry and emotional she is, her power becomes one of the smaller parts of her, instead of one of the most profound.There's also a lot of Liam and Ruby here. Not that the romance overwhelms the plot or anything, its actually really well integrated into the main story. The two of them hashing out their issues and learning to trust each other is big part of their own personal development and their strength as leaders and friends. Unfortunately, I just didn't really care about them a whole lot. Like, I'm happy for you crazy kids, but I don't really need to know the details.I know I must sound like a big unsentimental grouch who just wants her favorite characters to be like Magneto or whatever. I do feel like Bracken did a great job of saying what she needed to say about culture and fear. She shows far more knowledge about government and politics then a lot of other people writing YA dystopias. She actually addressed how the international community responded! I wanted to cartwheels. And honestly, if you've read the first two books and enjoyed them, probably nothing is going to stop you from reading this one, at least to see how it ends. Like I said, after you slog through the first half of the book, its a fun time. I think I was just expecting something else.