The Midnight Star by Marie LuMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I feel as though my journey with The Young Elite series is the opposite of my journey with the Legend series. With the Legend series, I enjoyed the books more and more. With The Young Elite series, I enjoyed each book a little less. As a whole, I enjoyed The Young Elites series a lot more than Marie Lu’s other series. The Legend series was a let-down, whereas The Young Elites was a lot of fun. However, I didn’t enjoy this ending quite as much as I had hoped I would.
Whilst The Midnight Star was a fun end to the series, it wasn’t at all what I had expected it to be. I was expecting a lot of big things to happen – and yet it felt as though too many things were thrown into too few pages, thus preventing the book from having the impact it could have. It almost felt as though Marie Lu simply wanted it to be over with, that she wanted to bring the series to an end as soon as she could. She brought together all of the loose ends, she made sure we knew what had happened to characters, and she made sure we got one final journey – however, it wasn’t at all what it could have been.
Mostly, things failed to have the emotional impact they could have. I’ve found this happens quite often in young adult fantasy novels – the events that take place are dire, yet they never quite have the emotions attached that they should. We know these things are happening, we know these things are bad, and yet they simply are. We’re not as pulled in as we could have been, meaning we watch the events rather than truly experiencing the events.
It doesn’t help that so many events occurred that could have had an emotional impact. It felt as though too much happened too close together. This can be good for emotional reactions, if done correctly, yet in this case it felt like overkill. So much was happening, one event leading straight into the next. It wasn’t even as though these events were all action filled. Some things would be glossed over, some things we would simply be told about. As a whole, it wasn’t quite what I had hoped it would be. I really do believe it needed to be a longer read than it was, if only so everything could have been given the attention it needed.
I’m also not sure how I feel about the ending. Marie Lu tried so hard to create an anti-hero, and I don’t think she ever quite achieved it. Despite this, the ending seemed to jar with what we had been shown throughout the rest of the series. It simply didn’t fit quite right with me, it felt as though it was too much – and possibly in the wrong direction. It was an interesting way to end things, and yet I don’t quite think it was the right choice for the series. I’d just been expecting something else, really.
Overall, I enjoyed this series a great deal. It was a fun journey, and it has left me willing to pick up whatever the author writes next.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment