Anna Herondale

Disappointing. The pacing was fine for half of the book, but as I got closer to the conclusion, I was surprised by how few pages were left compared to all of the plot points to be completed. The pacing seemed off after halfway through as well, as some events and lead ups took many pages to complete, with little left over for the climax. Unsurprisingly, the story was completely rushed at the end, stripping it of any real meaning and emotion. The characters developed throughout the story were reduced to flat caricatures by the end — nothing more than names on paper. **Spoilers I also felt as there were some inconsistencies with character motivations and behavior throughout the book (particularly halfway through up to the end). The Guinevere vs. Arthur fight to the death and entire lead up was ridiculously messy and felt out of place, and the sealing away of Gwen’s and (especially) Morgana’s magic was utterly illogical and inconsistent with the characters’ personalities and level of intellect (not to mention their poor reasoning for sealing Morgana’s and not Gwen’s magic… also, the entirety of blame placed on Morgana for the moon plan didn’t add up given Elaine’s active part in it and obvious influence over the group). For all that Elaine knew with visions, her actions were often anything but believable as she so blatantly pushed them on the path to ruin. It would’ve been more effective if Elaine’s actions were more subtle (like the butterfly effect), or if she was designed to be an unwise character (which the author painted as not being the case here, at least not intentionally [with Elaine often being described as astute and the levelheaded guide for the group]). Either way it was messy, inconsistent, and rushed. I was hoping to feel something for the characters, but they were too rushed and not believable by the end.