In The Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken Review+Discussion

★★★

I might say 3.5 stars instead. I haven't quite made up my mind about it yet. On it's own it was a good book, but as a conclusion to a wonderful trilogy I was not satisfied. The characters seemed to be going backwards in their character development  at times. I also didn't like how some problems were resolved as well. I feel like if we got rid of some of the useless scenes in the beginning there would be more time to develop the ending and write an epilogue to clear all the political problems. This book also lacked in humor so if you start reading expecting to have a good time you are going to be disappointed. It really saddens me to have to write such a negative review when I had such high hopes for this conclusion. 

The beginning of the book was okay. The middle was a bit tiresome. And the ending was just plain annoying. 

One issue I had was the distance between Liam and Ruby. It is understandable for them to be on rocky ground for a while but the problem with this was that, they would make up and break up constantly. Later Liam reveals that the little cheat sheet he wrote for himself in case Ruby erased his memory again was in case Cole made her do it. He believed that she preferred Cole over him. Which leads me to my next point.

Cole and Ruby's relationship felt awkward. It seemed forced. She trusted him but then didn't but then she did again. 

Basically all the characters kept going in circles. They'd progress but then they'd take two steps back. It didn't make any sense. A lot of the book was pointless. 

We also just completely lacked any development from some characters. Obviously Zu went through quite a bit. But Vida, Chubs and Clancy did not evolve at all. Vida had the small issue with grieving over Jude and Clancy considered what Nico said to him in the end, but other than that there was nothing. Chubs was kicked to the curb and forgotten about mostly. 

Another thing was how insignificant Ruby and Chubs' friendship seemed. She replaced him with Cole which influenced the glitch in her character development. 

I don't feel like the plot escalated as it should have. They were in a constant state of anxiety which made it all pretty dull. There was always something to worry about, there was always some sort of mission happening so when they had the whole big end battle it didn't seem like much and it didn't affect me at all. 

Vida and Chubs as friends with benefits? We all know that that is not going to end well. Vida gets emotionally attached yet she's too proud to admit it and Chubs won't voice his feelings out of fear for being rejected. 

My biggest issue with this book is how Clancy was dealt with. Clancy is such an intense and interesting character and Ruby simply erased him. Another issue with that is that his emotions are going to relapse. He felt so strongly about everything and as it was proven with Sam and Liam, that doesn't just go away. I really loved how intriguing his character was, I mean he was a sociopath and that was just removed from him? It just really pissed me off. 

Clancy, being the darkest mind, didn't fade. He was just squashed out of existence. 

Now to the part where I talk about needing an epilogue or another book.

I want an epilogue. 

How are all these kids going to deal with the fact that now they have restrictions. They aren't free to do as they please. Also there will be distance between them. Zu will be in Washington, Liam will be in North Carolina and Ruby will be in Virginia. (I'm not even sure as to where Chubs is going.) These characters have been through so much together and have created such intense bonds and now they're going to be separated.

Another thing that needs to be cleared is Politically how this is going to affect the world. They spoke about but then they changed their mind and said that they'd think about it later without confirming anything. What is going to happen to the camps? How are the other countries going to deal with it? What are the restrictions on their abilities? How does the economy rise up fro this? What are they going to do with thousands of children having missed so much of their education? What is going to happen to the PSF agents? And there are so many other unanswered questions.

I don't really have a conclusion for this seeing as there weren't many overwhelmingly good parts of this book. It was just okay.

                                                                           -Nerissa