Apparently, I am the only one who didn't like these novellas? It's hard to look at that average rating when this is my leading contender for worst book of the year. 

If you have read the second and third books of this series, then you probably agree that we needed more time with the skyward flight. Especially the third book, as it's obvious that there are important events happening elsewhere. So, I was excited to read these novella. But man, were they boring and tedious. I really had to force myself to power through this read. These types of stories are what give YA a bad rap. They are immature, shallow, and superficial. They had flimsy themes and didn't even bother trying to tie any scenes from the third book even though they were obviously taking place at the same time. It felt lazy and uninspired. The only interesting aspect was the slugs, but that's not because they were written well. It's because it's going to be an important concept going into the last book. One of the biggest issues I had with this writing style was the dialog. It felt cheap like an after-school special. Plus, it was the only vehicle used to progress the story. They just gotta talk it out, share their feelings, and everything will work out. *eyeroll*

Sunreach follows FM and is by far the worst of the three novellas. Just because you're writing in the first person doesn't mean that every sentence has to start with "I." It made the reading experience clunky and hard to look past once I noticed it. I particularly hated FM's awkward romance and her annoying internal monolog. She seemed like a cool character in the first book, but I don't see any connection between that character and the one portrayed here. Also, the other two novellas are named after planets. What's up with this one? 

ReDawn followed Alanik from book two. This one had me questioning the adults and society of the DDF. I don't see how this group of people could have been resisting annihilation for 100 years. Having every adult lack any type of commonsense is frustrating and unrealistic to the point of absurdity. Beyond that I'm not exaggerating when I say that the whole plot of this novella felt absurd. I not going to bother pulling it apart cause it's flimsy enough on its own without my input. 

Evershore follows Jerkface and his rise to power. Why? Does he have to be more powerful than Spensa to deserve her? I will never be able to get behind a war story that puts a teenager in complete control of a societies military and politics. Looking beyond that annoying trope, this novella was slightly better than the first two. I got the impression that Brandon wrote more of this one or had more input in the fight scenes. It just felt more like the rest of the series. Except when you're in the characters' heads. That stank of a much younger person's insecurities. If you interviewed some younger fighter pilots, I would highly doubt you would find so many that fully lack any self-confidence. But maybe that's just a gen Z thing. 

At the end of this collection, there are a few deleted scenes (written by Sanderson) from the first book, Skyward. They give you a look at where the book would have gone if Spensa and Jerkface's romance had been a more prominent part of the plot. Thankfully, it didn't go that way. Enemies to lovers can be a tough trope to get right, and this would probably would have ruined the first book for me. 

I went into writing this review thinking I might try to be nice, but there is no nice way to explain why you hated something. The only reason I'm reading the last book is because I trust Sanderson and love him enough to blame this whole tangent on Janci. Might not be fair, but that's how it is. Because these stories seem important to the overall story, I would hesitate recommending this series to anyone. I would never wish this on another reader.