maddy707's reviews
124 reviews

Actual rating - 1.6/5

Pros
- The kids begin to rebel against the ymbrynes and we see how their method of ruling is becoming less effective. I hope this turns into peculiardom changing the way it governs. I would hope that the children will have more of a say on what happens. It has the potential to create a deeply layered conflict and add independence to these characters.

- I do like the direction this new story is going with the whole "7 children are the future" blah blah blah thing. I hope we get a huge expansion of that in the next book.

Cons
- The subplot with Leo came on so jarringly and made absolutely zero sense. The shift in plot was so confusing, I thought I had missed some pages. Even the POV it's written in is different.

- We don't spend time with or bond with H nearly enough to have his death be impactful in anyway. If he was involved more and Jacob formed more of a relationship with him, perhaps I would've cared more. His death feels like a cop out and only serves as motivation/information for Jacob.

- The characters in this book (besides Millard and Lily) are incredibly annoying, especially Jacob. These characters have no dimension and anything interesting about them has been forgotten about in this book. They all have 1 trait/serve 1 purpose. Bronwyn is strong, Enoch is annoying/mean, Emma is in love with Abe. There are no dimension/complexity to them. Not the mention, the main character Jacob is so whiny and stupid. His actions and behaviour in this book just made me want to rip my hair out. He's incredibly stubborn and careless. He didn't think things through and instead through himself and his friends head first into a suicide mission for what? How am I supposed to get behind his motivations? Has he learned nothing from the first 3 books?

- The romance between Jacob and Emma is weird and boring. It's weird that Emma fell for Jacob because of his grandfather despite saying it was different. What actual distinction has been provided for why Emma's feeling towards Jacob are different from her feelings towards Abe? Just because she says so? That's not enough. Not to mention that there's no chemistry between them. Their romance is incredibly bland and insta-lovey which I am not a fan of. Jacob just likes her because she's pretty. It needs actual substance. Riggs needs to make me believe that these characters belong together, and so far he hasn't.

- Jacob's conflict with his parents leads nowhere and takes a cop out route of wiping their memories. This plot point with Jacob's parents had the potential the create an incredibly emotional conflict within the family and actually make me feel sympathy for Jacob. But no, instead Riggs uses teenage angst and memory wiping as a cop out instead of trying to come to a proper conclusion to that conflict.

- Pacing was incredibly slow with virtually non-stop filler.

- Any of the potential villains shown were not at all fleshed out. They existed for less than a chapter and again, made no sense.

- The photos weren't even interesting in this one.

Pros
- This books takes a turn into more mystical elements with a prophecy as opposed to what I thought this trilogy was going to be about, which was Jacob continuing Abe's legacy. Surprisingly, I didn't hate it. It's probably one of the more thought out elements of this series. That being said, it's still incredibly goofy. I would've preferred an adventure story about finding V. (Even though the twist at the end with V was cheap)

- Jacob as a character is SIGNIFICANTLY LESS insufferable than he was in the previous book. Thank bird.

Cons
- My biggest issue with this book is how Jacob completely disregards his previous feelings for Emma. Although I was not a fan of their romance, Jacob basically ignored his relationship to Emma in this book. Going as far to say "in my experience holding hands with a girl has never been special." as if he wasn't head over heels in love with Emma just a few days ago. I don't mind that Jacob is with Noor now, that relationship, although fast developing, felt more natural/real then Jacob and Emma did. However, I don't appreciate that Riggs has completely thrown away a fairly major part of Jacob. It's like he got to this book, realised he made a mistake putting Emma and Jacob, and instead of fixing it in a logical way, he basically tried to erase it. As if to say "just forget I ever wrote this." It annoyed me to no end. Especially considering this could've given Jacob, and Emma room to grow as characters. But no, it's just written off. It's jarring.

- As whole, this series feels unrefined. Although interesting in concept, Riggs has too much within the story. Too many characters and potential plot lines that leave a lot of this book, and the series overall feeling unrefined. The plot tries to go in a million directions, instead of focusing on one coherent point, which leaves the story telling and writing feeling like a mess. I often found myself going, "wait what?" at multiple points throughout the last 2 books as more useless characters were introduced and plot lines led nowhere. In the end, it leaves the book feeling as if nothing has happened at all. Riggs needs to seriously cut down on the characters he introduces. This book alone had at least 10+ new characters. All of which only stuck around for a chapter or so. By introducing a bunch of characters all the time it leads to none of the main characters getting any development. The time Riggs spends introducing characters could've been used to give dimension to already existing ones. At this point, entire characters have been forgotten. Like Bentham's assistant Kim, Bentham's Grim bear, the conjoined blind twins etc. LILY. WHY DIDN'T NOOR CHECK ON HER? WHY DIDN'T MILLARD ASK ABOUT HER? Ugh.

- An example of a potential plot point that was resolved basically instantly was the Panloopticon going down. It was resolved in like 10 pages. What was the point of it even happening? It added no tension and had no effect on the plot. It was a waste of words.

- "He let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding" omfg what in the 2012 fan fic is that line.

I was originally going to give this book 2 stars, but the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it. 1 star.

Pros
- Overall the end was fine. Though, in my opinion, a second trilogy wasn't needed.

- I love we got a scrap of gay representation with Horace, it was a nice touch. (Should've been way more) Horace did feel like a more fleshed out, dynamic character in this book, he was a highlight for me.

Cons
- This book contains some sloppy writing. At one point Emma speaks during a scene she's not even in. Riggs can't remember whose supposed to be in a scene and who isn't.

- Because of the many characters in this series and book, it often feels like certain characters aren't utilised nearly enough. I'll forget a character is in a scene because they haven't done anything for the majority of a chapter. Again, it feels like Riggs forgets characters.

- Hollows are born from egg sacs now? Not from the "accident" Bentham created? Ok, how are they fertilised, how do they develop? They don't expand upon this at all.

To sum up my main issues with this series as whole they are, too many characters, lack of individual character development, and too many plot points that fizzle out after a few pages/lead nowhere. These things exists in every instalment of this series and drags it down heavily. I wouldn't recommend these books and I certainly won't be rereading this series ever.

Actual rating: 2.5/5

Pros
- Nice illustrations at the beginning of each chapter.

- The last tale "The Man Who Stole The Sun" was the best one. Probably the best thing Riggs has written in this entire universe.

- I like that Millard is the author.

Cons
- The rest of the tales were quite boring.

- It was really hard to tell when certain tales took place. For a universe that revolves around time, there was virtually no word-building. Some of the tales felt way to modern and really took me out of them.

Actual rating: 2.5/5

Pros
- Miss Peregrine's voice shines through in the writing.

- The book moves along briskly and provides a comprehensive look at peculiardom.

Cons
- Some paragraphs of this book are completely non sensical. The tone changes from informative to straight up goofy at some parts which makes it very confusing and weird to read. It's as if the author decided to focus more on throwing in random, unneeded quirks in the latter third of the book.

I am glad to finally be done with this universe.

Pros
Great high fantasy world building from the very beginning. Although the story doesn't focus on the town much, a cozy, high fantasy environment is still built up well, especially with Viv's coffee shop. I hope this will be expanded upon in the prequel.

The plot is simplistic but written in such a charming way. I could read 100s of pages of Viv, Tandri and Thimble working at the coffee shop. It was my favourite part of the story. I loved the gradual build up. No part of it felt too rushed or unbelievable.

I loved all the characters. Thimble was my favourite. I particular like that the main character suffers from backpain (I do as well).

Cons
I wish the romance was built up more/more prominent. Although I liked what we got, this book barely counts as having a romance element. Personally I didn't feel that Viv and Tandri had much of a romantic chemistry/connection. I wish the LGBTQ+ representation was pushed more as well between the 2 characters.

The magic was a bit confusing to understand. Though I think this is from my lack of understanding of D&D. The magic wasn't very important so this didn't bother me much.

The "conflict" with the Madrigal was mostly useless. I'd rather have that time spent towards building Fennus as the villain. Luckily the time wasn't completely useless as they helped with the reconstruction.

4.5/5

Pros
THE CHARACTERS! I loved all of the Gentlemen Bastards, especially Locke. He is an interesting take on a thief main character. He's not your typical, handsome, strong, brooding thief. He is complex in his emotions and he's not afraid to show it. He has a lot of love for his friends but is also capable of causing some real destruction and death. I like that he is described as being "mid" in every physical way. It causes people to underestimate him and makes his thieving all the more rewarding.

The actually thieving itself. Although most of Locke's thieve comes from using disguises and not actual... heisting, the way it comes together is very satisfying. Locke's ability to deceive makes up for a lack of action packed stealing. The long con is done well.

Galdo, Calo and Bugs deaths legitimately shocked me. I actually sat there with a surprised Pikachu face. I was not expecting it even though it was totally foreshadowed earlier. I genuinely thought we were going to have a happy little thief found family for the entire of this series. The deaths were also impactfully written with the right amount of emotion.

This book balanced emotion very well. I found myself laughing at some parts and wanting to cry at others. The balance makes the book very entertaining.

Incredibly descriptive and immersive world building and writing. I was able to picture this book perfectly in my head as it was told.

Cons
World building. Yes it is a pro and con. It was amazingly descriptive but sometimes it was just too much. A slog to get through in some chapters.

Lack of female characters. It would've been nice if we actually got to see Sabetha in Locke's youth. She's mentioned a few times, even being said to have been around. But we never actually get to see her which is disappointing considering her and Locke have a romantic relationship. I'm sure the 2nd book will amend this.