so many tears during and after this book. so many necessary tears. im so glad i picked up the diviners all those years ago. i truly am changed after reading this series and im so sad to say goodbye. ( )

My main issue with this one was the pacing. I felt like there were some things that could have been cut out and then the end felt a little rushed. I wanted to see more from the end. There's one other thing I'd change about the end, but I won't get into spoilers. Other than that, I still enjoyed this one and it was a good conclusion to the series. ( )

I'm really disappointed with this one. It seemed like it was longer than necessary and there were a few things that happened a little too conveniently for me. ( )

The end of a great series. I even teared up a bit towards the end. The conclusion was satisfying, it didn't feel rushed or underwhelming, like the big finale sometimes feels. This entire series addressed issues, that we are still dealing with today, in a thoughtful manner. Really my only complaint (and it's totally a me, not the book issue) is that I feel like it took FOREVER to read. I think I just prefer shorter books. ( )

I’m glad I finished this series. I loved the characters (although Evie gave me fits sometimes)—their diversity of backgrounds and powers, their distinct voices, their love stories—and I was rooting hard for them. What I didn’t love was their getting hammered and bested by the bad guys for hundreds of pages, their blindness to how/why this kept happening, and their sudden revelations of how to fix things toward the end. Jake Marlow’s motivations make absolutely no sense in this book, and neither, really, do the King of Crows’.
I usually do these on audio, and I missed January Lavoy’s portrayal of the characters. I don’t know if doing it on audio would have raised my rating, though, since the characters are still what I liked most in this book. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but Sam, Theta, Ling, and Henry are high on my list.
The first half was really good and had me turning pages and blowing through. I loved how the characters were combined in unexpected groupings when they were on the run, and the circus business was a fun surprise. There were some actual wins in that first half, and I was excited when the Diviners all came back together. And then it became a bit of a slog, and I really started feeling like it could have been a shorter book. The time at the farm seemed to go on forever. And how they didn’t figure out Sarah Beth earlier, I don’t know.
And let’s talk about Jericho. A lot of people were mad at what seemed like character assassination in the last book, and in this book, it’s like Bray decided she needed him, so she just glossed over the attempted rape of the last book as down to the serum, and all the characters should just get over it. And Evie still sort of wanting his attention and not fearing him or hating him? And Sam not hating him? And all the others not even thinking about it? None of it rang true. Bray is willing to tell some hard stories, but I don’t think she followed the logical hard conclusion that Jericho would not have been accepted back in the group, no matter what his excuse was. I wish the attempted rape had never happened. I don’t know her motivations for writing it, but it seemed a clumsy way to end the love triangle. And as happy as I am that Jericho got a little bit of happiness at the end (because I thought the rape plotline was bogus, and I thought he deserved better), I don’t think there was enough fallout from his actions in the last book.
Do I recommend the series? Yes, I still do. It’s imaginative, it’s timely, it’s scary, and I’d hate for anyone to miss out on meeting these characters. ( )