Published May 7th, 2019 by Flatiron Books
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 478
Source: Purchased
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A love worth fighting for. A dream worth dying for. An ending worth waiting for.
It’s been two months since the Fates were freed from a deck of cards, two months since Legend claimed the throne for his own, and two months since Tella discovered the boy she fell in love with doesn’t really exist.
With lives, empires, and hearts hanging in the balance, Tella must decide if she’s going to trust Legend or a former enemy. After uncovering a secret that upends her life, Scarlett will need to do the impossible. And Legend has a choice to make that will forever change and define him.
Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun. There are no spectators this time—only those who will win, and those who will lose everything.
Welcome, welcome to Finale. All games must come to an end…
First of all, this review is going to contain spoilers not just for the first two books, but for Finale itself as well. It's impossible to untangle my thoughts and get my points across without spoilers. I'm sorry!
Caraval is always going to hold a special place in my heart. It was the book I was reading when I was in labor with Rosie. I reread it soon after and it was the first book I read after she was born. There's no way for me to look at that book and not remember where I was when I experienced it. I love having visceral memories of reading like these, and this one is particularly special to me.
Legendary was everything I wanted it to be and then some. It was perfection and I won't hear a negative word against it. Tella was bold and brash and exciting, and the love triangle was e v e r y t h i n g. It was like Stephanie had me in mind when she crafted it.
I wish I could give such glowing praise to Finale but I just can't. Unfortunately, this book just brought into focus the glaring flaws this trilogy has as a whole. It was obvious when reading this one that this story was never meant to be a trilogy and it's my sincere belief that it would have been much better as a carefully constructed duology. Alas.
I really, really liked the first half. It's action-packed and well-paced and very exciting. I loved being back in the world, especially with Tella. Jacks is the absolute love of my life so I had to actually pause what I was doing (working, oops) to really LISTEN when he made his first appearance. I love him dearly and have Thoughts about him that I'll share later. I liked where the story was headed. Overall, I really did enjoy the plot and the characters, but there was some strange and major disconnect between them that I couldn't reconcile. It genuinely felt like the characters were experiencing a whole different plot than the one I was reading. It was disconcerting and surreal at times.
Regarding the relationships, there really was just no good way for any of them to go. To get it out of the way early: Julian and Scarlett were great in Caraval, but the last two books were just meh to me. Julian is a compulsive liar for no good reason, and it's frustrating and unhealthy. But he looks like an absolute dream compared to Tella's two options.
On one hand, we have Dante, who I genuinely enjoyed in the first two books. I was even excited by his reveal as Legend. But in Finale, it was impossible to reconcile the two characters. Dante felt like a character that Legend played, like a mask he put on. Legen still felt like a mysterious figure that no one could really get close to. I couldn't really understand why Tella was so convinced she loved him; she didn't know him. She could be enamored by him and even care for him, but they didn't know one another. He also constantly lied and manipulated her, like all of the time. Jacks, my trash son, was no better, even if he and Tella are my OTP of this series. He was just as manipulative and slimy as Legend/Dante, but he at least had chemistry with Tella and his feelings always felt genuine. He didn't ever lie to her, he was always on her side, and yes he is terrible, but there's something to be said for knowing one's own nature and owning it. All of this is to say, plainly, that there wasn't a single decent love interest in this whole trilogy except for the poor count. (I do have to say major props to the author here for not just killing him to fix Scarlett's love triangle woes.)
The relationship between Tella and Scarlett has always felt kind of off to me, but it was, well, strange in this book. Just like everything else apparently. Scarlett was in mortal peril for basically the entire second half of the book and what was Tella up to? Running around making out with different boys. Worrying about her romantic future instead of the actual possibility that her sister, her friends, and everyone in the Meridian Empire could be DEAD soon. We YA readers like to joke that Now Is Not The Time For Kissing, but WOW can that really be said for this book. Too often the sisters were separated and the one who wasn't about to freaking die would be hooking up with her boyfriend. I know danger does things to our hormones, but damn girls.
Finally: the villain. My problem with this series as a whole is that things don't get introduced until the moment they appear on the page and we're all just supposed to roll with it. This can usually come off as whimsical and magical, but when it's the Big Bad? It doesn't work quite that well. The Fallen Star, the main villain, doesn't even really make himself to be the main villain until like halfway through. His whole thing is that love is his weakness, so he wants Scarlett, HIS DAUGHTER??, to control her powers of emotional manipulation and then use those powers to rid him of the capacity for love. So we're introduced to a few things all in one blow: 1) Scarlett's purple prose is actually a synesthesia thing that's also a magical ability because 2) one of the Fates, the Head Fate if you will, is her biological father. There was no real time given to this revelation, first of all, and second, it felt wildly out of place. Add all of this nonsense to the fact that Jacks is literally RIGHT THERE, with the exact ability the Fallen Star is torturing Scarlett to control, and it's all just ridiculous.
I know all of this talk sounds like a big old gripe about this book, but I did like it. I have overall positive feelings looking back on my reading experience. I like the magic system, the Deck of Destiny, the different Fates and Fated Places and Fated Objects. I really, really loved following Tella to the market and the library. I love Legend as a mystical, magical figure, and I love Jacks more than life itself. The scenes with Tella and Julian unraveling the Fates' schemes were creepy and cool. Stephanie Garber can write a kissing scene like you couldn't believe. The aesthetic, the clothes porn, the layer of gilt and glitter and glamour over the whole book is just decadent. I love so much of it, I really, really do. I wish I could say that Finale stole the show and was the perfect ending I was hoping for. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. But I can't wait to see what this author gives us next because I can see her growth throughout this series and she already has such a talent for creating my perfect kind of character.
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