Book: Monsters of Men by Patrick NessGenre: YA Dystopian
Rating: A-
For: Fun, plus this also counts for the Twenty Eleven Challenge
From: Amazon
After the way the second book in the series wrapped up, I was anxious for this third book to see if anything could be salvaged! Wow, talk about despair and destruction!
First, a quick and hopefully spoiler free summary of this series: We have Todd, who has been raised on this new planet, yet that very society has become corrupt. He breaks away, joins a girl, Viola, who has just arrived on the planet. They hope to fix things. But when they come to a new settlement, the bad guys have only made things worse. And they get even worse. And then even worse! Meanwhile, the indigenous species on the planet begins to get involved and then things REALLY get worse!
So this third book opens with three different groups all fighting each other. The Spackle (who lived there first), the Mayor's guys (who want to take over everyone) and the new group led by Todd and Viola (who just want peace!) It appears there is no way for any one of them to win.
Needless to say, this first bit of the book, with all the fighting and no resolution in sight, made me very frustrated. I was really ready for things to get solved. I hoped for things to get solved. I started worrying that things would never get solved and that I'd invested all this emotion into these very heart wrenching books for nothing! It scared me a little!
But this is the last of the trilogy, and I knew that things simply had to get solved. And the that all happened is the heart of this book and it's very surprising and fascinating and good. However, there were some moments when I felt it was a bit Avatar-ish, if you know what I mean. And I love Avatar! I just didn't want it to drift to having an agenda, or being the same old story. So that worried me a couple of times too. Alos, there are lots of hard questions asked throughout, and these kids, young as they are, must make some pretty intense decisions. It does bring up some interesting concepts, without getting too preachy, mostly.
In the end, I loved it too, just like the first couple of books. I love the series. I recommend it to everyone. It's really quite different. Very emotional. And finally over!!
Bottom line: I worried through the first half, and loved the second half.
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I remember feeling like all the fighting and despair at the beginning was almost too much as well. I almost put the book down, actually.
ReplyDeleteDidn't you just love the mayor in this one? Well maybe love is the wrong word but I loved how multi-dimemsional he was. :)
Glad you liked this series. It's one of my favorites that I do find myself recommending it often.
I really should read this and finish a trilogy... I have it, so really no excuse!
ReplyDeleteI need to read this series! I have absolutely no expectations so I'll probably like it.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the series. It's one of my favorites and I'm so sad it's over :( Hopefully, Ness is at work on something new and awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have not started this trilogy, but have heard much about it. Your review has peaked my interest, yet again. Think it will stay on my to read list for a bit, maybe until I have wrapped up a few other series I am reading.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I wore out all of my worrying muscles in book 2 - never have I read a book where I was that keyed up the entire time.
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