Author: Jay Kristoff
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Source: Random House Children's via NetGalley
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 30th 2020
Summary:
From the bestselling co-author of the Illuminae Files comes the thrilling finale in the LIFEL1K3 trilogy--hailed by Marie Lu as "a breathless, action-packed exploration of what humanity really means." Best friends have become enemies. Lovers have become strangers. And deciding whose side you're on could be the difference between life and death. For Eve and Lemon, discovering the truth about themselves--and each other--was too much for their friendship to take. But with the country on the brink of a new world war--this time between the BioMaas swarm at CityHive and Daedalus's army at Megopolis, loyalties will be pushed to the brink, unlikely alliances will form and with them, betrayals. But the threat doesn't stop there, because the lifelikes are determined to access the program that will set every robot free, a task requiring both Eve and Ana, the girl she was created to replace. In the end, violent clashes and heartbreaking choices reveal the true heroes . . . and they may not be who you think they are.
It's been a few days since I've read TRUEL1F3 and I've spent this time thinking about this novel and how this series ended. Initially I loved it and was content, but the more I thought about it the more and more that I realized that it was kind of rushed and though it wrapped up well, I feel like it could have been better. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate TRUEL1F3. I think fans of this series are going to enjoy it and love it as much as the other novels in this series.
After the quite explosive conclusion to DEV1AT3 we learn all sorts of things and in TRUEL1F3 we learn the cost of the decisions. Eve and Gabriel have been captured by the mega corporation Daedalus, one of the two corporations that are trying to gain control of what is left of the US. Lemonfresh has willingly gone with Hunter to City Hive to learn why she is deemed "important" to them. Abraham, Cricket, Solomon, Ezekiel, Grimm and Diesel barley escaped Bethlehem after a missile from the military bunker that houses Grimm and Diesel's rebellion was headed straight towards them. Let's just say that a lot had happened and it's not all good.
My biggest issue with this book is that I feel like Eve isn't given enough on page time in this story to continue to understand her motivations and the thoughts throughout it. She has more page time in this novel then she did in DEV1AT3 but it isn't enough. There are drastic decisions made that I felt blind sided by, which I guess it the point of being shocked. But this revelations were very oddly placed or very random. I liked seeing her struggle with trying to find who she is. Is she Eve or is she Ana? Who she is suppose to be and her role in the grand scheme of things. But other then that I am a little dissapointed in this aspect of the story.
I feel like there is two stories going on at once since it change point of views so frequently. We have a showdown between Daedalus and BioMaas in Lemonfresh and Ezekiel's point of view and then we have Eve's point of view where they are trying to escape Daedalus and return to Gnosis to finish what they started. To me, it felt like there was so much going on at once and it was hard to keep track at times.
Ezekiel's character has left me conflicted, I've seen so much growth from him through out the series and I am happy to see that but I feel like with how the story wrapped up and everything that unfolded he still only cared about one thing: Ana. Its complicated to talk about this further with out spoiling anything so I am going to leave it at that.
Overall I did expect a lot more from TRUEL1F3. I feel like some parts that were rushed and not explained fully. But with that being said, I did enjoy TRUEL1F3 and I am glad I got to read the conclusion. I want people to take my review with a grain of salt though, you might not find to have problems with this issues that I did and might think that this is the best one in the series. I don't want my review to deter anyone from not finishing this series. So read it and learn how this story ends for these characters.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, but wish you loved it more!
ReplyDeleteI haven't read most of Jay Kristoff's novels, except for Nevernight. Nevernight required a lot of effort for me to get into the world - would you say this series is the same?