Plot

Welcome, welcome to Caraval...all games must come to an end.

It’s been two months since the last Caraval concluded, two months since the Fates have been freed from an enchanted deck of cards, two months since Tella has seen Legend, and two months since Legend claimed the empire’s throne as his own. Now, Legend is preparing for his official coronation and Tella is determined to stop it. She believes her own mother, who still remains in an enchanted sleep, is the rightful heir to the throne.

Meanwhile, Scarlett has started a game of her own. She’s challenged Julian and her former fiancé, Count Nicolas d’Arcy, to a competition where the winner will receive her hand in marriage. Finaly, Scarlett feels as if she is in complete control over her life and future. She is unaware that her mother’s past has put her in the greatest danger of all.

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun―with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win...and those who will lose everything. 

Review 

If you read my review on Legendary, the second book in Stephanie Garber's trilogy, you will all ready know how I wasn't the greatest fan of Caraval, but a surprised and happy lover of Finale. Caraval's characters lacked something that was finally there in Finale, and I was very excited to pick up this final instalment. In fact, when I saw Finale on the shelf with its gorgeous sprayed edges I may have actually jumped in excitement.

This was a few days before my exam (marking the end of my first year on uni, how quickly has this year gone?) so I had to wait to read this and almost immediately reading when my exam was over. And I have to say... it wasn't as fabulous as I was hoping it would be - I was left feeling some similar feelings as to when I finished Caraval. It was a good book, but not one I was desperate to pick up or never wanted to put down. It was actually quite a struggle to get through it.

I'm not sure if it was because it was the first book I have read in a long time that wasn't for uni or an exceptionally dense critical essay, that I struggled with this, or this just wasn't the book for me. The plot was slightly underwhelming with no major plot twists that weren't expected, and the characters too fell under this bracket. I liked reading from Tella's point of view, for some reason I find her a much more interesting and fun character to immerse myself with, but Scarlet's chapters were almost always predictable. 

I am glad I finished this series as i did like the second one and do things it is a good series that many people will love. For me it just fell flat and won't be one of my favourites. I feel like this is quite a harsh review but with a low 2.5/5 stars, it was an okay book to get me back into reading for the summer.  

Plot

The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman: Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy's neighbouring kingdoms until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. 

When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war--the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead--all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives--and it is nothing short of magnificent. 

Review

Every since reading Madeline Milers Circe last summer, I have become interested in Greek mythology, modern adaptations/translations and feminist readings. If you are looking for a raw, intriguing and possibly unique perspective on the well known Greek myth of the fall of Troy, this is definitely one for you. Pat Barker makes no effort to hide the brutal and horrifying way in which women were treated, yet this is not a book with a list of woes against women, but something much more complex that gradually builds into a thought-provoking ending, that can't really be said to be an ending at all. 

Briseis is another female character of mythology often left to the side of the mighty and heroic men, but Pat Barker is able to fully flesh out her character into one that, though physically silent through most of the novel as she speaks very little compared to the male characters of Achilles, Patroclus, Agamemnon and many more, have a lot to say. We see her go through, what can easily be said, the most harrowing things a woman could go through and yet still she rises strong and consistent. Briseis does play such a huge part in the Trojan war, and Barker's illustration of that is a joy to read, despite the dark and at sometimes almost too graphic descriptions of what life would have been like for the woman (and men) living at the front of the Trojan war.

The ending especially is interesting and made me think on it for a while, and I am still not sure what my answer is. I don't think this is spoiling or anything, but what I took from the final lines where Barker's question on who is stronger; the women who kill themselves to avoid capture, or those of are captured and keep on living? Perhaps both are as strong as each other, I'm not sure.

If you are at all interested in Greek Mythology, feminist re-imaginings or good literature, this is definitely one for you. 

4.5/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

So I eyed this book for weeks around Christmas, going up to it in every book store I went and picking it up, just to carrying it around and conclude, once again, that as it was Christmas time, I could justify buying myself this beautiful book. I then started to see it everywhere. And everyone who was posting it on Instagram were raving about it so much, clearly I was meant to have it! Now that I have read it, I know I was meant to! A fast paced, magical, expertly crafted world, characters and general writing making an intriguing, exciting story that was a joy to read and one I just want to unread so I can simple re read and experience it all again. I have been begging my friend to read it just so I can re-experience it with him and talk about it all day long!

It was the world that I fell in love with first of all, and almost immediately. The City of Brass is set in eighteenth-century Egypt with a wonderfully magical twist. I am not sure how much of the story is based on the mythology of Egypt and I am not sure what would be better, that it was based of real storied or crafted in the mind of SA Chakraborty. The City of Brass is told from two perspectives, the first is Nahri, who is discovering this new world, and Ali, who has a very important part in it already. I love that you get a really well rounded concept of the history, and the world as it is through this, which is great as at times it gets quite complex (another reason why I want my friends to read it as they can then explain the bits I got lost in) But, despite getting slightly confused, its complexity is what really made this book interesting. It made the characters more real, their issues more relevant and I felt so much more convinced and invested with the world as worlds do have very complex pasts.

S.A. Chakraborty also has beautiful writing and amazing descriptions. I am not normally a person to annotate books and when I tried to a few years ago, I gave up after two books (if that!). I have always liked the idea of being able to go to your favourite parts, mark quote you love and interesting points, plus it would be so useful when a sequel comes out a year after you've read the series. But I was always really crap at it. I kept forgetting to mark parts that I wanted to and then could never find them when I went back, or I just didn't feel like marking anything at all so found it to be a but of a waist of time. But, as I was reading this, I found I really wanted to start tabbing away! I wanted to mark my favourite parts, write down my theories, and even just bits I found funny or moments where the characters did something I really loved. And so I bought some sticky tabs and began tabbing like crazy and I really enjoyed the whole process! The only issue is that I started half way through which means I am going to have to re read so it is all tabbed (oh what a horrible chore that will be...😊)

And finally, reading this inspired me in my own writing. The plot is so great, the magic so entirely magical and the world so brilliantly complex and real, so amazingly written, I just really want to create something that is hopefully at least half as good that people will love as much as I loved this..

Obviously, I gave this 5 stars (I've raved about it enough that it would be shocking if I didn't!) and would heavily encourage anyone debating whether or not to read it to please pick it up. And even if you have never even thought about picking it up, pick it up! Especially since the second book, The Kingdom of Copper, is being released at the end of this month which is SO EXCITING because THAT ENDING! Oh ma word I have so many questions and am slightly confused at what happened but I cannot wait to dive right back into this amazing world. 

Kingdom of Ash... What a book! Not only is it nearly 1000 pages in length but it has so much going on from start to finish, by the time I was reading the last few pages and remembering where it started I was left wondering how this was the same book. Despite giving this 5 stars, I feel slightly sad about writing this review. This was a bittersweet read for me as the Throne of Glass series holds a lot of nostalgia for me. One of the first fantasy books I ever picked up, I devoured all the books that were out (I believe Queen of shadows had just been released?) and was eager to read the next release as soon as I could. And reading this book, knowing it was the last time I would experience these characters for the first time, I was sad. 

Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of why I loved this book so much was just being back in this world with these characters again and seeing them go through challenges that both destroyed and rebuilt them. Despite being so big, it never felt like a choir to pick up and devour a good 50 pages in a single sitting, which is something I have been struggling to do recently (uni brought on a big reading slump). At times, the plot dragged a little but that is to be expected with Sarah J Mass - I don't think it would be one of her books if there weren't moments with twice as much description than needed. I also felt like the characters could have all met up a lot sooner. 

If you are up to date with the series, you will know that all the main characters have split into four or five groups which are all over the place - and then those groups through the book split up more and converge again until finally all coming together in the last 10th or so of the book. 

Sarah J Mass always has amazing endings to her books. They always leave on cliffhangers that make you desperate to know what happens next (the worst being Empire of Storm as that ending was ughhaga and we didn't get any hint of what happened to until this book) so it was expected that this was going to be good. And it was a great way to end the series. There were a few tears but I won't tell you what happened to induce those (but it did involve the death of a character, which they kept being up so the tears kept coming!). I will be honest though, but I was expecting some more bloodshed? There was a lot, don't get me wrong but not very many of the people who could have been killed off and had a really heartbreaking reaction were, which is what I thought was going to happen. But maybe that's just me being cold-hearted... 😶 

It sad that this series has now ended, but it was still a great ending and one I thoroughly enjoyed. It just served for a reminder of how far these characters have come - if you read the Throne of Glass, skipped the rest of the books and read this one, I think you would really struggle to find any characters that remotely resemble the ones in that first book. I can't for what other things Sarah J Mass has for us in store!