MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

• Just read recaps of all the books and I am not ready.

• That dedication was so brutal and sweet

Part I: Waking

• We’re starting with the Nightbringer, okay okay. I love a complicated villain.

• Oh the voice of the Nightbringer is enticing, tortured and tired, but so full of conviction. Serious Thanos vibes. 

• Right, I forgot he loved Laia.

• Hold up, Laia isn’t fully human? I have no memory of this.

• Helena and Laia bantering about knives soooo cute

• I want Elias back, too, Laia.

• This plan is going to go south real quick.

• The Commandant is seriously one of the most terrifying villains I have ever encountered.

• So Elias is an emotionless and attachmentless Jedi now, huh.

• He doesn’t remember his past!

• The armlet! Laia’s armlet! Please remember, Elias!!

• Please, please, please, let this be foreshadowing to Elias being released by Mauth.

• Augurs are never a good sign in any story.

• This prophecy better not be the order in which they die.

• Aw, these moments between Laia and Helene are so wonderful. I would not have expected that when I read the first book years ago.

• Of course we couldn’t leave them at peace for even a moment.

• Oh this is torture, poor Laia, I couldn’t do it.

Part II The Reaping

• Helene is BLOODY. She knows just what to do with that arm.

• Loyal to the end!

• Faris, NOOOOO!!!!!!!

• Keris is legit terrifying

• No, don’t walk away, Soul Catcher! Embrace her! Kiss her! UGHJHHHHHH

• Spiro’s back!

• Is Elias the “heir of death”? Cuz I hate this.

• I’m getting teary over a villain’s death. That’s writing talent.

• You just had to fall in love with such a stubborn man, Laia.

• I never get tired of reading descriptions of Helene killing people.

• She’s got a jinn inside of here?!?!?!?!

• It’s the Nightbringer’s wife?!?!?!?!?

• I can’t with Laia and the Nightbringer still having lingering feelings for each other

• Imperator Invictus!

• FINALLY Helene admits her feelings for Harper

Part III: The Jinn Queen

• Meherya means Beloved. Mauth can love?

• Dude, stop abandoning her!

• Elias and Laia flirting is killing me.

• Oh Empress Livia’s got fangs. Put that man in his place!

• Oh please, please, please, give the Blood Shrike a reason to slit your throat

• Musa laying down some hard truths! Do something, Helene!

• Oh this is getting spicy.

• Really spicy.

• UGH this is killing me.

• Woah, the efrits are joining the humans. I love the name Rowan, by the way.

• “Why are you here, Blood Shrike?” Harper is saying this practically naked.

• She’s letting her hair down for him!

• Girl, get some! Freaking finally!

• Hahahahaha, Helene, EVERYONE KNOWS

• Elias, you whipped boy.

• OMG, Livia no!!!!!

• Keris is forreal just running circles around all of them.

• I cannot with these spineless generals talking down to Musa, where TF were you during the Battle of Antium?

• Quin Veturias is really trying to make up for raising a helion, but he’s not wrong. Helene should be named Regent

• Make the vow, Blood Shrike!

• “You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest.”

• If Helene keeps walking away from Harper, at some point, he’s gonna stop following.

• I would have lost it by now if I was Laia.

• Oh Musa.

• “And that is why you must rise. To protect all the lovers and bakers, the mothers and fathers, the sons and daughters.”

• Yes, Blood Shrike! All my babies are coming back together, but now I’m terrified even more for them.

Part IV: The Sher Jinnat

• This battle is going to kill me, isn’t it?

• These insights into the life of the Nightbringer are messing with my emotions

• Wait, Karis has a heart for her son? SINCE WHEN

• I miss cheeky Elias

• Elias and Helene arguing like old times.

• “There’s always a reason that something isn’t our fault”

• “Sometimes, it is better to die than to live as a monster.”

• “When it comes to you, I remember everything.” Elias, stop messing with my emotions!

• FLIPPING FINALLY. This is the slowest of the slow burns, but they only get one night.

• I hate these premonitions

• “May death claim me first.” Oh Helene, no. Please don’t say that.

• Umber has a point, they did their job and got no help when the humans turned on them.

• Wait, STOP, Mauth failed? DEATH CAN FAIL!?!?!?!?

• NOOOOO HARPER!!!!!!

• DARIN!!!!! Stop! This has to stop!

• AND NOW THE NIGHTBRINGER BUT THAT’S WHAT HE WANTS OMG WHAT IS GOING ON

Part IV The Mothers

• I HATE THIS BOOK, ELIAS TOO!!!

• LAIA, WHAT NO STOP!!!!!! I HATE ALL OF THIS!!!!!

• Okay, I’m calm again. Not really.

• Oh thank, God. Elias isn’t dead.

• Oh this is a Dumbledore at Kings Cross moment with his dad

• “Always Victorious”

• Oh a Keris, POV.

• Mirra is alive!!!!! Take her down, Mirra!!!!

• My heart is breaking? FOR KERIS?!?!?!

• Nightbringer. Meherya. Beloved. And now, forsaken.

• Remat’s name means mercy. This book. I can’t handle this.

• Finally, some good news. Thank you, Mirra. Give Elias another chance at happiness after all he has done.

• “You got there first, my love. I envy you so. For how will I endure without you?” OMG Helene.

• Empress as a consolation prize? I guess.

• Oh she’s going to be an Elizabeth I kinda queen. I get that.

Part VI The Tale

• Oh my heart, we get a proper goodbye from Harper and Darin in the Waiting Place

• Wow, I’m actually happy for Keris reverting to her child-self with her mother and crossing over

• I still don’t know how I feel about Mauth

• Musa is good for Helene. I approve of this.

• Forgiveness is strength.

• Oh this ending, my heart is so full.

Final Thoughts

This is probably the most emotionally charged book I have read all year. I already want to reread the entire series. My babies are, though broken and healing, alive and have a bright future ahead.