Review : The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3)
Author : Julie Kagawa
Publication Date : April 15th 2014
Publisher : Harlequin Teen
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VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS

Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?

With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.

MONSTER

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.

In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.

Personal Thoughts

Trilogies after trilogies have been ending awfully for me this year, to the point that I have to either ask for spoilers from other readers or sneak a peek at the last page myself to ensure that I'm not going to be destroyed and disappointed by the end. I'm a HEA kind of girl and I absolutely cannot tolerate anything other than that (Yes, I realize that that is unrealistic, but I don't need realism in books. I just want to feel happy by the end). You can imagine the amount of trepidation I went with when I went into The Forever Song. It turns out though that I shouldn't have been worried at all because Julie Kagawa is my kind of author.

What makes this series shine in the midst of so many other YA vampire paranormal books has to be the beautifully fleshed out characters. Allie, especially, has been a character who I've only grown to love infinitely more over the course of the trilogy. She's a vampire trying to cling to her humanity and you watch her go through all these internal and external dilemmas. I've grown to love Allie so much that whenever she would face a difficult situation, my heart would weep for her and I would want to track Julie Kagawa down and shake her by the shoulders asking her why she's making this girl suffer so much. After the events of the last book, Allie is absolutely shattered. I know a lot of readers thought it was annoying how she would grieve so much, but not me. I don't know if it's because I've grown this bond with her or because I understood her situation completely, but I thought it was realistic. Plus, she did not constantly cry in a corner and let go of her life entirely. She still stuck by her goals and didn't bow down to evil. To me, Allie is a strong character and it saddens me to have to let her go.

I'm very much impressed by Julie Kagawa's ability to build up even the secondary characters. Jackal, who I hated in the first book, but now I have an obsession with was the shining star of the series. His humor and sarcasm brought about a lightness to some scenes in this otherwise dark and gory story. I honestly wouldn't mind if we got a series based on him entirely. In fact, that would make me one happy girl. Zeke also gets much more "screen-space" in this book and it was interesting watching him go through the same dilemmas that Allie went through especially since their reactions were so different. His romance with Allie is the kind I wish every YA romance would be like, based on mutual love and respect for one's partner. It's sweet, swoon-worthy and can possibly melt your heart.

As always, the world-building and the plot were fascinating. Julie Kagawa leaves no stone unturned. This installment of this series was gory, bloody and so dark and I'm not complaining at all. The author throws twists and turns here and there that made my heart race multiple times while I was reading, but in the end, she fills you hope. The final chapters in The Forever Song are one I'm going to remember for a long time because they were action-packed and kept me on the edge of my seat. I don't know if this ever crossed Julie's mind but the villain in this series, Sarren, is obviously mentally ill and I personally thought he represented many serial shooters that we hear about so many times on the news. I thought that connection of the story with the real world was quite interesting and was tackled authentically.

In the end, I'm sad that the Blood of Eden series is over, but at the same time I'm grateful to Julie Kagawa for giving me a series with characters that I will cherish for a very long time.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Teen for the e-ARC of The Forever Song.