The third book in the series! Let's have a look. Per usual, spoilers ahead. Also per usual, when reviewing a book of a friend of mine such as is the case here; me being friends with the author does not in any way affect my opinions or my reviews.
With Zyn gone, the family of Ak-tu, Ren, and their friends is shambles. The school is also closed, and Ak-tu and Zyn are both wanted criminals. To make things worse, the friends all get separated from one another into small groups. Ak-tu, Ren, Sarala, Jabali and the rest will have to find a way to unite with the rest and find Zyn. Meanwhile, in the background, Chaocat is still plotting, all the while the government is hunting down Ak-tu and his friends.
Yet another really strong installment in this series. I've liked it a lot so far and this one is no different. While the conflict with Chaocat does take a slight back seat in this book in order to focus more on the interpersonal relationships between the characters, they're definitely still there in the background and no pop up on several occasions. I quite liked this focus on the characters, honestly. I really feel we got to explore them thoroughly in this book, including some of Ak-tu's past. Though, of course, there's still quite a few characters left up in the air, such as whether or not the twins (and now also Sarala) are really spirits and what exactly the deal is between Ak-tu and Chaocat. Ak-tu in particular seems to have a few secrets up his sleeve, something Ren is especially not pleased about once she finds out, leading to her feeling betrayed by her father and thus her turning on him in yet another very emotional climax. There's also the added bonus of this time Sarala being badly injured and Ak-tu quite possibly being dead.
I don't think Sarala will die, though she does black out in the final chapter, but Ak-tu is kind-of implied to be dead. Which would really really hurt since he only just got re-united with Zyn and Ren now turned her back on him. I don't think it's 100% confirmed here yet that Ak-tu is dead, but it is heavily implied. He was injured and poisoned badly, and throughout the entire book he was already pretty tired, thin and weak. So this would be devastating, especially since he just made up with Zyn and got really close to Jabali once again. If he is dead, however, I do hope that we don't get a cop-out in future books where he comes back to life. That's just something personal of mine where I'm just not too fond of characters coming back to life after being dead. But, again, Ak-tu's fate, though heavily implied to be death here, isn't quite confirmed as we didn't see the aftermath from the situation yet.
And the death-scene (if it is truly death) was executed very well, especially when followed by yet another heart-wrenching chapter of Ren feeling utterly betrayed by everyone around her and Sarala trying desperately to convince her otherwise. The Caihong family truly does seem broken at this point. Zyn only just got back; Ak-tu is dead or at the very least unconscious and doing really badly; Ren is mad at everyone and Sarala feels truly alone after only just having convinced herself that she does have a family in the Caihongs after feeling alone for so long. My heart.
Another brief thing I was glad about (though obviously in the last chapter it was very emotionally charged from Ren's side) is that Ren and Sarala don't just instantly end up back together. They just kind of avoid one another through the entire book. At one point, Ren and Ak-tu talk about Sarala, where Ren reveals that she's uncertain about the relationship and Ak-tu tells her that he doesn't want them to be together unless Sarala really works on herself. And yes, this is good. It was cute to see Sarala and Ren crushing on one another in the last book, but their relationship wasn't very healthy with Sarala hurting Ren multiple times. So it's good that they're both uncertain about the relationship now and I also do like that Ren doesn't just accept Sarala's apologies in the last chapter (though, again, her being very emotionally charged at the moment probably contributes to this). I really hope that either they don't get together again at all or that Sarala does truly work on herself before they do get back together, like Ak-tu said. Right now the relationship just wasn't very healthy so they'll need to work things out. Which can be very difficult after that last chapter with Ren, oh dear.
I know I talk about the climax a lot, so I just want to highlight some non-climax things here I thought this book did very well. Mostly the flashbacks/past scenes and just the character interactions. With this book being very character/relationship-focused and less focused on the ongoing plot with Chaocat, we truly do get to see quite a few great interactions. Zephyr's journey was also creative and there's a little bit more focus on other Spirits that are not Chaocat here, one named Moss in particular.
Now, for some brief elements I wasn't as into. I personally wish that the environments were described a bit better so I could get more of a feel for the character's surroundings. It's not bad currently, but just feels a bit stale at times. Maybe richly describing things such as colors, architecture styles, materials of buildings, scents, etc. of the locations would add just a bit more liveliness to the way the settings are described.
For a quick lightning round of other things: There was an occasion the M-slur being used, which I'm never really for. And I personally found there to be a bit of an overuse of caps lock in emotional/screaming moments. Don't get me wrong, characters can scream and sometimes you should absolutely use caps lock when they do, but there are sometimes entire pages where a lot of the dialogue is in caps. I'd personally just be a little bit more sparse with the caps, only using it for one or a few sentences per page that really need the impact.
Overall this was still a really great installment in the series and I do very much look forward to the next book. Phoenix really has nailed the characters, character relationships and emotional climaxes by now. The next book looks to be yet another intense installment as Ren is now gone, Ak-tu quite possibly dead and the family shattered and heartbroken.
Rating: 4.5/5
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