Supernova

a few months later: i've bumped this rating down since i read it from 5 stars immediately, to 4 a few hours later, to 3 stars about 2 weeks later, and now,,,,,,, 2 stars. this ain't it. i'm leaving my original review below but yeah i think reading this trilogy completely solidified for me that i'm done with het YA (unless someone explicitly recs it to me) bc this was such a waste of time and emotions lol.

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after finishing this and letting my emotions settle a little, i think i had two things i looked back on and was like “hmm” about (i put them below under spoiler tags), so i feel like i can't rate it a full 5 stars even though part of me wants to. also maybe it was my own fault, but i kept looking back at the cover waiting for a scene like that to happen and it distracted me a few times? (WHY DID IT NEVER HAPPEN? WHERE IS NOVA WITH LIGHTNING BOLTS COMING OUT OF HER HANDS ...)

that being said, this book was FAST. PACED. considering it was the same length as the first book, which took me a MONTH to get through, this went by in a flash. so much happened, and it kept me guessing, wondering what would happen next, and i really liked it, i couldn't put it down.

i'm kind of sad it's over tbh because i really enjoyed reading this trilogy and loved all the characters so much. except ace. FUCK that guy.

one thing that bothered me: the moral dilemma with all the characters felt kind of ... forgotten in this book. or at the very least, not really discussed anymore? that ending erased any good v evil discussion entirely!? and this felt ESPECIALLY highlighted with nova in this book. nova, in jail, crying but still being like "i've been framed~" was like. wtf you doin girl? and then later on when she tells ace about the bracelet i LITERALLY put my hand to my head and was like "oh my god why" ... she had a perfect opportunity at the SEVENTY PERCENT MARK to start to show signs of Doubt.gif but she DIDN'T. that was so incredibly frustrating i started to get annoyed with her until she killed honey, but that was like. the 90 fuckin percent mark. my dudes.i wish we'd seen the emotional impact with nova sooner, and we'd seen what's on the cover of this book or something, nova with the electricity coming out of her hand. that doesn't happen, and i wanted her to fight more. i wanted her to have a moment where she could say "no, enough, i'm fixing this for everybody" which is why the scene with her saying no to ace in the tower but then IMMEDIATELY GIVING AWAY CRITICAL INFO was such a letdown. stand up, girl? wtf???nova was the unique character that had the influence from both sides, she was the one character that had the capacity for compassion for everybody. the only other character that could have had that was adrian, but it was never taken there. nova's platform felt ... super wasted to me. i'm disappointed.

the other thing: while this book was so fast paced in a good way, it also gave me whiplash a few times, and i felt a bit exhausted by it at the 50% point like "where is this gonna still go/what was the point of the first 50% if that's undone now?" and that frustrated me a bit. looking back, i kind of can't help but feel like ... that could have been part of book 2, and so much in book 1 and 2 could have been cut out instead. idk. it read SO fast, so it didn't linger, but still. i think overall this series suffers a bit with pacing issues. it's not a huge detracting factor for me ... but looking over it as a whole, it is there. so idk.

the more i sit on this and look back, the more holes i find and the more this turns into swiss cheese. i'm conflicted with my rating tbh bc actually ... it's probably lower than 4 stars, i keep thinking of criticisms. but idk i think if i think only about my enjoyment level while reading, that was really high, so i'm leaving my rating at 4 stars. trying to suspend my more critical reader mind here, bc it IS essentially a silly superhero story, lol.