The Golden Enclaves

There were some odd and unexpected choices made in the writing of this book. When I got to about 90% of the way through, I panicked a bit internally, thinking to myself, “There's not enough time to wrap everything up!”, and that thought ... wasn't entirely wrong. The storyline I cared about the most did get wrapped up, though, and the writing was beautiful and impossibly gripping as always, and El remained a spiteful furious hope-gremlin, so I deem it a four-star read despite the sometimes questionable bits.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I'm sure other people will mention this, but there's a weird cheating? possibly cheating? thing going on in this book. It's not really clear exactly how El and Orion defined the thing between them or how exclusive it was supposed to be, but does seem strange that she never even mentions the other relationship to him.El and Orion are separated for a lot of this book. Like, a lot. He kind of falls out of the narrative, and it's weird, and that's part of the reason why I panicked a little when I made it to 90%. Once he finally showed back up, that storyline did get more or less resolved, so I'm willing to let it go. Still an odd choice, since El and Orion and their relationship and the way they mirror and change and save each other seems pretty firmly the foundation of this series to me.Final quibble, SPOILERY FOR THE ENDING: I'm not sure I can buy that Orion would forgive his mom quite that easily. If he had been her only victim, sure! Except she murdered an entire Scholomance class. She slaughtered a large group of children, on purpose. Orion, self-sacrificing hero Orion, nobody's-dying-on-my-watch Orion? He's supposed to forgive that, literally the instant she shrugs and goes “Sorry or whatever,” and then refuse to hear another word about it? Bleh.Now for the thing I loved:Once there was a dark sorceress designed to destroy, and instead she shrieked “FUCK YOU, EVERYBODY LIVES” into the face of the void while flipping the bird with both hands. Once there was a boy crushed and shattered and then revived with an insatiable monster at his core howling its eternal hunger, and he gritted his teeth and bent that hunger toward protecting others and chose to be kind without asking anything in return.Fantastic, unforgettable characters.