Review: You can definitely see how Mara changes and adapts in this book. She wakes up weak and drugged up in Horizons. She can't use her power, or even control her own body with what she's been put on. Its extremely unnerving for her. But by the end of the book, she's killed people with her power and without. She went from being scared of hurting someone because of what she could do, to intentionally doing it. After all she's gone through, she's changed 100% percent. She no longer fears the people tormenting her. She knows she has more power than them and uses it to her advantage, even though this causes a rift in a friendship.
One of the things I enjoyed about this book was the before chapters. We get a lot of Mara's grandmothers story. We see how she came to know the Shaw family originally, how she came to the states, how exactly her life actually intertwined with Noah's mothers. Despite the before chapters being a bit slow and not contributing a whole lot in the first few sections, it was necessary for background and fully made up for with the information we learned. We learned through Mara's grandmother, that Noah was fully planned and intentionally conceived. He was made with a plan to end the Hero/Shadow cycle and make the world better. His gift was also known. He wasn't just born with it randomly. He was made because of that gift it was known he was going to have. Poor Noah. He was pretty much born for a certain reason and was supposed to have no choice in whether he carried it out. Obviously though, things do not work out like others have planned. You can't stop a persons free will.
*Spoilers* We also learn that Noah's father is behind all the torture Mara went through. He hired all the people who tortured her, including Dr. Kells. He was the reason she endured so much. He is an awful person. What's even worse is Jude sided with and helped Noah's dad with this stuff. It was 100% awful. Speaking of Dr. Kells and Jude though, we learn something interesting. Dr. Kells maiden name is Lowe. As in the same Lowe that is Jude Lowe. Come to find out, Dr. Kells kept adopting twins with the anomaly and kept trying to trigger it and make them manifest, hoping to make someone like Noah. She kept killing groups of twins doing this until she got to Jude and Claire. She got it to work on Jude without him dying afterwards. However, she never predicted that his manifestation would cause him to be so dark and awful. She created a monster in him. I was shocked learning about what she did.
I have to say, I was slightly disappointed with the ending. I expected the scene with Mara killing Jude and Noah dying and Mara bringing him back to be more action filled. Instead it was just kinda dragging along. She triggered Judes death like she did many other peoples, instead of torturing him. And Noah, she was devastated when he was killed, but her bringing him back didn't seem to have a big reaction. It was like, yes he's alive! But that was it. I really expected these scenes to be better than they were.
I do have to say, I did love the Mara/Noah scenes at the end. I loved that they chose their love for each other over everything else. After all the stuff they both endured, it was nice seeing them really genuinely happy being together.
4 Stars!
