(5 / 5)
Well, that was an ending I certainly didn’t see coming.
Well done, Mr Crouch, well done.
Once again, as with the previous two books in the trilogy, I’m left wondering how on earth to review this without leaving a trail of bloody spoilers all over the place. And trust me, they’d be very, very, very bloody. Holy violence, batman.
While the first book in the trilogy was about blowing your mind with an unexpected world, and the second was all action and mystery-solving, the third is one giant bloodbath before it starts tying up loose ends, putting everything back together again, and looking to the future.
And a very scary and bleak future it seems to be, if you know what has happened in the past two books. As if things weren’t awful enough in small town Wayward Pines, what with the powers that be telling you what your job is (often bearing no resemblance to your past career or having much to do with your established skill set), who to marry (what, you’re gay? No problem, get married to this nice lady anyway…), and taking away the right for you to talk about your past, your feelings, even for you to know what your kids learn in school, but now we’re just going to introduce unbelievable evil into your carefully manicured suburban neighborhood and just see how it all shakes out.
Not so good? Oh who would have imagined?
This book has the same likeable characters and hate-able villains as the previous two. There’s a bit of character development, a bit of exposition of the past, including some of the motivations behind all the villainy, a lot of action, a little hope, some tragedy, some comic-ish moments, some heartbreak, a few good surprises and an ending that I totally didn’t see coming. (I know, I said that already, but I was really impressed. Authors that surprise me are awesomesauce).
Don’t try to read this if you haven’t read the previous two. It won’t make a lick of sense. Plus, you really should read the previous two just because they are fabulous and deserve a read based on their own merit.
Now I really can’t wait to check out the episodes of the TV show based on these books that have been sitting on my DVR!