It was an awesome ending to a book trilogy I justed LOVED. The author went very trigger happy, but that was ok. I sorta didn't like the ending, it left me hanging to much. Anyway I still LOVED IT!!!

I loved this book and the whole series. I'll tell you right now it's sad to see it finally come to an end. I loved how in this one the new characters were described and I loved the way the plot rolled out. The plot was totally amazing filled with new surprises and a super sad plot with much more mystery. I really loved how the author used her imagination to create this whole world. I loved the ending but it was so sad. I didn't think i could take it, I thought i was gonna break down. It was a nice conclusion but one part of me is hoping for some type of sequel or something. The other part of me is still stunned with the amazingness of the series and how it's coming to an end. Totally amazing though. 3

Just to start off with a bit of a warning, this review does contain major plot spoilers. Continue reading at your own risk. _ _ _ "Across the Universe" has been one of my favourite series. This book was no exception; I began reading yesterday evening at 10pm, picked it up again this morning and whenever I could sneak time during school, and finished around 4:00 this afternoon. I couldn't put it down; it was suspenseful and exciting and intriguing and I needed to know what happened next; it had all the elements that made the original "Across the Universe" so dear to me. Everyone I loved gets killed off. That might sound like a negative thing, but I admire an author who isn't afraid to kill off her characters. It adds suspense; when all the important folk have plot armour, you don't really get that tension build up. But in her writing, no one is truly safe. First I became attached to Dr. Gupta. Dead. Then it was Kit, dear, sweet, kind Kit. Dead. And just when my heart had opened itself to trust again and I began to develop a fondness towards Emma... Dead. Amy's mom. After everything that Amy had been through throughout the first few books to reunite with her mom, it's not like Beth would just kill her o-- Dead. Amy's father? Dead. And so on and so forth. The plot also had me on my toes; who should be trusted, and what secrets are the secrets hiding? I knew something was off about Chris from the get go. The way Beth described his oddly blue eyes... there was just a bit too much focus placed on them to be just an irrelevant detail. And Colonel Martin was so suspicious of him at some points, asking him what he knew... something was up, but the reveal still took me by surprise. All the reveals... they were fantastic. Secrets and secrets and Orion's clues and the fact that, as I had a sneaking suspicion, the monsters were really people all along. As I said, I had a feeling that the 'aliens' of the planet were really humans, but I'll admit my hypothesis was a bit off. I was figuring that they had been people from Godspeed who had decided to leave somehow at the beginning of the Eldest regimen... I hadn't expected it to be the original colonists mutated... that the FRX was really malevolent. And I just got something. The swear that the shipborns always say, 'Frex'. It comes from FRX. Was that explained at some point, and I just forgot about it? Maybe in "A Million Suns"? Anyway, I'm getting off topic. To surmise, I really enjoyed the majority of the book. But I don't know how I feel about the end. Honestly, I would've liked Beth to have actually killed Elder off in his heroic sacrifice. I feel that writers shy away from that a bit too much: killing off their protagonist. I had high hopes for Beth. She was ruthless with her characters, and as the story is told from both Elder and Amy's points of view, even with Elder dead the story could be concluded by Amy, as the last few chapters were. But the fact that Elder survived... I don't like it. It was what I expected. And as the chapters went by and the book went on and he wasn't magically coming back the thought crossed my incredulous mind, "did she actually do it?" And he still wasn't coming back, and I was 98% complete according to the little icon at the bottom of my Kobo, and my heart swelled with admiration. I had not expected her to have the audacity. And his sacrifice was so well written. She made it work. And then I turned the page and that admiration deflated like a balloon: he was saved; as expected; per cliché. In general, I'm not too sure how I feel about the ending. I guess I can't be too critical of the whole "oh and the protagonist survives the suicide mission" thing; most authors do that, and while I would have been very, very impressed if she had killed him off, the status quo is still okay. But the rest of it... I just don't know. It felt a bit off. Hurried. Amy's a hybrid now; a mutant. Throughout the entire series she was kind of a symbol of humanity, contrasting with the shipborns and their difference from the reader. And then all of a sudden she was something oh so different from us, and I could appreciate that as a provocative, pensive commentary on the implications of such a thing, something I would have expected from Beth's skillful writing. But I didn't really get that. It's mentioned how she's even more of an outcast now, but the other aspects of her transformation aren't really explored. I felt the ending was pretty rushed; hurried. It didn't feel like an ending. An ending to a book, sure, but not the ending to a series. The last glimpse we have into a universe. Maybe Beth will surprise us -- I've heard rumours about her writing more in this universe -- and that might explain the oddly paced and unexplored ending. But if this is truly it, I can't say I liked those last few pages.