The Stone Sky (REVIEW)

My love for this series is no secret, I adore the characters and the world N.K Jemisin has created but unfortunately the last book just didn’t meet the expectations I had built for this series.  

The Broken Earth trilogy is emotionally exhausting and difficult to read from start to finish- but the pain almost felt unnecessary in this last chapter of the trilogy. The deaths felt more like they were for shock value than anything else, and the painful revelations our characters go through during this final book just don’t pan out or have any weight to the ending. 

I did still really enjoy reading it. I wanted to push through and see how the book brought itself to a close and it did its job with tact and grace. There were plenty of beautiful scenes that were crafted from a dream or maybe a nightmare that saved the questionable quality, bumping this up to at least a 3 in my eyes. 

I never cared much for Nassun’s chapters and now introducing the perspective of Hoa just made me a little more frustrated. I found myself skimming through those chapters because I just wasn’t interested in either of their stories. Essun was the character I fell in love with, and I wish we had spent more time with her.  

Essun building relationships with the other members of Castrima was one of the best parts of the last book- it felt really lovely to see her bond with everyone near the end but that was all thrown away when they just did not give a shit that she was about to die.  

This last book just felt sad to be sad and I don’t like stories that kill off characters and tell you to be sad just for the sake of it. But because this series has so many enjoyable features I will still be rating it 3 stars.