And so the Balefire story has ended, finiteod, much like my patience and genuine enjoyment for this series. But my lack of enjoyment is nothing new to those who have followed my reviews for this entire series, and it actually saddens me to say that out of the four of them, this was quite possibly the worst, which for a finale, is both gutting and disappointing. The synopsis promised great things, even; 'a shocking turn of events that no one will predict', those of which were pretty darn predictable if you don't mind me popping that bubble for you, and after some of the final events took place, that was it, I was glad to never have to pick up any of this series ever again.Unlike some of it's previous books in the series, A Circle of Ashes and A Feather of Stone, which actually improved one after the other, even if only by a small amount, A Necklace of Water just fell pretty short of the same excitment I'd previously felt, and while this wasn't the fault of the writing nesacarily, or the way Ms Tiernan decided to include much too large and complicated words which after 3 and a half books, did eventually come to frustrate me considering her style of writing is much more of the simpler style, no it wasn't these issues that really resulted in me just feeling nothing more towards the book, that was all down to Clio, which I most definitely will be getting to shortly, mark my words.
I did have another couple of issues, which probably isn't that much of a surprise anymore, but even so, they should be mentioned and discussed, so here they are.
The constant referring to events to have either already happened, or reminders of who the characters were, what they'd done or how they were related to those more important characters. I had previously mentioned this is my review for A Feather of Stone, so finding it was happening again wasn't so much a surprise, but so much more fustrating. If your readers have made it through to the last book in your series, chances are, they remember the pretty importants events that happened earlier, and who all the characters are in relation to one another, and this made me reach a point past annoyance and so in the end, I just scanned past these areas, which of course ruined the reading experience, but hey ho, can't have it all.
The second was the seriously bad, no, absolutely terrible ending. After a good nights sleep, I still can't comprehend what on earth the author was thinking pairing characters off with people I felt they didn't belong or deserve to be with, or what made her want to leave so many unanswered questions, or give so many unclear answers, especially those concerning who was attempting to murder to twins after Richard, which is interpretable but not defined, what actually happened to Melita during her vanished years and in the quickest ending to a story I've probably ever experienced, and just how unplanned the ending felt. It felt quick, rushed and unexciting, and it didn't leave me sad that I'd finished the series. In truth, I felt very little at all.
But my biggest problem with this book however was the characters, and much more than usual. As I mentioned earlier, Clio really took a beating not only character wise, but in my opinion and liking for her too. I wasn't a huge fan of how her character was deteriorating throughout the series, but after a snide and pretty horrible comment made by her character, that was it, I wasn't interested in her actions, anything that happened to her, how she felt; it genuinely reached a point where I didn't want to read any of the chapters from her perspective. I didn't have any feelings towards her at all, and not only that, I felt that her attitude towards herself and others had become selfish and stupid, her feelings towards her own family, especially Thais and Petra was shocking due to her being so self absorbed in her own quests and feelings that she didn't consider anyone else's, and in the end, I didn't care whether she was involved in the story or not, which made me feel pretty darn sad when she very rudely decided to die.
I also began to dislike Luc much more than I had throughout the series and this also disappointed me quite a lot. He became quite possessive over Clio and Thais, and threw claims of emotions around like confetti on a wedding day, and after a while, I began to notice that underneath his attractive exterior, he had no real personality, feelings or character within him, which in truth made him quite easy to forget and dislike, so while he didn't necessarily do anything directly for me to dislike him, I just ended up doing naturally instead.
With many of the other characters, I just felt that they were there and weren't doing much of anything throughout the book, if anything at all, and so very many of them just passed through my thoughts, other than two, Thais and Manon.
Thais was the only character to me, who improved with every book. She became a stronger person emotionally and much more grounded, she gained respect for both herself and her family, as well has a protective feeling over her friends and those who meant alot to her. She created herself a strong core and amount of courage that made her dangerous to those she had problems with, and this change in character, from starting off as a whiny teenage girl who'd been told she was moving to live with a stranger, to a confident, independent woman with answers to her heritage and past was just wonderful.
Manon on the other hand grew more confident and strong once she'd been betrayed, and while she wasn't quite as lovely in the end as I had once thought, she was however a great character on the grounds of her relationship with Sophie and the struggles she went through having become immortal and such a young age. In the end, her ending was possibly my favourite, as she had grown up and become the woman she wanted to be, whether Sophie was beside her or not, and I was proud of her short but important development in this book.
Overall, I was disappointed with how this series ended. I felt the overall story and plot was weak and rushed, taking place in too short a time period, I felt that the characters weren't developed enough throughout for it to make much of a difference and I can quite honestly say that I won't be picking up anymore of Cate Tiernan's work, even if it's absolutely out of this world. For a £4 deal, it wasn't so bad, but if you're going to pay full price, be certain you want it, as there are much better books out there for the same price.
Wibbly Wobbly 1.5 Stars.
