"We destroy. We rebuild. We destroy again. It is the constant of our kind. We are all a god's chosen, and we are all a god's cursed."

I liked how this book is bundled. On one hand we have several short stories and on the other hand Julian’s journal where he talks about the history of this world.
Queen Song is about Cal’s mother and focuses on how she meets Cal’s father and how she deals with Elara. I thought this story was particularly sad,

because we see more and more signs of Elara messing with her mind as the story proceeds. Tiberias VI even knows about this!

"Speaking of punishment—if Elara whispers to you again, you show her the same courtesy."
"She knows, as everyone else knows, that my father will call for Queenstrial soon. I don't doubt she's wriggled into every maiden's head, to learn her enemies and her prey."

And to think that Tiberias VI eventually ends up marrying Elara is very disturbing and it shows how devastating Elara’s powers really are.

There were of course more short stories! I was very happy to read the stories about Evangeline, Cal, Maven and Mare even though Mare was sometimes frustrating. Give Cal a break, jeez… 
And Maven’s final conversion with Cal made me very emotional. 

In short, I’m happy to have read the Red Queen series but I’m sad to let it go now.

Let's be real — we are all only here for Mare and Cal and some Evangeline action. Thus, it was a bit of a pain to get through all the other stories but the last ones do deliver. 

You can tell Aveyard is immensely invested in this world and manages to finally answer some questions about it's history in a way that doesn't seem forced. It was a good recap of the last books, so you could really easily get into the story again.

I really enjoyed Elane finally learning how to stand up for herself against Evangeline and her scenes with the Samos siblings were great fun. While I'm still unsure whether this book was really needed, it is fascinating to see the aftermath of a "usual" YA war in a last book — because it certainly isn't over after that last fight. Evangeline still has to come to terms with no longer being royal while also learning to appreciate the life she's now able to live. We get similar thoughts in Cal's chapters but they feel more refined for Evangeline.

It isn't easy for Cal and Mare to get back together and in the end, everything isn't solved either. They have work to do but it was nice to at least know there is something to work toward instead of them leaving each other at the end of War Storm.

The ending is satisfying for the series and the book is certainly a nice add-on for Red Queen fans but not a necessity, if that makes sense. Good for history buffs such as myself, though 😉