i would give this a 3.5 if i could. this book is good and i like the writing, mainly nostalgic bc i loved this book in middle school. i do like that there were some loose ends left untied to bridge into a sequel and follow up in the next book.

some of it was roll your eyes cheesy but i guess that’s also a pretty apt description of any high school experience. i do wish the whole claiming and 16 moons thing wasn’t so mysterious, but maybe i’m missing something. i would hope whatever that i’m missing is further explored and explained in the other books of this series.

SPOILER
i also did not like that they had to kill off uncle macon. I’m not a huge fan of killing off characters, but it also really seemed stacked against him given that it lena chose to be light he would die anyways. if that’s so, then i guess him dying in place of ethan kind of works out, but like she could have traded something else for bringing ethan back.