chloefrizzle's reviews
993 reviews

Entirely addictive. I was a little uncomfortable with how objectified the man in this book was. But at least he passes the sexy lamp test with flying colors.

I have never read a book so efficient and entertaining in its exposition. Absolutely fantastically paced and edited, a real marvel of craft. Very strong female gaze, your milage may vary.

This book waffles between trying to be a hard magic and soft magic story, and the worldbuilding and themes are weaker for the contradiction.
Lots of interesting premises (tension between science and religion, betrayal and loyalty, father-son relationships, cultural perceptions), but just enough was off balance in the execution to stop me from loving this book.
Reminded me of Mistborn Era 2.

My full video review with detailed thoughts.

Slow and interesting. The exposition of the side characters felt like a firehose of unimportant information. I like the character of Dream, he feels very grand like an immortal force should.

An absolutely satisfying ending. Gives balanced due to both the good and dark parts of Alex. Ends the series on a bang, wrapped up with a bow.

WHAT I LOVED:
This book was an absolutely satisfying ending to the Alex Verus series. All the loose threads were tied off in interesting and thematically resonant ways.
The pacing of this book is excellent. The threat is larger than it's ever felt before, and yet the book also takes scenes to just breathe and let the characters talk in between battles. I loved every page.
In the books leading up to Risen, Alex has been getting increasingly closer to being a seriously bad guy. So, this book had a lot to tackle with either giving him a redemption arc or making the ending satisfying with such a gray protagonist. I was worried that the book would go too far to one of those sides, and change the core of Alex's character in the process. However, I was delighted with how this novel balanced the light and dark sides of Alex, gave them both their due, and found a way to end this arc solidly on the foundation of all the books that came before.
The fox, Hermes, was at the forefront of many parts of this book. This is exactly what I have been hoping and waiting for, and he was used expertly to both give some lightheartedness and raise the stakes in key scenes. I give this book a fox score of 9.5/10.
Having finished the series, I would recommend the following reading order: 3-9, 1-2, 10-12. Books 1&2 are the weakest of the series, and they shouldn't be your first impression. Book 3 gives you enough background knowledge that you don't need to read 1&2 first. However, you should read 1&2 before book 10, because they finally become important around then.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
Though Alex gets a great arc and balancing to his character, Anne does not. In this book, her arc is again being pushed more by Alex than herself. This makes Anne feel passive and like she isn't getting her own character growth. This is disappointing, and feels like a waste to a fantastic and layered character.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

A video review of this book (with some of my more spoilery thoughts) will be appearing on my youtube channel. You can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl8sZsicbBs&list=PLzKif11L57ecKhiavwj-Arqp7y3qu3lQV

Surprisingly deep themes and exploration of mental illness.

The highlight here for me was the surprisingly tender relationship between the main character and the devil.

The premise is that our main character has just spent over a decade in Hell. And, wow, I was entirely blown away by how the book sticks so close to that premise and crafts one of the best characters I've ever encountered. He really does feel like exactly the kind of broken you would get in that situation, and every little detail was delightful.

I see that me and the author weren't quite on the same page. I thought it was cool magic, turned out it was Evil. The resulting redemption arc was not satisfying.

The pacing is excellent, and the development of character relationships is lovely. I ship the main couple so hard. Even the frenemies are fantastic. Another great edition to the series.