Book Review: The Broken Trilogy (Broken Sky, Darkness Follows, Black Moon)
10/10 for this amazing trilogy by L.A. Weatherly!
The Broken trilogy is the story about Amity Vancour and her fight for justice, truth and love in 3 exhilarating books.
Note: I tried to make this review as spoiler free as possible but seeing as I am reviewing all three in one go I couldn't always avoid it. Book 2 and 3 will be under a jump break.
In Broken Sky we enter this perfect-seeming world. War is not allowed; it simply doesn't exist. All issues are resolved in the matter of peace fighting. Two pilots who fight over an issue. The one that is victorious has won their country the right to decide over a global, economical or political topic. Amity believes in the system with all her heart until a series of events make her aware that the system isn't as perfect as everyone believes. When it turns out that she's personally involved, she doesn't know who to trust anymore and turns to the man from her past, who came back into her life unexpectedly.
Running from the law and trying to protect what she believes in things seem to be more broken than they expected to.
Broken Sky is the perfect opening to this trilogy building up the world and showing not only its inside and outs through Amity's eyes but also through the eyes of Kay Pierce. This persona is on the other side of the spectrum, trying to stay alive by enchanting the dangerous, in Harmony and astronomy believing Gunnison.
Gunnison is a dictating president who believes that people can be divided by their birth charts. If your stars aren't prosper then you're considered Discordant and will be put in a correction camp. Additionally those who appear to be a threat will find themselves considered Discordant too. Kay Pierce realises that it's sink or swim and plays the game like a master.
In this first book I was completely sucked in! The idyllic world that was a bust, the touches of romance and friendship, ... . The insight in this Hitler like villain and his believes. Even with Broken Sky being some sort of build up to what was coming next, it also held enough content to capture me completely and lure me in until there was no way back. The surprising twist at the end finished the job. I was in love.
Where many people said that the blurb was way too vague for them and didn't do the book any good, to me the blurb was exactly what made me want to read it. Often blurbs give away way too much. This one just teased and made you go 'oh, I wonder what this is about'.
Luckily more came in the form of Darkness Follows (my personal favourite).
This story is, as the title suggests, dark. Really dark. Due to unforeseen circumstances Amity has been captured and is now transported to Harmony five. where it'll take her everything she has in herself to stay alive.
Life at the correction camp is a constant torture and struggle; a literal fight to staying alive and at the same time trying to be invisible. Time passes and while the infamous wildcat is captured and her morale gets crushed, Gunnison is gaining power every day. Overtaking almost the entire continent in his stride. With a dictator like that at hand there's underground rumblings of a resistance. With a few well placed inside-men they are planning to bring this force down.
Only, is it as hard as they imagined or even worse?
When Amity eventually manages to escape with a new ally, she finds a factory that shows Gunnison's true intentions. Aside from all his talk about stars and harmony there seems to be one nuclear power he believes in even more.
Together with the resistance and in a world where she no longer knows who to trust, Amity fights against the monster that is John Gunnison.
Soon enough she finds out that an even worse enemy was hiding in the shadows and it's one that'll give them a hell of a time.
This story wasn't chronologically anymore and this had positive and negative outcomes.
1) It gave the author the chance to slowly reveal secrets at more appropriate times then if it had been chronologically.
1 a) On the other hand when a certain revelation didn't live up to the grand build up and secrecy within this story it was a bit of a disappointment.
2) It made the story more tense and at time slower paced bits could be picked up by a faster paced part.
2 a) It sometimes made it a little messy and jumbled. I'll explain why:
Considering Broken Sky existed out of only Amity and Kay Pierce this was always clear with Amity talking from 1st person perspective and Kay Pierce from third.
This time around there were a lot more new characters and point of views. It wasn't always clear at the beginning of each chapter who we were following as it wasn't always immediately mentioned.
Amity was still easy to pick out but the others sometimes were a little harder (and by book 3 it got even more difficult).
Now turns out the author had given us a subtle help from the get go. Well, I thought it was subtle as it took me until halfway book 2 to figure it out. The astrological depictions of a star sign above each chapter weren't just decorations but were the star sign of the character we were reading about. Then things got a thousand times more easy!
A brilliant thing to do if I'm honest but I was a little slow on picking up on it. ;)
Black Moon, the unravelling ending to this breathtaking trilogy. This book was complex. I don't mean it in the 'confusing' kind of way but in the way that it was worked out really well.
It's hard to review this book because it's so intricate that anything I say is a spoiler. But I'll try
The plot thickens as a new power monster emerges on the stage. One even more relentless than the one before, causing terror and fear in its path. This time a real dedication of war is announced to the world. Now the resistance truly needs to get the public behind them or they won't stand a chance. But getting a crowd together in times of fear needs a good trigger before people will rise to the occasion.
Made even more difficult by the fact that every small victory is met with an even bigger retaliation.
Relying on a dangerous double spy of which they don't know where his alliance truly lies makes matters even more difficult for the resistance.
In the midst of all this Amity once more finds herself becoming the face of hope and the voice of the resistance. But things have changed for her. Something has shifted and her priorities have too.
Clearly it's too hard to form any words without giving away too much. I'm urging you to simply read it. The book is a lot of things in one. Every time you think a battle is over another one starts. It's simply packed with action and shows where people's true alliances lie and what everyone is willing to sacrifice for love and freedom.
Overall it seems to have three main parts.
Part 1: casting out
Part 2: standing ground
Part 3: kicking ass.
I was completely sucked in with this one and stayed up all night to finish it when I reached the last 100 pages. It left me full with adrenaline and regret that I had to leave this world behind.
It has been a long time since I've read such a great trilogy and though I can see some overlap with other dystopian novels (like Legend, the Hunger Games, etc) it also managed to set itself apart from the pack.
I am in love with it!
The Broken trilogy is the story about Amity Vancour and her fight for justice, truth and love in 3 exhilarating books.
Note: I tried to make this review as spoiler free as possible but seeing as I am reviewing all three in one go I couldn't always avoid it. Book 2 and 3 will be under a jump break.
We're in the 1940's and America is divided in two big rivalling parts. The underlying issue between these two parts is the setting of the following stories:
*
In Broken Sky we enter this perfect-seeming world. War is not allowed; it simply doesn't exist. All issues are resolved in the matter of peace fighting. Two pilots who fight over an issue. The one that is victorious has won their country the right to decide over a global, economical or political topic. Amity believes in the system with all her heart until a series of events make her aware that the system isn't as perfect as everyone believes. When it turns out that she's personally involved, she doesn't know who to trust anymore and turns to the man from her past, who came back into her life unexpectedly.Running from the law and trying to protect what she believes in things seem to be more broken than they expected to.
Broken Sky is the perfect opening to this trilogy building up the world and showing not only its inside and outs through Amity's eyes but also through the eyes of Kay Pierce. This persona is on the other side of the spectrum, trying to stay alive by enchanting the dangerous, in Harmony and astronomy believing Gunnison.
Gunnison is a dictating president who believes that people can be divided by their birth charts. If your stars aren't prosper then you're considered Discordant and will be put in a correction camp. Additionally those who appear to be a threat will find themselves considered Discordant too. Kay Pierce realises that it's sink or swim and plays the game like a master.
In this first book I was completely sucked in! The idyllic world that was a bust, the touches of romance and friendship, ... . The insight in this Hitler like villain and his believes. Even with Broken Sky being some sort of build up to what was coming next, it also held enough content to capture me completely and lure me in until there was no way back. The surprising twist at the end finished the job. I was in love.
Where many people said that the blurb was way too vague for them and didn't do the book any good, to me the blurb was exactly what made me want to read it. Often blurbs give away way too much. This one just teased and made you go 'oh, I wonder what this is about'.
**
Luckily more came in the form of Darkness Follows (my personal favourite).
This story is, as the title suggests, dark. Really dark. Due to unforeseen circumstances Amity has been captured and is now transported to Harmony five. where it'll take her everything she has in herself to stay alive.
Life at the correction camp is a constant torture and struggle; a literal fight to staying alive and at the same time trying to be invisible. Time passes and while the infamous wildcat is captured and her morale gets crushed, Gunnison is gaining power every day. Overtaking almost the entire continent in his stride. With a dictator like that at hand there's underground rumblings of a resistance. With a few well placed inside-men they are planning to bring this force down.Only, is it as hard as they imagined or even worse?
When Amity eventually manages to escape with a new ally, she finds a factory that shows Gunnison's true intentions. Aside from all his talk about stars and harmony there seems to be one nuclear power he believes in even more.
Together with the resistance and in a world where she no longer knows who to trust, Amity fights against the monster that is John Gunnison.
Soon enough she finds out that an even worse enemy was hiding in the shadows and it's one that'll give them a hell of a time.
This story wasn't chronologically anymore and this had positive and negative outcomes.
1) It gave the author the chance to slowly reveal secrets at more appropriate times then if it had been chronologically.
1 a) On the other hand when a certain revelation didn't live up to the grand build up and secrecy within this story it was a bit of a disappointment.
2) It made the story more tense and at time slower paced bits could be picked up by a faster paced part.
2 a) It sometimes made it a little messy and jumbled. I'll explain why:
Considering Broken Sky existed out of only Amity and Kay Pierce this was always clear with Amity talking from 1st person perspective and Kay Pierce from third.
This time around there were a lot more new characters and point of views. It wasn't always clear at the beginning of each chapter who we were following as it wasn't always immediately mentioned.
Amity was still easy to pick out but the others sometimes were a little harder (and by book 3 it got even more difficult).
Now turns out the author had given us a subtle help from the get go. Well, I thought it was subtle as it took me until halfway book 2 to figure it out. The astrological depictions of a star sign above each chapter weren't just decorations but were the star sign of the character we were reading about. Then things got a thousand times more easy!
A brilliant thing to do if I'm honest but I was a little slow on picking up on it. ;)
***
Talking about book 3...Black Moon, the unravelling ending to this breathtaking trilogy. This book was complex. I don't mean it in the 'confusing' kind of way but in the way that it was worked out really well.
It's hard to review this book because it's so intricate that anything I say is a spoiler. But I'll try
The plot thickens as a new power monster emerges on the stage. One even more relentless than the one before, causing terror and fear in its path. This time a real dedication of war is announced to the world. Now the resistance truly needs to get the public behind them or they won't stand a chance. But getting a crowd together in times of fear needs a good trigger before people will rise to the occasion.Made even more difficult by the fact that every small victory is met with an even bigger retaliation.
Relying on a dangerous double spy of which they don't know where his alliance truly lies makes matters even more difficult for the resistance.
In the midst of all this Amity once more finds herself becoming the face of hope and the voice of the resistance. But things have changed for her. Something has shifted and her priorities have too.
Clearly it's too hard to form any words without giving away too much. I'm urging you to simply read it. The book is a lot of things in one. Every time you think a battle is over another one starts. It's simply packed with action and shows where people's true alliances lie and what everyone is willing to sacrifice for love and freedom.
Overall it seems to have three main parts.
Part 1: casting out
Part 2: standing ground
Part 3: kicking ass.
I was completely sucked in with this one and stayed up all night to finish it when I reached the last 100 pages. It left me full with adrenaline and regret that I had to leave this world behind.
It has been a long time since I've read such a great trilogy and though I can see some overlap with other dystopian novels (like Legend, the Hunger Games, etc) it also managed to set itself apart from the pack.
I am in love with it!
Comments
Post a Comment