I don't think I can do this book justice with my review but I'm gonna try.

This was a roller coaster of a ride that exceeded my expectations for the finale and that always had me guessing as to what would happen next.

From the beginning, I knew that the first scenes would connect to something later, but when we find out that

Barrie was the kid in question, it invariably made things more tense. I KNEW the captain was extremely suspicious and seemed like he wasn't all there.

But the suspense came from not knowing exactly what he was going to do. Also from the beginning, the countdown to dark star functionality at the start of every chapter was quite possibly the most ominous one possible. The first 2 books had countdowns to events we already knew about, but for this one it was kinda like "ok wtf is dark star".

Things just got really crazy really fast around the one third mark and from there nothing slowed down. I mean, once Liam and Phoebe got to Dark Star and things actually started happening, everything just seemed way too convenient. But again, this actually increased the suspense because you never knew what was going to go wrong and when. So then when

the new Earth turned out to be fake, or even when they flew into the portal and Phoebe started screaming, I was both like "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE NEW EARTH ISN'T REAL" but also "I knew this was coming at some point." Honestly, when Jeff said "There are no sample points because there is no planet" I went into shock lmao

To continue:
1) The interlude almost had me crying :(
2) I had not 1, but 2 existential crises during the course of this book
3) I was waiting for the word harvesting and finally got it yikes
4)

THE CHRONOLOGISTS WORKING FOR DARK STAR WHATTT

that was something I actually never saw coming
5) I love Phoebe

And finally, the ending. It was just enough happy and sad to feel correct for this series. I think it's a good thing that the fates of

Captain Barrie and Iris were left ambiguous because it showed that again, you don't know everything that will happen in the future but that's okay. It also definitely fit with Barrie's character to have him ditch the humans to follow dark star.

I'm also glad that the

Telphons and the humans started making reparations but also that it felt normal and they weren't just like "oh yeah we completely forgive you now!"

Then, of course, Liam and Phoebe, whose relationship I thought was actually really well thought out and well developed. To me, they never felt forced which is a blessing. Yes, I may have cried at the end ;(

As a whole these books were super good and I would recommend them for anyone who enjoys sci-fi. This didn't even feel like a middle-grade book; I'm actually surprised that it is. Definitely worth the time, and this series gets 5/5 stars.