jenny_librarian's reviews
1111 reviews

GAAAAH! Ok ok ok, now we're really back into things.

That was such a good comics to introduce phase 3! The Avar and Elzar interactions broke me (my poor babies mourning their third 😭 ) and the last issue was incredible! I can't wait for Marchion to turn on Ghirra when she ceases to be useful.

I would've switched issues 2 and 3 around for fluidity in the storytelling (since the first scene of issue 3 happens before the first scene of issue 4) but the rest was great! Knocking off .25 for artists never able to keep Elzar's skin tone consistent, though.

The Queen's Bloom: 3.5 ⭐️ I don't care enough about Axel to enjoy this
A Closed Fist Has No Claws: 4.5 ⭐️ Super creepy and I loved it!
Shield of the Jedi: 4 ⭐️
The Lonely Traveler is Home: 5 ⭐️ autistic Ram ftw!!!!
After the Fall 4 ⭐️
The Force Provides: 3.75 ⭐️ good to know how Vern is feeling, but an okay story in general
All Jedi Walk their Own Path: 5 ⭐️ Bell's determination to find Burryaga made me cry 😭
Light in the Darkness: 5 ⭐️ Keeve and the twins!!!!!
The Call of Coruscant: 2.5 ⭐️ well that was... boring...

(BONUS) Rogue Element: 3.75 ⭐️ it's a shame Ruu came out of nowhere, because I would've loved that follow-up to Starlight with a character we already care about.

Can a Heartstopper book be anything less than 5 stars?

Once again super sweet and emotional. For Nick and Charlie, but also for Tori and Tao and Elle. And even the teachers got their little moment.

I’m excited to see what vol 6 brings!

I'm not sure how this is supposed to "finish" phase 2, but it was a very good book.

I was glad to see Rooper and Dass again. Sky was also a nice new character, and loved the little tidbit about their body dysphoria. And to see Fel Ix again, and being more developed, was a treat.

The MG and YA novels have definitely been the best of this phase. Now onto phase 3 and back to the real action!

This was such a well-placed comic! It resolved one thread left from Path of Vengeance while still holding up as a good standalone AND making a nice link with one of the side plots from phase 1.

I absolutely loved Sula. Beginning to end, iconic woman.

Why it took so many books to tell this story, I have no idea. This novel alone gave us more than both adult novels and the audiobook. Hell, the last 50-or-so pages were all the info we needed to tie this to phase 1.

Path of Vengeance reads a bit like "here's what Marda was doing during the last two books". It's divided in three parts, and the first one mostly recap stuff stated in Battle of Jedha and the tied comics. To the point that, apart from meeting Matty in the audiobook and comics, it becomes clear you don't really have to read them to understand this book. In fact, it feels even more like a waste of time that I read the other two novels, since Eiram and E'ronoh have absolutely nothing to do with this. They were a side plot.

I still have one comic and one MG novel to read in phase 2, but I feel like most of it wasn't worth the hype. I could've skipped the comics and adult novels and the audiobook, and I don't think I would've missed anything.

On the bright side, I really like Marda's whole storyline and I'm glad she and Yana were centred in this book. If anything, Path of Vengeance is were the meat of Marchion's background story comes from. I really liked it, despite the first third being mostly just a recap of previous stories in phase 2.

The more I read phase 2, the less I like it 🙈 but this one takes the cake.

There is so much going on and no time to care about any of the characters. Contrarily to phase 1, they’re not really fleshed out beyond where they were when this or that happened. Most of the Jedi could be the same person and I wouldn’t even notice.

Xiri and Phan-Tu are interesting, but they’re overshadowed by all the other characters. Axel is downright stupid. Gella isn’t that much better. Binnot was ok as a villain (like we need more of those…) and we barely saw The Mother. The character that shone most in this story was Yaddle. Which is great because she is truly underrated. But also a little disappointing considering the sheer number of Jedi involved in the battle in Dalna.

The writing was also very rough. Multiple times I had to reread sentences to make sense of them. I didn’t mind that the whole second part of the book was one huge battle, but it’s how many POVs there were that made it drag. It might have worked for a TV series or a movie, but definitely not for a book.

I feel like this phase doesn’t add much to phase 1. Most players from Path of Deceit are dead, and the others got only a few scenes. It doesn’t feel as much like a prequel to phase 1 as just another set of events loosely related.

Here’s to hoping the last 2 novels bring something to make me care about…

The twist of the twist of the twist of the twist of the… well, you get it.

I wonder if Voor got her plan idea from Maul’s game plan on Mandalorian 🤔