slr2moons | Review: The Reckoning, by Kelly Armstrong

I just did something I haven't done in a very long time: I read a 400 page book in about 6 hours. I didn't even rush it! :D The book that held me so captivated was the third and final novel in Kelly Armstrong's "Darkest Powers" series, The Reckoning.

I've been reading a great deal of Young Adult fiction these days, meaning books whose target audience are teenagers. Specifically girls, it seems. Anyway, I plan to discuss YA books and what I think of them in a different post (it's mostly unimpressed), but Ms. Armstrong's series here is one of the very few recently-written YA series that I enjoyed. I learned of it through ye olde fandom_secrets, amusingly enough. Someone's post sparked my interest in the first volume, my local library had it, so I checked it out. I ended up really enjoying the book and obtained my own copy, along with the 2nd volume in hardcover. Then I had to wait through 7 months of frustration for the third and final volume to be published. Such exquisite agony! =D

Of course, I pounced on the third volume at the first opportunity. Yay to online preordering!! XD

Since this is the last volume and I don't want to give away too many spoilers, I talked about what I liked in the series. This post did end up with spoilers for the romance angle, but anyone who has read a goodly amount of fiction will be able to pick up on the same clues I did while reading and see the outcome of that sub-plot without any great revelations from me. ^^

First up, the main character, Chloe, is a believable teenage girl. She isn't irritatingly Miss Everyone. She does have her own personality, she can think intelligently, she also still makes mistakes, but I can't hold them against her. And that's saying a great deal, since I have very low opinions of most the female MCs in the YA books I've read lately. It could be I'm too mature and worldly to relate to them now, but that's a subject for another post. I genuinely like Chloe. That's a welcome change from my general opinion of the usual YA main characters, I must say!

Second, this book reminds me of my observations as a teenager regarding how much control adults and society have over teens' lives, and how frustrating it can be to be told by adults that you're not a child anymore, but they still refuse to let you make your own decisions about anything important. That drove me crazy when I was younger, though to my parents' credit it wasn't my own situation. Instead it was what I observed happening to others around me. I'd forgotten this feeling in my old age (heh). I'm glad the books reminded me of it. Important info to keep in mind when I write from a teen's POV myself, definitely.

The third thing I liked were the two male leads. Both are gloriously flawed, and their close relationship make my slashy heart giggle like mad. (Note: it isn't canon, just my imagination wistfully running wild.) While Ms. Armstrong pushes one forward as the obvious Love Interest for Chloe, it's rather clear (to me, at least) that the other guy is the one who will eventually win. I was right, but I was pleased with how the winning relationship developed in the story. There was no instant connection between the two, no obsession. Watching their regard for each other slowly change through mutual acceptance and interraction was rather elegant, particularly for a YA novel. Let's face it, authors don't really have to try very hard when it comes to romance in these (again a subject for that later post), but Ms. Armstrong didn't disappoint even my critical eye! I think what impressed me the most about the love interest was he is not a perfect gorgeous tribute to teenage male hawtness. He has a temper, he know this and struggles to control it, is suffering from "puberty smackdown" as Chloe calls it, and comes across as a real guy.

The one complaint I have about this series is that Ms. Armstrong left a lot of lose ends. Not just ones she didn't resolve in this third volume, either, she introduced some new threads here, and two in particular are rather huge. =O It's clear she will be writing more books with these characters, or at least I certainly hope she does. I don't particularly like that this third volume is being called the final one in the "Darkest Powers" series. If she doesn't write more, fans like me will be left stymied. But then, I suppose that's why we have fanfic, hmm? ^^V