Review: Aurora's End

Aurora's End by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The last books in trilogies are double-edged swords - I'm waiting for them with baited breath at the same time that I'm dreading the end of something I love.

And I did love this. Sure, the ending wound up being treacly as shit (love is the answer?) but all that stuff with Auri and her Dad got me right in the feels. I lost my father earlier this year, and if he was still here I'm not sure it would have hit me as hard as it did. As it is, all I could keep thinking about was all the things I never said to him, all the things I did say and regretted, and just watching Aurora come to terms with the same thing just hit home.

That really has nothing to do with the story itself, it was just personally poignant, so it brings a new dimension of enjoyment, outside of the surface stuff.

That said, the story is great. I can really appreciate authors who have a definite, overarching vision that have the control and the talent to plot it out over three full books. It's impressive, and I'm impressed that they pulled it off the way they did. Normally I hate a time-travel trope because all too often it winds up just feeling lazy and venturing into revisionist territory (a la HP and the Cursed Child) but it doesn't feel entirely cheap here, mostly because the strength of the characters and the squad transcend it.

The squad is the real gem, of course, and the literal glue that holds the story together. I've often referred to this series as Six of Crows, but in space, and I'll die on that hill.

Good Stuff:
- Zila's growth. She was almost a non-entity and book 1, and to see her literally come full circle like this was really fulfilling.
- Fin - Never change, baby. I restarted the series on audibook right after finishing this and I just love his perspective. He's entertaining and heartbreaking in the same breath.

Meh Stuff:
- I can't believe I'm saying this about a book Jay Kristoff is at least partially responsible for, but with stakes as high as this, I feel like more people should have died? I feel like it would have been braver to have Auri actually have to give up her life, and instead she kind of pulled a Harry Potter. Not that I wasn't entertained and interested, but I felt like the more intriguing choice would have been to have her die and see how Kal handles it after, given the whole Be'shmai thing. It's almost like happy endings are a given, and that sort of takes the excitement out of it when you know it's gonna end up okay despite all the suffering in the moment.
- Love was the answer? Reeeallllllllllly? Okay, I cried, because I'm weak and a total sap, but why is love always the answer??
- Why why why do we have to neatly pair up everybody at the end of the book/movie/show? It is okay to be alone, you know.

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