“First you will be unmade. First you will be broken.”
I absolutely adore this series. Sabaa Tahir creates such a vivid, dark, soul searching world with characters that have so much life I didn't want to put the book down. I know I really love a storyline when I'm even fascinated by the character development of the villains, the kind of villains you love to hate and yet still find in them a small glimpse of humanity. There are no cookie cutter characters in this series, they all have light and dark.
The main assessment I'll give is that the third installment answered a lot of questions, which seems to set the series up for a perfect fourth and final epic installment. I did not, however, realize this was a four booker (oops) and was a little perplexed while reading at some points of how Tahir would tie everything together. A few of the chapters did drag just a little bit. Once I realized an entire next book would follow, the extended detail made complete sense. And to be honest I'll take all the details I can of this story!
Back to a lot of questions being answered - so much was uncovered that I actually went back and reread the first two books "knowing what I now know" and have to say it was very rewarding. It might have even shown me a few extra glimpses of what's still to come. Beautifully woven story.
