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tflWhat: This Shattered World (Starbound #3) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Who: Allen and Unwin

When: November 19th 2015

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Allen and Unwin for review.

A year ago, Flynn Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck—now, they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away from the world’s gaze.

Now, in the center of the universe on the planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players, who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker—a whiz kid and an urban warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch.

Sofia Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it, she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost.

When a LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is so desperate to hide.

3cats2The two best things about this book were: Gideon and Tarver. So this review is pretty much going to talk about these two precious pancakes, with a small touch on other things (it’s better that way, anyway, because then you’ll be going into this book all blank-minded and whatnot).

Gideon

Gideon, my sweet little doll. In my review of This Shattered World, I mentioned the fact that I thought the third book in the series was going to be about the hacker we met for, like, five minutes: the Knave of Hearts. AND I WAS RIGHT. BOOYAH.

Anyway. Gideon was by far my favourite of the two characters that were the protagonists of this story, because he’s a little tortured, and a little badass, and a little in need of love, and those three things are bound to endear me to a character. Every darn time.

I liked Gideon’s snarkiness, because neither Tarver nor Flynn were snarky, so it was nice to have someone that wasn’t serious and tortured all the time. I mean, sure, Gideon had his moments, but he was also doing the whole: I’m going to pretend to be an asshole to hide my true feelings. Which is another thing I tend to love. I WAS DOOMED IN TERMS OF GIDEON, OKAY?

I didn’t ship Sofia and Gideon as much as I thought I would, but to be honest, I think it’s because I was spoiled by Lilac and Tarver in These Broken Stars. I mean, they’re one of my favourite ships, and it’s just hard to live up to them. Especially when we get to see them again in this book, and all my feels came back. There was also the whole ‘oh noes we’re lying to each other’ trope in terms of Sofia and Gideon’s relationship, and I am never a fan of that one. Either way, though, I wanted them to end up happily ever after because Gideon.

Tarver

Tarver my baby, my little cinnamon roll. Speaking of tortured, this book was torture for Tarver, plain and simple. Shit goes down, and Tarver kind of becomes a bit of a shell of himself, but his determination is unrelenting, and like I mentioned before, all my Tarver and Lilac feels came crashing down again because of it. Reading about Tarver again was magical, and it made me want to go back and read These Broken Stars all over again, just so I could read more about him. HE’S MY FAVOURITE, OKAY?

Other Things

Contrary to what I thought this book would be like, there wasn’t as much intense and life-or-death action as I thought there would be. Not that I minded, because there was focus on other things, like Gideon and Sofia’s relationship, but I did expect higher stakes. Not to say that there weren’t high stakes, with the possible end of humanity and whatnot, but I just wasn’t really feeling the urgency. I was more like: oh yeah, bad shit might happen but we all know it won’t. Which kind of sucked, because in the two previous books, the stakes always had me enthralled.

One thing that annoyed me was how people were all: Lilac still loves Roderick because he’s her father. Okay, no. Not everyone loves their father because they are their father. And I’m pretty sure that the parental bond between father and child would be stretched pretty thin after the murder of thousands of people. I am just really sick of people using the but he’s their father thing. Let’s shut that down, yeah?

Overall, I did like Their Fractured Light, but it didn’t quite live up to the first (or second) book.

© 2015, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning: assault and abduction in this book

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Posted on: November 16, 2015 • By: Chiara

6 Responses to Two Great Things in Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

  1. I reeeeeally don’t know whether to buy this one, because I LOVED These Broken Stars but didn’t like This Shattered World at all. So I’m kind of torn. Maybe I’ll wait for some more reviews to come out ;)

    (Snarky characters are life)

    • Chiara says:

      Oh no! Yeah, I have to say that neither the second nor third book quite lived up to the awesomeness that was These Broken Stars. If you do give it a go, though, I hope you like it!

      SNARK IS THE BEST EVER.

  2. AHHH I THINK I’M DESTINED TO LOVE GIDEON TOO THEN. XD I always fall for those snarky but-truly-marshmallow-on-the-inside characters afjdkalsfd and I agree that I’ve been spoiled by the Tarver/Lilac ship too!! This Shattered World didn’t QUITE live up to These Broken Stars because of it?! But I’m so so excited for Their Fractured Light. :D I’m reading it next!
    Although I do have to admit…eh, I think it’s very very plausible to love someone because “they’re your parent” despite evil. Like love doesn’t make sense like that. Even if my parents did something insanely evil I would still love them because I know a different side of them, you know? Or maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about because my parents are awesome and not in a YA novel. XD HAHAH. AHEM.
    Anyway, I loved this review! I’M SO EXCITED FOR GIDEON NOW.

    • Chiara says:

      I am sure you are! He’s quite an adorable character, and definitely one of the things I liked most about this book :D And yes, that ship has KIND OF RUINED ME, especially for this series.

      I just find it a little difficult to believe that Lilac would rather die herself than have her father die, even though he’s killed millions of people, including the first guy she ever fell in love with …

      YAY GIDEON!

  3. I love how you talked about Gideon’s sarcasm and generally fun personality in this one, because he was very different to Flynn and Tarver. I loved Tarver so much. I loved this book so much and it made me cry from it’s sheer beauty. And yeah…the whole Lilac loving her father thing was very unrealistic.

    • Chiara says:

      He was so different! But I kind of liked that, because it would be boring if all the characters were similar. Awh, Jeann! I’m glad you liked it so much. And yeah, that was pretty unrealistic, I have to say…

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