Review: Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
Women of the Otherworld #13
The #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers the novel her fans have been clamoring for: The epic finale of the Otherworld series.
It’s been more than ten years, a dozen installments, and hundreds of thousands of copies since Kelley Armstrong introduced readers to the all-too-real denizens of the Otherworld: witches, werewolves, necromancers, vampires, and half-demons, among others. And it’s all been leading to Thirteen, the final installment, the novel that brings all of these stories to a stunning conclusion.
A war is brewing—the first battle has been waged and Savannah Levine is left standing, albeit battered and bruised. She has rescued her half brother from supernatural medical testing, but he’s fighting to stay alive. The Supernatural Liberation Movement took him hostage, and they have a maniacal plan to expose the supernatural world to the unknowing.
Savannah has called upon her inner energy to summon spells with frightening strength, a strength she never knew she had, as she fights to keep her world from shattering. But it’s more than a matter of supernaturals against one another—both heaven and hell have entered the war; hellhounds, genetically modified werewolves, and all forces of good and evil have joined the fray.
Uniting Savannah with Adam, Paige, Lucas, Jaime, Hope, and other lost-but-notforgotten characters in one epic battle, Thirteen is a grand, crowd-pleasing closer for Armstrong’s legions of fans.
Over the last twelve installments the Women of the Otherworld have been telling their tales of danger keeping readers enthralled. But everything prior to this point has been leading to one final showdown that will bring all of the beloved characters characters back together one last time. The stakes have never been higher as the lives of every supernatural are hanging in the balance. Told from Savannah's perspective, the reader will be enthralled as they watch her scramble with her other allies to stop the war from destroying them all. But it won't be easy as the fight isn't only on earth, but heaven and hell have joined the fray. No matter the outcome, in the end nothing will ever be the same.
There are so many elements in Thirteen that I would love to talk about, but in all honesty the entire book is one big spoiler and I completely understand why the publisher opted to put such a strict release date and no early review copies. This is a book that truly deserves to be savored not spoiled, and for that reason, I won't be going into may detail or specifics in this review. I apologize in advance if things seem overly vague or I end up sounding like a squealing fan girl as a result. It just wouldn't do this fantastic book any justice to give anything away in advance.
From the very start, Thirteen took off with a bang. It was so jammed pack with action that the even when the characters would score a small victory, both they and myself barely had a chance to breath before it was off to the next crisis. Seriously, I don't think my heart rate lowered once while reading Thirteen as the stakes were that high. However, even though that action was incredibly exciting, what really kept me enthralled were the emotional aspects of the book. Again, keeping from spoiling things I won't go into specifics, but suffice it to say the emotion took the book from really good to absolutely stellar. I especially loved the added in chapters from the different characters' perspectives periodically throughout the book. Don't get me wrong, Savannah's perspective was great, but it was nice to see into the heads of some of my favorite characters from the rest of the series.
I am always torn by my emotions whenever the final book in a series comes out. On one hand I am very excited for the anticipation and wait to finally be over, so I can dive into the story and see how everything plays out in the end. However, on the other hand, finding out that resolution also means saying goodbye to characters that I have grown to love. In Thirteen's case this inner conflict was even worse due to the long build up over so many books. With each installment, my anticipation of the final showdown and resolution only grew, but so did my love for the characters, making saying goodbye even harder. Even though I knew the blow would be softened somewhat by the short story collections set to be released in the future, I still was still rather nervous as I started this book. However, after finishing it, I am happy to say that Thirteen not only delivered on but exceeded my expectations. Granted the ending wasn't exactly what I was expecting, with nothing tied up in pretty bows, but in not doing so, it served these characters so much better. Their personalities and circumstance wouldn't allow for anything less and I'm very happy Kelley stayed true to them. She really is a fantastic writer, and will always be one of my favorite authors. Thirteen is an absolute must read for fans of the series!
(Received a copy from the Publisher)
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Previous Books:
- Bitten
- Stolen
- Dime Store Magic
- Industrial Magic
- Haunted
- Broken
- No Humans Involved
- Personal Demon
- Living With the Dead
- Frostbitten
- Waking the Witch
- Spell Bound
