The Forever Song by Julie Kagawa Series: Blood Of Eden #3
Published by Harlequin Teen on April 15, 2014
Genres: Dystopian, Paranormal
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley, Publisher
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VENGEANCE WILL BE HERS
Allison Sekemoto once struggled with the question: human or monster?
With the death of her love, Zeke, she has her answer.
MONSTER
Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions—her creator, Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost—the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.
In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, triumph is short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
I’m not sure how she does it but Julie Kagawa continues to write books that completely blow my expectations out of the water. The Forever Song was no exception. This final installment in the Blood of Eden series left me both sad to see my favorite characters go but it definitely answered all my questions and left me with a happy feeling.
After the ending of The Eternity Cure, I had some ideas as to what might happen in The Forever Song. Some of those ideas turned out to be right and some of them were way off the mark. However, I really enjoyed reading The Forever Song and finding out whether I was right or wrong. I started The Forever Song expecting some happiness, lots of tears, and some really good fight scenes. I got all of that and more.
Allie, Zeke, Kanin, Jackal, and Sarren are all back. Allie was a little scary this time around. In The Immortal Rules she became a vampire and believed she was a monster but readers could see the good in her. In The Forever Song there were a few moments where I wasn’t sure if that good was still there. Zeke’s “death” broke her in ways that becoming a vampire never did. It broke her heart and killed her belief that there was still good in the world. Her world narrowed down to surviving long enough to kill Sarren and get revenge for what he did to Zeke. It was scary to see Allie like that. (Think Elena without her humanity in TVD.) Kanin was there to help her get through it and save her humanity. Jackal, on the other hand, was cheering her along as she killed people. I kind of pictured them as the angel and devil on her shoulders. As for Zeke, well let’s just say that torture can change a guy and that was definitely the case with him. Julie did a truly spectacular job with all the characters in The Forever Song. (Seriously, I never thought I would love Jackal but I definitely did by the end of this book.)
It took a while for me to get to that happy feeling at the end though. Seriously, Julie Kagawa likes to drag her characters through hell and back. Also, I wouldn’t say they ever really get truly happy endings. They get more realistic endings. That was definitely the case with The Forever Song. Allie, Zeke, Kanin, Jackal, and the rest of the characters readers have come to know and love, get endings that readers won’t really find all that surprising. They fit with the personalities of the characters and the place and time that they live in. I never expected Allie and Zeke to ride off into the sunset together and that’s not what you get with them. However, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t like how things ended for everyone. It truly was a perfect ending even if it did break my heart a little bit.
Overall, The Forever Song is the absolute perfect ending to the Blood of Eden series. And while all my questions were definitely answered, I still wouldn’t mind a spinoff series about a certain secondary character.
What others are saying about The Forever Song:
Carina’s Books’ review: “It is a perfect ending to an already perfect series.”
The Reader Bee’s review: “Julie Kagawa has managed to amaze me once again with The Forever Song, the dark, disturbing, amazing conclusion to the Blood of Eden series.”
Reading Teen’s review: “Such an epic conclusion to an amazingly exciting series.”
Sounds like another great book in this amazing series. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book. I just love Julie Kagawa.
Great review and love your blog!
Sounds like an excellent conclusion to the trilogy! I remember liking the first book, so I really need to catch up!
Nice review 🙂
It’s always hard to accept the end of a good series. Here’s to more things from Julie Kagawa!
YES. This is so great to hear! Erm… read! I also have this one to review and now I know I am going to enjoy it. The comment you made about realistic over happy endings makes me extremely nervous, though! 😉 Now I want the pick up the book ASAP because my mind automatically thinks the worst. I do have to appreciate a realistic, maybe somewhat sad?, ending in a dystopia.
I have not read this series yet (or anything by Julia Kagawa) in part because I know she doesn’t like those happy endings (which I always prefer). But I’m going to give this series a try! I’m glad the ending worked for you. Fingers crossed.
It’s so good Zeke is back in this one!! I thought he and Allie wouldn’t make it, that it would be too much for them, but like you said Julie Kagawa knows how to write!! Lots of awesome worldbuilding and characters we cared about in this series.
Lovely review