(5 stars)
The Forever Song
(Mostly spoiler free review! Spoilers in Synopsis)
Published: April 15th 2014
Synopsis: (SPOILERS FOR BOOK 2) 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, her triumph will be short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone.
The Forever Song is the third and final (nooo!) novel in the Blood of Eden trilogy by Julie Kagawa. I'm so, so sad that it is over!! Since A Reading Addiction is a relatively new blog and I haven't reviewed the previous books on this blog just yet, I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum, but it would not be in your best interest to read on if you're really worried about spoilers!
The Forever Song is action-packed, tense, heartbreaking and terrifying in equal measure. I was so scared to read it for so many reasons, especially because it is the end of a trilogy which I adore. If you're not familiar with The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure, I highly suggest you change that immediately! I cannot praise the trilogy enough, honestly it restored by faith in vampire YA. I think I even told a friend that this is how vampire YA should have started out. The Blood of Eden trilogy deserves the hype of other series, it really does.
In The Forever Song, the trilogy comes to a head as Allison, Jackal, and Kanin work together to ultimately face the evil, sadistic Sarren (who, frankly, is enough to keep me awake at night!) As a team they're as unlikely as they are hysterical, and their own personal motives keep the story interesting and the stakes (no pun intended) high. They have all come a long way and the way in which Kagawa brings it all to a head in The Forever Song is quite simply brilliant. The loss of Zeke Crosse in the last book really hit me hard because I absolutely adore him, he's one of my favourite YA love interests. I pretty much just refer to him as a light in the darkness. The aftermath of that situation shocked me in The Forever Song and, without spoilers, only resulted in even more heartbreak, with plenty of wonderful dashes of hope.
Moving on, Allison Sekemoto is one of my favourite YA heroines, for sure. What makes her struggle feel so much more real, is that she constantly battles her inner demon – the strongest part of her vampire instinct which tells her to kill everything that crosses her path, and to mute any pain or grief that she feels. In The Forever Song, her struggle is all the more evident, but Allie is almost unrecognisable from the girl she was in the beginning of The Immortal Rules. However, the essence of that feisty, brave girl remains, grounding Allison to her roots. In The Forever Song we see her come the closest she's ever been to letting the demon take over and we see the most unforgiving version of Allie we've ever been shown. Usually, it is the men in fiction who are presented as being ruthless and unemotional, and it was refreshing to see a young woman be put into that role and blow apart the gender roles. No matter what Allie does or becomes, I have been there rooting for her throughout her journey, and beyond.
Kagawa's writing is at its strongest in The Forever Song, and I'm always left in awe of her heart-racing action scenes (which makes me even more excited for her next novel – Talon!) which are never dull, and always make me keep reading even when it's 2am and I really should be asleep.
Overall, I liked the way The Forever Song ended, and I don't think I could've seen any other way for it to end. It was bittersweet and hopeful, and in the end, satisfying. I think being able to say an ending is satisfying is one of the things I love most about being a reader. The Blood of Eden is the vampire trilogy that I have always wanted to find, and with a wonderful cast of characters, an incredible plot, and plot twists galore, it is one of my firm favourites.
So 5 out of 5 stars, totally deserved. I cannot wait to get my hands on Talon! If you haven't read the The Immortal Rules, I definitely recommend it, the 4.15 rating on Goodreads speaks for itself!
Have you read the Blood of Eden series? What are your thoughts?
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