Fire Spirits (4) - Darkness, Kindled by Samantha Young
And to the last part of this astonishing series: Darkness, Kindled (Das Vermächtnis des Flammenmädchens). I read it in English where it contained 332 pages. Originally published 2013.
Charlie is irrevocably insane. Jai distant. Asmodeus, the lieutenant of Azazil, stalks her dreams. And Ari is pissed off. Especially when her new job as assassin of the bad and evil jinn starts. But these are her least problems: Since she's no longer the Seal, old enemies resurface and when Ari makes yet another fate changing wish, her worst enemy is finally freed... and she wants nothing else then the complete destruction of this world. To stop her, Ari has to ally with Asmodeus... And he swears revenge for making him fight his twin.
Wow! The book was tense to the last page (and the extra scenes, for that matter). There were plot twist I really haven't seen coming, but which were absolutely in-character and, in hindsight, absolutely obvious.
Okay, first of all:
Spoiler:
YAY; FALLON'S BACK! WHOOOOHO!
Now that I got that one out of my system, I can continue with the review ;)
So. I am so sorry for Ari. Seriously, that poor girl, she only tries to make it right and in the end... Well, she got this solved.
Spoiler:
But I am so happy for her and Jai, finally! I have wondered if they really came together, especially since I sneak-peeked the last pages and didn't realise that this was an extra scene from Jai's PoV.
The extras are very well done, by the way. Especially Eli and Fallon. I'm so glad she's finally found her match! These two fit like Arsch auf Eimer, as you say in Ruhrpott.
Okay, back to Ari and Jai. They are really cute together, even when they are butting their heads. I'm just glad they stay reasonable throughout all of this, otherwise it might get ugly. They can be so stubborn!
And I'm so glad she didn't have to marry Asmodeus. That would have been too cruel.
Another relationship, which was absolutely obvious and is still kind of cute is the one between Glass and Trey. Nice. Still I wonder... why didn't the wish change the, am, life-status of Trey back to mortal? Seriously, he got the immortality so he wouldn't die in the fight with this Pazuzu. Or did Glass simply change it again? I don't know.
I'm sorry for Red. I really am. He loved her and she's gone... and Ari looks just like her. But I'm glad he gets a grip.
Asmodeus himself is, whoa. An absolutely astonishing personality full of facets. I'm sorry for him, for his sister. That seriously has to suck butt. But his revenge was just as cruel – and absolutely unnecessary. To make Jai watch it all...
Spoiler:
White really surprised me. Not that he helped against Lilif, that had to happen at some point, but that he helped Ari and Jai. I wouldn’t have thought he made his own revenge party, but no. Like button.
As for Charlie, our own personal Moriati. Hu. His development was damn well executed. First how he grew absolutely insane and even allied with Pazuzu and the other demon – and nearly molested Ari – and then how he's the Charlie of their memories. Damn. Well. Done. He still got his happy end without making it unrealistic. You have to manage that. And the scene where he gets the truth – again – is nicely done. I'm glad he found his girl in the end. Really.
So, as you can see, the final was really, really good and tense to the last page. The ideas were original and, like I said a few times in this review, damn well done – it deserves repetition.
In brief:
All in all it's a book worthy of five stars plus SoA plus SoGH. Characters, style, ideas, content, plot twists and the final deserve stars and the humour deserves to be mentioned as well. A better ending for this series wouldn't have been possible. Nice.
Prequel: