Confessions of a Literary Addict

This review is spoiler-free!

The Burning White by Brent Weeks
Series: Lightbringer #5
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Release Date: October 22nd 2019 by Orbit
Format: Hardcover, 992 pages
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Find it here: Goodreads

I’m so torn. This was such a long finale, so much happened. Like. Too much for a final book. But also, it was kinda awesome. But also a lot. But also awesome.

I am so torn.

Okay. Okay, let’s start… uh, somewhere. Was it the finale I had hoped for? Not really, no.

Was it epic? Yes. yes it was.

Isn’t that the kind of finale I was hoping for? Er — yeah, okay, you’ve got me there. I wanted an epic finale. Who wouldn’t? But with the length and amount of things happening, I was done with reading it before it was even over, and I never want a finale like that. There were a lot of points where I was sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what the actual FUCK was going to happen next, and other points where I genuinely debating skipping ahead to the next chapter because I was so goddamn bored.

So, if I talk about nothing else in a spoiler-free review besides my struggle with the length and the pacing, I have to at least address the elephant in the room that I can’t actually name: the big twist. I knew there had to be something big and twisty coming with the way the series had gone so far, but did I see that twist coming? Holy hell I did not. Weeks really is good at making you think you know what’s going to come and then pulling the rug out from under you and making you realize, duh, of course he was going to do that, why did I fall for that?

Yeah. That actually happened a few times for me. We won’t talk about it. (Not here, anyway, because boy howdy spoilers.)

Was it the twist I wanted? Eh. Not really. Of all the twists I thought it was going to be, it wasn’t the biggest one I anticipated — but it was one I didn’t really think of. So, I have to give it to Weeks there. It did, however, kind of bring along the feeling of a cop-out, if you ask me. I know it wasn’t really, but it did change the tune of the series quite abruptly, and, had I known that was the tune I was going to end with, I might not have picked up the series in the first place.

(Actually, no, that’s a lie. I still would have, but I would have viewed it differently and maybe even wouldn’t have rated this last book as low as I did. It really did kind of come out of nowhere, the solution to all the problems in the book the characters were facing!)

(Yeah, it was that kind of solution. Kind of annoying, isn’t it?)

Augh. I don’t know. The first few books in the series were still so outstanding that I want to recommend them to people, but with how the last two went, I don’t know if I can without tacking on a warning for a potential downhill roll once you get most of the way through.

I don’t regret reading the series, and I’ll definitely be looking at more of Weeks’ works, but I won’t be rereading this series anytime soon, if ever.

Thanks for reading!