The Key

Only a few weeks have passed since the final events of ”Eld”, and the remaining witches of the Circle are still staggering to cope with losses, death and the desperate upholding of illusion. Engelsfors is now not only a rather drab little town, but, a place where the frequency of tragedy is getting harder and harder to ignore, even for regular people. Something is just not right, everybody is starting to feel it. And the Chosen Ones get no time to rest – signs start to show that the apocalypse is coming fast, the Council are now not only red-taping them down but actively and aggressively working against them, the Demons’ Blessed escapes from her prison. And fairly soon Minoo is forced to make an impossible choice, straining show more loyalty to the maximum. Watching from the mists of the borderlands however, are forces trying to make contact. But will they get through in time? Does it even matter?

Also, while the occult events move towards a shattering climax, the “normal side” of teenage life of the girls is also at an all time low. A parent dies. Linnea is going to trial for the assault she was the victim of and is forced to realize that almost all her school is on the side of the culprits. Vanessa sees her involvement in the Circle pulling her further and further way from her friends. A love story is killed by cowardice and old ghosts. An alcoholic falls off the wagon. As before, one of the real talents of Elfgren and Strandmark is making these parts as engaging, nailbiting and horrific as the magic battles. This is a dark book at times, and even more often a very sad one.

Tying all knots together in this epic battle for world control, spanning the universe and thousands of years, is a tall order. But, despite sometimes having to resort to the “sit down and I will tell you the whole story from the beginning” trope a few times, they succeed admirably. And even manage to make the very conclusion of this trilogy feel worthy where it could so easily have fallen flat.

Four days and 817 pages later, I feel reluctant to say goodbye to this group of flawed, struggling, hard-working teenage witches. They feel like real people to me, and I wish them all the best. I can’t wait to put them into the hands of my kids when they grow older. show less

The final battle is finally here, and as always the question is not whether or not the heroes will succeed in saving the world, but whether or not the authors will succeed in successfully wrapping everything up properly.

My rating should tell you what I think. They wrap it up nicely, and without spoiling too much I will say that in this book the inspiration from Buffy the vampire slayer becomes clearer than in the other two. Not saying that is a bad thing though.

While I may not love every decisions the writers make in this final book, I am still very happy with this ending and I find it satisfying. It is definitely a worthy ending to a great fucking book series. Go read them, if you haven't already.

Några tankar:

- Jag blev så frustrerad av att de knappt ens berörde Idas död och hur det påverkade de andra Utvalda. I slutet av Eld hade jag verkligen börjat fästa mig vid Ida, när hon fick kliva ur sin stereotyp mer och mer. Men nu så kändes det nästan som att de andra typ hade glömt bort att hon var död, och det hjälpte inte när det späddes på sjukt mycket händelser i början av boken.

- Jag skulle nog ha försökt kolla upp saker viktiga saker som hände i Eld, för ibland kände jag mig lite lost vad gällde karaktärer och scenarion som togs upp.

- Slutet var lite konstigt. Konflikten var inte helt kristallklar, och vad var det egentligen Minoo gjorde? Bara stod emot Beskyddarna? Allt verkade lite väl enkelt och show more som att de Utvalda bara hamnade där utan att göra någonting, till skillnad mot Eld där de faktiskt planerar och gör något åt PE och deras plan. Här blev de bara meddragna tills slutet, där Minoo iaf visade på lite agens, även fast det kändes styltigt och hastigt.

- Men annars var det spännande och det fanns många fräscha grepp. Jag älskar verkligen att de vågade låta Linnéa och Vanessa bli ihop, och att deras förhållande inte bara kretsade kring att de båda är tjejer, utan att relationens konflikter faktiskt berodde på de som individer. show less

This is the conclusion to the Engelsfors Trilogy. I actually enjoyed this series quite a bit. It was crazy and scary and sad. It was like a paranormal teen drama but really dark. I wish I could Swedish so that I could have read the original cause who knows how much got lost in the translation?

This was the longest book of the series, and yes it did drag, especially in the middle. The last third of the book had enough interesting things going on in it that it held my attention but it sure did drag till then.

This book did not leave everyone with a happy ending. In fact, it kind of left it open-ended. Like maybe the author was planning a spin-off series or something?

It was a long read, but the book kept me engaged as I read it. Even though I have not read the previous two entries of the Engelsfors Trilogy, I never felt like I did not understand what was going on. There were enough recaps of previous events, and I felt updated as a new reader since early in the chapters. The relationships between the characters were so well defined that, even though this was my introduction to the trilogy, I still felt like I have been reading the trilogy in its entirety.

I recommend the trilogy to anyone who might be interested in Swedish literature, and to those who liked series such as Charmed.

I obtained a copy of this book through a First Reads giveaway at Goodreads. I am providing a review in exchange for it.

The third book of the trilogy was very much similar to the previous two. Interesting, exciting, overwriten and sometimes a bit too much YA. If you loved the previous books you`ll love this too.
The hungarian translation still subpar.

So happy I finally got my hands on the final book of this trilogy. If you're into supernatural YA, I highly recommend.