The Reckoning

💀✨The Reckoning (Darkest Powers #3) ✨💀

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — A thrilling finale I’ll always adore!

Another reread and still very much in love with this world 🖤
Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori are fully in survival mode now — more danger, more power development, more mystery, and way more intensity as everything the Edison Group has been hiding finally comes to light. 🔥🧬

The stakes are at their highest.
The trust lines are drawn.
And these kids? They’re done running. 😤⚡️

I love how this book brings their entire journey together:

Chloe finally owning her necromancy 👻💪

Derek continuing to become his powerful, protective self 🐺

Simon’s loyalty & charm shining through 🎨⭐️

Tori’s layers show more peeling back in the most surprising ways 🧨💅

Their teamwork, their friendship, their growth — chef’s kiss 🍽️💛

Kelley Armstrong did such an amazing job keeping them authentic teens while throwing them into a world full of conspiracies, ghosts, experiments, and everything supernatural fans crave.

What I Loved

✨ Fast-paced action with real emotional moments
✨ That found-family bond getting stronger
✨ Major power-level upgrades 😏⚡️
✨ A true sense of danger throughout
✨ Zero boring chapters — ever

This series always reminds me why I fell so hard into YA supernatural fiction in the first place. It was one of the stepping stones that led me deep into my eternal 📚 obsession — and I’ll forever be grateful.

🥲 My Only Dislike…

The ending.
NOT because it was bad — far from it!
But because I wanted MORE of Chloe and her friends 😭💔

Like… that’s it? No more ghost-wrangling adventures? No more sarcastic Derek moments? No more secret society takedowns?? HELLO?! 😩😂
I’m still salty this was the end of the trilogy for this group.

Thank goodness for The Darkness Rising series so I didn’t have to say goodbye to this universe completely 😌✨

📌 Final Takeaway

If you’re into:
✔️ Supernatural chaos
✔️ Secret organizations
✔️ Found family
✔️ YA that balances fear, humor, & heart

This is a trilogy worth devouring.
One I’ll reread again and again — and keep passing down 💖👩‍👧

Ghosts, mystery, danger, and a group of teens who refuse to give up?
Yeah. That’s my brand. 😌👻 show less

I know, I know, the book blurbs make this trilogy sound terribly pedestrian, but you know what? Everyone has their guilty pleasure reads and I actually wouldn’t mind reading The Darkest Powers again. Sure, The Reckoning got on my nerves a bit, especially when I came to the end and there were so many loose ends floating around. Honestly, that was the closest I got to being annoyed, and usually at the first hint of a trope I’m already groaning …

I did what any responsible reader would do in my situation, I went on the author’s site and tried to figure out if there were more books. Turns out, there are, but it’s a companion trilogy that follows other characters. WHY? Why would an author invest all this time developing characters, show more designing a wonderful plot, make readers addicted to the story, and then decide: “Fuck it, let’s continue this story without the main characters of the first trilogy”? So, I decided not to continue reading the other books and I’m quite happy with my decision.

Yes, there are loose ends, but sometimes it’s better to mull over the outcomes of a story. After all, imagination is free.

All in all, I liked this trilogy a lot and it’s definitely in my guilty pleasure book pile (did I say that yet?), along with The Vampire Academy. However, take note that if you’re not one for half-assed reading, you might want to either get the companion trilogy or give this one a miss.

Oh, and I still have no idea why Chloe’s necklace changes colours … show less

This was everything I hope for in a book that's the last of its series. I couldn't put this down at all. The beginning was a bit slow, but the characters' development and interactions kept me entertained until events started to progress.

By the end, the conflict is resolved, but it isn't wrapped up perfectly, which I really appreciated. I was afraid of an unrealistic ending (though I should have known better with Kelley Armstrong!), but that didn't happen. It ends on a positive, hopeful note, but all their problems haven't magically gone away.

The characters really grow up in this last book, which is why I loved it so much. They finally stop acting like over-emotional melodramatic teenagers and start facing their situation. Tori, show more especially, changed a lot. While I hated her character in the previous books, I kind of loved her by the end of The Reckoning. This book has some of the best character development in the series and I was sad to have to leave the characters just as they were starting to mature.

If you haven't started this series yet and you're a fan of young adult paranormal: start reading! You're going to love it. Kelley Armstrong has proven that she is the queen of paranormal, whether writing for adults or young adults. show less

I'm not going to spoil the story for you but there are plenty of good bits, in fact I noted down my favourite pages to do with Chloe and Derek: 125, 225, 242, 292, 371-2 and 390. The part in the woods with the werewolves was excellent, my eyes were glued to the pages. I love how Chloe and Derek are determined to protect each other at great risk to their own lives.

This may be a young adult trilogy but it didn't always feel like it, in a good way of course. Derek calling Chloe on her mistakes and challenging her to do better, and her accepting her own faults was very grown up, most adults have trouble with this.

One of my favourite quotes from page 291-2:

"When I got mad about you leaving," he said, "it wasn't because I thought it was

show more

stupid or I don't think you'd be careful."
"You were just worrying about me."
An exhale, relieved that I understood. "Yeah."
I turned. "Because you think I'm worth it."
He put his fingers under my chin. "I absolutely think you're worth it."
"But you don't think you are."
His mouth opened. Shut.
"That's what this is about, Derek. You won't let us worry about you because you don't think you're worth it. But I do. I absolutely do."

I've enjoyed this trilogy immensely. I love how Chloe has grown during these three books which only covers days/weeks. Even Derek has grown. I'm glad Simon finally made a sacrifice for his brother, after all the times Derek has protected and sacrificed for him.

The story still feels unfinished with a lot of threads still hanging and secrets left unaired, that sort of thing but I understand Chloe, Derek & co will make an appearance in the next trilogy which starts with The Gathering. show less

Hmmm. While I love Kelley Armstrong, and ADORE her books (exciting supernatural with a little bit of romantic chemistry thrown in), this one felt...light. I honestly felt this book and the second in the series could have been combined, but for some reason the publisher (?) decided that a trilogy would be better?

Chloe and her friends - a witch, a sorcerer and a werewolf - are still trying to stay out of the Edison Group's hands, an organization that wants to study and/or terminate the four of them for their way-too-powerful genetically-enhanced supernatural abilities. Chloe's feelings for Derek, a werewolf and their serious, intelligent de facto leader, are deepening and are a complication, as she and Derek's brother Simon have had a show more serious flirt on for awhile.

The book is a fast and exciting read, but so much of it felt like it was being dragged out for the sake of needing a third book. However, I do hope we run into Chloe and Derek in another book later in the series!

Recommended! show less

Overall, this series surprised me by using many conventions of the genre (group of teens with special powers, who are persecuted by shady organization run by amoral adults; politics among groups who regulate people with paranormal powers; an obligatory love triangle for the female protagonist; supernatural creatures like werewolves who are on the fringes even in regards to paranormal groups, etc.) without feeling like a retread of every other paranormal book I've recently read.

I found Chloe's powers as a necromancer and how they are presented to be fascinating. I haven't read a ton of necromancers in teen fiction -- seeing ghosts is a popular power, but actually raising the dead and dealing with grisly corpses is another. I liked that show more Chloe is extremely powerful but not always all that useful. Raising the dead may be a force to be reckoned with, but it takes time and mental preparation and only works under a set of specific circumstances (like having actual corpses around to reanimate, and having the corpses be in decent enough physical shape to be useful). Flinging spells like Tori and Simon, or having super strength and senses like Derek, come in more handy, and Chloe often laments that she can't be more use in defending herself and the others. Yet she is the one who gathers most of the information that the group needs (because the dead are always so informative) and she is the one who saves the day at the end, by using her powers to do something kind of terrible. I liked that whole ending scene and what it meant for Chloe's development; she's afraid of her powers (because who isn't afraid of reanimated corpses?) but she's working to control them.

This series also has one of the few love triangle I've felt was done right. It wasn't melodramatic and both boys -- Derek and Simon -- behaved well, not blaming each other or Chloe, not being whiny or mean or petty. I knew Chloe would end up with Derek because he was clearly the stronger personality in the book -- Simon was sweet but bland, and Derek and her had spark -- but I thought Chloe's kind of slow realization of her feelings was realistic. I like that Chloe and Derek end up as equals in the relationship, as well; it's not about her being weak and him protecting her. They take care of each other. Derek being initially a hulking, ugly brute with bad acne and greasy hair made him most interesting to me at first, though all his grosser features clearing up conveniently mirrors that whole trope where the plain girl takes off her glasses and lets loose her hair and is suddenly beautiful. For some reason it doesn't bother me here.

One of the things I also really like about this series are the adults. They are not absent; they're actually a major force in the book, and they're not all out to get Our Teen Heroes. They're like real adults. Some have good intentions and think they know what's best and are therefore condescending to Chloe and co. They mean well, and they're only trying to help, but they've made the mistake of listening to the wrong people (i.e., not the kids). Andrew, a friend of Derek's and Simon's dad, falls into this category. And for every adult that's totally evil (Tori's mom), you get one who is totally on their side (Chloe's aunt; Simon's dad). It's nice to see a teen series recognize that most teenagers in these situations would need -- and actually want -- adults at some point, and nice to present adults that the teens can actually trust. Do I think this because I'm an adult now? Scary.

The plot of all three of these books moves pretty fast but feels a bit sketchy. Eighty percent of it is the kids trapped or hiding out in a static location, like Andrew's house or the Edison lab, where it feels like nothing is happening except the slow gathering of information, and the other 20% is them on the run willy-nilly without much of a plan. Learning more about the Edison group made most of the information-gathering scenes worthwhile, though I feel like some important threads were dropped. For instance, we learn what Chloe's necklace does, but not why it changed colors (twice, right?). And what happened to Rae (did I just miss it)? Maybe some things have been left unresolved so that Armstrong can return to the series, which I'd like, since I think there's still plenty to tell about Chloe's (and the rest of the group's) continuing development. show less

Two weeks... Through reading these novels, sometimes it's amazing to think that the whole series really does take place over only a few weeks, the kind of timeframe that can, for some people, pass without a thought. But when you're running for yourself and you're not sure who you can trust and you're trying to control frighteningly strong paranormal abilities, two weeks can seem like a lifetime.

Kelley Armstrong brought this trilogy to a wonderful conclusion. While not all the loose ends were tied up, things were set up so as to make it impossible for a small band of people to do so, and it's obvious that while the battle was won, so to speak, the war goes on. The Edison Group has been stopped for now, but the Cabal is still around, and show more the group still have to learn to deal with their powers, plus the consequences of all their actions in taking down the Edison Group. It's a good place to end the books, but the story still continues.

I never fail to be impressed with the realism that Armstrong conveys in her characters. The adults in this series act like adults. Not adult as is dark and gritty and full of sex and blood and all that, but more in the way that they don't act like teenagers in older bodies, the way some YA novels portray them. I like it. Armstrong has a knack for writing teenagers and adults in a realistic fashion, which meant that at no point was I pulled out of the story by a jarring personality trait or line or action that didn't seem to fit right with a character.

I swear, for that reason alone I could be persuaded to read more of what the author's written!

Ultimately, between excellent characterization, pacing that is spot-on, and a plot that is a happy mix between the familiar and the unexpected, I'd have to say that this is an excellent trilogy, and one that comes highly recommended to fans of YA urban fantasy. Or hell, even fans of plain old generic urban fantasy. YA doesn't have to be specifically to your taste to enjoy this series! show less