It’s over … it’s finally over. I read the last book in the Diviners series as a buddy read with my friend Grace and I’m so sad! I loved this series so much, even if it mildly terrified me, and I want more!

If you haven’t read my review of Before the Devil Breaks You, the third book in the series, you can check it out here!

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The King of Crows by Libba Bray
Published: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Pages: 560
Rating:
Goodreads

The breath-taking finale to the epic New York Times bestseller, The Diviners, from Printz winner and beloved author, Libba Bray.

After the horrifying explosion that claimed one of their own, the Diviners find themselves wanted by the US government, and on the brink of war with the King of Crows.

While Memphis and Isaiah run for their lives from the mysterious Shadow Men, Isaiah receives a startling vision of a girl, Sarah Beth Olson, who could shift the balance in their struggle for peace. Sarah Beth says she knows how to stop the King of Crows-but, she will need the Diviners’ help to do it.

Elsewhere, Jericho has returned after his escape from Jake Marlowe’s estate, where he has learned the shocking truth behind the King of Crow’s plans. Now, the Diviners must travel to Bountiful, Nebraska, in hopes of joining forces with Sarah Beth and to stop the King of Crows and his army of the dead forever.

But as rumors of towns becoming ghost towns and the dead developing unprecedented powers begin to surface, all hope seems to be lost.

In this sweeping finale, The Diviners will be forced to confront their greatest fears and learn to rely on one another if they hope to save the nation, and world from catastrophe…

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As the fourth book in the series, I loved the fact that Libba doesn’t waste any time getting to the plot of the book. She includes some reminders of what happened in the third book, but we basically pick up right where we left off. One thing I wasn’t a big fan of though was the fact that the beginning and middle were pretty slow.

Libba has a habit of taking her sweet time with the plot, including a lot of filler, before getting to the climax and the action. While I’m a fan of her writing style and don’t mind the occasional filler chapters, I wanted more action for a final book in this series. I felt like the beginning built up for a big moment and then once that moment passed, the energy fell for the book. The middle was quite slow, even though our heroes had a lot of dangers chasing after them and were trying to get back together to stop the king of crows.

In terms of the actual plot, I really enjoyed the direction this book went. While I wasn’t happy that our characters got separated, it made the story much more interesting and allowed each group to experience their owns struggles and dangers. Especially since the ghosts were becoming more and more vicious with each book. There were definitely moments that I had to put the book down at night or I would end up having nightmares. I couldn’t imagine facing those horrors in real life.

Along with the building horrors, there were also building relationships. My favorite OTPs (one true pairs) were finally getting together and I was so happy! Characters I loved to see happy were getting their happy ending, even if it was short lived. I became so invested in these characters and their lives that I will be honest, I cried. I cried for good things and bad – but the tears were flowing. It was so hard not to get sad as their lives and stories came to a close. While I won’t go into who ends up together and anything about the characters endings, I will say that I wasn’t completely happy with it. I was mad about a certain character’s ending and thought that another character’s ending was a bit convenient. While I’m relatively happy with it, and was crying happy tears at the end, I felt a little cheated as the reader. Maybe it’s because I’m a sadist, but I think the ending was a little too happy for everyone but one of my favorites.

It’s not fair!

Overall, I really did love the ending to this series. While the middle drags a bit just due to a lot of filler moments and chapters, I felt like the conclusion makes up for it. A lot of action happens in the last 20% of the book and it made up for the slow moments! I’m gonna miss these characters so much!

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If you’re looking for a historical fiction fantasy series, be sure to check out Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok! Or Libba Bray’s other series, The Gemma Doyle trilogy!