Evie's Reviews > Lightbringer
Lightbringer (Empirium, #3)
by
by
** spoiler alert **
Aight I read this in one sitting, so I might feel differently about it tomorrow. I really hope my opinion isn't unwanted, but after sticking with this series, I can't help be feel desperately disappointed. I'll admit--it's cause of some bias on my part.
Things I Liked
-Eliana
It's strange--I started out being sorta bored with her, but the girl grew on me. I always liked the parallels her and Rielle's growths were like one good that became "evil" and one "evil" that became good. In this, the strength of the girl really comes out. She's strong, but you can tell she's really at her wits end.
-Navi
Do I really need to explain? It's Navi. Would have been 100x better if she was the main love interest.
Things I Didn't Like
-Rielle
Sigh, I really liked Rielle at book one, but as book two began I became less enthusiastic, and by this book I was pretty much done with her shit. Every five seconds she was talking about how she was to be feared, and how the people who loved her didn't really love her, and x y and z.
This might have been more tolerable if Eliana hadn't
A). Grown up in abject poverty--unlike her mother
B). The bad guy WASN'T after sex with her and was basically taking a jack-hammer to her mind every five seconds--unlike her mother
C). Being mentally and physically tormented every other page in the most cruel ways possible--unlike her mother
D). Knowing that her parents have been absolutely decimated and tortured by these weird fuckin alien ass things and that her brother--the one guy she has left--could be getting tortured to death as she sleeps. UNLIKE HER MOTHER
E). Had her love interest say that he SHOT HER FUCKING BROTHER IN THE CHEST and then said he just wanted to FUCK her and he never gave a shit, then hand her over on a silver-platter to her mother's pissy insane ex-boo. UNLIKE HER M O T H E R
Like she was insane every five seconds talking about how powerful she was, and meanwhile Eliana was getting the living shit beaten out of her. It's like, shut the hell up about pain for five damn seconds. Your daughter is in another universe getting repeatedly traumatized, but hey, They hurt you, so you gotta make up for that by helping a psychopath commit genocide unto millions of people who had fuck all to do with what he is talking about. Because revenge. And then, like, the narrative tries to get us to pity her, and tries to redeem her in the last several pages. I don't give a shit. She fucked up, she deserves to live with that guilt. Being okay with murdering thousands who just don't want to die just cause they made you feel angry is not right. She sucks. Yeah, she sabotaged Corien for a hot minute, then went back to making out with him, okay Karen. By the end of the series I just hated her. I hated her so freaking much. I wished at the end, after she gave birth to the rightful Sun Queen Eliana, Mirven came up and punched her in the face. She "stopped" Corien, but ffs, he was only so powerful cause he had her with him. Plus the relationship between her and Audric got really weird vibes starting out with the second book, and it wasn't helped here. It felt like he was afraid of making her upset, and I can't really fault the man for that, but apparently its his fault for being taken aback after finding out his wife killed his father and has also been sleeping with the guy who wants to commit mass genocide onto innocent people just cause he UnDeRsTaNdS her. I just couldn't relate to her.
All I can say is that Rielle would not survive a second on the internet.
-Simon
Okay this is the one that's probably gonna get people mad. This is where my bias comes out. I absolutely abhor this weird trend that's appeared in YA for decades: The Love Interest does X horrible thing to the MC, but it's okay cause it "was for their benefit". Like what the fuck? I know it was Ludivine being, again, Machiavellian (strange that there's a trend with angels being terrible people with little to no concern over people's lives). I feel for Simon, that was fucked up, but I really think they should have had more of Eliana processing everything that's happened, being angry, and then maybe forgiving him. The fact they got back together after him just saying "Lol it was a prank bro" is unreasonable at best and toxic at worst. You only JUST found out this man was only ~pretending~ to try and destroy you, like you gotta take a minute honey. Still though, Simon's the victim in this, I'm aware, it's just this whole love interest thing didn't go in any comfortable direction.
Ludivine and her weird ass plan
Now the CLOSE SECOND to the worst trends in YA: "Your pain was to make you stronger". This one is a bit personal to me, and so I'd like to handle this as carefully as possible. I always hate that abuse and mental/emotional/physically trauma have been recently given this sense of making the person "stronger". Every abuse victim is strong, but the unreasonable abuse they have suffered should never be considered the starting point of that strength. I don't believe that Ms. Legrand meant for it to have this sort of message, I actually think she might have written herself into a corner, but the line of reasoning Ludivine has potentially gives a huge out for abusers. "You're only this way cause I made you this way." "I'm the actual reason you're doing so well in life." "I only treated you that way so that you would become stronger." Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Abuse is never excusable, nor is trauma, and that shouldn't be glorified in my opinion. Others might feel differently, but that's their right to. I'm just voicing my opinion. And yeah, she was called out for it, but it just felt like she was the "Prophet" and therefore knew what was best.
Also, I felt this development of Eliana's sole purpose being to be thrown back into time just so she could stop Rielle was...bullshit on Eliana's character (what can I say, I stan Eliana). It just made Rielle this focal point that sorta enraged me a bit. Girl almost caused the decimation of the world as they knew it, but now she gets to claim she was Good All Along and is the defacto hero.
Unresolved Arcs
I know some of these are just being too picky, but this is just me.
-Harkan and Eliana--was that man even mentioned once apart from Eliana's thoughts? I thought he was gonna try and rescue her.
-All those characters that may or may not be dead.
There are probably some more, but it's 11:30 and I'm really tired.
-The Ending
I've always hated time travel plots that are sorta made to be a MacGuffin. I didn't like the Samurai Jack finale cause of that, I didn't like the Life is Strange Season 1 ending because of that, etc. It didn't help that I thought the characters in Eliana's universe were vastly superior to the ones in Rielle's (again, a bias. I'll take homegrown rebellion over political intrigue and courts any day). It just feels like the adventure, everything Eliana went through, is just cheapened. Nothing really mattered. Her purpose was just to get Rielle's head out of her ass and to make her God-complex go from "I'm powerful and can kill you all" to "I'm powerful and could kill you all, but I'm not gonna :)" and that was it. The world, the conflicts, the developments made in each of the characters, who gives a shit? None of that matters now--hell, half the characters might not even be born. Remy, Navi, Harkan? Who cares they probably don't even exist anymore. Now watch Eliana and Simon be weird around each other knowing that one violently mistreated the other in another universe, but none of that matters. It just seems like a waste.
Was pretty disappointed, but I hope everyone can find more things to like about than I did. 2.5/5
Things I Liked
-Eliana
It's strange--I started out being sorta bored with her, but the girl grew on me. I always liked the parallels her and Rielle's growths were like one good that became "evil" and one "evil" that became good. In this, the strength of the girl really comes out. She's strong, but you can tell she's really at her wits end.
-Navi
Do I really need to explain? It's Navi. Would have been 100x better if she was the main love interest.
Things I Didn't Like
-Rielle
Sigh, I really liked Rielle at book one, but as book two began I became less enthusiastic, and by this book I was pretty much done with her shit. Every five seconds she was talking about how she was to be feared, and how the people who loved her didn't really love her, and x y and z.
This might have been more tolerable if Eliana hadn't
A). Grown up in abject poverty--unlike her mother
B). The bad guy WASN'T after sex with her and was basically taking a jack-hammer to her mind every five seconds--unlike her mother
C). Being mentally and physically tormented every other page in the most cruel ways possible--unlike her mother
D). Knowing that her parents have been absolutely decimated and tortured by these weird fuckin alien ass things and that her brother--the one guy she has left--could be getting tortured to death as she sleeps. UNLIKE HER MOTHER
E). Had her love interest say that he SHOT HER FUCKING BROTHER IN THE CHEST and then said he just wanted to FUCK her and he never gave a shit, then hand her over on a silver-platter to her mother's pissy insane ex-boo. UNLIKE HER M O T H E R
Like she was insane every five seconds talking about how powerful she was, and meanwhile Eliana was getting the living shit beaten out of her. It's like, shut the hell up about pain for five damn seconds. Your daughter is in another universe getting repeatedly traumatized, but hey, They hurt you, so you gotta make up for that by helping a psychopath commit genocide unto millions of people who had fuck all to do with what he is talking about. Because revenge. And then, like, the narrative tries to get us to pity her, and tries to redeem her in the last several pages. I don't give a shit. She fucked up, she deserves to live with that guilt. Being okay with murdering thousands who just don't want to die just cause they made you feel angry is not right. She sucks. Yeah, she sabotaged Corien for a hot minute, then went back to making out with him, okay Karen. By the end of the series I just hated her. I hated her so freaking much. I wished at the end, after she gave birth to the rightful Sun Queen Eliana, Mirven came up and punched her in the face. She "stopped" Corien, but ffs, he was only so powerful cause he had her with him. Plus the relationship between her and Audric got really weird vibes starting out with the second book, and it wasn't helped here. It felt like he was afraid of making her upset, and I can't really fault the man for that, but apparently its his fault for being taken aback after finding out his wife killed his father and has also been sleeping with the guy who wants to commit mass genocide onto innocent people just cause he UnDeRsTaNdS her. I just couldn't relate to her.
All I can say is that Rielle would not survive a second on the internet.
-Simon
Okay this is the one that's probably gonna get people mad. This is where my bias comes out. I absolutely abhor this weird trend that's appeared in YA for decades: The Love Interest does X horrible thing to the MC, but it's okay cause it "was for their benefit". Like what the fuck? I know it was Ludivine being, again, Machiavellian (strange that there's a trend with angels being terrible people with little to no concern over people's lives). I feel for Simon, that was fucked up, but I really think they should have had more of Eliana processing everything that's happened, being angry, and then maybe forgiving him. The fact they got back together after him just saying "Lol it was a prank bro" is unreasonable at best and toxic at worst. You only JUST found out this man was only ~pretending~ to try and destroy you, like you gotta take a minute honey. Still though, Simon's the victim in this, I'm aware, it's just this whole love interest thing didn't go in any comfortable direction.
Ludivine and her weird ass plan
Now the CLOSE SECOND to the worst trends in YA: "Your pain was to make you stronger". This one is a bit personal to me, and so I'd like to handle this as carefully as possible. I always hate that abuse and mental/emotional/physically trauma have been recently given this sense of making the person "stronger". Every abuse victim is strong, but the unreasonable abuse they have suffered should never be considered the starting point of that strength. I don't believe that Ms. Legrand meant for it to have this sort of message, I actually think she might have written herself into a corner, but the line of reasoning Ludivine has potentially gives a huge out for abusers. "You're only this way cause I made you this way." "I'm the actual reason you're doing so well in life." "I only treated you that way so that you would become stronger." Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Abuse is never excusable, nor is trauma, and that shouldn't be glorified in my opinion. Others might feel differently, but that's their right to. I'm just voicing my opinion. And yeah, she was called out for it, but it just felt like she was the "Prophet" and therefore knew what was best.
Also, I felt this development of Eliana's sole purpose being to be thrown back into time just so she could stop Rielle was...bullshit on Eliana's character (what can I say, I stan Eliana). It just made Rielle this focal point that sorta enraged me a bit. Girl almost caused the decimation of the world as they knew it, but now she gets to claim she was Good All Along and is the defacto hero.
Unresolved Arcs
I know some of these are just being too picky, but this is just me.
-Harkan and Eliana--was that man even mentioned once apart from Eliana's thoughts? I thought he was gonna try and rescue her.
-All those characters that may or may not be dead.
There are probably some more, but it's 11:30 and I'm really tired.
-The Ending
I've always hated time travel plots that are sorta made to be a MacGuffin. I didn't like the Samurai Jack finale cause of that, I didn't like the Life is Strange Season 1 ending because of that, etc. It didn't help that I thought the characters in Eliana's universe were vastly superior to the ones in Rielle's (again, a bias. I'll take homegrown rebellion over political intrigue and courts any day). It just feels like the adventure, everything Eliana went through, is just cheapened. Nothing really mattered. Her purpose was just to get Rielle's head out of her ass and to make her God-complex go from "I'm powerful and can kill you all" to "I'm powerful and could kill you all, but I'm not gonna :)" and that was it. The world, the conflicts, the developments made in each of the characters, who gives a shit? None of that matters now--hell, half the characters might not even be born. Remy, Navi, Harkan? Who cares they probably don't even exist anymore. Now watch Eliana and Simon be weird around each other knowing that one violently mistreated the other in another universe, but none of that matters. It just seems like a waste.
Was pretty disappointed, but I hope everyone can find more things to like about than I did. 2.5/5
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Reading Progress
May 23, 2019
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 23, 2019
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October 13, 2020
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Started Reading
October 13, 2020
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Finished Reading