Crais (A Walker Saga Book 3)

Finally, my personal hell is over! Damn my completionist ways of having to finish the whole set in my kindle library. I guess I should be thankful that I got the first three books for free, however it is a struggle to be thankful when every book, especially the last was a real grievance to get through.

I don’t know what to say in this review that hasn’t already been said in previous ones for First World and Spurn. Crais continues on with the same issues with Mary Sue characters suffering from special snowflake syndrome, only now they get an even worse treatment of that syndrome. Suddenly, without struggle or natural progression Abby gets even more powers that no one else has and everyone notices how beautiful she is in every freaking chapter. Lucy gets soothsayer powers (because why the hell not?) and is immediately the most powerful soothsayer alive. Brace is like a god on crack, and yes, why not introduce new powerful werewolf characters as part of the group? Side note, lets also throw in some zombies, fairies, dragons and gremlins while we’re at it. I swear the sheer ridiculousness to it all made me expect that at any moment a purple unicorn defecating rainbow glitter would just gallop by.

It was so unrealistically ridiculous that I can’t help but wonder if the author had any sort of structure or plan when she wrote this, or any other book in the series for that matter. I highly doubt it honestly, with the way it is written with every genre, creature and plot twist known to man haphazardly thrown in there. It feels more like she made it up as she wrote it and whatever happened happened. It was very noticeable with the plot holes and how illogical some things were. For example, what was the point of even gathering all half-walkers if the seventines could not be freed without Abby anyway? Or during all the messy chaos when would Brace have had the time to build Abby a house? And suddenly Brace had a sister that went missing though that had never been mentioned before or seems to have had any impact on Brace personality previously. It all was just very messy with plot twist after plot twist, and new creatures after new creatures.

What makes it the most illogical is the wonky timeline to the story. What happened in the story made it seem like hours or a few days had past at most, but then suddenly the story told us it had been weeks or a month. This is very telling of how badly any sort of development was handled in the book. Characters that had just officially met (ehem, Dune and Fury) was immediately head over heels in love and acted like they known each other for forever. The same with Abby and her parents having known each other for … what, a month? had a real relationship with cutsie cringy nicknames as if she had been raised by them. And then Lucas and Abby apparently having some connection that made her uncomfortable, yet they have previously never really interacted that much and in this book Abby was a downright bitch to him for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Not only that, but the way emotion was handled in the story was like commercial breaks on a tv. First we had all action and obnoxious jokes and dialogues, and then the Abby had to stop for a bit to show emotions and then right back to regular scheduled programming. This was extra apparent in the beginning without Brace. Abby was her normal Mary Sue self with no indication of heartbreak and then the story paused so she could express how difficult it was to live every moment without him, and then she was back to her ordinary self again. This made the writing so off and awkward, but that was not the worst. No, the worst was, as in all books, the constant cringy jokes and dialogues.

The youngest characters in the book was probably Lucy and Abby, being around 18 years old. Yet every character had a maturity level at 10. The constant jokes was just that ridiculous and immature that it made both writing and characterization (the little there was) childish. I don’t mean to insult the author but has she ever heard people speak? Or does she think teens speak and act like bipolars on crack? Because if she does, then this portrait she’s given of Lucy and Abby is extremely insulting to any teen out there. I don’t know why but the author also seems to confuse stupidity with bravery, since the story indicates that the characters are being courageous when they are just being plain dumb. Like at monumental or life threatening moments they stop to chat and joke for a bit before moving into action. Seriously every character were so TSTL that if they lived in real life I have no doubt they be dead ten times over.

I know I am pretty harsh, especially when I got this book for free, but I found this book so bad that I don’t feel like it being free should excuse the content to the story. This is just my opinion of course so take it or leave it, but a saving grace for Crais and the whole series would be to rewrite it into a children’s book instead. Because as it is, it is just way to ridiculous to appeal to an older audience. As it is it lands on one star for me and for my own sake, and probably the author’s sake, I will not continue with this series.

CRAIS is another jewel in the crown of the Walker Saga! Although Fury is annoying as anything, she does mellow as the book progresses, and she understands more about Abby. As for Abby, she is heartbroken at the beginning of the book, and for good reason. However, with Lucy sticking to her side, Abby does what she can for everyone.

There are a multitude of new characters this book that kept my attention. We have Colton and Magenta, the Wolf Twins, and Dune – who rides a Dragoona. Dune was definitely needed to soften some of Fury’s (very) rough edges, but it came good in the end. It is nice to see Lucy gaining strength (although she was no weakling in the beginning), and I really want to know what happened with Samuel. I’m not sure if I want her to be with him, or Colton, so I’ll just keep my options open!

Another great story that continues with the world-building. Excellent characters, and I can’t wait to continue with this Saga. Absolutely recommended by me.