I just did a review of AWTWB on my bookstagram, but i felt that i wanted to do a more comprehensive one here with minimal spoilers cos I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS OMFG so here we go:
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This is it. The end of the Simon snow trilogy that I have grown to love and treasure for the past 4 years. I’ve got to say, Rainbow Rowell really did it with this final book, which I thought was a perfect conclusion to the series that tied everything up neatly. Rainbow mentioned that this book was “an ending about endings, about catharsis and closure, and how we choose to move on from the traumas and triumphs that try to define us.” I couldn’t agree more.
Everything that I found to be incomplete and unsatisfying in Wayward son (Simon Snow Series #2) was handled relatively well in this book, at least to me. Simon and Baz’s relationship felt much more real, as they both started to tackle the complex issues that were holding them back from having the solid relationship that they both desired. Not gonna lie, the first half of the book gave me a lot of pain, especially with all the pent up grief and pain Simon was struggling with, but I soon realised that it was essential for Simon and Baz to overcome these obstacles in order to properly find closure and comfort in each other. Seeing how their relationship evolved throughout the series is extremely heartwarming, as now I am glad that they both love & treasure the true, raw versions of themselves, which I think is essential in a healthy and loving relationship.
Another aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was Shepard. I don’t remember seeing much of him in Wayward son, which made his character very distant to me, but this book fixed it. His character was just CHEFS KISSES n ngl i wish there was more of him!! what a hottie Penny and Shepard’s relationship was one that I definitely saw coming, and I am so glad that Penny got the ending that she deserved.
And Agatha!! Oh my god i was so happy for her, she finally got the ending she deserved and i am so happy for her After all that she was put through, Im glad she got her own happy ending.
Even though this book might seem too real to be true (esp with all the happy endings), I still think it was the best way to wrap up this whole story, with everyone getting the life that they deserved. There was a small part of the ending that I wish was elaborated on morebut other than that, this finale met most of my expectations.
With this, Thank you @rainbowrowell for creating this magnificent and beautiful series, for it is one that will continue to live on within me for as long as possible.
I GOT SO EMOTIONAL WRITJNG THIS becos it just dawned on me that this is the last simon snow book……lord…
okay but why does it feel like RR wanted to write the agatha pov epilogue from like a realllllly long time and now she’s just rubbing her hands together and cackling ??
This scene was written so beautifully, I couldn’t follow through on my original plan to release art in order. Two things stuck out to me in the way Rainbow wrote this milestone of intimacy for Simon and Baz: 1) The way Baz uses verbal cues to keep Simon present and in the moment (when earlier, he’d been succumbing to panic attacks any time they were about to be physically intimate), and 2) the way this love scene was as passionate and loving as any other love scene regardless of their still being dressed (which pleased me greatly as a gray-ace person). I just thought it was so mindfully executed given the characters and the audience, and I hope those of you who read it agree.
The way Simon’s eyebrows ask, “Can I?” and Baz’s eyebrows answer, “Yes.”
This scene was written so beautifully, I couldn’t follow through on my original plan to release art in order. Two things stuck out to me in the way Rainbow wrote this milestone of intimacy for Simon and Baz: 1) The way Baz uses verbal cues to keep Simon present and in the moment (when earlier, he’d been succumbing to panic attacks any time they were about to be physically intimate), and 2) the way this love scene was as passionate and loving as any other love scene regardless of their still being dressed (which pleased me greatly as a gray-ace person). I just thought it was so mindfully executed given the characters and the audience, and I hope those of you who read it agree.
“He’s wearing one of my old football shirts. (Have I manipulated this whole scenario just to see Snow in my Watford shirt? Perhaps. Take it up with the courts.)”
“Baz smells terrible. Like day-old sweat, but also like day-old raw meat. I’m trying to remember if he’s ever smelled bad before. I don’t mind it, really. More proof that he isn’t dead.” —Simon Snow
“What I mean is, as soon as I turned against the Mage, I left the map. It was like I walked right out of the story everyone had been telling about me. I started losing, and I didn’t stop. You felt like something I grabbed on my way down—but I never believed I’d get to keep you. I didn’t get to keep anything… What did I get to keep, Baz?” —Simon, Any way the wind blows
“When Baz gets like this with me… When he hands me his heart, I don’t know how to hold it. I want to scream. I want to run. Maybe it’s part of what the Mage did to me. He said he got me wrong, that I was a cracked vessel. I can’t hold on to anything good.” —Any way the wind blows
“He’s got his arms around my waist, and his chest and hips against mine. This is all my fifth-year fantasies come true: Simon Snow manhandling me in the library, in the Catacombs…”
