Review: Thor’s Serpents by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

My To-Be Read List is a meme hosted by Because Reading is Better Than Real Life where at the beginning of the month visitors can choose which book I’ll be reading this month. On the first saturday of a month the poll will be up, then on the second saturday of the month I’ll announce the book that won and on the last saturday of the month I’ll post my review of the book.

Thor’s Serpents (The Blackwell Pages #3)
by K.L. Armstrong and M.A. Marr

Blurb:
Thirteen-year-olds Matt, Laurie, and Fen have beaten near-impossible odds to assemble their fellow descendants of the Norse Gods and complete epic quests. Their biggest challenge lies ahead: battling the fierce monsters working to bring about the apocalypse.
But when they learn that Matt must fight the Midgard Serpent alone and Fen and Laurie are pulled in other directions, the friends realize they can’t take every step of this journey together. Matt, Laurie, and Fen will each have to fight their own battles to survive, to be true to themselves, and to one another – with nothing less than the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

My Review:
Thor’s Serpents is a great ending to this series. Just as packed with action as the previous books and it certainly ups the pace and the tension with the end of the world coming close by. This books builds towards the big battle, while also putting the characters in other situations and obstacles they need to overcome first. It was a fun and enjoyable book, although maybe a little bit more serious than the first two because the end of the world is so close now. There are still enough lighter scenes and jokes to mix it up with. I really enjoyed this book and once I started reading I had a hard time putting it down. And the artwork was awesome as always, it’s fun to see some of the scenes depicted with in the artwork. The artworks is really done well and fits the scene and I like the art style.

There are some interesting plots with Fen who joins the other side and I liked how you saw him struggle with his responsibility to the pack and his loyalty to his friends. It was very well done and I liked that twist. There are also some surprises that I didn’t expect. It did feel like a few things weren’t wrapped up fully or set up and then dropped, like with Rayna her cat. And the mention of Laurie turning into a salmon, that seemed to make no sense at all and was a bit confusing and unnecessary in my opinion as it was a set up and they don’t anything with it. Same with Reyna her cat.

I really liked the ending, I was curious how the authors would handle that and was pleasantly surprised. The big battle at the end was well done, lots of working towards that point and then the epic battle to determine the fate of the world. Nothing was too easy or too hard, but just the right way so it was challenging and you were afraid for a while the heroes weren’t go to make it. The epilogue I liked a little less as it was a tad too normal, almost like the whole thing didn’t happen and things go on like before.

I liked how this book challenges the characters even more. I really liked how Matt, Laurie and Fen changed to fit into their roles. All three of them are awesome characters and I really grown to like them over the course of these books. I like to see how over the course of this series they changed from scared kids to kids who are scared but know they have to do what they can to save the world. It was pretty amazing. Like I mentioned before there’s a nice twist and struggle with Fen turning towards the wolf side. The side characters beside the three main character were a bit less interesting, they were fun and had personality, but they were less complicated and interesting than the main characters.

This series has a dose of Norse mythology in it and evening this book we see a lot of that. Some new myths, more about Ragnarock and a few other tidbits. I liked seeing hell and Helen make another appearance and some mythological monster pop up. The battle with the serpent was also interesting.

To conclude: all in all was this a great end to the series, some interesting developments and a nice big battle towards the ending. I just felt the epilogue was a tad too normal. There were also a few minor plot lines that didn’t seem to contribute much, but I didn’t mind too much. My favourite part of this series is seeing the three main character change and accept their role in the apocalypse. It was awesome to see who they had become in this book. The mythology aspect is very well done and this book adds a bit more. If you are looking for a fun and action filled Middle Grade series, I would recommend you give this one a try.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
– The Bookdepository

Other books I read and reviewed by these authors:
– Kelley Armstrong – The Gathering (Darkness Rising #1) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – The Calling (Darkness Rising #2) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – The Rising (Darkness Rising #3) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Omens (Cainsville #1) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Visions (Cainsville #2) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Exit Strategy (Nadia Stafford #1) – 4 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Made to be Broken (Nadia Stafford #2) – 4 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Wild Justice (Nadia Stafford #3) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Forbidden (Otherworld #10.2) – 4 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Gifted (Otherworld #13.4 and Cainsville #?) – 5 stars
– Kelley Armstrong – Led Astray – 4 stars
– KL Armstrong and MA Marr – Loki’s Wolves (The Blackwell Pages #1) – 4 stars
– KL Armstrong and MA Marr – Odin’s Ravens (The Blackwell Pages #2) – 5 stars
– Melissa Marr, Kelley Armstrong, Veronica Roth, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Rachel Caine, Nancy Holder, Beth Revis and Carrie Ryan – Shards and Ashes – 4 stars

Do you read Middle Grade books and why or why not?