User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
thanks to Tessa from PRH for securing me the ARC in exchange for an honest review. "when a government ceases to protect its people, it becomes necessary to overthrow it." aaaaand Rosaria Munda sticks the landing to what is probably the best YA fantasy trilogy i've ever read.
the characters are all very well-written, no matter how late they were introduced into the story, and they are each given a satisfying arc. i couldn't have thought of a better way for my favorite YA fantasy series to end. Rosaria Munda's ability to deliver this story so competently has left me laughing hysterically at what she has written in this book. she has unknowingly changed the trajectory of my life with only half a sentence. knowing that the author draws from classics like
Antigone, The Odyssey, and
The Iliad to name a few, i was so confident that she could write this story well— and she did. i love when the plot is pretty simple and straightforward but it's executed
so competently, so skillfully that i don't leave unsatisfied with an itch unscratched. Rosaria Munda respects her characters and writes them so
properly. even though the YA genre is oversaturated with revolutionary stories with similar themes such as this, i find this story one of its kind because of its well-roundedness and simple writing.
indeed! the writing is simple, yet i find the word choices deliberate. every word that follows the other to make the whole of the sentence is intentional, so every sentence packs a punch. the author's ability to write so clearly makes her sentences— and by extension, her storytelling— all the more impactful. the importance of the story is maintained steadily while never losing its humor. i found every line so delightful and enjoyable; the story pulled every reaction out of me and i can't help but laugh, cry, and rejoice with them. Rosaria Munda is undoubtedly a very competent writer, and i am beyond excited to see her grow as a writer and an author.
i'm satisfied with the ending and Rosaria Munda definitely deserves recognition for writing such a well-rounded, nuanced story with such lovable and charming (and at times idiotic) characters. it's very solid thematically and narratively— and what little flaws it may have, i can easily overlook because of my very strong attachment to the characters. it will be a long time again before i find another series that will make me want to tear my hair out while laughing maniacally at 9am. i've been through SO MUCH it feels so surreal to write down my thoughts on it now because i still can't let go. i'd be hard-pressed to find another story like this, so thank you to Rosaria Munda for writing such a fantastic story peopled with brilliant characters! my brainrot starts here and i will be forwarding all my therapy bills (including imminent mental hospital confinement fees) to Rosaria Munda's residence.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars
Wow, that is how you end a series! Seriously, this is one of the strongest trilogies I've read in a long time- excellent political fantasy with dragons, drama, romance, intrigue, betrayal, and characters you care about. This was such a satisfying conclusion (even if it might break your heart along the way!) and the fact that this author is willing to let things be dark and painful when it makes sense for the story keeps the stakes feeling high. This is one of few YA fantasy series I would recommend to readers who don't typically read in this age category. It's smart, engaging, and has excellent world-building.
The only (slight) downside to this final volume is the pacing. It does slow down and meander a bit through the middle, but I was so riveted in the final 200 pages it kind of made up for it. This series deserves all the hype! Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for sending a copy my way. All opinions are my own.
Content warnings include torture, death, grief, violence.
Rating: really liked it
This book will probably rip my heart out and I’ll somehow be thankful for it.
Rating: really liked it
okay I need time to like. process. but I will say that (1) holy fuck this was so good, and (2) I had not finished a book since the beginning of june and I just finished the last third of the first book + the second and third books in this series in the past 25 hours. what I did not do is sleep. decisions were made and they were bad ones but rn I'm riding such a high from this fucking series that I don't even care
anyways do not be like me please sleep, but also please read this fucking series it will devastate you
pre-read comments, probably last summer lmaoI both need this and am absolutely terrified for this
Rating: really liked it
"Sing me now your fury-song"TW: animal death, blood, branding, child death, classism, death, death of a loved one, fire/fire injury, grief, homophobia, injury/injury detail, misogyny, sexual content, torture, violence, war.
If there was ever a perfect book in my mind, it's this one.
This is the kind of book that has made me question if I've ever
truly loved a series before this one. Never before has a book made me feel so much. I had to set this book down because I was so devastated I needed to step away for a bit. I have literally never had to do that before.
There isn't much I can say without spoiling this or the rest of the trilogy so I'll just say that this book was perfect. Any concerns I had over this book not living up to my (extremely high) expectations were pointless. Rosaria Munda truly outdid herself.
Not that it needed to, but this book has confirmed the Aurelian Cycle's place as my favorite series of all time. I care so much for these characters and this world. (For someone that never cries while reading, I cried when someone brushed a little kid's hair.
That's how gifted Rosaria Munda is at making mundane moments emotionally charged and devastating.)
Overall, I mean it when I say this book is perfect and I will continue trying to force everyone I know to read it. I genuinely kind of feel like there's a hole in my heart now that I've completed this series. I need copious amounts of chocolate and my own dragon. Please.
Seriously, read this series. You won't regret it (she says, sobbing uncontrollably.)
Rating: really liked it
It's such a great feeling when the ending to a story you love is everything you hoped it would be. Rosaria Munda is officially an auto buy author for me and this trilogy is now an all time favorite.
Rating: really liked it
A stunning series conclusion. Clever, brutal, equally heartbreaking and hopeful.
Rating: really liked it
The story lagged a little, when the stakes were so high but the ending wasn't rushed .
The characters in this book go through so much, and I'm just left here hurting for Lee because if anything he has had so much loss, I just wish he had one clear win for himself.
I'm just sitting here bawling my eyes out .. that ending hurt me so bad and yet made my heart feel ok.
Never thought I would love a political fantasy but this was just so very good.
Highlights :
•“Then what’s even the point—”
“—of trying? I would say, the point is trying.
•“Some of the bravest women in our lives have been peasant women, Annie. They’re why we’re here. Even if they go unsung.”
•The only way forward is to look into the face of the one who deserves my hatred and do better.
Rating: really liked it
read my full review on my blog
rep: bisexual main character, gay main character
cw: burnings, blood, branding, grief; mentions of past coercive sexual relationship, threat of rape
**I received an ARC from the publisher through Netgalley (thank you, Penguin Teen!). These are my honest opinions, and in no way was I compensated for this review.**
But sing me first her vengeance and her reckoning.
Sing me now your fury-song.
If you’ve followed me on anywhere within the past 2.5 years, you probably know how much I adore this series. So of course, when I received an ARC of the last book, I dropped everything to read it and somehow finished it in one day amidst a reading slump. And just, wow, what a book! I hope I can capture what I loved about it without going into too much detail. A bold and explosive finale, Furysong handles the outcomes of two revolutions.
This review contains spoilers for books one and two.
This book picks up where Flamefall left off: Lee must put aside thoughts of rebellion in favor of diplomacy when Ixion arrives on his shores with Freyda, a Bassilean princess with a dragon that is impossible to fight against. Meanwhile, Annie has no knowledge of what’s going on at home because she’s in New Pythos, trying to incite a rebellion there. Griff is about to be dropped for his crimes but has always had a penchant for getting out of sticky places. Amidst this, Delo must decide what’s more important: his family or his conscience. All of them must work together to overcome Ixion and Freyda in order to reclaim their respective homes.
I want to start this review with something that wasn’t necessarily bad but is really the main thing that I didn’t entirely love about this book: the fact that it’s more plot- than character-based. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that! I just found it interesting after the first two books managed to balance both, although there had to have been more plot to get through here. Obviously, this didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book while reading. After finishing, I started thinking about how there was less of the yearning intertwined within this book as in the previous two.
In my review of the second book, I described the tension in Fireborne as “dancing along the edge of a cliff” and Flamefall as “walking closer and closer to the edge while not quite knowing just how close it is.” To continue this metaphor, Furysong makes a decisive choice to jump over the edge, feet-first and ready to handle any consequences along the way. There’s more surety in this book that the characters can handle anything that’s thrown at them.
There’s less focus on the characters’ personal journeys because they’ve all (minus Delo, I’ll get to him later) had so much growth and development over the course of the past two books. The events of the previous two books have slowly progressed to where Furysong begins, and now we’re dealing with the explosive outcome of Fireborne and Flamefall. It’s still a bit of a slow-burn in that retrospect, I guess, in that it takes time to develop plans to overthrow Ixion, who has won over the people, initially with the bread and grain Freyda provides and then with force and dragon-fire.
read the rest of my review here
original review:
[silence]
but wow what a book how did I finish this in one day ???
def had the most plot out of all three books (no waffling, just planning and then action) and didn’t pull any punches like I was reading behind my fingers a lot of the time 🫣
I will say this book does lack the yearning that I found so deeply intertwined in the previous two books, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing esp bc the whole point of the two books was that it was pushing lee and annie to be the ppl they are in this book.
I just wish we got to focus a little more on delo’s and griff’s characters bc I feel like they kinda faded into the background towards the middle. not that they were forgotten but the balance of the 4 povs gradually went away. (
edit: upon rereading, I did not feel this way anymore lol not sure if something was changed in the different versions of the arc I read but yeah)
Rating: really liked it
Rating: All-Time Favorite
Series Rating: All-Time Favorite
Easiest 5 stars I've ever given in my life.
I wept, I raged, I laughed, I cheered, I gasped, and when I turned the last page and had to leave this world behind, I was so incredibly satisfied, but it was so bittersweet as I had to leave my beloved characters.
I have put off writing my review of Furysong for an entire day at this point because I honestly haven't figured out a great way to talk about it without spoilers because it was SUCH a RIDE! I read this book in 24 hours, and I have to say that a lot of those hours were spent weeping because Rosaria Munda does NOT pull punches. This is a series with STAKES. But as a conclusion, I'd say it is one of the strongest that I have read, definitely in YA, but in all of fantasy as well.
Okay, so Fireborne was one of the first books I read in 2020. I immediately thought upon reading it that it was something special, and after just one book, her debut, I put Rosaria Munda on my list of absolute favorite authors. She has shown that she absolutely deserves it with Furysong because while Flamefall was even better than Fireborne, Furysong blew them both out of the water and really stuck the landing.
Obviously there are going to be spoilers for Fireborne and Flamefall in this, but I will be keeping this spoiler free until after Furysong's release (at which point I will go back and add in my animal friend spoilers and favorite quotes). I tried to break this into sections so that it's not *quite* such a rambly gush-fest.
Plot, Pacing, & Themes: So, Furysong picks up immediately after the explosive ending of Flamefall, and we hit the ground running with both the events taking place on Norcia and in Callipolis. I think that this could have wound up being an exhausting book to read because SO MUCH has to happen in it, but I thought that Rosaria Munda handled the pacing extremely well. Even though we start out at breakneck speed, it naturally slows down and picks up speed throughout, and I was never once bored. There is a decent chunk of time that is covered in this book but it never felt choppy or disjointed.
Furysong continues the exploration of questions that were asked at the beginning of the series: what happens when the new regime repeats the mistakes of the old regime, how quickly to the oppressed become oppressors themselves, what makes someone a good leader, what makes a government a "good" government, how do you know what or who deserves your loyalty, and what is your personal line in the sand? We continue to build on the themes of different kinds of grief, and different effects trauma can have on people. Lots of other themes as well, but these stuck out to me. The political maneuvering was incredibly well handled and nuanced as always. There were some things that really reminded me of our political climate, so it was really interesting to see those pieces crop up.
Characters:Annie and Lee's relationship continues to be messy and tangled, but we ultimately get resolution. There is not quite so much yearning as in the first two books, but something that I loved was that this changes in proportion to the level of threat. We get to see enormous growth and stretching of both characters. Same with Griff, who has grown so much in just one book. We get a fourth POV, which I won't spoil, but I appreciated the addition! I will say that this POV felt a little less distinct than the other three, but it was really well executed.
I think that relationships between characters is one of Rosaria Munda's strengths as an author. She really captures the complexity of different relationships and interactions so well, and they feel so real. I love that all of the characters have different mindsets, temperaments, and their own past baggage that influence these relationships. Just really, really well done.
I think that the addition of Freyda and her Goliath dragon was really interesting and added another layer of different forms of female oppression and difficulties facing the women in this society, even though she is a princess. Crissa continues to be one of my favorite side characters. She is just so supportive and lovely, even to complete strangers. I love to see women supporting women, and this story is full of them.
Dragons & Animal Friends:Something I appreciated about Furysong is that it feels as though we got to spend a lot more time with the dragons. I feel like Aela and Pallor have always felt a little bit just like horses. We have some characterization, but they really felt a lot more like characters in this one. We saw more interactions with their riders and with each other, which was so lovely.
Also seeing these dragons in the context of a full out war was really fascinating too. It really felt like a commentary on the way that we as humans can twist animals and they really get the raw end of the deal. These dragons bond with such young humans, and they have no real recourse if their rider turns out to be a terrible human, and they just trust and love them even when they hurt them.
Overall Takeaways:So this book was really tough to read at parts because our characters are at war. They are dealing with real danger, and they are at the mercy of some really awful people at different points. There are stakes. There are losses. There is torture. There is just a lot to deal with. It never felt too over top, and I felt like it all made sense, but it really was difficult to read at times.
Overall, this was an incredible end to an incredible series, and has cemented it as one of my two all-time favorite series. I will read anything that Rosaria Munda writes next, and I will be pushing this series on everyone.
Thank you so, so much to James Akinaka at Penguin Teen for giving me access to an eARC of Furysong in exchange for an honest review. This book will be released on August 9, 2022.
Rating: really liked it
1) burst into gasping sobs at the end of part 3
2) this series has not a single flaw
3) I WILL SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF THIS UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE
Rating: really liked it
Where do I start?
The Aurelian Cycle series means everything to me. And when you love a series, well, reading the last book always has an unnerving edge. Will it live up to my hopes and expectations? Will it leave me frustrated? Disappointed? More often than not, the last book is good but something is lacking. I don’t know what could be lacking in Furysong. To me, this book wraps up The Aurelian cycle perfectly and leaves you with a sense of completion.
The writing, like the rest of the series, is excellent. It is clear but also nicely put. The mixing of POVs, like the previous books, is smoothly done. I have to give kudos to Rosaria Munda for the way she has added a new POV to each book. It gives each book a new approach and it gives the author room to build up each POV individually instead of trying to do it all at once.
The pacing of the book was quite fast but never felt rushed. The events succeed one another smoothly while still leaving room for intrigue.
There is a lot I could say about the characters themselves, because I love them so much, but I’ll try to keep it down before I go into spoiler-territory. I feel this book gave each of them good individual screentime and with it, good individual arcs, from the start of the book to the very end. I am so proud of how far they’ve all come.
I really enjoyed seeing the worldbuilding extend to a larger, more global vision. It extended the lore and took it even a step outside of Callipolis. I think it also opened room for further book/stories in the same universe, which would also be exiting.
I think this book is probably the one with the less political questioning. To explain: while this book sill relies on a political intrigue, the doubts about the rightness of the political system and/or the actions the characters chose was no longer a center-piece of the book. While this was one of the themes I most enjoyed about this series, having less of it here left more room for action and was, I think, a necessity to wrap-up the series.
To conclude, I’ve gasped, giggled, pulled my hair, and even cried more times than I can count reading this book. Some of these sentences will haunt me for the rest of my life!!!!!! This book has so nicely wrapped what is, without a doubt, my favorite YA series and I am very exited to read whatever-the-hell-it-is Rosaria Munda decides to write next.
Rating: really liked it
Ms. Munda better be ready to pay my therapy bills after what this book put me through 😭😭
Rating: really liked it
Rating this to offset the one star review. Come on, whoever you are. Grow a heart.
Rating: really liked it
people (me) died
