Book Reaction/Review: The Severed Tower

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SPOILERS OF A SIZE COMPARABLE TO THE US NATIONAL DEBT. 

Concept art of the Severed Tower and surrounding area, featuring Avril and Dane(?)

There comes a time when new strides are made. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. 

Neil Armstrong set his foot on the moon. 

President Truman made a gamble that ended World War Two in the Allies' favor. 

...

And The Severed Tower was. 

No, in no way I am I implying that a fiction novel is on the same level as the as the above events and people. But in the world of books, The Severed Tower is exactly that. 

The first few chapters spend no time awkwardly recapping the previous book, Midnight City. The most they offer is a slight recap of what's happened to the main characters since then. Which could be summarized like this:

After that, the action starts. And it starts in ernest. 

Although, this isn't a plot summary. If you're reading this I'm assuming you either never plan to or have already read the novel. So, we'll just move on to my reactions and stuff. 

Why do I think Severed Tower is a huge stride forwards in terms of books?

The characters. I love them all (bar Ben. He can mathematically off himself.). 

The plot. You thing you know what's coming and then you suddenly don't. Repeat for 388 pages. It's wonderful. 

It's the only YA book I've read recently that's mature enough to not have random awkward sex scenes or random awkward gay characters or a combination thereof. Because who needs to appeal to the populace with awkwardness when you can appeal to the populace with...

ACTUAL. 

WRITING. 

SKILL. 

HOLY MOTHER THERESA ON THE HOOD OF A MERCEDES BENZ. 

Everything from the fall of Polestar to the defense of Bismarck and afterwords. All of that, from the giant city in the sky suddenly not being the sky to that last word the resonated with power and meaning: 'Together'. 

That collection of scenes was, by far, the most well-written back half of a book I've ever read. 

Ever. 

I felt the dread of the characters, their pain at their losses, their excitement at their (however few) victories. I could smile with them, laugh with them, cry with them... I could picture everything perfectly. 

And all that's before the Defense of Bismarck decided to be the BEST FREAKING CLIMACTIC SCENE EVER. I seriously can't describe how good I thought this scene was. A rag-tag team of old enemies made allies, united against one enemy and united for one cause: To hold Bismarck long enough for Mira and Zoey to get through the Vortex and into the Tower. 

I'm pretty sure the Strange Lands has some effect on 'Plot Armor'. For those that don't know, 'Plot Armor' is the mythical substance between the Fourth Wall and the Book World that prevents main characters from being unceremoniously off'd, or killed , at all. More often than not the latter. 

I think the Strange Lands reversed it's effect. Wait.

WAIT. 

I JUST HAD AN EPIPHANY. 

OH MY ASJSHFJHDFJ IT ALL MAKES SENSE. 

AND I HATE BEN EVEN MORE BECAUSE OF IT. 

More on the above revelation later. Defense of Bismark in a nutshell:

You know why?

Think about it. 

Ben was using the Chance Generator to repel the Vortex. Think back to the end of Midnight City, when Holt used it to simply avoid getting shot. People were being Murphy's Law'd left and right. Think about how much 'payment' the stupid abacus would need to protect someone from a thing that can tear you apart at the quantum level?

AND THERE GOES EVERYONE (Even the dog).

Then realize, after practically watching everyone you love die (that's how good the writing was, guys), that Zoey is Zoey. 

In a very Gurren Lagann-esque infodump/backstory/argument of completely freaking awesome, Ben both mathematically offs himself and Zoey does her thing. 

Her thing being hijacking control of the Tower and using it's power to rewind time and subsequently annihilate the enemy army with the Anomalies of the Strange Lands. 

So everyone died and everyone undied. 

Rick Riordan, I dare you:

TOP THAT. 

I believe I have doomed a fandom. 

Anyway the book ends with Holt and Mira, along with the White Helix and some of the 'colorless' Assembly that are on their side now, marching solemnly towards the west, to go after Zoey who had made some sort of 'deal' with the Tower Entity to let her play with time like she had. Said deal involved her getting captured... and more, that we haven't seen yet. 

So, if you read my reaction post about the first 100 pages of this book, you may be wondering: WAS this book the first one to make me shed a tear? To that, I answer no. 

There's several levels of 'feels' I can establish here. 

There's the typical depression of something like Book Thief and Mark of Athena.

Pure, unadulterated sadness and/or rage that comes from things like TFiOS. 

The 'updgraded' version of that supplied to us by Champion. 

A further upgraded version, property of The Darkest Minds. 

A separate form of feels, brought forth when someone does something epic or beautiful and usually don't involve people dying, like the end of House of Hades.


And there's 'The Severed Tower Tier'. You see, I was all caught up in the epic battle sequence of the novel. When people started dropping off left and right, my feels plummeted so fast I didn't even have time to shed a tear.

Those feels skipped that level of feels-ness and entered a state of numbness as things went on. I was too in shock to feel anything.


This book LITERALLY broke my feels. Books with feelsy endings typically have me thinking about them for a good while after. The only thing I could do after Severed Tower was curl up and sleep.

And revel in how good that book was.



10/10 for this one; the first one I've EVER GAVE TO ANYTHING.