In my Books 1-3 series review, I complained that everyone always talked about how horrible Warner was, but it was mostly just talk, and we just kept finding out he had explanations for everything that seemed bad (ok I’m now remembering he hurt Kenji and Adam, I think, but whatever). Well we finally found out what it was that he had to do to become the regent whatever of his sector. I feel like I should care more, it was awful, even if he was only doing it to stay with his mother, but I guess I just don’t feel invested enough to really care either way. And honestly, I just thought it was funny when he was being such an asshole that he was making people cry.

These books also addressed how weird it was for Juliette to decide she could be the leader of a country, despite having no experience, another thing I mentioned previously. Except, throughout Book 4, she was still doing it, and being incredibly frustrating to read about. She kept refusing help, making bad decisions, and getting distracted by sexy times with her new boyfriend. I was constantly thinking to myself, “This is why you don’t have a 17-year-old lead a country.”

Also, why didn’t anyone kill Andersen??? He had healing powers, so you’d have to do a bit more to kill him, but he wasn’t invincible. They kept passing up opportunities to kill him and instead just stabbed him or shot him once and then let him heal. Cut off his head! Shoot so many bullets into his heart that it turns to pulp! Thank goodness for Kenji, he was the only one with enough sense to finally shoot him full of bullets. But they could’ve been rid of him a lot sooner.

What I liked about these books though was 1) the weird, sorta friendship that grew between Warner and Kenji (especially when Warner was high on too many pills), 2) Warner’s slowly growing relationship with Adam and James, and 3) Kenji and Nazeera’s romance. Unfortunately, we barely got any scenes about Warner and Adam or Warner and James. I really wanted more of that.

I feel like there were a lot of things that could’ve been explored more in-depth had these books not gone so far in the strange direction it did. Book 3 was so good with the complex emotions and relationships. I really wanted Books 4-6 to continue with that. To further explore all the relationships that were forming and changing, the character growth that was happening, and the struggles, while the rebels worked on taking down the Re-establishment and ruling over North America. In the end, they did take down the Re-establishment, but I feel like I somehow got further away from the characters (except for Kenji), and we don’t even know what’s happening with the rest of the world or who’s leading or if everything is just chaos.

Overall, though they weren’t terrible, Books 4-6 were a disappointment that felt like a different series to me.