Book Review: Ascend, book 3 of the Trylle trilogy

Book Review: Ascend, book 3 of the Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking

Book Description from amazon.com: Wendy Everly is facing an impossible choice. The only way to save the Trylle from their deadliest enemy is by sacrificing herself.  If she doesn't surrender to the Vittra, her people will be thrust into a brutal war against an unbeatable foe.  But how can Wendy leave all her friends behind…even if it's the only way to save them?
The stakes have never been higher, because her kingdom isn't the only thing she stands to lose. After falling for both Finn and Loki, she's about to make the ultimate choice…who to love forever. One guy has finally proven to be the love of her life—and now all their lives might be coming to an end.

Everything has been leading to this moment.  The future of her entire world rests in her hands—if she's ready to fight for it.

What should I say concerning the last book of Miss Hocking's Trylle trilogy? Simply put, the whole thing is one hell of silly wish-fulfilling make-believe, with zero realism in the world-building, characters, setting and plot.

Our first and foremost problem begins with Wendy, the 'heroine' of the trilogy. In Ascend, Wendy suddenly becomes capable-leader's-material, who can keep the nobles at check? Sorry, I just can't believe it. To the end of book 2, Torn; Wendy remained a whinny, immature girl and the author had offered us NOTHING to support Wendy's transition to her more mature self.

Another character just as unbelievable as Wendy is Oren, King of Vittra and the arch villain in the story. The problem being, we barely ever have the chance to see Oren do bad things throughout the three books. For most of the time we basically only have Loki's words to proof Oren is bad, and Sara's fear to hint at how violent Oren is. But for most of the time, Oren doesn't look like a smart-enough villain to me. Towns were attacked, people were killed under his order, but none of these attacks seem to be beneficent to him in any sense. Plus, how Oren is finally defeated is purely laughable.

How about the supporting characters? Oh, they all got shove into the background, whatever potential they had in the previous book never get developed into anything deeper.

Okay, maybe the author wants to focus on Wendy, Finn and Loki, but if it were the case their love triangle is as badly written as the one among Bella, Edward and Jacob from Twilight.

Aside from flat, underdeveloped characters, the world building is as shrubby as what the first two books had offered. When another Trylle's town is under Oren's attack, we are informed that all of the Trylle's towns manage to fly under humans' radar because they all locate in very remote areas. WHAT THE HELL? Are we supposed to believe in the age of internet, Google Maps and GPS, the humans and even the USA government itself are all so stupid that they are not aware of the existence of a handful of...towns?

*plot spoiler warning*

First, I admit I am glad that Wendy doesn't keep Finn nor Tove in the end, she doesn't deserve them anyway! I am just equally glad that Finn and Tove find happiness with someone else at the end of the book, even thought their new found happiness looks like some very clumsy attempt to please the readers.

I also don't have problem with Wendy and Finn NOT being together, therefore I don't mind her hooking up with someone else. But the real problem with Wendy's shifting her 'love' to Loki is, I don't believe there's any meaningful, mature love between them for a *second*.

I mean, the two barely know one another well at the first place. Plus, what's there in Wendy for Loki (or even Finn for the same matter) to fall in love with anyway? The author tells us Loki falls for Wendy because she is kind to him and she tries to protect him. Then how about Sara? Hasn't she always been kind to him and tried to protect him for all these years!? I understand how you can be grateful to someone who's kind to you, but it would take a lot more for gratefulness to develop into long-lasting love!

Last but not least, the love scene between Wendy and Loki also made me feel damn awkward. The whole thing just takes place all of a sudden and it's quite meaningless.

We are told that there will be a massive war between Trylle and Vittra through out two books, but when the battle finally arrives, most of the Trylle vs Vittra battle is done *off screen*, and I can't accept Wendy somehow also manages to defeat Oren, single-handed.

*end of spoiler*

The Final Words:
The whole book reads like it was written by a freaking 10 years old girl while she was playing princess-game with her freaking barbie dolls. It had been so long since the last time I encountered a YA book as poorly written and.......empty as this. But now I can confidently tell you Trylle trilogy by Amanda Hocking, is as bad and silly a series as Twilight series. Yes, they are pretty much at the same level, and this fact alone speaks volumes of what you should expect if you ever decided to read it.