Just Finished Reading …. Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

Into the Still Blue (Under the Never Sky #3
by Veronica Rossi
To be published by Harper Teen
on January 28, 2014

Source: Thanks to Harper for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book via Edelweiss.

Connect with the author: website | blog | Twitter

Summary of book from Goodreads: Their love and their leadership have been tested. Now it's time for Perry and Aria to unite the Dwellers and the Outsiders in one last desperate attempt to bring balance to their world. The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do, and they are just as determined to stay together. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. And when Roar returns to camp, he is so furious with Perry that he won't even look at him, and Perry begins to feel like they have already lost. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble a team to mount an impossible rescue mission, because Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival, he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

My spoiler-free take: I always associate this trilogy with the New Year. Into the Still Blue marks the third (and last!) January that I'll be reviewing one of the books in this series.  I feel like I've come a long way with Perry and Aria and Roar and Cinder. I'll admit it -- in Under the Never Sky, I wasn't 100% sure about Aria, about her relationship with Perry, about the whole violets thing, or about the Dweller slang. Especially the slang.

Last year, when I read Through The Ever Night, my love for this trilogy was cemented. I thought that Through the Ever Night was definitely the strongest of the three books, an amazing story of loss and friendship, of the burdens of leadership, of good and evil. But I also think that Into the Still Blue was a satisfying and fitting end to the story. If you haven't yet tried this trilogy, I think it offers an interesting post-apocalyptic story world -- in my review of Through The Ever Night I explained that I find this post-apocalyptic world pretty plausible -- well-drawn characters, and a plot that's twisty enough without losing sight of the main story goal -- to escape a dying world for a fresh start in a new one.

As outlined by the summary above, Into the Still Blue follows a group of Dwellers and Outsiders as they try to reach a place where they can finally live in safety. As I was reading this book, it seemed to me to have strong Biblical themes -- you know, the whole "leader guiding his people to a promised land" thing. But I haven't been to Sunday school in a long, long time, so that could have just been me.

I will also agree with Christina Reads YA that at times the book felt bit anti-climactic and unsurprising.   Through The Ever Night featured a pretty shocking development and a lot of emotional turmoil, and in contrast,  Into The Still Blue felt more to me like a skillful and measured tying up of loose ends. But that didn't dampen my enjoyment of the book. For me, the greatest strength of this trilogy has always been the characters and their evolving relationships, which have ranged from platonic friendship to romance, from hate to love, from bitter rivalry to hard-won trust, from anger to forgiveness.  I'm going to miss them, but I look forward to seeing what Veronica Rossi has in store for us next!