abthebooknerd's Reviews > Send Me Their Souls

I don’t even have a tagline for this review. I don’t know what I’m feeling right now. I think I’m heartbroken.

I...don’t even have the words. When I opened my copy of this ARC, it felt like coming home. I’ve never felt a stronger connection with the main character than I do with Zera. I felt seen when I read the first book. I was suffering from undiagnosed harm OCD at the time, and here was this girl, just as lost as me. She’s not perfect. Zera’s messy, and broken, and learning. Throughout the series, she was on this journey of really learning how to love herself, and we got to see that put into action in this one. I learned a lot from Zera.

Everyone in my life taught me to swim in the ocean of myself.

The writing was utterly beautiful, and while at times I wished there had been more romantic moments (we still got plenty, I’m just greedy), Zera got the beautiful story she deserved. She learned her worth. She found out how to love herself, and love others well. I mean, isn’t that what life’s all about when you strip everything down?

Fear never means nothing - not even when you’re immortal. There’s always the fear of pain. Without death, the fear of pain is the only thing you have left. The only thing that anchors you to the world, to the cycle of life and death like everyone else. One foot in agony, the other in the never-grave. Fear means everything. Fear is all I have.

I mean, have you ever ever read a quote that made you feel so viscerally?? Sara Wolf just knows. She gets it. And let us just take a moment to acknowledge one of my favorite characters: the tamed, giant, six-eyed, rainbow dragon creature that speaks in song. His lines were one of the most beautiful.

"What is gratitude,” the valkerax says softly, “but a promise made whole?”

***

Nobody’s ever really gone. Evlorasin said it best. This is never-goodbye.

And now, of course, a moment of silence for the sass of Lady Fione:

“Hey, what happens if we fall through and die?”

“We fall through and die,” Fiona deadpans.

^ As always, the banter was amazing. The inner dialogue, lyrical. Zera, my homegirl, I love you. The bond between these groups of friends was such a tender thing to witness over the course of the series. And The Ending. It didn’t feel real! I was having to blink back tears. I’m still in shock, I suppose. I will miss these people terribly.

“Will they write books about us, you think?” Lucien asks softly.

I put my head on his shoulder and laugh. “Gods, I hope not.”

A huge thank you to Edelweiss and Entangled Teen for sending me an ARC copy of this beautiful book!

*Note: Any quotes referenced in this review, may or may not be subject to change in the finished copy of the book.