2.5-3 StarsI'm a little torn with the rating on this, because even though I liked it better in the last third, there was just way too much that got me raging (or yawning, or rolling my eyes, or...) while I read it. Ok, on to the review, which might again be somewhat rant-y.Finally I'm done with this; after that much anticipation I was so disappointed and bored at times it wasn't even funny. I guess I liked the first two installments with the constricted surroundings and floating in space much more, since this could have been way more developed -- so much wasted potential!Amy is annoying and stupid as heck, Elder likewise is annoying and whiny at best, clingy at worst and I didn't buy their sudden romantic relationship at all. Where did this actually come from, especially on Amy's part? I cannot recall anything that ever lead up to this. Not to mention, they both have no chemistry at all and their voices are way too similar and exchangeable. I didn't care for the stupid wannabe love triangle, either.The writing itself seemed to have taken a turn for the worse since the first books; seriously, this could have used a little more editing. Needless word repetitions in the same paragraph, sometimes even in the same sentence, redundancies (can we all say "startingly blue eyes" and this talk about "not being human, not anymore", everyone?) in just a couple of pages, much too convenient solving of the puzzles -- not that I understand the need for the main conflict, at all, but at least so doesn't Amy in the end, and happens to even say so. And the numerous "d'uh" moments when completely obvious things were stated as if the reader is stupid...The "new world" could have been way more fleshed-out -- all the running and sneaking and plodding around between basically only three locations got boring way longer before the umpteenth time. The world building was not convincing; I was so curious to learn more about the native flora and fauna and was just left hanging at the end.The deaths (and believe me, there are numerous) left me cold for the most part since the characters were flat and I never came to care for them (even Amy herself got over two of the more prominent deaths astoundingly quickly). One or two were appropriately gruesome and shocking, but in the end I couldn't shake off this feeling of "meh, whatever, let's get on with this". And what about having two or three kids running around, doing stuff and taking operations into their own hands as if they were generals themselves, and everybody simply being OK with it? Then, on the other hand, if they didn't, I guess nobody would have, so it was needed to get the plot going (and this is YA, after all).The book managed to get itself a little more in order, also language-wise, and picked up speed towards the last third, but the climax wasn't really that surprising and the aftermath too drawn-out. The huge "twist" at the end? Saw that one coming since it was alluded to in the first place.The following I am not going to put in spoiler tags because while it might be somewhat spoilerish, it is something I believe very important and an issue that has to be out there:WHY, for heaven's sake, is contraception NOT AN ISSUE in this book? Yeah, just get it on, who cares if you get pregnant--oh wait, this is YA sci-fi, nah, that couldn't possibly happen, right?Seriously, unless I missed something with either Amy or Elder not being able to have children, this should be addressed at least on the side! And even if indeed they had been declared infertile earlier... this is friggin' teens we're talking about and THIS IS IMPORTANT.I used to not care for leaving this out of any book since I for myself know that this is something everybody should think of before getting it on, and I honestly believe that every self-respecting and sensible teenager knows the importance, too. Nowadays, though, the sheer glossing-over of inconvenient truths like that royally irks me. If for nothing else, just put it there for a little dose of realism, even if it's fantasy/sci-fi/dystopia/another world in the future, 'kay?
