Ｔｉｔｌｅ： The Ruined
Ａｕｔｈｏｒ： Renee Ahdieh
Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ： Book 4
Ｒａｔｉｎｇ： ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
＊Ｎｏｔｅ：You can find reviews for Book 1, Book 2, Book 3 here.
The stunning conclusion to the instant New York Times bestselling quartet that began with The Beautiful.
The Sylvan Vale and the Sylvan Wyld are at war. Now that the unsteady truce between them has been broken, lines must be drawn. In an effort to protect the weakened Winter Court, Bastien rallies powerful allies and friends in New Orleans to come to their aid.
Meanwhile, under protection alongside her injured mother in the Summer Court, Celine is uncertain of whom to trust. She cannot get word to Bastien, and does not understand why he has not returned. When she realizes war between the fey courts is imminent, she journeys with Ali in an effort to find the time traveling mirror and change their fate.
But when Celine's rivals realize Bastien has rallied his allies in the mortal world, they decide to take the fight to him.
"You can't hate something without understanding what it means to love."
This was honestly the worst series ending I've ever read. I have never seen an author destroy everything she's built so thoroughly and ruin (pun not intended) her own series. I mean... it's terrible. In fact, it's so bad that I actually have to break my no-spoilers rules to accurately explain why it was so terrible. I'll still keep the general post as spoiler-free as I can but I'll indicate where spoilers come up and you can highlight the text if you want to see it.
What mainly bothered me about this book was Celine's slow character spiral. She is not the same girl we met in the first book. They're not even remotely in the same galaxy. She loses all of her fire, her spark as she chooses to blindly trust her mother (a woman she only knows for a few months at this point) over and over again. Celine used to be cautious, bright, observant, sassy... but apparently, none of that applies anymore. I think even if she saw the "good" in her mother she should have been able to see the obvious ways her mother antagonized Bastien in the last book. There's a bit less of that in this book because of her mother's injuries from the last book. Not that it mattered because Celine herself was sufficiently annoying on her own.
Aside from her relationship with her mother, Celine also managed to annoy the hell out of me with her constant power trips. Once she finds out what happens when she inherits the throne it all starts going to her head. [Spoiler Ahead] Celine learns that when her mother dies she will inherit her mother's powers. It's part of an ancient spell that a past queen performed to ensure their powers weren't lost. It goes to her head and she starts getting some of her fire back but in the wrong way. Anytime Celine grew a backbone it was because she was the "future Lady of the Vale"--her whole personality became "I'm going to be the future queen". I hated it because Celine always believed she was enough. No title. No powers. Nothing could stop her because she was Celine. I hated her becoming so obsessed with power. [End Spoiler]
This book would've been a total loss if not for Bastien's part. As Celine spirals, Bastien rises up. I enjoyed seeing him grow as a character to shed the lessons his uncle had taught him. Not that he was without fault; he still made some terrible choices in this book that contributed to the horrible ending, but we'll get to that later. Overall, I loved how Bastien stepped up as a leader.
Now, another element that went up in flames here was the romance. This whole series is built on the promise of romance, right? Well, I have just one question: is the romance in the room with us? Because I can't find it. In every chapter Bastien and Celine grow farther apart. Bastien wanted nothing more than to protect the woman he loved, but he refused to tell her why, which put his motives into question for Celine. [Spoiler Ahead] Bastien suspected for a while that Celine's mother had ulterior motives for bringing her back to the fey world. When he finally learns that Celine's mother intends to kill her in a ritual to extend her own life and keep her powers, he tries to reason with Celine. Does he tell her the truth? Not really. Bastien doesn't tell Celine how/where he got the information and it drives a bigger wedge between them. Celine suspects Bastien found and used the mirror, but he won't even mention it because he doesn't trust her to keep it to herself since she trusts her mother so blindly. He only tells her to stay away from her mother. It's exasperating. JUST TELL HER!
(For context: Bastien learns about a cursed mirror that can transport people not only to other places but also to other points in time. At first, he wants to use it despite being warned multiple times that the mirror is evil and has led to a lot of death. After using it a few times he realizes that no good will come of it, though he does come out with the knowledge that Celine's mother is planning to kill her. After everything that happened in this book, I have to wonder if the vision was even true considering the mirror wanted chaos and to claim lives. It certainly achieves that goal by pitting Celine and Bastien against one another.)
And to top it all off, I lost complete respect for Celine when she cheated on Bastien. After their fight about her mother, Celine says she won't choose between them so... she chooses her mother and breaks things off between her and Bastien. You know, Bastien. The man who gave his life for her in book 1. The man who she gave up her memories to save. I mean... you're telling me that after all they went through it takes one fight for Celine to break it off, go home, and then try and fuck the first guy that comes her way? Seriously, she throws herself at Ali/Haroun and is right on the cusp of going all the way when he finally stops her. He knows this isn't what she really wants so she throws him out of her room. Props to him for saying no but fuck Celine. [End Spoiler]
Emilie also continues to go on her little hate train. At this point, it's exhausting that she hasn't grown one bit. Her character becomes so... one-dimensional. She was made "bad" for the sake of being bad. It was such poor writing. I honestly hoped for something more like the Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir where we start off disliking Helene for being on the wrong side but she grows exponentially to become one of my favorites. I hoped Emilie would have a similar arc where she would come around to see that her uncle was the only one to blame for her death and not Bastien. Then she would stand at his side for a final battle against Celine's mom, but that clearly didn't happen. Instead, she continues to plot against him right until the very end even though it pushes away anyone that might still care about her.
And then finally... the thing that completely buried the series: the ending. I was in so much disbelief over what happened that I actually had one of my best friends listen to the last few chapters of the audiobook again with me. The ending... felt like a lesson in what no author should do. It felt like the bad guys one, Celine was irrational, and there were so many loose ends that I tripped left and right on them. In the end, I regretted wasting my time on this series (particularly this book when I already disliked the last one so much). The whole plot was built on miscommunications which is honestly the weakest plot device, but it's even worse that the records are never set straight.
[Spoiler Ahead] Bastien ends up killing Celine's mom since he sees it as the only way to ensure Celine's safety. He does it impulsively and then never tells Celine why (not even later during the treaty scene or the epilogue). So it's safe to assume that Celine never learns what a true monster her mother really was.
Then Emilie takes this moment to drive the wedge further between them. She seeks out Celine to tell her that Pippa is alive and that Bastien and his friends kept it from her. On the heels of her mother's death and having just inherited her powers, Celine is overcome with a desire for revenge. So she goes to New Orleans (accompanied by soldiers) to "talk" to Bastien.
Soon after, Bastien learns that Celine is attacking New Orleans. When his forces arrive, both parties hear a sudden explosion that triggers them to attack one another. Each of them thinks the other is responsible, which tells me Emilie was behind it. She drove Celine to New Orleans with her "slip-up" during their conversation and then waited for Bastien to arrive so she could launch the attack and use the confusion to start a war. Now, this is never 100% confirmed, but it's inferred through their POVs and Emilie's final conversation with Michael (more on that later).
During the attack, Celine starts losing control. She kills people unintentionally but callously dismisses their lives. She hallucinates and follows an illusion of Pippa (conjured by her out-of-control powers) through the city. Bastien sees this and tries to find the real Pippa so they can get through to Celine.
They both end up at the convent where Pippa has gathered with the Court of Lions to protect civilians that didn't manage to evacuate the city. When a stray ball of fire hurtles toward Pippa, Celine reacts instinctively to redirect it, unintentionally launching it into the hospital beside the convent. Pippa screams in horror because her siblings were taking refuge inside. The Lions immediately spring into action to save those inside. They manage to save one of her siblings, but when Jae and Arjun go back in the building it's engulfed in flames before they can make it back out.
When they mention Arjun's death afterward it's only as a footnote to the store. I hated it. If a major character dies (and I consider him major because the third book was practically all about him and Pippa) we should feel the impact as the reader and have time to process and mourn them. Ahdieh robbed us of that. His death was only mentioned about two times and then the book was over.
After the fire dies out, Celine meets with Bastien to discuss a treaty between their courts and prevent any more loss. She starts off reasonably saying that the summer court will take the weight of the punishment this time (because during the last war, the winter court was the only one punished even though both sides were at fault) and that Bastien can ask for whatever punishment he wants. Bastien requests that she not be allowed in the winter court/lands or New Orleans. He doesn't do this to hurt her. In his internal dialogue, he says that the city would be safer with her gone because her powers are out of control. For a moment he considers leaving room for her to come back in the future, but he thinks better of it. He's not willing to take the chance at the expense of human lives. So many people died because of her lack of control. At least Bastien was being careful during the fight and wasn't hallucinating like she was.
So after she says this, she tells Bastien that he has to pay too for killing her mother. She tells him that he can't come back to New Orleans either. Unlike Bastien, she wants to hurt him. Not just for killing her mother but for taking New Orleans from her. This would have been a perfect time for Bastien to come clean and tell her why he killed her mother, but he doesn't. I thought Celine's request was downright cruel. After all her talk about not repeating history, she still does it. She essentially banishes him from his home again. Even not knowing that her mother was trying to kill her, Celine still knew her mother had tortured winter fey for years. Her mother was no saint.
Bastien reluctantly agrees to leave New Orleans (once again abandoning his friends, though not by choice this time) and never return because Celine guilt trips him into accepting the city will be safer without them. I also hate that Arjun's mother jumps into the conversation and forces Bastien to agree never to see or speak to Celine again unless it's through an emissary.
After that we get a pair of crappy chapters. One of them is from Emilie. It's basically her gloating to Michael that she's won because Bastien will never be able to be with Celine now. She ruined their relationship. She mentions that she gave up the last of her humanity to the mirror so she's forever stuck in wolf form and then slinks off into the sunset. Michael goes his own way too, leaving the city. I mean... what the fuck?! So after causing all of this she just gets to walk away? She learned nothing? It was such trash!
Not to mention I feel terrible for Michael. He loses Celine to Bastien twice. The second time it's after she already agreed to marry Michael. It's so cruel that she led him along like that and never ever apologized for it. And it's like pouring salt in a wound too because the reason Michael and Bastien stopped being friends is that when they were younger Bastien kissed a girl that he knew Michael was interested in. He pretty much stole his girl and then instead of apologizing because he was too ashamed, Bastien said it wasn't his fault she liked him better. And then on top of that, he also gets tricked by Emilie into helping her set up the fight where Celine's mom is shot in the last book (he unknowingly helps to fuel the war between summer and winter). That attack also leads to Emilie attacking Pippa, killing her, and then changing her into a werewolf. Michael carries the guilt of all of this and is tossed aside by Celine. I felt so bad for him and was angry that he wasn't given a better ending.
The next chapter leaves a huge gaping hole in the series. It's mentioned that Bastien's childhood friend, Eloise, finds the necklace that Emilie stole from Pippa and that she placed the mirror key on. Eloise, who is supposed to meet up with her mother outside of town via a traveling mirror, says she wants to find out where else the mirror might take her as she inspects the key. It's implied she intends to use it and that she'll find the cursed mirror. What?! Bastien was supposed to destroy it after Ali used it to go home, but the author never confirms if this actually happened. In fact, Ali is never mentioned during or after the fight. So did he actually go home or is he another character that rode off into the sunset like Michael and Emilie? Or maybe more like faded into the background like Odette and Boone. Apparently Ali/Haroun is a crossover character from the author's other series, The Wrath and the Dawn, but I'm still wondering if he wasn't conjured by the mirror to drive Celine and Bastien apart. (It was my theory for a while before discovering he was a crossover character that he was an agent of the mirror. He caused Celine and Bastien to fight multiple times. He was the one who told Bastien about the spell that Celine's mother intended to use that would kill Celine. It seemed suspicious to me.)
Even in the epilogue, it's unclear if the cursed mirror still exists. Ten years later, Bastien and Celine reunite for a symbolic meeting to celebrate the construction of the new bridge between the summer and winter lands. It's mostly them warming up to each other again and subtly flirting. It ends on a hopeful note, implying that they will mend their relationship and learn to love each other again. It was like throwing the readers a bone: "See, here's the romance. They end up together in the end". No. This one little scene doesn't make up for everything she put them (and us) through. I hate it because it glosses over all the lies. Celine doesn't tell Bastien that she cheated on him. Bastien doesn't tell her about her mother's lies. I hate when books use the miscommunication plot device but then don't have a scene where everything comes to light.
Plus, what was Bastien doing during those ten years? Did he destroy the mirror? What happened to the rest of the Court of Lions? And Michael? At least Pippa gets a small mention when Celine asks Bastien about her. Ten years later, Pippa still hasn't forgiven Celine for killing Arjun and her brother (not that I blame her). Besides, it's so irresponsible that they caused major destruction all those years ago and then just left. They didn't help repair the city at all. What's with them always jumping ship?! [End Spoiler]
Overall, this was a total betrayal by the author. I think part of the problem was she crammed far too much into this book but it was still a poorly executed plan. She tore down everything she spent a whole series building up and the plot holes were too many to forgive. There were too many loose ends for me. Taking a look at the path the series took... even with how much I loved the first book I would have to say I don't recommend this series to anyone. This book alone makes me regret ever picking it up. I'm sad to say it because it had the potential to be a great series but now it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
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