The Golden Tower by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Summary from Goodreads:

The final, thrilling installment in this extraordinary series from bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare.

A generation ago, powerful mage Constantine Madden came close to achieving what no magician had ever achieved: the ability to bring back the dead. He didn't succeed . . . but he did find a way to keep himself alive, inside a young child named Callum Hunt.

Facing up to what he is, Callum has battled chaos and evil across four years of magical training at the Magisterium, eventually defeating the armies of chaos in an epic battle.

It came at a cost.

Now, triumphant and heartbroken, Callum Hunt has just about had enough, and is ready to complete his training. But the evil Callum faced has not given up just yet.

Review:

I have seriously enjoyed this series over the years. Holly Black and Cassandra Clare working together on a magical Middle Grade series was like one of my dreams coming true. I loved the magical world they created. I loved the characters. I loved the good guys and the bad guys. And I loved all the twists that never ceased to surprise me.

That being said, this last installment was probably my least favorite in the series. It felt like stuff really resolved in the book before this one, but the authors couldn’t leave us readers with such a tragic ending...They wrote this to give a certain character a better ending. I kind of get why that needed to happen. I even like that everything ended with the last year at the Magisterium…

It’s just that the villain and over-arcing storyline felt a little silly. The bad guy spoke like a bad guy from a bad 90’s cartoon. And Cal’s master plan for everything was no big shocking surprise. It was the only thing that made sense. Like, maybe this book could have just been a normal school year without a stupid additional villain? Or maybe if something like that was needed, it could have been something entirely new? It just felt off to me. The adults in the book felt really stupid too. They weren’t honestly handling the situation as I think they might have in books previous. It felt kind of sloppy.

I did still love seeing the characters again. I loved seeing my ship sail. I loved watching Cal truly figure out where he belongs. I loved getting a happier ending for another loved character. I loved that the father/son relationship was handled well here too, and not just as an afterthought. It just did not live up to my expectations. It was not as good as the previous books. I give this one a 7/10.