Review: Beyond the End of the World by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
This is the sequel and conclusion to The Other Side of the Sky duology. The Other Side of the Sky follows North, a prince from a technologically advanced society that lives on floating islands in the clouds, and Nimh, the goddess of her people who practice magic on the ground. The story takes of when North crashes to earth and Nimh finds him, the pair cannot touch but must work together to achieve both of their goals.
This was a really satisfying conclusion to the story, I absolutely enjoyed reading this series. My only negative on this book is the authors talk a lot about the story never conclusively being Fantasy or Science Fiction and the tension between those two things. I think that is very accurate for book one, but in book two I would describe it more as a joining of the two. It is very in keeping with anything emotionally driven by a romance, the pair must join together for a common goal, in this case, that is mirrored by the worlds and genres coming together as well. Once the reader gets all the backstory it is very apparent that both genres are at play here. That did make some of the exciting reveals a tinge of "nooo, don't tell me the answer" which was a funny experience. But I do think overall it would have been a worse series without the discovery of the past plotline.
I did really like the way Kaufman and Spooner handled the two worlds in this book. I was absolutely on tenterhooks while I was reading, constantly worried but also occasionally unsure what exactly I wanted to happen. That is always delightful.
I need to expand this because I have other thoughts!
I gave this book five stars.
