Book Review: Peak by L.C. Barlow

I have loved this Jack Harper series so much – but I must confess, about two-thirds of the way through I felt like this book should have been finished already, please and thank you. It surprised me, given how I loved the earlier books, Pivot and Perish. You can see my thoughts on them here and here. I’ve raved about their stories, and about this highly original and furiously dark world. It’s been a heck of a ride, and the wrap up took it in a very different direction than I anticipated…

This final installment got way more philosophical and preachy then the earlier two did, in a way that felt dissonant given the tone of the earlier books. I must confess I found myself slogging my way through the last third simply to see what the author was going to do. It felt less exciting and much more anticlimactic than I expected. And since this has always been described as a trilogy, I found the ending disappointingly open-ended – because I’m honestly not sure how much more of interest can happen in Jack’s World, given the way everything came together in this book… As a result the ending felt unfinished rather than like leaving possibilities open for future installments, and it sat oddly with me.

It is wild to see how this all came together, considering how it all began. I would have never guessed after reading the first book that this is the direction the whole series would have taken. It’s not to say I’m disappointed, just surprised – it felt like it started as horror and ended as religion, with journeys through several other genre along the way. I found the ride to be more uneven than I anticipated, and I’m not sure that it feels like the ending and the beginning really fit as coherently as one would expect from such a generally well written series…

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.