can't quite believe that i managed to finish this book at all. if the first installment was buoyed by its intentional prose and structured storytelling, this one just seemed to exist for the sole purpose of stuffing up the plot holes.

i can tell the author struggled to make the original storyline a lot more diverse, but that ship has long sailed. if all we get as minority representation is a soggy cardboard cutout of a character in li min or a sloppy japanese phrase thrown in towards the end, i would rather not have seen it at all. isn't it enoough that i'm reminded that li min is chinese every five pages or so when etta isn't called the white girl nearly as often? i thought so.

same goes for sophia as the seemingly retconned lesbian rep. can't say i saw it coming, since there was no indication of it in the first book whatsoever.

also not a fan of plot twists for the sake of shock value—and i say this if only because for them to make sense the author feels the need to explain them afterwards. what's the whole nonsense about imprinting thrown in towards the end? the stakes feel cheapened when the characters are made to lose nothing of consequence until the final page.

i guess i finished this for the sake of saying i didn't leave any loose ends, unlike the author.

3.5/5 ✩ full review to come! i love love love this ending but found the first half of the book confusing. but still, SO GOOD!

** spoiler alert ** This book was one of the most frustrating, heart-throbbing, and FRUSTRATING books that I've read. I hate it so much that I love it. It was really just one big emotional rollercoaster. Too many twists and turns to count. Also, Julian is my favourite character in the whole series. He made me smile and laugh whenever I was agonizing over Nicholas thinking Etta was dead and then being told she was alive and then being told she was dead and then being told she was alive. I probably would've burned the book before finishing it if it werent for Julian.

"But we are, all of us, also wayfarers on a greater journey,this one without end, each of us searching for the answers to the unspoken questions of our heart. Take comfort, as I have, in knowing that, while we must travel it alone, this journey rewards goodness, and will prove that the things which are denied to us in life will never create cages for our souls" honestly not to spill the tea immediately but people who say this duology isn't good bc it's slow are like, missing out on so many good discussions about how poc/lgbt/women have been oppressed throughout history and how the effects of this oppression continues today :))) OH, and lets not forget Alexandra also chucked in a few little things about how historical narratives disregard the influence of poc/lgbt/women :)))) u missed that too When I read Passenger I really fucking liked it. Passenger was super fun, it was basically a treasure hunt through time ! Wayfarer kicks it up like 50 fucking levels. PLEASE KNOW WAYFARER IS MUCH BETTER THEN PASSENGER honestly the representation was so ...... *wipes a tear* beautiful. Imma break it down character by character. “Mind the hour, mind the date, and find that path which does not run straight.” • NICHOLAS CARTER In Passenger, race and how Nicholas dealt with systematic, ingrained and institutional racism in his time period and society in general was an obvious theme and I LOVE that it continued in Wayfarer. Bracken's books are careful to note the way race forces us to move and interact with society in different ways, the alienation and oppression of poc in history, and then how that oppressive history is still making waves today. The way certain characters I won't mention bc spoilers were forced to confront their racism - even if it wasn't overt racism but was more subtle .... 100/10 loved it. Also, the way that privilege was discussed ?? im shook. Like, how it was made so obvious the privilege white travellers had because they were not forced into spaces and times that lawfully, systematically oppressed them like the people of colour. Just aaaaaah. • LI MIN & SOPHIA (view spoiler)[ I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT TO SEE SOPHIA GET W/ LI MIN I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT TO READ THAT WITH MY OWN TWO EYES JGHF NIICE (hide spoiler)] But anyway. SOphia is my GIRL and i love her. the world has tried to kill her and render her powerless over and over and over and she gets up and gets stronger and gets back AND I LOVE HER. I LOVED how gender was discussed, and the contrast between Etta's power in the 21st Century and Sophia's in her timeline. Li Min ... deserved more. Like I WISH she had been in it more because ,, she was an awesome, kickass character and it's a shame we didn't see more of her ?? But I loved how the lgbt+ elements of this book weren't angsty or demonised I liked that they were allowed to exist without prejudice and suppression from those around them (I mean, no I take that back bc Sophia was suppressing her sexuality for her entire life) but in Wayfarer at least I liked that the characters were able to just ... exist and be happy without dealing with the hatred THE CHARACTERS and discussions of race/sexuality/gender were great ! But there was sooo much more I just loved about this • THE PLOT !!! we took it from 0 to 100 in this book. The plot of Passenger just massively blows out, and Wayfarer is incredibly complex and broad compared to passenger. the nuances of the story and how they organically grew from the roots planted in Passenger was !! so good !! The plot was so much faster moving than Passenger, and much more twisty. While Passenger felt like a fun romp through time, Wayfarer was more twisty, more sinister. It felt like going from the kiddie roller coaster to the adult one. There was so much deceit and back stabbing and double crossing it boggled my poor little mind. THE TIME TRAVELING BOGGLED MY POOR LITTLE MIND. It's so confusing, but in the best way. Love that about time travel novels, it's so difficult to wrap your head around. THE PLACES THEY VISITED were stunning and the descriptions of history had me shook. I've mentioned before I'm a massive history nerd, right? BUT GOD, we had them in Carthage during the Roman siege, we had fights in the vatican catacombs, we had IMPERIAL RUSSIA !!! THE ROMANOVS !!(view spoiler)[ fucking lost my mind when Nicholas II showed up honestly. Imperial Russia is my EVERYTHING (hide spoiler)] Also this had, such a massive and satisfying conclusion. I'm so wary of series conclusions, but I LOVED how this went and the choices the characters made and where it left off. • HENRY HEMLOCK i love you. WHAT A COOL DAD. Anyway, I loved his character and his and Etta's relationship. (view spoiler)[ thankgod he didn't die bc i would have been so angry (hide spoiler)]. I loved the extra dynamic he and his family brought to Wayfarer which was missing in Passenger • REMUS AND FITZHUGH AND THE WHOLE CARTHAGE CHAPTERS IN GENERAL -- first of all, elephants -- second of all, MARRIED !!!!! GAY !!! COUPLES !! im so shook -- third, DRUNK ELEPHANTS -- I can't believe I got to read about the punic wars with my own two eyes IT WAS MY FAVOURITE WHEN I USED TO DO ANCIENT HISTORY • THE COVER shut up it's stunning. • OTHER SATISFYING THINGS no love triangles. Not one in sight. IN fact, the romance was just the perfect amount and I loved it complicated parent/child relationships I love that Rose Linden was a fully formed person, because I hate when parents in books whole character is that they are a mother/father. I loved Rose was a complicated, nuanced individual apart from Etta, and I loved that the relationship between the two was complex and a little broken, a little twisted but still important and respected GREAT writing the writing flows so well, really carries the story and is super easy to read. It's descriptive and rich without being too dense, it finds that perfect medium. The narrative drifts from fights, chases, to private inner monologues, to tense conversations to rich descriptions and to subtle human moments but all of it is written perfectly and doesn't seem jarring when it switches. Also, the dual narration is handled well and I equally enjoyed Etta and Nicholas' chapters • JULIAN. WHAT A GUY. honestly, really liked him but also wow wee he wasn't what I expected. ALSO HOW COOL HE TRAVELLED W/ ETTA AND THERE WAS NO STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE AND ALL THAT GUYS I JUST REALLY LIKED THIS look, maybe at times it was slow. and maybe at times I think it was a lil vague and I got confused. But .... the positives SO outweigh the negatives, I really, really like these characters and this world and the worldbuilding and I will SERIOUSLY MISS this duology !! I wish there was more honestly 4.5* overall !! "this book is dedicated to all those time has forgotten

meh

3.5 I loved Passenger. Wayfarer felt a little long-winded to me. I loved the ending and flew through the last 1/4 of the book.

I’m an emotional mess and my heart is pounding. The last hundred pages of this wrecked me entirely. I feel the way about Etta and Nicholas as I feel about the Doctor and Rose, which is to say, they make me a blubbering disaster and I love every moment that they’re together on the page. The previous four hundred pages, however, dragged on SO much because I spent the whole book waiting for the thing™️ to just happen already. This could have been a lot shorter and I really don’t think that it would have affected much.

3.5 stars

Actual rating is 4.5 stars. I loved this so much. There were a handful of times I got a bit confused, but that might have also been because I was devouring this book ok so quickly! Such a wonderful end to a unique and delightful series. Alexandra Bracken is so wonderful!

I finished this book, finally! You wouldn't believe how excited I am to have finished it. What a wonderful end to this story! My feelings towards this book were slightly hampered by the fact I couldn't remember all the details of Passenger and the name of all the characters so I was lost until a nice blogger pointed me towards the recap the author posted but by that point I was 20% of the way in. Also, I was annoyed at all the near misses which happened it got a bit annoying towards the end so a star has been sacrificed. Apart from minor grumbles and my own bias though this book was utterly fantastic. Characters I hated last time became characters I understood and even liked. It was amazing how the change in circumstances meant that I gained a new perspective on people. It was just a really intelligent read with amazing choices being made which I couldn't have done. I really enjoyed this and it's difficult to out my finger on why. I may have been confused about what direction the story was going in but once I figured it out I was grilled and so intrigued. Basically, if you read the first you deserve to finish the story. It will be well worth it.

It is 1am and I am a right mess. I love these characters so much it hurts so badly to part with them.

This book was a super nice end to the series. It did drag at points and i think re-reading this book will make the story flow better for me but i really liked it overall. I loved the new characters that we met and also the places we went to.

3.75/5

❤❤😭😭

I am so smad that someone keeps deleting this. I swear to God. Ahem. I don't even remember what my rating or review was because now it's gone and I'm sad. I vaguely remember that Rose was awesome? Ugh who knows. 3.5 stars?

4.5 stars. Semi-spoilery and mildly incoherent review. I loved this. The complications and crazy traveling and the new locations and new characters and Sophia being amazing and Henry! Henry was GREAT. (I was expecting a more devastating ending for some reason?) But gosh, does Alex Bracken know how to write a finale. I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR. Li Min and Sophia are my little bi/lesbian girls with hearts of gold (or like, coal, but that's fine too.) PLEASE TO BE MORE OF THEM. SPOILER: The only thing bringing this down from perfect is no proper ending for my girls Li Min and Sophia. Please Miss Bracken, can we have a short story revolving around the girls?

4.5/5

Confusion. Reading this book has been a long time coming. I read Passenger a few years ago and had a really fun time going through time with these characters and the cliffhanger ending got me. Maybe I mistakenly waited too long to read the 2nd and final book or should have re-read the first book before getting back into this world but this was just such a confusing read for me. I was on board with the time travel and understood how it worked in the world in book 1 but Wayfarer somehow managed to turn that on its head. The time travel no longer made sense in terms of how an event can change the future or the ‘last common year’ or the history of the astrolabe, etc. The different time traveling families and how they interact and what each of their motives are and how there are some people who turn on their families and go to another… it’s just so much to keep track of. PLUS there’s added mysticism that wasn’t there in Passenger and no real hint of it so it felt as though it came out of nowhere. If it’s meant to be a Sci-Fi book, give me scientific reasoning (real or not) and don’t just randomly throw in a witch for good measure or nightmarish beings that just appear in the story to provide a get out of jail free card for a certain character. The different times that we journey to are truly interesting times in history but don’t necessarily have much effect on the plot aside from maybe Petrograd. Any of the things that happen could have been in any time but theres just the added jumping through passages. Even the Epilogue felt out of place, confusing and unnecessary. In terms of the characters, there is thankfully some growth but I couldn’t really focus much on them with the plot being all over the place and convoluted and unnecessarily overcomplicated. Yes, time travel can be tough to write but I think Bracken had too many ideas that she wanted to include which just piled on to the already mind-bendy-ness of a good time travel story. This one was definitely an disappointing end to this duology that I had high hopes for after the first book but I think my subconscious knew it and that’s why this book has been sitting on my self for the last 2 years waiting to be read.

This review will 100% have spoilers for both Passenger and Wayfarer. If you have not read this series than I urge you to go and pick it up and rise it to the top of your TBR pile. I finished this book this morning, so I am writing this review whilst the events of this amazing novel are still fresh in my mind. This of course was the follow up to the fantastically written Passenger, which introduced us to Etta, a scrappy and strong lead. At the end of the first book Etta is orphaned by the time line and Nicholas is setting out to find her, so this is what most of Wayfarer was about. If you want to read the rest of my review then please check out my blog https://booksnestbookishopinions.word...