Name: Jamieson's review of Homecoming by Kass Morgan
Item: Homecoming
Rating: 2
Author: Jamieson

Kass Morgan

Humanity is coming home. Weeks after landing on Earth, the Hundred have managed to create a sense of order amidst their wild, chaotic surroundings. But their delicate balance comes crashing down with the arrival of new dropships from space. These new arrivals are the lucky ones-back on the Colony, the oxygen is almost gone-but after making it safely to Earth, GLASS's luck seems to be running out. CLARKE leads a rescue party to the crash site, ready to treat the wounded, but she can't stop thinking about her parents who may still be alive. Meanwhile, WELLS struggles to maintain his authority despite the presence of the Vice Chancellor and his armed guards, and BELLAMY must decide whether to face or flee the crimes he thought he'd left behind. It's time for the Hundred to come together and fight for the freedom they've found on Earth, or risk losing everything-and everyone-they love.

Homecoming

Kaitlyn Kuehn 

“But a million tiny forces moved us toward each other, and we got our answers. We found each other, even if it was just for a moment."

"The connection we feel to other people isn't bound by geography or space…” 

D. D.

Jamieson

The most annoying thing about these books is that they actually do have heaps of potential
unfortunately, most of that potential is lost under a whole lot of meaningless STUFF which doesn't drive the story. God, it annoys me that these books good be really good and instead their okay at best. 


→ CHARACTERS Okay. So there books have a host of characters, the main three being Clarke, Bellamy and Wells. All three of these characters are interesting enough - but they just don't really go that extra mile, you know? Thats what the whole books like. By the third book, you'd expect the characters to be more fleshed out and complex, but honestly there's been no character development and they don't feel anymore real to me. In fact, alot of these characters don't feel real. They're tropey - except maybe Wells who's probably the most developed. Unfortunately Kass Morgan seems to think characters falling in love / romance = character development and that's all that is needed. Not true. 
 Lets start with Clarke. From all three books we know what? She's smart, she loves learning, she's a medic, she's strong, holds her own in hard situations. That's it. The thing is, aside from her medical capabilities, we're told she's all these things but we're never shown it. The characters are always banging on about how she is these things, but she never actually displays these qualities. 

 Bellamy. He's got strong morals and a clear sense of right/wrong. He is a protector and has grown up caring for his little sister. He has issues with authority and he's kind of that typical qupiing guy who's always assuring people he's 'so hot' and 'funny' and 'the best'. I mean, I don't hate Bellamy's character, far from it. I love how he is genuinely practical and resourceful. But he was all those things from the beginning of the book - I don't feel he's developed, he hasn't changed at all and he just feels two-dimensional. He's hard to relate to because really, he has no flaws. His 'flaws' are that he is a thief or he can be brash, but these flaws are presented as flaws to his society, but as a reader they're not flaws to us. (Like, sure he steals but he's giving the food to orphan kids we can't fault him for that) It's like hating Robin Hood. 

 Wells. He's kind of got a big mantle to take up with his dad being Chancellor and all. Unfortunately not everyone in the Hundred digs him because he's mini-chancellor and they all hate the chancellor for confining them/nearly executing them/sending them to Earth to die instead. I call it fair. Wells is a more interesting character because at least he does have a flaw. His selfishness in releasing the air lock (saving Clarke but dooming the entirety of humanity at the same time) is interesting and it's probably that that makes him most interesting to me. He just suffers from the same thing as Bellamy, no development !! He hasn't changed, he's not had to make hard choices as a leader, he's not had to deal with the repercussions of his actions. (Also he 'falls in love with' a girl he's known for like 10 days BYE ) Urgh. Potential, so much wasted potential. 


→ PLOT There isn't much plot. Alot of the story is filled in with pointless romance and it's such a shame. This is where, in my opinion, the book falls so short of the show. Instead of facing The 100 with the multitude of challenges the world offers, Kass Morgan instead just fills the book with 'fights' that last a chapter. The rest is just fluff. In an unknown world, where they must fight from forces they've never encountered to survive, most of the characters are worried about when they're next going to see their beau or belle. Most of this was just 'he kissed me, I kissed him, we snuggled' and any encounter with the actual, dangerous outside world is so short lived and over so fast it doesn't even feel like a threat. The "huge" ending battle of the book lasted just three short chapters. 


→ "FAKE" ACTION GIRL Time to talk about the females of the book. All of them, we're told, are so strong and brave. The thing is, we're told this but we're never SHOWN it. Bellamy constantly describes Clarke as being "fragile" when she speaks. He'll be like, "she'd never sounded so fragile" "she'd never sounded so scared" In fact, in one chapter he said she'd never been more fragile, then his next chapter she'd never been so vulnerable. IN conclusion: she spends alot of time sounding vulnerable/scared/fragile. He then says something like "but he knew Clarke was actually so strong/brave/capable" And I'm just ?? Where ?? He tells us this but we're never shown in. Clarke never stands up and actually does something brave or strong. Okay, she does save everyone with her medical training, but even while doing that she's crying or struggling and I just URGH. She doesn't lead, she doesn't stand up for anything - she just stands behind the boys and cries but don't worry!! She's really strong !! The same thing with Glass. She's supposed to be 'strong' but at every opportunity she'd hiding behind Luke and crying. Granted, she does drag him all the way back to camp which was impressive - but even doing that she's a mess. And both her and Clarke's 'strong' moments all revolve around their men. Like, okay better be strong to save this boy. Never for themselves, never just because they are? I just wish we'd had female characters who stood up and actually DID something. I mean, in this book we had the PERFECT opportunity for Clarke to go on a dangerous journey to find her parents and it never happened. She sat in a bunker and they came to her. Blergh. 
→ ROMANCE There's so much of it. SO MUCH. It's so unnecessary. Every interaction between a male and a female involves kissing/"I love you so much"-ing and laying heads on chests and just !! YOU'S ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING TO SURVIVE IN AN UNKNOWN LAND WITH NO RESOURCES WHERE BOTH PEOPLE AND ANIMALS ARE TRYING TO KILL YOU AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS GETTING LAID !!!!! I can't not get past characters (Sasha/Wells, Bellamy/Clarke) Telling eachother they love eachother sooo much they'd die for eachother after knowing them for 10ish days. How the hell do they even have time to get into relationships so fast ?? like damn. The romance is the killer of this story, so much time is dedicated to the love life of the characters very little else happens. It's so frustrating!! And it's not even that I'm AGAINST romance in these books, it's just that it's all there is, and here are teenagers fighting for their life but all they're talking about is how they couldn't possibly survive without their significant other. 




 I really feel like there books still can go so many better places. These books could have gone deep into the effect moving to an unknown planet has, how people react, how they survive, the hard choices they need to make and the challenged they face. We gets bits of that but it's so covered in by pointless romance and long-winded conversations about nothing we forget it's there. 
Then again, I read this 330+ page book in a few hours, so it wasn't all bad. They aren't terrible books, you are entertained by them. And they're written in 3rd person point of view which is a: getting rarer and rarer in dystopian book and b: my favourite way to read so that helps. 

I did enjoy this book, I think I'm just frustrated it could be more. There's a reason the tv show is widely more liked then the books and it's because the show goes all the places the book doesn't quite get to. -- It's a goddamn shame. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with these, it feels like I've given the books chances to please me and prove me wrong but it's not happened yet. I kind of just care about finding out of Kendall is alive. Sigh. 

Also, can we just talk about the cover? Why is Finn on it when he's not even in the books?

giorgia :)

My review is the same for basically the whole series: good, but as soon as i finished reading it i felt like nothing happened in the whole thing. plus bellamy and clarkes relationship happened like 2 seconds after meeting each other

Thaïs

Moins bien que les deux précédents mais quand même cool

Annabella

“You weren’t broken,” Bellamy said, his voice soft as a caress. “You were the strongest, most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. I still can’t figure out what I did to get so lucky.”

Julia Lotz

Inhalt: Der Kampf um die Freiheit – 100 Jugendliche wurden aus dem Weltraum entsandt, um die Erde neu zu besiedeln. Womit sie nicht gerechnet hatten: Auf dem blauen Planeten gibt es immer noch Menschen - Menschen, die die Neuankömmlinge um jeden Preis vertreiben wollen. Nun spitzt sich die Situation noch einmal dramatisch zu: Auf der Raumstation geht die Luft aus, und eine kampfbereite Truppe rund um den zwielichtigen Vizekanzler Rhodes landet auf der Erde. Die 100 geraten endgültig zwischen alle Fronten, von überall droht Gefahr. Und nur gemeinsam werden die Jugendlichen die Freiheit, die sie auf der Erde gefunden haben, verteidigen können. (Quelle: Verlag)
Meine Meinung: Ich war so froh endlich das bildhübsche Finale der Trilogie in den Händen zu halten. Zumindest bis ich erfuhr, dass dies gar nicht das Ende ist. Denn die Autorin hat die Reihe schlichtweg nochmals um einen weiteren Band verlängert. Dieser soll im Dezember zumindest auf Englisch erscheinen und ich bin gespannt, ob dieser ein Reinfall oder ein absoluter Erfolg wird. So bin ich nicht in der Erwartung als lesen gegangen, einen finalen Band vor mir zu haben und dafür wurde ich dann mit einem abgeschlossenen Ende erwartet, das uns die Entscheidung, ob wir die Reihe weiterlesen wollen oder nicht, wirklich nochmals erleichtern würde. 
Zu Beginn verlief die Handlung eher träge und ich kam nicht besonders gut ins Buch rein. Nach dem ersten Drittel verschärft sich jedoch der Konflikt und es kommt mehr Spannung auf. An den ersten und zweiten Band kann diese Spannung zwar nicht anknüpfen, dennoch habe ich mich sehr unterhalten gefühlt. Auch bei den Charakteren kann man gerade im Vergleich zum ersten Teil eine sehr große Entwicklung sehen. Glass rückt dadurch, dass nun alle auf der Erde sind ein wenig in den Hintergrund, was ich ein bisschen schade fand. Das Ende ihrer Geschichte kommt gefühlt schon nach der ersten Hälfte und man hat sich stattdessen mehr auf Wells, Bellamy und Clarke konzentriert. Auch die Rückblenden, die mir in den ersten Teilen sehr gefallen haben, wurden in Band 3 weniger. Gefehlt haben sie mir natürlich aber trotzdem hatte ich nie das Gefühl, dass mir diesbezüglich irgendeine Information gefehlt hätte. Die 100 sind voll und ganz auf der Erde angekommen und mit ihnen alle Erwachsenen. Da spielen die Erlebnisse auf der Arc nun keine allzu große Rolle mehr und es ist für jeden ein Neuanfang. Das sieht jedoch nicht jeder so und so kommt es in diesem Buch vor allen Dingen darauf an, seinen Platz zu finden.
Das Ende war ein bisschen ernüchternd aber wundervoll, wenn man sich noch nicht sicher ist, ob man die Reihe weiterlesen will oder nicht. Es ist eine für mich in sich abgeschlossene Trilogie. Dafür hätte das Ende zwar ein bisschen ausgeschmückter sein können, wir wissen allerdings, dass es mit den 100 weitergeht und das macht das Ganze nicht so schlimm. Alle diejenigen, die aussteigen wollen, finden hier aber auch den perfekten Moment um auszusteigen, was ich von der Autorin sehr gut gelöst finde. Für mich hat Heimkehr die Reihe insoweit perfekt abgeschlossen bzw. fortgesetzt. Es ist und bleibt ein sehr leichtes Buch, das nicht besonders anspruchsvoll ist und so super zwischendurch gelesen werden kann.
Bewertung: Heimkehr ist zwar ein bisschen schwächer, als seine beiden Vorgänger aber immer noch ein tolles Buch. Wer leichte Unterhaltung für zwischendurch sucht, kann bedenkenlos zum dritten Teil der Reihe greifen. Für alle die, die nach Band 3 aussteigen wollen und nicht weiterlesen möchtet, hält Kass Morgan ein nicht unbedingt grandioses aber dennoch zufriedenstellendes Ende bereit. Ich für meinen Teil werde allerdings weiterlesen und freue mich schon auf Die 100: Rebellion. 
Vielen herzlichen Dank an den Heyne Verlag für das schöne *Rezensionsexemplar.

Grace Holding

** spoiler alert **
           Well compared to the previous books this one at the end gets more interesting and becomes a page turner. Rhodes redeems itself and doesn’t actually meet the end I would have like, with how much I got to despise him, but at least he understood what being a community means and understood he need help from the first ones on earth, which is the best I can hope. Clarke reuniting with her parents and Sacha’s death really brought tears to my eyes, such a good plot. I’m actually excited to start the next and last one. As a side note, Glass has finally grew on me and actually like reading her pov, after everything she did for love, is so relatable.

Lila Harrison

Chelsea Hunter

I loved this book just as much if not more than the first two books in this series. I just can't get enough of Clark and Bellamy! Part of me hopes that this was the last book in the series, because it ended nicely and left me with no lingering questions; but I would love to still read more about these characters. I still loved Glass's perspective, although it was a little slower than the other three perspectives. I enjoyed Clarke's perspective and obviously Bellamy's perspective. One thing that I was really happy about in this book is that for whatever reason, I enjoyed reading Well's part. I feel that as a character he has grown from the first book. I still would have enjoyed reading in Sasha's perspective, but it was ok that there wasn't hers.

Kristina Masone

I feel like the focus of the book is more on the forced romance plot and less on what is actually going on around the main characters.

Merel Vanempten

** spoiler alert **
           This book had good Parts and bad Parts. I liked it but didn't love it. I really enjoyed Bellarke, they are cute and they really fit together. I also liked glass and Luke but the ending felt rushed for Them. All the struggle and then they are Just like oh yeah he's good end of story. 
And then… SASHA. I didn't even get the time to start to love her. Her death was rushed and really unnecessary. Okay her death Will bring out the leader in Wells but Sasha living did that too?!
Another thing that felt weird was the returning of Clarkes parents. We know nothing. NOTHING. And boom there they are in the middle of An important scene. IT didn't feel like the right time.
I feel like this book had lots of potential And didn't take it all. A lot of the Parts were not built up to or felt rushed. I still enjoyed it but it could've been better.

Elaine

This differed even more from the TV show. Don't get me wrong it wasn't bad, but it didn't have the real, gritty feel the show has. The ending was waaay to chliche in this book, everything feel into place too easily and some of the conflicts just dissapeared into thin air...I will still contiune the series as I only have one book left.

Laura Springall

The TV show is, in my opinion, a hell of a lot better than the books, and honestly I didn't even like the books that much before. But Homecoming made me fall in love with these characters! The character development was really amazing, and I really liked the new people that were introduced (Max for example). One of my favourite things about this series is the sense of community and belonging that the hundred built for themselves; I've always been a sucker for a band of misfits finding their way through each other and I think Morgan did a great job of writing that, especially in this last book.

2015 Reading Challenge: A Trilogy

Jacklyn O’Brien 

** spoiler alert **
           This was probably my favorite out of the series yet. I wanted to strangle Rhodes and felt for Wells when he lost Sasha. I love how great Bellamy's and Clarke's relationship is. This one was more action packed and I flew threw it. I found the ending to be very satisfying and final, so I'm not sure that I want to read the next one in the series. But I will obviously.

Hope Lenzen

Pretty disappointing ending but then again I prefer the TV show to the books.

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | 
  Endings and beginnings are inseparable, like the moment before dawn and the moment after.


I waited so long to get my hands on this bad boy and now that I have it, and have read it, I can't decide what I'm feeling. On one hand, I am glad to see how the series has improved in terms of... well, everything. 

Kass Morgan's writing is so smooth and fast paced, and remains delightful and action packed with every chapter. Everything that was flawed about the series' first two novels has vastly improved and I have really, quite a lot more than I'd expected, enjoyed watching it grow. While many may argue that the show is better than this series (I disagree--with the exception of the grounder plots, Clarke's sexuality and Commander Lexa, which FYI, I'm still in denial about her death but that's nether here nor there) I think that both are on even footing in terms of good vs. bad. 

That being said, Homecoming was originally intended to be the finale of the trilogy that was the books and I'm glad to say that it isn't. Morgan will be returning with a fourth installment--hooray! It would have been a mistake to end the book series so quickly because in terms of endings and closure, this book was pretty lackluster. Many fans disagree with me heartily on that note, that it was a solid end to the books, but hear me out: I just don't feel it as an ending and think Morgan can, and will, do better. It's been such a joy reading and seeing her work grow and come to life. As I've already said, the growth and improvement has been far more pleasurable than I'd ever anticipated. 

Continued: BOOKEDJ

D. D. &
Homecoming by Kass Morgan

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