Book Review- Mistborn: The Well of Ascension

I finally finished the second in the Mistborn Trilogy, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. For all the things I have going on this actually went by fairly quickly, but I sincerely felt like this one took forever to get through.  My friend who has already read the trilogy told me that it was her least favorite of the three books, and I am really hoping I feel the same way once I read the third book. I realize I’m giving off negative vibes right now, which really isn’t fair because I did enjoy the book. Here are some reasons I just didn’t like it as much as the first.

Vin is a strong female character, and I feel like the introduction of a love interest for her was inevitable. I don’t appreciate the fact that it seems like this is the sole focus of the second book. I don’t enjoy spending countless pages on angst. Then the author went and introduced something else that I just am kind of over in literature, the love triangle. It was short lived, but it was still there. When so much of the book focuses on Vin’s romantic interest I feel like it takes away from the things that would make her an admirable female role model.

This next complaint is going to be totally unlike me. Sometimes tragedy is part of what makes a book good. I’m not going to present any spoilers, but I will say that a traumatic event happens to the main character. What I found annoying about it was that magic saved the day, and everything worked out like a dream come true. Normally, I’m a sucker for a good happy ending, but I was kind of cheering the author on for doing what he did. Then he went and took it back. Made it all better. This is a really bad comparison, but it’s almost like when Dumbledore died in Harry Potter. No one wanted him to really be gone, but it was a really good part of the books. We are better people for it. It helps us relate that everyone has to deal with loss at some point or another.

If you read my review on Mistborn: The Final Empire then you can tell my opinions between book one and book two are conflicting. I’m going to take a break or two from this trilogy before I start the third one. I think this will help me to clear the bad taste in my mouth and give it a fresh look.

Have you read this series? Do you like it? Do you not like it? Tell me your opinions!