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The Finisher by David Baldacci

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): The city of Wormwood is the only place Vega Jane, her brother John, and fellow Wugmorts (villagers) have every known. When Vega's mentor at work suddenly disappears leaving Vega a map of the Quog (area that surrounds Wormwood), her entire world view comes crashing down when she finds out that most of what she thinks she knows is built on lies.

Category: YA

Why I chose this book: Sounded interesting as I was looking for audio book to listen to

My personal opinion (the review): I have mixed feelings about this book. Vega Jane is an interesting enough character and most of the story line works fine, but there were also so many unanswered questions that I just felt frustrated. The how and why of all of her after hour trips to Stax never get explained and the way that she discovers her "powers (I'm not even sure what that is supposed to mean) and her special tools just don't work right. I liked the characters of Delph and Duff but almost everyone else fades into one lump sum of drinking, crass men. It seems that there are only a dozen or less women in the story (And Baldacci's use of "male" and "female" to refer to people became really annoying for me.) I'm interested enough to keep listening to the second story, but overall it's not one that I would recommend.

Warnings
Language: A dozen or more instances of hell, bloody (as in bloody hell, etc), and I think there were one or two damns
Violence: Lots - minor/moderate graphic fight scenes 
"Adult" situations: None
Death: Yes, not main characters

Movie rating equivalent: Probably R for language and violence

Protagonist description: Vega Jane just wants to do right for herself and her brother John, but when things start to spiral out of control she isn't afraid to ask hard questions and do what it takes to find the answers. 

Point of view of story: 1st, Vega

Book length: Long

Story flow: Relatively smooth, however I feel that some parts were not needed (having Vega fight in the duelim didn't really do anything to further the plot except show Vega's ability to reason things out combined with quick thinking in the moment. 

Grammar and spelling issues: There are some alternate words used. Wug=human/villager, sliver = minute, Noc = moon, session = year, day = light, 

Character connection (no spoilers): I'd love to know more of Morrigone's past and Duff's future.

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