Wildwood Imperium Review

Wildwood Imperium is the final book in the Wildwood Trilogy by Colin Meloy. It takes place about 2 months after the end of the second book. Prue is continuing on her journey to find both machinists to accomplish the mission given her by the Counsel tree of the North Wood and Curtis’s sisters are with the Unadoptables on their own mission to rescue their friends.

I gave this book a 2 out of 5 stars. I found this book to be very upsetting. After one whole long second book just setting the stage for this one, it felt like forever before anything really happened to move the plot forward. Furthermore, Curtis didn’t even show up until almost 70% of the way through the book. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is still whimsical and fun with a Narnia feel; but the story line is major lacking. Furthermore, the ending doesn’t resolve everything, left a lot to be desired and did something that I just didn’t like. As I have said of the first two books: this is just too long at almost 600 pages, especially with a flimsy plot line that doesn’t get full resolution.

I still liked Prue and found her to be an interesting character and thankfully I started to like Curtis’s sisters more (which was helpful as they played a much bigger role in this book). The characters were definitely a good point for the story as they really stood out and are memorable.

But even with the good points, I just couldn’t like this one. For me, if the story line flounders and the plot just doesn’t work, I can’t call it a good book or enjoy it. So I am very disappointed with this one.

Overall it is my opinion that it would have been better if the first book was rewritten to be a stand-alone.