"Times are changing and Wugmorts must change with them, Vega." (Julius Domitar)
The Finisher might not be one of the best YA Fantasy books I've ever read and I'm not sure that it's entirely fantasy, but I had quite a lot of fun reading it.
The most delightful part of The Finisher is its main character, Vega Jane. Vega Jane is smart, witty and determined, but she's no Mary Sue. She impulsive, stubborn, arrogant and full of pride. She also doesn't take crap from anyone in her patriarchal and sexist village. Vega's a believable hero. She's brave and courageous, but she's also flawed. I was cheering for her! My favourite thing about Vega is her curiosity because it shows that she's smart and strategic. Vega's asks all the important questions and the way that she goes about finding answers suit her personality.
The secondary characters are nothing out of the ordinary, but they are compelling. Vega has friends, enemies, frenemies and acquaintances with questionable motives. There's Daniel Dephia, Vega's best friend, and he's such a sweetheart. However, I'm not on board with the fact that his stutter is magically cured after Vega makes him face what he saw when her grandfather had his Event. Harry Two is an adorable canine. Morrigon is an extremely interesting character and the mysteries surrounding her and her motives are intriguing. I didn't expect Thansius to be the type of character that he ended up being and Domitar grew on me.
The world building in The Finisher is good, but it's also confusing. The village of Wormwood exists in complete isolation and is surrounded by The Quag, a dark place filled with beast and monsters. I really got a sense of the atmosphere surrounding Wormwood and it's easy to understand how the village works. The monsters and beast are also imaginatively described and I could believe that the beasts present a great threat to the people of Wormwood. However, some parts of the world are extremely confusing. I couldn't believe that Vega is the only Wug in Wormwood who starts to question how Wormwood came about, what its purpose is, what's an Event and if there is anything beyond the Quag. I also couldn't really understand what was going on whenever Vega had those weird experiences at Stacks.
The linguistic choices that Baldacci made in the The Finisher is quite poor. In The Finisher, certain words are just replaced with different words e.g. slivers is minutes, sessions is years and Hel is Hell. The language that's used in Wormwood isn't expanded upon and it doesn't add anything to the world. It's just annoying and lazily done.
The Finisher is about 500 pages and at some points, especially during the middle, it drags. At first, I was digging the mystery surrounding Wormwood and The Quag and I had so many questions and theories. However, after reaching the three quarter mark, I got extremely frustrated because most of my questions weren't being answered and the mystery keeps on growing. I hope that some of my questions are answered in the sequel The Keeper. Also, the fact that Vega has magical objects that can bend to her will as well as magic that will do anything she wants, might make her an invincible hero and I've never read a book where that works well, plot wise.
The Finisher has a delightful main character and compelling secondary characters, but the world building and plot could be more developed.
"If I can't believe in myself, who can?" (Vega Jane)