Review: Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta

Title: Quintana of Charyn (Goodreads)
Publisher: Viking Australia / Candlewick (US)

Source: Gift

Publication Date: 26 Sept 2012 (Australia) / 23 April 2013 (US)
Series or Standalone: Series

ISBN: 0670076244

Format: Paperback

Pages: 516

The Author on the Web:

Melina Marchetta - Official Site

Melina Marchetta - Blog

Melina Marchetta - Twitter

Place(s) Traveled to: The World of Skuldenore: Lumatere // Charyn

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

First Line: There's a babe in my belly that whispers the valley, Froi. I follow the whispers and come to the road.

Lumatere Chronicles Series Order

Book 1: Finnikin of the Rock

Book 2: Froi of the Exiles

Book 3: Quintana of Charyn 

From the moment I finished Froi of the Exiles I couldn't wait to get my hands on Quintana of Charyn and I was crushed when I learned that it wouldn't be available in the US until March of 2013. With the way Froi ended that seemed like an eternity to wait, fortunately it came out in Australia at the end of 2012 and I had a friend who was susceptible to begging in order to get myself a copy sooner than the US release. I barely had the box open when I pulled out Quintana and started to read it. There was none crazy anxiety that I sometimes feel when it comes to the final book of a series because I just knew that Melina Marchetta wouldn't let me down. That she would end this series just was well as she started it. Though in that belief I was wrong. 

Because Quintana of Charyn was better than I could have ever hoped it would be. 

I devoured this book in a day once I started it I only put it down when real life events (like eating) couldn't be ignored. I laughed and I cried while reading this book and time just flew by. Before I knew it I was at the end and my heart had broken a hundred times and then healed a hundred and one. There were so many beautifully heartbreaking and heartwarming  that its impossible to catalog them all. I adored each and every event and every word that was written. 

Quintana is a book that once I finished it I found myself going back to the beginning and then reading over some of my favorite scenes and moments. All of my favorite characters had their POVs told. Though I hated how Marchetta would often end a chapter/POV on a cliff hanger type moment and then the next chapter would move to someone else. But it was those moments that made it impossible to put the book down. There was always something new to know.

I wish that Quintana could have gone on forever. That this wasn't the last book in a series. I could easily read another 500 or 1000 pages in this world. But at the same time, as a reader, I couldn't have asked for a better end to a series. Marchetta hits all the right notes and ends things in such a way that there is still so much possibility. All these characters that you get to know and love become so real by the end of this book that you can picture just were they will end up even though the final word has been written. 

If you've been waiting to read this series then you need to stop and pick it up now. Its just so well plotted out that I am sad that I can't re-experience it all again for the first time. I do know though, that this series and I will be visiting with each other often. Its not a perfect series but it is a series that touches you and never really leaves.