This is book three of an imaginative and compelling, unique and weird trilogy. Cornpunk. I cannot imagine anyone could read the first one without needing the second one, or both without needing this one.

Sometimes, it is hard to pick up a story this long after reading the last one. Not so with this trilogy. I had no trouble, and my memory is...questionable, shall we say. Wendig's characters have angles and pointy parts that tend to stick with you. Take that as encouragement or warning. Either way, be wary of Hiram's Golden Prolific! ( )

3 1/2 this series was pretty okay but it did not strike me as much as basically everything else of Wendig's I've read. I love the seed of Invasive there at the very end. ( )

A surprisingly good conclusion to the trilogy. After the second book's cliffhanger (literal, in this case,) I was kinda surprised to come back a year in and full of massive character changes. Maybe not personality changes, but when you come back full of blight and light and you're kinda like the Green Man or Swamp Thing and the rest of the world has gone to s**t in war, what can you really expect?

Changes. Indeed. And all told, I enjoyed this conclusion quite a bit. It still has that YA feel but we went from farm life to a life on the run in the dirt and a different kind of run in the clouds to full entrenchment and embittered enemies in the skies in this one.

I *mostly* thought it was great. I did have some slight issues with the near deus ex machina world-killer ending, but not with the actual resolution. I'm glad I finally read this. The imagery will absolutely stick with me. Plant monsters and mechanical men and all. :) ( )

"That's life in the Heartland," they say. And they say it when life is hard and terrible and there's nothing they can do about it but go on. Welcome to a dystopian world where Heartlanders live on the ground and tend the genetically modified corn, while the Empyreans who live in floating cities high above them make all the rules and reap all the benefits. Welcome to a world where even growing tomatoes can get you arrested or killed and where the corn can't be eaten and is out for your blood.

Something I particularly liked about these books was the language. It's very... in-your-face. Nobody vomits, instead people puke. They endure piss-storms. It's a plain language, that makes a great deal of sense for a group of people who have been denied any education and who spend their lives surrounded by hardship. They don't make anything fancy; they deal with life as it is. ( )

5/5 stars
You can find all of my reviews here.
*Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is the final book in the Heartland Trilogy and I can honestly say that this has become one of my favorite series I’ve ever read. Wendig has an interesting writing style that manages to make me care about characters, even secondary ones. He seems to understand people and in my opinion he made everyone equally complex. It’s a series I just want everyone to read so I can babble on about it with them. Seriously I’m dying inside to say my favorite parts but I’ve made a promise to myself not to spoil anything from even the previous books. No my job with this review is to convince you that from book one to the finish it is a great adventure and one that you should give a chance. And I know what tons of people will say: “You read this book for free, how can I trust that you would have liked it the same if you paid for it?!” To that I say shut up, I was actually thinking about buying a hardback set for my bookshelves until I remembered I redid my room and I don’t have any right now, but rest assured it is worth the money in my opinion.

I actually started off giving this book 4 stars and then I sat there for a while and really thought about it, why?! It was good, it wrapped things up enough to satisfy me and in a way I don’t feel as cheap. Wendig treats his characters like real people, yes they may have strengths, but they also have major noticeable flaws. It’s not like many books classified as Young Adult that the main character seems to be some superhuman creature. It has diversity, speaks volumes about how those different from you aren’t automatically bad and those like you aren’t always good, but rather that you judge each individual person on the content of their character. It was just good in every way I can think of looking back and even made me think at times. I changed my rating to 5 stars and I believe it earned all of them. Of course if you read this and don’t enjoy it don’t be made at me, we all have different tastes but this book happened to align perfectly with mine. I’m considering looking into some of Wendig’s past books now.

And since I’m dying inside not getting to post some of my favorite quotes I’m going to hide them, they don’t give huge plot points away or anything but I know I personally love to experience a book for myself and I don’t want to take that away from anyone. Note: They may hold no significance out of context.

She’s a house on fire, a whole cornfield—hell, she’s all the world, burning so bright that the dark never settles, that the night becomes a memory, a myth.

I can feel you. I can find you.

“I’m sorry I convinced you I was someone I was not. I’m just as selfish as everyone else. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I want what I want, and that outweighs any sense of blame." ( )