By Cynthia Ayala

The Mogadorian’s have invaded, and The Garde is growing in numbers. Together with a band of teenagers from across the globe, they are working to stop the Mogadorians. But as with most wars, there is betrayal and lost at every corner. Can they win or will the Mogadorians break them and control Earth?

Published June 28, 2016, United as One by Pittacus Lore is the final novel in his best-selling young adult series printed by HarperCollins following a group of teenagers sent to Earth to fight the alien invasion that left their home world destroyed.

There has been a lot of tension driving this novel. It picks up right where the previous novel left off and it’s very heavy handed. There is a lot of dimension in the novel as it brings these characters to life with the effects of the war and being thrust into it. They were children when they lost everything they ever knew and now these kids are just teenagers who are losing everything the things they love. Children should never be forced to grow up as fast as the kids were forced to in this novel and the series as a whole. That adds a lot of depth to the characters within the plot that is both tension driven as well as character driven.

This is young adult invasion lit that follows the basic premise of an alien invasion but it’s how the story is presented to the audience and how the characters are written that gives it depth. The characters grow, the story is affecting them making them very realistic characters creating an air of believability for the reader. These are characters that grow on the reader because they are relatable. Lore brings them to life in the novel and considering how many of them there are, he gives them each distinct personalities. And not all of them are pretty, but they are relatable. Which makes for good storytelling and enjoyable reading.

But as stated before, it’s a heavy handed novel, there many of twists and turns as the story progresses. There are times where it’s obvious that the author is dragging out the story to build the tension. Now it’s not necessarily bad since it doesn’t slow down the pace the novel as a whole, and it makes sense so it is well done. The whole series opened up many questions and this novel had to answer them all. Some of them weren’t clean cut and they left the reader wondering if the writer actually intended for the story to go in this direction. But it doesn’t take away from the overall story because as a whole it does work and more importantly the story doesn’t fall apart. There are parts of the story that could have been put together and packaged neater to better fit into the first few novels. But the novel closes the door very well. The ending it put together very well and there are a plenty of sad moments followed by some happy moments in the novel and it’s not neat. Nothing is perfect in this new world order and leaves room for realism to imagine what this new world is going to be. As an ending it brings everything to a proper conclusion with plenty of bang and surprises (★★★☆☆ | B+)