Book Review: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search part 3

Book: Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search part 3 by Gene Luen Yang with illustrations and cover by Gurihiru and lettering by Michael Heisler

Edition: Paperback

Description:

The Fate of the Fire Lord!

Avatar Aang travels to the spirit world to parlay with an ancient power, bringing Fire Lord Zuko ever closer to discovering the truth about his mother's fate -- and his own past. Yet Zuko's sister Azula is becoming increasingly dangerous, threatening to ruin everything that Zuko Aang, Katara and Sokka have struggled to achieve on their search!



Rating: 1 star

Review:

This third and final part of The Search was even more disappointing than the first two. It's so poorly written and rushed. This part of the story opens with the Gaang still in the forest while showing yet again another fight with Zuko, Katara and Sokka against Azula. Meanwhile Avatar Aang returned from trying to find the spirit Mother of Faces to help Misu and Rafa, a sister and brother who had been waiting for years for the spirit's help.

Mother of Faces only grants one request a season and add to that it's hard to pinpoint where she will be to find her. Which makes it so important that when you do find her, you make your request in a timely manner. While Misu was in the process of stating her request, Azula interrupted to ask where her mother Ursa was. It may be a surprise to the characters where Zuko and Azula's mother is but not for the reader. Not only was it easy to figure out but the backstory for Ursa pretty much unveils everything leaving no surprises left for the reader. The question of whether Ozai is Zuko's father was also solved. I don't even see why this issue of Zuko's parentage was written into the story to begin with other than to add unnecessary drama for this lackluster story.

Disappointing is all I can think of in regards to this story and finding out how and why Ursa chose to disappear was truly anticlimactic. The way it's written, it not only makes her look awful but also as a bad parent. The first two parts already showed readers that she left supposedly to ensure Zuko's safety but fans of the series know he was constantly mistreated by his father so her leaving didn't really help him at all. And her actions in this third part makes it impossible to give her any sympathy for her choices. I don't want to spoil anything but Ursa made a decision that made it easier for her to move on with her life with absolutely no real consideration to her children.

In the end The Search was an extremely mediocre and rushed story that made me wish that Ursa's disappearance had remained a mystery. This story does a complete disservice to all the characters and not one of them received an ounce of character development. They were so out of character that they felt like nothing more than caricatures. I think Azula's poor treatment throughout all three parts was awful. Not only was she shown as extremely unstable and weakened but it was Zuko who got to have closure with Ursa. Azula may have been favored by Ozai she still suffered without her mother in her life, so it would have been nice if they had some sort of mother daughter bonding.

This was not a good read and with the artwork still being the best part, I'm hoping that the next three part arc The Rift will be an improvement for this series.