The Fate of the Tearling

How do I talk about this book without talking about the ending? I'm not sure I can. I don't think the ending ruined the trilogy, or even this book. There's still a lot that I loved in it. But the ending overshadowed everything else. And being right at the end, it's the freshest in my mind.

I can't decide if I think it was lazy or not. It reminded me a bit of Breaking Dawn, where the whole story builds up to a conclusion that just doesn't happen because Stephenie Meyer didn't want to write it. Erika Johansen seemed to chicken out from writing the hard ending that her book was heading towards.

The part that really gets me is that it felt like such a bait and switch. Most of the chapters begin with epigraphs that seem to imply a very different ending than the one Johansen gives us. Recognizable characters, like Father Tyler and Glee, provide commentary on the events of this book as if writing about it with the benefit of hindsight. "Don't worry," these epigraphs assure the reader, "Kelsea wins in the end."

And then she doesn't. Or she doesn't win in a way that someone could write about all her actions and praise or condemn them. She changes the world so drastically that no one even remembers her. It feels cheap and lazy. Like Johansen wrote herself into a corner and couldn't find a way out.

Then again, maybe there's value in the metaphor. Maybe a teenager reading this book can relate to the idea that everything changes so drastically when you hit adulthood that it feels like you're starting over completely. You still have most of your life ahead of you, but you don't always have a script to follow anymore.

Or maybe I'm just allowed to be angry about this ending that seems to undermine that rest of the story completely.

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