Ohmygod guys. Ohmygod.
Okay. Everybody. Stop what you're doing. And traipse on over to your favorite local book store (or Amazon. if that's your thing. And by thing I mean, it's either too late or you're too lazy to leave your house, no judgments here). And buy this whole series. Because that was a pretty damn stellar completion.
Okay, spoiler thicket ahead. Caveat Emptor (Caveat Reador??).
Well, the second book in the Chaos Walking series didn't thrill me, I could see how it was basically all a set-up for this spectacular finale. I cried. A lot. My roommate judged me more than a little bit. (I also was crying in the middle of the University Center on campus -- welcome to a reader's life, amirite?)
I don't want to ruin anything for you, so I'm going to try to keep my spoilers in check, but wow. Wow. I have a lot of feelings right now, okay??
First of all, I loved the inclusion of 1017's perspective. It really gave a complete view of the Spackle (or Land, as they prefer to be called. And wow, perfect allusion to Native People's struggles because that is very similar to most tribes and how they call themselves one thing and conquerors call them something else.)
I found it interesting that Ness added a new perspective every book. Because that seems really indicative of life. When you're young, you can really only focus on how you perceive things then as you get a little older, you can often examine another person's experience. We hear "Take a walk in someone else's shoes. Think of how they're feeling, etc. etc.". Then I think if it matters to you, if being empathetic is important to you, you can begin seeing through a lot of people's eyes. You get to understand things better.
And I love that Ness has the younger people be capable of this. The adults are the ones wanting war, saying "it's not that easy. you have to be the higher power before you can negotiate, blah blah blah" when all the younger generation really wants is peace. How fantastic. Because when you're young and adults are telling you that you don't understand something, you always want to say, no, you don't understand. Ness made it so that really the adults were who didn't understand.
Holy cow, there was so much emotion in this book. I'm so glad that Ness maintained the integrity of Todd and Viola's relationship. He didn't sacrifice their relationship to the unnecessary love triangle gods. He let them have the love they deserved. I loved how 1017 wanted revenge so badly because that seemed really true to life. How could you not want revenge when all your people are killed? When the person you love most in the world is taken from you? And I loved how even when Bradley hated the decisions Viola was making, Bradley still loved her.
Argh, I could seriously talk about this series all day long. How have I not seen more devotees to this series??
Favorite Quotes: "Because he knew he was doing wrong.He felt the pain of his actions--but he did not amend them."
"If this is what Todd and I would do for each other, does that make us right? Or does it make us dangerous?"
"Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible.[...] To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts."
"Do we hate paradise so much we have to be sure it becomes a trash heap?"
"Why can't we learn to live with how we are? And whatever anybody chooses is okay by the rest of us?"
Also, I guess I get +2 for the third book in a series and +10 for a series completion, so that brings me up to...18 points total.
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