Author: Lauren Oliver
Format: Finished Copy
Pages: 391 pages
Genre: Young Adult (Dystopia)
Publisher: Harper Collins
Date Published: March 05, 2013
Amazon | Book Depository
Summary (from Goodreads)
As her country erupts in open rebellion, Lena fights for the resistance and must make a heartbreaking choice between two loves.Review:
After saving Julian from a death sentence, Lena escapes with him and other members of the resistance. But as she embraces her love for Julian, a boy from her past returns and causes her to question everything.
In the meantime, Lena's best friend, Hana, is engaged to Portland's young mayor and is living a safe, proscribed, loveless life. The story is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view.
As Lena struggles to save the people she loves, everything comes to a head in this exciting finale to Lauren Oliver's epic trilogy. REQUIEM is a sophisticated, wide-ranging novel that explores the large issues of society, government, and resistance, and of course, there is romance.
As much as I would love to rave about the ending (because the series as a whole was really enjoyable) I just can't help but think that that was probably one of the most underwhelming series endings I've ever read.
The writing pattern was still switching between Hana and Lena, something that I really liked because it showed two sides of the same situation with Hana representing life within the Cureds and Lena's life in the Wilds. Both stories interested me enough, surprisingly, considering the fact that Hana doesn't really have an active hand in either side. She was just a trapped spectator.
Also, I thought Lena was back to her "weak" stage after all the significant improvement she had in Pandemonium. I thought it was because Alex' sudden reappearance brought back some unresolved issues, not to mention her suspicion that he and Coral were getting too cozy. So many things happened in a short span of pages that it felt a little watered down and it's impact lessened. Lu's betrayal to the group, the appearance of Lena's mother and Alex' sudden disappearance would've given the story more depth if only a little more time were spent on it.
Even the revelation of Hana's betrayal was a little bleak, and the way Lena handled it wasn't how I expected the "new" Lena to handle it though I guess it was also the fact that she might've missed her best friend that's why she couldn't act out any aggressively. What Hana did pretty much ruined Lena, and all she got was a measly slap on the face? The new Lena would've fought her, regardless of their previous status.
Alex and Lena's newfound affection for each other wasn't explored at all in the end, something that I found to be terribly disappointing on it's own. After all the build-up from the first two books and the introduction of Julian, the culmination that it got was "Do you still love me?"...I seriously found it be very underwhelming.
All in all, it was very vague and open-ended. I haven't read any review of it anywhere that doesn't state this. A "requiem" is supposed to be the culmination of something great and I felt like i got served cold pie.
Rating: ♚♚♚
No comments:
Post a Comment