Book Review March 18
Requiem
by: Lauren Oliver
★★★★ 4 Stars
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
I don’t know any better way to say it than, I was completely ‘let-down and disappointed’ with the ending of this book. Just the ending too. I was entranced from the beginning, dying in my pursuit to find out the end and that last chapter/page was like a slap in the face. I don’t know if I’m more disappointed with authors in this genre for often opting out of complete endings or even including an epilogue. The best way to describe it is to compare to the feeling when your favorite TV show gets canceled, mid-season, and all you want is one final episode, to wrap things up, but it never comes.
Don’t get me wrong, the entire book was
great. In the beginning I was bored and slightly annoyed with the altering POV
from Hana back to Lena. Eventually, Hana’s story pulled me in as well. But, was
finishing this book worth staying up till 3:30 A.M and feeling like a zombie
right now? Absolutely not. Up until the
end I would have given this book a complete and well-earned FIVE stars.
However, the end does not dilute all the awesomeness that precedes it so alas,
4 Stars, but ugh, it angers me that it came down to this.
At times I found myself comparing this
series to the Matched Trilogy. Both books are similar in the love triangle, joining
a resistance, running away from the ‘walls’ of their dystopian society. Though, at least the final book in that series
ends without as many questions.
I feel like this ending was an easy-out
for the author. Now it’s more like readers can each have their own happy ending
in their head however they wish to envision it. The author does not disappoint
anyone by having Lena pick one guy over the other or give a hint as to Fred’s
life/death, the rise/fall of the resistance or what will become of Hana. And
her mom, hello!!! But now I’d rather read the boring middle (filler) book in
the Matched series 10X’s over than feel so disappointed and cheated than I do
by Requiem.
Maybe now is not a good time to write
this review because I am still feeling so angry. The entire book was honestly,
really good. There was much more action than in Pandemonium and people kept
dying left and right. This book was a lot more intense than the first two.
Seeing things from Hana’s perspective were intriguing once they became more interesting
and dangerous. Soon after the the real Hana began to filter through. I was shocked to learn of her betrayal, but at
least she manned up and confessed the truth to Lena, even if she herself is now
a Zombie, I still am unsure at this point.
Overall
If you’ve read the series up till now,
then you have to finish. You’ve come so far. The book is worth it but again, I
warn you, the end will not answer your questions nor will it leave you with
that secret smile on your face when you’ve just read a great book. Instead you may feel like
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