inherentlysleepy's reviews
211 reviews

"Take down the walls."

Wait, WHAT? I stayed up all night, in the wee hours of morning, just to read Lena tells me, Take down the walls?

I'm so confused. Did Lauren run out of ink or something while writing Requiem's resolution? I was just told that Raven died, the bomb exploded, Hana ran, and Lena and Alex kissed. All of a sudden Invalids are a "joyful throng" taking down the walls?

I AM SO LOST. Don't I deserve something more than vagueness? :(

--additional thoughts coming up later as I gather my shit together. *rages off into the Wilds*--

okay here it is *sigh*

Delirium held a promise (I loved it). Pandemonium held even a much heavier promise (I loved it even more imgunnacri).

I don't understand, after all the angst, all the fighting and dying and resurrection and tension, the build up went suddenly into a halt- as if my best friend in kindergarten offered me a candy, but instead decided not to give me anything at all. I was not left hanging on a cliff; in fact I was fighting- dying, even- alongside the characters. But in the middle of it all my director suddenly ordered us actors and the staff to pack up- it's over. No explanation after.

There were just so many issues left unjustified: Yes, I was mainly rooted in the Alex-Lena-Julian love triangle, and yes for all I care that's what kept me reading. But whatever happened to Hana? I thought it was interesting to hear her POV as a Zombie, but i didn't see the need to everything she found out about Her future husband. It just didn't add depth to the whole story. Her last chapter says she went off through the back door, and heard a booming in Fred's house (did he even die?), and ran into nowhere wearing her wedding dress. Whatever happened to Raven? Of course she died, but her death wasn't given much attention considering how huge her character was. I love Raven, I was expecting i would cry but I didn't (she's friggin pregnant too!!!) And Tack? Oh poor Tack. I can't imagine. Annabel, who was no better than a walking piece of a scarecrow- having read her short story before Requiem I expected more. Literally MORE. And whatever happened to Lena's aunt, uncle and Rachel? That didn't matter too? And Julian? I resent him in Pandemonium but he's definitely developed more than anyone did in Requiem; it made me empathize with him a little more. Poor thing, though, he had to be Lena's "spare parts" during the whole process. Alex was awful throughout. But DANG, the Alex in Delirium kept coming back. I'm still in love him. And Lena, my god. She was the most heinous among the Invalids. She's become interesting in Pandemonium, I can't wrap my head around why all of a sudden her way of reasoning had become so off, she's become so whiny and stubborn and bitchy. It's like she went backwards, all of a sudden, after gaining her hundred percent. And whatever happened to the whole Resistance? Suddenly they became this "joyful throng", lined up like a firing squad against the boarder, smashing and clawing the wall down. Did they win the war? Did the war end at all? Whatever the government did? As to who Lena chooses between Alex and Julian, I think she pretty much gave away a poignant thought right before the last chapter. But still, poor Julian.

There are so many ways of putting an end to a story, and I understand how hard it must be. A resolution can make or break the whole story, after all. But what I can't accept is that after all the whips and waves and shits that Lauren put in the trilogy, with so much to her beautifully written prose (no doubt), the resolution to the whole thing came off lazy, anticlimactic and too ambiguous which contradicts the poignancy of the narrative. Suddenly, on its last page, Lena has become a poet and a preacher and a public speaker all at once.

I am sad, Requiem is a destination that didn't live up to its thrilling journey.

The trilogy didn't deserve that. The readers didn't deserve that.

I think I will always be confused. I will always be frustrated.

(2.5*)

~~~

So, after sleeping for barely 5 hours, and clearing my head, i went back to the last few paragraphs of the book and studied if I was groggy and all wrong the first time I read it. Only to find out that I wasn't wrong in my first impression at all. Just why. Why does this have to happen? *SOBS* I came to love every bits of the characters, their flaws, their shadows, the whole idea that love is nothing but a gnawing disease, the Resistance, but instead I was given THAT kind of ending. I feel robbed, cheated. I WILL NEVER GET OVER THIS

I feel so relieved. Just wonderful. Wow.

Full review will be up on my blog http://portraitofdust.wordpress.com