Book: Half Lost
Author: Sally Green
Published: 31st March 2016
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 384
Rating: 3/5 stars
Rating: 3/5 stars
I'll temper this review by firstly stating that I loved the second book in this trilogy. Like, loved it. It's one of my favourite books from 2015. And I was set to love this book. Up until the last 50 or so pages, I did love it. But then everything went to shit. Like, seriously, I'll get on to that in a minute. The ending of this book will REALLY polarise fans of the series.
Now, I'm not saying don't read it, or don't start the series, because you might just love it, everybody likes different books and that's great. I'm all for diversity of tastes. However, I'm writing this review to express my specific opinion of the last book in the series. Whereas I gave the first and second books solid 4 and 5 star ratings respectively, I'm awarding this book 3 stars. And that's pretty much only because I liked the other books. If I hadn't enjoyed the first two books so much, this would be getting a 2 star rating.
Why the strong opinion, you might ask? Well, I feel it is impossible to review this book properly without giving away some particularly spoiler heavy details, so if you prefer to read the book without encountering spoilers, I would suggest you look away now.
Seriously, I'm basically going to spoil the end of the series, if that's not cool with you, go read the books first.
...
Okay, now onto the juicy stuff. I would normally stage this review by talking about my thoughts on the characters, the plot, the setting, the writing etc. But all of that is unnecessary in this review, because there are (only) 3 key things I strongly disliked about this book, and they all happen within the last 50 pages or so.
Picture the scene. Me, happily reading the conclusion to one of my (previously) favourite series, excited to see how the characters end up, hoping that Nathan (our protagonist) will have a happy life after his previous unfortunate years. Then BAM it hits. The ending. This is it. What will happen? Who will die? Who will live? How will Green wrap up this exciting series?
Oh. Is this it? This is a joke, right?
(1) Firstly, she kills off Gabriel. YES YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT FOLKS. The main draw of this series was the *unusual* decision by Green to make the main character (Nathan) bisexual, and introduce a love interest in the form of gay best-friend type Gabriel. Gabriel was great. He was kind, handsome, and an altogether good guy who gave Nathan some of his happiest memories. They *officially* got together in this book and were set to live by the river together somewhere peaceful. Or they would have done, had Gabriel not been quickly killed off (rather randomly) in the last few pages.
Which left me screaming to the heavens - WHYYYYYYY???
(2) Secondly, after Gabriel has departed this world (RIP Gabe), it is revealed that Nathan has a son (say waaa?), and Annalise is the mother.
Yup folks, previous father-murderer Annalise who we all wanted to kill ourselves at the end of the second book has apparently given birth to a baby in secret and it was kept from her whilst she was imprisoned etc. Oh yeah and she doesn't die in this book either. No, she gets to live in New York with her new fain husband and son (I guess??) while Gabriel is dead and Nathan is miserable. Exactly the ending I wanted - NOT.
(3) Nathan, miserable and distraught, goes off to live in the woods, by himself. For several pages. He is eventually joined by his brother Arran and Adele who give him a few gifts and continue to stop by occasionally to check on him. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, we are introduced to the ludicrous idea that because Nathan can transform himself into living animals, he can now adopt the shape of plants and trees (because they're living, I guess?). ERM WHAT. At this point, I think to myself, if he turns into a tree I'm so fucking done.
...
Yes, you guessed it. The novel ends with him becoming a tree. A literal tree. He watches over Gabriel's corpse. It would be poetic if it wasn't so FUCKING RIDICULOUS. Like, who at Penguin thought this was a remotely satisfying ending? (At least this explains the cover art, I suppose...)
As I say, some people will love this book and find it meaningful and poetic but I am not one of those people. I wanted to hurl my copy of the book out of the window as soon as I finished reading.
At the end of this book all I'm left with for my emotional investment, time and money is another dead gay kid (surprises there), a redundant child, and the adventures of tree-boy.
You couldn't make this shit up. Oh no wait, someone did and now it's a published book. Go figure.
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