Hmmm… I’m not sure how I feel about this ending, granted I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first nor the second, this conclusion is different: right in some respects then not quite that in others. We finally begin to see reason behind every wrong thing Rhine and her sisters have had to endure. Some of it in fact I’m still getting my head around because I was (still am) waiting for the other shoe to drop, but there were explanations for most questions I had, could have had, should have had about Wither then Fever. Her past, a bit clear but less so than every one’s reasons for doing what ever it was they were doing. It’s the second that has her seeing beyond the labels that their actions have her putting on them. She sees beyond what she feels for them to more of the why’s of everyone: consider, the girl seeing all of them as more than just the misguided girl looking for -and needing- a place to belong, or the creepy ass guy looking for someone to love him back, or the terrifying monster of her nightmares. It’s clear they’ve each got reasons, but knowing them a little more didn’t make me dislike any of them any less. But, at least I understood them. Wait. At least, I was beginning to understand them…It’s with this same understanding that Rhine starts to think more then act more cautiously. It’s not all knee jerk, but think before you leap, though I do confess, some of her thoughts about their justifications had me reeling. Add that it’s not just me who’s reeling: they all are! Linden reveals a side of himself that’s less creepy (still creepy though) in the attachments he’s made, and how he’s grown given moments (milliseconds though they may have been) of conflict and questions on who was deserving of trust. Vaughn is not just her monster, but a man driven as most. Or Rhine for that matter, she is not just girl who’s lost her optimism... just like Madame from the creepy ass carnival is more than that too. All of them are like that! The curious (even disappointing) thing is how things still feel incomplete to me. How her brother is put into this story and what he’s been doing in the mean time. Putting them together as brother and sister became more and more difficult considering they had very little in common especially how they acted/reacted. Where she’s doubtful and suspicious… he was not any of those! There’s a reversal in ‘disposition’ (ha!) considering her memories of him and her, with her the optimistic and blindly hopeful one and him neither of those things. It’s an interesting/different ending, as we see them less the baddies and just people capable of good (no matter who small that good may have been) and yet still… hmmm.Consider me split.
