Book 15: The End of the Beginning
Star rating - ★☆☆☆☆
POV – Inez and Caretakers
Would I read it again – NO!
SERIOUSLY?! I MEAN, SERIOUSLY?!
After everything I went to, just to push myself towards this ending, it did not just end on a CLIFFHANGER! And, yes, the shouting is required!
In case you didn't notice before, I HATE Inez, in the strongest possible way. So much that just seeing this would be in her POV I wanted to throw my Kindle away and never look at it again. But, I read it. I read it and I was furious the entire way through. Rightfully!
Now this?
No. That is my review for this story. NO. Because I didn't go through all of this just to be abandoned in a dark tunnel with some mysterious secret behind a door, a dead person come back to life, and no answers! No.
To make it worse, Inez became the “leader” only because no one dared stand up for Holden when he was treated like dirt. And what happens? First day on the job she gets someone killed, needlessly, and ends up proving in every possible maneuver and decision that she cannot be a leader. If things had been left in Inez' hands, they would ALL be dead well before now. She's reckless, can't see the bigger picture, too wrapped up in herself to see sense and she treats everyone like dirt. That is NOT a leader and the very fact that she was represented as one since the beginning of this series is one of the reasons I won't be following it into Season 2. Because it's just plain stupidity to make a dislikeable, ugly character the leader, the main POV and to make everyone else idolise her.
A true leader – like Holden has been, even when everyone turned against him – makes the tough decisions that no one else can face even contemplating. He does it, whether everyone else likes it or not, because it has to be done. He doesn't stop to panic or second guess it; he just gets it done. And he lives with the nightmares, the consequences and the darkness it puts inside of him. But he does it regardless. If Inez had been in Holden's shoes from day 1, she would never second guess his right to lead this group. NO ONE else could do it the way he has.
Quite honestly, I was hoping that they were all going to die, just to spare me from reading any more of Inez' diatribe. Leave Holden, Loki, Nevaeh, Sunita and Umta alive. You can kill the rest, because they're useless and pointless.
And...I'm done. I'm so, so done. I actually wish I'd never started it, that I didn't bother investing my time and my heart to some of these characters, because what is the point? With Inez the golden child everyone is going to die anyway and there will be no one to care about anymore. So, why? Why keep going?
~
Favourite Quote
“Holden walked away. But he didn't slink with his shoulders stooped. He walked with gritty confidence, looking around the room with his head held high.
She should have hit him harder.” ← This, this is the reason I love Holden. Because although Inez physically hit him in front of everyone – people who should have but didn't even care to step forward in protest – he can still walk around with his head held high, because he did the right thing. Inez should be ashamed in this moment, because she should see just why Holden is right, that he's the real leader of these people, willing to do anything that's needed and, in the end, he's going to be the only one left alive.
~
OVERALL SERIES REVIEW
I have an issue with the lack of balance within POV's. Some characters get multiple parts to tell their POV, even when it's not strictly necessary or interesting, while others don't get any at all. There are much more interesting characters who we haven't gotten the POV for at all and some that we haven't had for a long time. Despite the need for it in some parts, I really think there's a lack of consistency within the series. Perhaps this is due to so many writers taking part, but it could also be an editing issue, e.g. one person doesn't read through every single story, as we readers do, to check for continuity and consistency.
My other issue is with Holden. From part 1 he was a strong leader, a great POV to read and a very important character. Yet, very quickly he became ignored, ostracised and overlooked for having “wild” and “out there” ideas that were too hysterical and ridiculous for the others to entertain. Yet, even after being proven right time and time again, he's still treated the same way. No one gives him the respect or credit he deserves after being the only character consistently with his head screwed on straight. And, quite frankly, he brought Umta into the fold and no one thanked him for that, because without her – and indeed, without Holden in most cases – they'd all be dead. They'd have been dead a long time ago.
Inez really bothers me. I hate her and have hated her with a passion since she first entered the story. It's not necessarily the character herself that bothers me, but she doesn't belong in this story. The minute she and Teddy entered this series it began slipping further and further downhill. She walked in and immediately took over and, despite being a stranger who didn't accept the danger of the caretakers – a hard truth everyone learned when people started to die because they hadn't listened to Holden – they all accepted and encouraged it, giving HER the leadership respect and responsibility that belongs to Holden. It makes NO sense.
This series began with continuous 5 stars, from me, and it's become...unrecognisable. I'm actually so disgusted by how it's been turned around by stupid, useless Inez that I haven't wanted to read another page since she first appeared. I don't know why things got so turned around, but I went from loving this series to hating it.
Log in with Facebook 
