What Happens In The Ending Of You Books Series?

While the specifics of this book have worn a bit thin on me, I recall enjoying the book for comfort reasons. While I’m not entirely sure the villain’s plan was brilliant or not, in the end the core family was safe, and the pack was healthy and strong after hundreds of chapters of struggle and toil. That in itself was a satisfying bit of emotional closure for me, and from an authorial perspective, it’s clear that Shaw does really great quiet moments of connection with his mates after the storms have passed. It’s that sort of ending, of domestic quiet and peace after long chapters of struggle, with a cup of tea by the fire and snow falling gently outside, that keeps me coming back for more. It’s a blanket in book form.

Going back to the title of the book again – ‘I Found You’. All of that happens in the past. The story is about how she found her, how she found safety, and how Katy found her memory. And now that has all happened. So the title becomes a sort of ghost that haunts the last pages of the book. It’s a clever and subtle framing of the story. It makes you think of it as a memory, a case, a story that has reached its most important point before you read the final page.

I have yet to read an edition with a definitive ending. Usually it’s: the queen shows the king their children and he weeps for mercy and grants her pardon. They live happily ever after. But occasionally I come across an edition of the 1,001 nights in which, after the frame tale has been told, Shahrazad requests leave to depart, and the king is so grateful that he allows her to depart in honor. The core of the story remains the same: a woman survives by telling stories. The stories within the frame simply cease and one is left with the triumphant image of her outwitting tyranny with her wits.

The last line of the female lead in the book is, ‘The sun is warm today.’ That simple line after so many chapters of life or death conflict brings to an end her long ‘lovesickness’ and finally her fear, and her realization of her return to safety brings her to simple happiness again. This happiness is based on her return to simplicity, to being able to notice the small sensory things to be able to live freely again as a human being. If you can feel the happiness of the ending by reading her last line ‘The sun is warm today’ and feel it deeply, then you have experienced the ending happily. However, if you just read the line and think ‘That’s it?’, then the ending may not have worked for you. The ending is very subtle and focuses on the character.

The ending was a masterclass in payoff for all the cool science setup earlier in the book. First, Watney manages to grow potatoes using nothing but his own waste. Then he survives explosions left and right. Finally, in the thrilling orbital rendezvous, Commander Lewis and the rest of the Hermes crew return to Earth against the orders of NASA to rescue him from space. The route they take to reach him is a slingshot around Earth. The method that Mark Watney uses to launch himself from the surface in his modified Atmospheric Processor (MAV), known as the Rich Purnell Maneuver after the astrodynamicist who came up with it, is terrifying in the many, many ways it could fail and kill him. But in the end it works, and he flies through space in a suit with a hole in it, steering by shifting his position in the suit. It’s Iron Man-like. After that it’s a relief to be back with the Hermes crew and to read about their return to Earth and Watney’s recovery from his ordeal. The ending is also marked by a very quiet and perfect epilogue to the book in which Mark Watney is left to appreciate life in a park with a nice green grassy area around him. The theme of survival in A Space Odyssey-esque story like this is not that it’s all about science, it’s about to fight to keep your life against all odds using your spirit and tenacity to do so.

I’ve seen this book compared to others like ‘One Day’ and ‘The Last Letter from Your Lover’ but this is a sunnier book. Yes, there is grief and the couple are separated for most of the year but this is not a sad book. The growth of both characters during their time apart is satisfying to read and the ending is bright and looks to the future. There’s none of the feeling of ‘we lost so much time’ and had to rush back to each other. Instead there’s a sense of ‘look how much we gained while we were apart and we can bring that with us’. It’s a good twist on a separated lovers reunite book and it’s been done well. The whole book is very much focused on the present and future and not the past, which is great to read. The final pages practically glow with optimism and it’s a feel good ending that doesn’t feel cheesey.

I also appreciated that the author never turned Sylvie into the bad guy that she was to Harriet, or that Harriet became the self-righteous, spoiled prig that Sylvie perceived her to be. Both characters were right. And both were wrong. I found both of them very sympathetic at times and very annoying at times. The author did an excellent job of writing a story that does not require the reader to take sides with either character. Their final conversation is pure mutual understanding, and it clarifies exactly why they cannot continue to be together. That is life. Their ending was excellent because it was so painful and it felt so true and earned. Neither plot device nor character assassination was used to bring about the conclusion of their relationship.

I need to go pick up my daughter from camp but I wanted to share this with you first. I just finished reading “The Personal Librarian” by the authors Vanessa Riley and Townsand Hall. This book is a masterpiece of emotional restraint. After decades of Belle (the main character) pretending to be white to build JP Morgan’s library of books, the book ends with Belle walking through the library, touching the few things she was able to acquire. The authors never go there with her in terms of romance, with her family, etc. Never. Her professional legacy is the thing that thrives under her secret. What I found particularly fascinating in The Personal Librarian was the contrast between Belle’s public successes and her private losses. The final chapter of the book is set many years after Belle’s passing and shows how even decades after the event, systemic racism can continue to affect a person’s ability to compartmentalize their life until the very end. And there is no justice for Belle in the book, only the dignity that she managed to create for herself. It is a very unusual historical novel, and it has left me wondering how many other Belles there have been that history has erased. The lack of fanfare at the end of the book is part of what has lingered with me long after I finished reading.

Pouring tea and waiting for someone to note the glaring omission of the Percy Beauchamp/Amaranthus plot from the later books. That whole can of worms would have added another season or so to the show’s run. The show’s ending was cleaner and neater, which is great I suppose. The books on the other hand, are a glorious, messy, overgrown garden of plotlines. Which is better to read? A neatly trimmed hedge or a wild and unchecked adventure through said garden of plot?

In terms of character development, the protagonist goes through a change as well. The silence which once was oppressive and heavy, a sort of prison made of unspoken words, is no longer a problem by the end of the book. In a quiet atmosphere while looking at old photos, the protagonist and their parent share a new sort of silence. This is no longer a silence between them, but rather a place they can both be in. The ending of the story resides in the last line of the book: “We sat together, in a silence that was no longer something between us, but a place we both inhabited.” There is a huge difference between silence and speech. The protagonist’s journey went from trying to break oppressive silence filled with unspoken words and pain to being able to shared comfortable silence with their parent while looking at old photos. The goal of the book wasn’t for the protagonist to say everything to their parent. Rather, it was to change the quality of silence that they shared together, and to make that silence a place that they both could reside in. That is a much more realistic and powerful form of healing.