What did you guys think of the last book?

[sherrilina]

Hi! I'm so happy to have found this community, as I've rediscovered my love for this series because of the movie coming out, and also because I *finally* finished the series a few weeks ago (I had never finished the last book, kind of put it down after the climactic bit and never picked it up again until now, since I wanted to know the end before

Comments

[stitchfrequency]

I'm not so much "torn" about the ending as I'm just...not sure what to think about it, haha.

The whole circle of destiny thing is still a bit of a mindfuck for me. I just can't wrap my mind around how even if Darren did manage to break out of his destined path, the universe would still replace him with someone else who would do the same exact things. He did reject his destiny, but in doing so, he just passed that burden off to some other poor soul--how is that any better? Isn't that actually kind of selfish? I got the sense that the whole doomed cycle would still repeat itself, just with different characters, and to me, that's not really a "happy" ending because nothing has really changed.
So in that sense the ending was really unsatisfying.

(Of course, Darren Shan may have rationalized all of this adequately in the book; my memory of the explanation he gave is kind of fuzzy though, since I totally did not get it at all. heh.)

I did like the part you mentioned, where Darren ends up being the one to sell Steve the souvenirs, and also the scene where he watches Mr. Crepsley perform and feels totally helpless. I was not expecting that scene to hit me as hard as it did :(

So yeah, I did really enjoy certain parts of the ending, but overall I'm still as bewildered as I was when I first read it (if not more so), and I don't know whether that would have translated well to younger readers. But who knows, maybe it made a lot of sense to most people and it just went ~whoosh~ over my particular head :P

[sleepall_day]

also the scene where he watches Mr. Crepsley perform and feels totally helpless. I was not expecting that scene to hit me as hard as it did :(
Oh gosh, I cried at this part :( It was so tragic. He even brings up Mr. Crepsley's being illiterate which made me sad because it's like he was running through all kinds of different possible ways he could try to reach out to him.

So the ending, I feel like... because the story gets replaced by other players, it does make a difference. If Darren just ended up dying and/or staying in the Lake of Souls, maybe the war would have continued, especially with Mr. Tiny pushing the characters along the way. But since he cheated and got those journals into the hands of Mr. Tall, they got published and people read them. They realized what a manipulator Mr. Tiny is if they didn't already, and somehow the telling of that story was enough to prevent a war.

....I think. At least that's how I kind of remember it.

[stitchfrequency]

Oh wow, I forgot about Mr. Crepsley being illiterate. That...really paints another layer of sadness to that scene ;_;

That's true about the getting published part as well - great point! :D Somehow I'd completely forgotten that by getting the books published, Darren broke the cycle and rewrote the "ending" to Mr. Tiny's story. (Yeah, this was one of the ~whoosh~ things I mentioned in my original reply.)
I think at that point I got cynical, because who's to say that EVERYONE involved would read the books, let alone take them as truth? (Especially since some vampires and, I'm assuming vampaneze too, are illiterate.)
It still sort of leaves everything up to chance and a multitude of possibilities. You don't really get a definitive "where are they now" at the end--just Darren (the character)'s subjective belief/hope that the books will change destiny.

I guess the ending doesn't seem as neatly wrapped up as I would have liked it to be, but I might have been reading too deeply into it by habit anyway haha.

Honestly, the whole split-timeline thing that goes on in this book is so...Terminator-esque to me. I can't think too hard about it before my brain just sort of packs up and leaves.

[sleepall_day]

Hmmmm, I guess the way I thought of it was - someone would find it. Maybe even more than one person who knew that this had to be truth and not fiction. There might be readers who are against the vampire-vampaneze war. And then again even if they aren't, maybe some of those involved would just end up so pissed off at Mr. Tiny that they do the opposite of what he wants - and have peace between the clans. Uhh, maybe? Hahha, that's about the best I could think of!

You don't really get a definitive "where are they now" at the end--just Darren (the character)'s subjective belief/hope that the books will change destiny.
That's true. I guess you just the knowledge that he tried his best.