it's apparently a thing to only post here like once a month
....and it's not about animu! GASP
Because now, I am going to give...
A RANT
about terrible endings in books. :| Spoilers ahead!
So, not gonna lie, I love Eileen Hopkins as an author. I've read all of her books (my favorite is Tricks), and I honestly do love her writing style, the way she fleshes out characters and creates storylines that really engross you.
But as with any author, she has her flaws. And I am going to rant about one of the biggest:
Dues Ex Angst endings. :|
Burned, if you haven't read it, is about a girl, stuck in an abusive and religiously oppressive Mormon family. After an incident with a boy, her father and mother kick her out for rebelliousness (read: acting like a normal teenage girl), and she is sent to live with her aunt in rural Nevada. There, she finds freedom, love, acceptance and rediscovers her relationship with God. She, of course, finds a boy she loves deeply, and tells of her abuse. The boy, of course, accepts her, and they find happiness together.
And, of course, everything goes to hell.
At the beginning of the school year, she has to go home to attend school. Back home with her heavily pregnant mother and seven sisters, she is emotionally and physically abused once again by her father, even more severely than before. She finds solace, however, in her boyfriend and aunt, who both support her. She finds out she's pregnant, her boyfriend swears to marry her, and they run away together, to start a new, independent life.
And then the father calls a friend to trail them, which through a freak accident causes their car to crash, killing her boyfriend and causing her to miscarry. The book ends with the girl sitting on the edge of a bridge, planning to kill her father and herself.
This is the briefest summary, but let me just say this.
What. the fuck.
Yes, I know that abusive situations do not always turn out perfectly happy and clean. Yes, I know religious fundamentalism is hard to escape. But when this book is specifically to show the dangers of these situations, having a completely random ending like this undermines your entire message.
The message of the book, as said by the author, is to show how damaging religious fundamentalism can be and the strength one needs to escape it.
But with an ending like this, where the girl had found a way out, a supportive group of friends and independence, it reads more like: "If you're in a terrible situation, and you tell of your abuse and find a way out, eventually your abuser will get the better of you and it will all be rendered for naught." The ending makes it clear that if she didn't try to achieve a normal life with her boyfriend, none of this would have happened.
It's poor writing, I believe, to sacrifice your message just to have a "shocking" ending.
Sigh. I'm not going to even get into the other unfortunate implications of this book.
/end rant
Because now, I am going to give...
A RANT
about terrible endings in books. :| Spoilers ahead!
So, not gonna lie, I love Eileen Hopkins as an author. I've read all of her books (my favorite is Tricks), and I honestly do love her writing style, the way she fleshes out characters and creates storylines that really engross you.
But as with any author, she has her flaws. And I am going to rant about one of the biggest:
Dues Ex Angst endings. :|
Burned, if you haven't read it, is about a girl, stuck in an abusive and religiously oppressive Mormon family. After an incident with a boy, her father and mother kick her out for rebelliousness (read: acting like a normal teenage girl), and she is sent to live with her aunt in rural Nevada. There, she finds freedom, love, acceptance and rediscovers her relationship with God. She, of course, finds a boy she loves deeply, and tells of her abuse. The boy, of course, accepts her, and they find happiness together.
And, of course, everything goes to hell.
At the beginning of the school year, she has to go home to attend school. Back home with her heavily pregnant mother and seven sisters, she is emotionally and physically abused once again by her father, even more severely than before. She finds solace, however, in her boyfriend and aunt, who both support her. She finds out she's pregnant, her boyfriend swears to marry her, and they run away together, to start a new, independent life.
And then the father calls a friend to trail them, which through a freak accident causes their car to crash, killing her boyfriend and causing her to miscarry. The book ends with the girl sitting on the edge of a bridge, planning to kill her father and herself.
This is the briefest summary, but let me just say this.
What. the fuck.
Yes, I know that abusive situations do not always turn out perfectly happy and clean. Yes, I know religious fundamentalism is hard to escape. But when this book is specifically to show the dangers of these situations, having a completely random ending like this undermines your entire message.
The message of the book, as said by the author, is to show how damaging religious fundamentalism can be and the strength one needs to escape it.
But with an ending like this, where the girl had found a way out, a supportive group of friends and independence, it reads more like: "If you're in a terrible situation, and you tell of your abuse and find a way out, eventually your abuser will get the better of you and it will all be rendered for naught." The ending makes it clear that if she didn't try to achieve a normal life with her boyfriend, none of this would have happened.
It's poor writing, I believe, to sacrifice your message just to have a "shocking" ending.
Sigh. I'm not going to even get into the other unfortunate implications of this book.
/end rant