Unrequited Death

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

[Angie]

I was a bit disappointed with Unrequited Death. It’s the big finale of the Death series, but I mostly feel confused. I also have some unanswered questions that I thought for sure would be answered more clearly. There is once again a time jump, but this time it’s about a year and a half. Caleb and Company are graduating from High School, and it’s not exactly as happy and exciting as it should be, since the Graysheets are still at large. It’s just a matter of when they’ll strike again. Tiff is also not her usual smart-mouthed self thanks to events of that past fall.

Unrequited Death does alternate between after graduation and the start of senior year. I thought this worked, to an extent. Nothing really happens in between these two periods, so alternating works better than having another time jump. However, I was confused a lot of the time. For some reason I just couldn’t keep the timeline straight. It didn’t help that sometimes the time would change mid chapter. It wasn’t just the moving from past to present that had me scratching my head either. It was also hard to tell how much time was passing between scenes. Occasionally I would think a character was suppose to be in one place, but they’d turn out to be in another because it was the next day, or week, or other passage of time. This was my only major issue with this book, or the entire series really.

A more minor issue that I had with Unrequited Death as an ending was the addition of several new characters and plot threads. I think there was more than enough material from the previous books to pull together without these additions. More characters and more threads just made the story more twisted and complicated before anything got resolved. Tiff’s was the secondary plot, and while it held my attention, I didn’t feel like it needed to be there. It was tragic, heart stopping, but generally unnecessary.

The ending of Unrequited Death is one of my least favorite types: a Chick Lit ending. I love Chick Lit and I love happy endings, but the whole marriage and baby scenario bothers me. I’m not saying that those things are bad, but I don’t like how so many characters have to have a wedding and a child to attain their happy ending. Was it the right ending for these characters? Probably, but I still rolled my eyes at it, especially since one of the instances was glaringly obvious from the beginning. Overall, I did enjoy Unrequited Death as a book, but as a finale it left me wanting.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.