Boundless (Unearthly, #3)

by Cynthia Hand

[ladygrey]

This was a really good end to this trilogy with, what I felt was an unsatisfying ending. And yes I'll explain why. But not yet.

The thing I really liked about this story was that the vision wasn't the climax. I liked that it was a turning point but that the whole narrative wasn't building up to just that one moment. It made the story feel like it had great dimension and depth.

I also really liked the characters. Their interactions were deeper and stronger for having known each other for a few years now. They made mistakes which momentarily bothered me, but you could also see that they've learned and grown so it didn't infuriate me. There was one moment where I felt like I'd been stuck in Clara's head for too long and was desperate for some dialog or some sort of interaction with someone. But it was just the one time and only for a few pages.

Mostly I really liked the story and really liked the plot and totally thought about giving it four stars. I probably should. It probably deserves it. I liked a lot of the casual ways [a:Cynthia Hand|3290920|Cynthia Hand|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1278596541p2/3290920.jpg] worked in different principles and subjects of faith and different parallels she drew.

What I didn't like was the ending because it felt like a betrayal. Not because I was invested in either Christian or Tucker. I'd liked one for half of one book then another for a while then back to the first so I didn't really have a solid allegiance as to who she'd end up with. In fact, I was curious and kind of excited to see how it'd all play out. But what I felt happened was that Hand betrayed her own narrative in the way she told the story. And I can't explain that better with out spoilers...

Truly, I didn't really care which one she ended up with. The first book was split pretty evenly. The second weighed heavily with Tucker and even though I liked Christian I kind of felt like Clara was betraying Tucker by her growing relationship with Christian. But this book builds on that relationship so by the end I was kind of leaning towards Christian.

But the book goes wrong - not in who she ends up with but in how it tells the story. Throughout this novel, Clara talks about how much she can't get over Tucker. How her thoughts keep coming back to him. Even, eventually, that he is home for her.
And she says that Christian makes her stronger, helps her focus on who she truly is, grounds her.

How do you pick between guys like that? How can either be a bad choice? Clara, at one point, tells her mother, "Maybe you shouldn't look at it in terms of whether or not you'll be happy as this guy's wife, but if being his wife is true to the kind of person you want to be."

So, the real question is, whether Tucker or Christian fits that description for her. Based on this novel. Because I know Tucker challenged her and really helped her be more true to herself in previous books. But even in series you can't relay on previous books to tell your story. In this novel, Tucker isn't that guy.

Which makes it feel unsatisfying when she ends up with him. Not because I liked the other guy that much more. But because everything this book is telling me reinforces one point of view love and then doesn't end that way. It's not exactly a bait and switch, because I don't think Hand was pushing Clara in one direction and then pushed her into another. I think she knew all along how it was going to end but the things she said in the narrative, the way she described those relationships, didn't reinforce that ending.