So? What does everyone think she chose and...

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Priscilla SPOILERS AHEAD...So I was unhappy with the ending, but I've been trying to understand exactly why, and I think here is what I've concluded: I don't dislike the ending because it is open, I dislike it because I don't find its openness believable. By this I mean, I think she chose Wyatt, and I think that because the parts leading up to her decision strongly support that she was leaning that way. On pages 399-400, Brian makes a final appeal to Dawn, kissing her and asking her to tell him that the kiss and their life together mean nothing to him. Dawn can't say that, which is hardly surprising. But that fact does not automatically translate to her wanting to be with him. She has made it clear that whatever she chooses, she'll lose something. But she also makes it clear that it's Wyatt she truly loves. AFTER the exchange with Brian, she has conversation with Wyatt (402) where she asserts that she has no doubts about wanting to be with him, but rather about the "logistics" of their situation. Dawn wants to be with Wyatt, but knows that it is a difficult and scary path. Primarily, I think she's afraid of losing Meret, that is quite literally what she tells Wyatt.

However, in the next section of the narrative, she and Meret have a day where Dawn realizes that Meret is a strong, brave person, on the verge of becoming an adult woman (405). Meret also asserts that she likes Wyatt, and we know that he is a genetic missing piece to her understanding of herself (i.e. even if Dawn doesn't choose him, he's now a part of Meret's life). Lastly, their relationship is now better off, perhaps thanks to the whole drama, because the difficulty of the situation has finally pushed Dawn to resolve to always speak truthfully to her daughter, no matter how hard (406), an issue present in their relationship from the very beginning and that Dawn has been slowly improving on (somewhere in the middle, Dawn finally admits that Meret "has fat" and Meret is gratified to finally be able to have a conversation with her mother about a topic that is so important to her). Essentially, to me, all these moments feel like careful construction of a conclusion that would have been Dawn starting a new life with Wyatt, a life that Meret would've also been a part of because she clearly wanted a relationship with him as well. I strongly suspect that, or something like it, was the original ending and that when Picoult did away with it, the carefully woven threads of it still remained behind, subtly but unerringly moving in the direction they always had been. Because of this, I think, the ending doesn't feel truly open but instead like a story that was being wrapped up and then it wasn't quite. Maybe I'm just partial to an ending with Wyatt, but I can't shake the feeling that the ending just isn't as open as it first appears to be. Either way, I really enjoyed this book and found it genuinely thought-provoking.

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)[So? What does everyone think she chose and was I the only one who wanted to see it in black and white? (hide spoiler)]

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