The Fate of the Tearling
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Was anyone else bitterly disappointed by the end of this book?
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CJ
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rated it 2 stars
Feb 14, 2017 04:46PM
The one reason that I not only stuck with this series so long, but that it was one of my favorites, was the recurring theme of consequences. Every decision Kelsea or any character had always had immediate and far-reaching consequences. The ending of this book felt like a slap in the face because it was the cheapest trick in the book: you wake up and it was all a dream. It was just so inconsistent. I wanted to watch as Kelsea built that world herself, not make all 3 books obsolete. I feel cheated and I'm frustrated I spent so long on these books.
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Yes - I feel the same! a lot of story turns don't make sense! The very ending is contradictory to all that we have learned about Kelsea - she was not selfish, she was going to lay her life for the good of Tearling, but at the "happy for everybody" ending she laments that she is left without recognition! But the thing I cannot explain is: why did she have to murder Jonathan?? Can somebody help me with the reasoning? I cannot find any. Was he dangerous because he was a Tear? he had visions? he was discredited in the eyes of villagers? Or did I make a mistake and it didn't happen? The final book is poorly put together, I expected more from the author, who had pretty sharp observations about life, multifaceted characters and really gripping story twists.
I so, so, agree!!! The third book was a complete slap in the face of everything and every character the first two books had ever built. EVERY chapter was one disappointment after another. The characters flattened out, the the adversaries were suddenly so less formidable than ever, new characters were included when there is already so much on the plate, and with no time to establish a connection with any of the said characters. There were numerous plot holes and inconsistencies, and as the cherry on top of the messed-up pie, the goddamn ending.I almost cried when I finished The Fate- it was so frustrating.
Yes!!! I'm actually amazed that most people don't seem bothered by it. I still cannot believe that we would get such an ending. There were really cool things in this book, and I just love the first book, but goddammit, why did you take the easy way out, Johansen? It seems very clear to me that she complicated things so much that she couldn't find a way to solve them... The Fetch and the Red Queen were suddenly so tame and sad, and Kelsea too. You do not say "never mind" to major story elements just because it makes things easier! I hope the movie makers change the ending.
Yes! I hated the ending of this book. It was such a cop-out to just rewrite history (and succeed to a silly extent) rather than for Kelsea to solve her problems in her present day. If she used the past to help her avoid her ancestors' pitfalls, that would allow the whole past/present thing to come full circle and dovetail nicely with Kelsea's personal responsibility crusade. But nope, instead she went back in time, made a baffling change, and somehow saved the whole utopian vision. It removes the weight and consequences of the events in the entire series.Here's what I think the reasoning was for Jonathan dying: if he lived, he'd be trying to fill his father's overly large, charismatic shoes and he wasn't up to it. Even his father wasn't really fully up to it. Moreover, the series appears to have a theme of the dangers of hereditary positions of power, so the utopia wasn't supposed to have a hereditary leader. Now, I kind of get this, but it's still a stone-cold decision for Kelsea to make, and since the only thing that changed was who killed Jonathan, I really don't follow how the end result came from this one change. I guess that leaves Katie around to fill the leadership vacuum and she somehow overcomes everyone's doubt and suspicion and selfishness? Never mind that the other kids would have seen her (or some creepy, magical murdering force in Katie's body) murder Jonathan, whom she cared for. Since the change in murderer takes those kids from murder accomplices to accomplices in a conspiracy to commit murder (as in, they didn't actually go through with it in this alt-history), who's to say they don't tattle at some point? Nobody goes, "Hey Katie? Uh, we really think you ought to be punished for murder. And you definitely at the very least ought not to be leading us. Even if you weren't controlling your body, we're still somewhat concerned about the possibility of that happening again."
It seems that one message the series was trying to convey is that everyone is special and useful in their own way and communities need to use that. This brings us back to the whole meritocratic, democratic leadership thing. Of course, that whole message is undermined by magic and the fact that our special chosen one Kelsea is the focus of the entire series. You can't have a chosen one story and then try to say that everyone is special and useful.
I'm also confused about the fact that Kelsea even exists in this new timeline. Without her mother being queen, in such vastly different circumstances, why would she have met Mhurn and had a child with him? Just another little bit that doesn't make sense. There are so many, I don't know why I'm focusing on that one, but it does seem important...
I peeked...and it broke my heart~ T^TI haven't even started book3 but I don't know if I have the courage to do it now... like why???
I feel like I'm in a dream reading all the comments....
What about the "excerpts" from book 1 and 2? About Glee who was showing Kelsea's statue to her grand daughter? And those history books about Kelsea's reign as Queen??
There was a future that she saved but it was a future where she was remembered as the Queen! T^T
This is so heartbreaking....
Yassie wrote: "There was a future that she saved but it was a future where she was remembered as the Queen!"Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about all those bits. You're right; this book ending is even worse than I thought, and I already had an extremely low opinion of it.
This is probably one of the rare trilogies where I loved book 2... so I just scanned book 3 to be done with it.... I've read # 2 couple times for the last year and it's my fave out of the series so I'll stick with that, the last one feels like a terrible dream...
Oh thank goodness I'm not the ONLY ONE! So many reasons to be disappointed with the end to such an amazing story! The beginning bits where the story of Kelsea is told as if historical texts about her from the future made it unexpected, but as was everything else.
The resolving of Pen x Kelsea made me sad, but a beautiful kind of sad. The end made me just really sad.
Not only does it make no sense when throughout the books we were taught that the past is done and cannot be rectified, but must be built upon, and this was just: NOPE! Screw that. Screw the deep personal philosophies of the characters, the political intrigue and the looking forward to Kelsea ruling in peace and working hard to make the Tear dream come true with her friends. Just magic sparkles and everything is fixed, like it never existed. Magic wasn't supposed to be used to fix the world, and yet it's used that way, like the most tragic Deus Ex Machina.
I am sorry if I am ranting, but I really loved this series. I was trully invested and looking forward to Kelsea rebuilding Tear. And such an easy, and almost idiotic ending that makes no sense and has no link to the rest of the plot really annoys me. It's as if the author just gave up on the story, settling for a mediocre but happy ending, rather than an fantastic but tragic (or happy) ending that we were expected. As other commentators noted, it was such a insulting cop out, I almost cried with disapointment.
Maybe a fourth book will fix it? Like she was trapped by the Orphan in the seudo-reality? Pllllleaaaase ??!
I felt severely disappointed with the ending. The previous books hinted at her living on and being able to create this better future for the people of the Tearling as one of the best Queens to ever exist in its history, so how come we get this stupid and idiotic ending that makes no sense?
I'm a little late to the party, but there's nowhere else for me to vent my frustration!So many questions, and some of the answers provided were...totally...random??
Some random soldier is Kelsea's father? What about the whole Tear blood thing that was going on?
How does Row make these children - how did he discover the magic?
What's up with the sapphires?
Evelyn Raleigh just up and *dies*? Randomly? Anti-climactically?
What was the point of introducing Kelsea's mother as alive?
The whole arc with the church and the Holy Father... incredibly important in the second book, but thrown aside in the third.
Just... why?
Everything.... why?
I only enjoyed the first one.What I disliked most about the second is that the magic of the sapphires still exists, it could still create magic, someone could still become Row, the fetch still knew about the children and the dark magic, the church had already created weapons. So from then on, the new present makes no sense and is all wrapped up by saying her grandmother made a bunch of laws and everything came out unicorn farts. This book started interesting with the first book and quickly turned into garbage as you go along.
I love that a super smart European military man with magic abilities to open a portal to a new world would put all his medical personal and supplies on one boat. Pure garbage.
I was so disappointed and found it a chore to finish the book.
The ending felt like such a cop-out!I honestly felt like Johansen wrote herself into a corner and didn't know what to do, so she fell back on the "let's go back in time and just pretend this didn't happen" schtick.
It really seems like this is the difference between when authors plan their novels beforehand and when they just plan as they write. I felt cheated out of a real resolution. It would've been so much more interesting if Kelsea had won the war and we got to see how she actually created change in the society instead of this boring alternate-reality ending.
For some reason one thing that bothered me the most was that the fetch didn't want to be recognised, how would anyone of recognised him? How did Thomas know who the fetch was? I found all the resolutions in this lacklustre, and a lot of the interactions as well. Like the little girl who became a queens guard (name escapes me) who became a very important character and just nothing happens with. Then also, Mace and Kelsea's interactions and ending didn't feel right either.
I can't believe that anyone could not be disappointed by it. To see what had become my favorite trilogy have an "It was just a dream" ending was actually heart-breaking. Although too be honest I do find that the first one is the only one that I can reread repeatedly, it's so good! The other 2 take a bit of a dive but I still enjoy them except for that god damn ending. The story line appeals to me so much but in my opinion this trilogy could've been so much more than what it has turned out to be. It's rather upsetting.
I really liked the premise, but did not the enjoy violence and abuse details against children. I kept reading but was hugely disappointed in the crazy ending...this is just another case of the author throwing together the third book for the $$ or the movies...see divergent series third book or rather don't. Or the author is just misguided in the quality of the book
Does anyone feel that Carlin Glynn may know what Kelsey was in her previous life, in the new world? Johansen ends the book with Carlin saying "Kelsea, where have you been?"
To me this could be interpreted in two ways, Carlin could just be asking where have you been to make you cry but she could also be asking, 'what took you so long to wake up and remember?' "Where has this Kelsey been?"
To me, this little silver lining makes me have hope that Kelsey had someone to lean on in this new strange world.
@Laura, you misunderstood. In the very first book it says that Kelsey was climbing a tree and fell. Nothing from book 1-3 happened, it was all a dream. That's why Carlin asked the question.
Andres wrote: "@Laura, you misunderstood. In the very first book it says that Kelsey was climbing a tree and fell. Nothing from book 1-3 happened, it was all a dream. That's why Carlin asked the question."I don't know, I think Laura has a good point... that could definitely be open to interpretation by the reader. It actually makes me a bit happier with the ending if there's even a SMALL chance that Kelsey isn't alone in this new world...
I was only making a jest. The only thing happier about the book was that it ended. After the 1st book it nose dived hard into a jagged edge of a cliff. So much potential in the first book.
“Carlin often said that history was everything, for it was in man’s nature to make the same mistakes over and over.”
This was the butterfly effect's ugly cousin, the deaths-head hawkmoth.
Just finished reading the book and I am so disappointed and lost. So many questions and no answers. It all just ended, just like that. I hate when they do the "dream" ending. This is going to take me days to get over.
I got the Queen of Tearling for Christmas and have just finished the Fate of the Tearling and was very disappointed by the ending, but there's one thing in all three books that I just don't understand. If Kelsea ends up essentially being an ordinary girl and was never in fact the Glynn Queen, why are the quotes from the books such as "The Tearling as a Military Nation" and others included at the beginning of each chapter?
If the Glynn Queen never truly existed, which is what I took from the ending of this last book, what is the importance of these quotes and why are they included if the books were never actually written?
Robert wrote: "I got the Queen of Tearling for Christmas and have just finished the Fate of the Tearling and was very disappointed by the ending, but there's one thing in all three books that I just don't underst..."- i feel like it's an alternate timeline, the timeline we thought would take place. Where Kelsey actually fights, wins, and does her best to fix all wrongs. Instead of the cheap deus ex machina segment we received instead. A cheap trick to make us believe it would end in a certain form, then infuriate us when we read what she actually planned.
I hoped to see Kelsey rebuild the Tearling as well. I was also confused by the killing of Jonathan. It was stated that Kelsey had Tearling blood, therefore the child that Katie had to be from Jonathan in order for Kelsey to be in his bloodline. Why would Kelsey, or Katie kill the father of that child? I liked the speculation that he wouldn't have been a good leader and would have ended up failing the whole town, however, it just seemed like there could have been a better way. They never explained how they earned the towns trust after the killing. Seems like someone in town would have wanted to know what happened to Jonathan.
Hey everyone. Sooo I really did not care for TFOTT either. I got fed up that Kelsea was 1) imprisoned for the a third of the book, and then randomly became the Red Queen's BBFL and 2) found the Katie flashbacks very boring (I LOVED Lily's story in TIOTT, for the record). Point being, can someone please spoil the ending for me bc I skimmed it lol. What happened with the Fetch?
Kelsea's mom's alive? What happened there?
Who's Kelsea's dad?
Why did Tear's new world fail?
What happened with Javel and Allie?
And of course the biggie:
Was it SERIOUSLY all a dream? HOW? WHY? So are none of the characters even real then? Is the new world real?
I loved the first two books, but this one was just kind of a mess for me. Still, after all that reading I really would love to know what happened so someone please just spoil it for me! Lol
Meant to say BFFL* not BBFL lol
Jen wrote: "Hey everyone. Sooo I really did not care for TFOTT either. I got fed up that Kelsea was 1) imprisoned for the a third of the book, and then randomly became the Red Queen's BBFL and 2) found the Kat..."I have spoilers for you in your inbox. :)
Cj wrote: "The one reason that I not only stuck with this series so long, but that it was one of my favorites, was the recurring theme of consequences. Every decision Kelsea or any character had always had im..."My God - this is exactly how I feel. I just about cried at the end. I appreciate the sacrifice and the intent but, WOW, was I disappointed. I get that not everything can be wrapped up in a nice pretty bow but....
I've just finished it today and agree with everyone about book 3. My theory about the third book is that a publisher wanted more gore (explainable or not), and was pushing to have it published before interest waned (think the third book we're still waiting for from Rothfuss' the King Killer Chronicles), resulting in a rush to tie up loose threads with something, anything, rather than continuing to take the time, thought and effort to weave the storyline and themes together into a coherent, plausible end.
Oh thank the gods I found this group! I finished reading The Tearling books last year but the last book just left me, speechless. I almost felt like crying and I think I did in the end. That ending just left me with so many questions - was it all just a dream? Or did it happen but why go through so much and in the end for nothing? Ah the questions are still here, weeks and weeks after I finished it
Bookstrider wrote: "Oh thank the gods I found this group! I finished reading The Tearling books last year but the last book just left me, speechless. I almost felt like crying and I think I did in the end. That ending..."Why did you still rate it 5 stars?
Andres wrote: "Bookstrider wrote: "Oh thank the gods I found this group! I finished reading The Tearling books last year but the last book just left me, speechless. I almost felt like crying and I think I did in ..."Because I really liked the book - the ending was not what I expected, but overall the series gave me a lot and this twist I never saw coming
I think the book had a ton of potential with the first book. After that, Johanssen opens so many doors that never get shut properly. 1. How can Kelsea's world come from America and never have the potential to build electricity?
2. Where did Tear's original Sapphire come from? Did his grandparents ever live in the Tearling? Is there people there that pre-date Tear's arrival?
3. Why in Lilly's world, our future, was being Gay illegal? How did women lose all the power they have fought so hard to gain?
4. Why did Tear put every single doctor and medical device on one boat? (I have the hardest time understanding this.)
5. How did Tear know Lilly her whole life? If he knew, why would he take her and abandon Rowan and his mother? This would eventually make Rowan evil. He wasn't going to take her, what made him change his mind? Why did he have to go back to American to try to find doctors, why not send some others?
6. How did Rowan and Gavin come across their sapphires? How could Rowan teach the Red Queen magic but no one else in the Tearling could learn magic?
7. Whats the point of creatine Cadare?
8. Why is the mace such an interesting character and then his backstory is revealed so short and weak?
9. How can the all powerful Albino Witch accidently burn on a campfire? Did she just stand there doing the pee pee dance?
10. What was the point of not wanting a church, only to create a church only to make it not important other than to show your own distaste of a church so that they can print books?
11. So many things to say about a butterfly effect....
12. After her butterfly effect she chose a place in time where Gavin already interacted with one of Rowans children. The church has already made knifes. Are all the sapphires destroyed? Do they just decide to never influence anyone again? How did this magic world lose its magic?
13. What was the point of the Red Queen? She became evil because she wasn't the favorite child?
14. How did they have no court system for a thousand years until Kelsea created one? How could they be without everything for so long, because they lost it in the great migration....
15. How can anyone rate this book 5 stars?
15. Is a vey individual taste I guess and how you enjoyed it (or not). For my part I actually tried giving the book 4,5 but it won’t let me choose half a star so I ended up with five. I won’t change it though since I enjoyed the series quite a lot. (Looking back now I have some other series I believe are stronger but oh well)The ending was not what I expected, and at first I really was so disappointed in it as I didn’t get answers I wanted. But that’s life, you never get answers you want nor deserve and after reading her acknowledgments I got the feeling that was also the point she was trying to make
As far as I look at the ending it’s an open one, left for our own interpretations.
I started reading the third book awhile after reading the first two. I was so into all the history of Finn, William Tear, and Kate. When the ending came I was so taken a back. Really that's how it ended. Couldn't someone had remember her? A dream really? I loved the first two books but the third one not so much.
Oh my God I just finished reading this yesterday and I have spent the past 24 hours thinking of different endings in my head that would have been better (OK well anything would have been better, right?). What if she used the crown to go back to when Row made her forgive him and then not do that. Then he couldn't have unleashed the all the vamp kids and everything else could basically have been the same since she already knew all about the Red Queen at that point. Or she uses the sapphires to also forgive the Fetch and his men and then they battle it out against Row and they all die and are released from their curse. I don't know, I'm really frustrated. I think this might have put me in a reading slump. :/
Olga wrote: "Yes - I feel the same! a lot of story turns don't make sense! The very ending is contradictory to all that we have learned about Kelsea - she was not selfish, she was going to lay her life for the ..."I think she killed Jonathan because he was a Tear, meaning he had magical powers who would always reign above others whether they meant to or not, getting in the way of the egalitarian utopia.
Allison wrote: "Oh my God I just finished reading this yesterday and I have spent the past 24 hours thinking of different endings in my head that would have been better (OK well anything would have been better, ri..."I have also been wondering of that, like what would have happened if she could return by using the crown? I know what you mean with the reading slump, I have to read it again but I am putting it off until I can deal with the ending haha
I kind of understood the reasoning behind why she had to kill Jonathan because you can't build a utopia that will be equal for all when you yourself hold so much more power than everyone else. BUT, I do think the ending was disappointing. It painted a beautiful picture of the utopia that William Tear and all those Blue Horizon people had wanted but it just felt like a really weak ending. It felt like it was too convenient that everything worked so perfectly after Kelsea altered the past. Weren't we just exploring the whole idea of the butterfly effect in this book? How it's a great gamble because of the infinite number of unknown variables? And yet, somehow we end up with a perfect world with no problem but the Kelsea who is left grappling with her past that is no longer true in this version of the timeline. Maybe I'm being too harsh here but the ending felt like one of those endings where the authors over-complicated the plot and ended up not knowing how exactly they could end the story? I just kept reading the last few pages thinking that Kelsea would come upon a seemingly small flaw within this alternate version of the Tearling and we would get to see how she work out the problem in present time in another book... That obviously never happened and I just feel really sad at the lost opportunity.
Also, I completely forgot to rant about how all the connections I've made with the side characters just went out the window with this ending because none of them were really who we knew them as anymore. I also just felt super cheated that Pen just ended up with some random blonde chick even in this alternate timeline where he wouldn't be bounded by his duties as a queen's guard.
I still left the rating as four stars though because everything else was pretty much perfect apart from the weak ending.
Can someone just like write an alternate ending for all of us? because I really need some closure. I just can't get over how all the characters I care about don't actually mean anything now because they all led such different lives :(
Jasmine wrote: "Can someone just like write an alternate ending for all of us? because I really need some closure. I just can't get over how all the characters I care about don't actually mean anything now because..."Oh I would really love to read that! Would probably help us get closer as well :)
Lily nodded, trying to force a smile, but Dorian's voice rang in her head: The better world's not for people like you. She got into the car, barely registering the plush leather seats. Tear began to close the door, and she grabbed his wrist, almost in desperation. "I don't know how I get through this."Tear put a hand on her cheek. Warmth seemed to sink into her skin, bringing her back from the bold place in her head. "I promise you, you will get through it."
"You can't promise that."
"Yes, I can. Believe me, You're tougher than you imagine."
"How do you know?"
He withdrew his hand, straightening up. The silver eyes glimmered. "I know, Lily. I've known you all my life."
The door slammed in her face and a fist thumped twice on the roof. Jonathan floored it, and Lily was thrown back in her seat. She twisted around, wriggling until she could look out the back windshield and see William Tear staring after them, his tall frame standing military-straight under the lights of Boston. Knowing full well that if he allowed Lily to leave with them, she would ruin the better world for everyone. Maybe one day he will come back for her. One day when Rowan and Jonathan were grown an helping to lead the better world on a more predictable path. But not now. Right now she would rewrite the future and ruin his vision for the better world.
And how did Mhurn acquire the Tear blood? Is he supposed to be a descendent from Katie and Johnathan or Row? For something so heavily contemplated in the series, this whol concept has been eating at me to figure it out. Kelsea is supposed to be Tear, but how did generations of Tear borne from Katie seemingly disappear and not realize they were Tear descendants?
I forgot I made this thread, but it's nice to know that others feel the same way, and I'm
still
bitter
I love it that every few days some poor soul finds their sad way here. Join us, disappointed ones! You don't have to be alone!
Okay real talk though. This book was one of the biggest disappointments for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the series, I loved the heavy nature of it, the steep consequences for being moral. I loved even how Kelsea conducted herself in her relationship with Pen. She wasn't starry-eyed or pursuing a romance like in a lot of YA. She builds the relationship out of convenience and then has to deal with the consequences of the fact her personal guard falls in love with her.One of my favorite moments of the series is when she crosses the bridge and leaves her cabinet behind. It was a devastating choice with far reaching consequences.
I just... I can't reconcile any of that with the ending. She just blinked and it all went away. I've never hated a book so much that I started out loving.
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