… Because I’ve successfully read three novels during the course of this month, plus Gilmore Girls.
Because, hello, Gilmore Girls. It was the show of my not-so-youth, (I’m about the same age as Rory Gilmore, go figure), and it was a TV show that served as a sort of bonding experience between me and some of my closest friends, one of which is no longer with us and the others who aren’t as close as they used to be. (Which, if you’ve seen it, are you Team Jess? Logan? Dean? Paul?!)
Kind of sad. But never mind. That’s this thing called life for you.
The books I’ve been busy procrastinating with reading are the two Ilona Andrews ‘Edge’ series books I’ve mentioned beforehand and another random novel I had on my Kindle.
Now, I really enjoyed the ‘Edge’ series books, as expected, but the third book… I don’t know. I’m not going to list the title or author, just say it wasn’t quite as expected. To be honest, I don’t know if I enjoyed it or not.
There was this whole subplot set in the future – parts of the book were written in the past, too, but I got those – that seemed to me it’d been added as an afterthought, and amended at the instruction of someone other than the author.
The future scenes were interspersed between the rest of it, conversations between the lead character and her future child (a son, we learn towards the end of the story.) They don’t seem to be in any sort of chronological order and seem to be just kind of thrown in there to ensure a happy ending. In fact, I can almost imagine the below conversation taking place:
Author: There! It’s all done! What do you think?
Editor/Publisher: It’s great! Well, there’s this one thing..
A: What thing?
E/P: It needs a little something more, you know? It’s not really a happy ending.
A: But it is happy! She’s on her own and she realised she just needs to be confident in who she is to be happy!
E/P: Yeah, no, I get that but.. Maybe there needs to be a kid?
A: A kid?
E/P: Yeah! Yeah, do some future scenes. Her and the kid. Make her a mother and she’ll be happy.
A: But she’s never eluded to the fact she likes kids, let alone wants one..?
E/P: Hmm, you’re right. Hey, how about we add a scene in the present time where she’s thinking about kids? She can see someone with them and think that hey, yes, that’s something she wants someday? Then hey presto, in the future, she’s a mum and she’s happy!
A: Um. Okay. I guess. [Obediently adds said scene, and writes dialogue-only conversations between mother and child, though eludes to the fact mother is on her own with child but is okay because a man does not equal everything.] There! What do you think?
E/P: Excellent! Brilliant! Love the kid… But…
A: But…?
E/P: It’s not very happy ending-ish, is it?
A: What do you mean? She has a home, a job, a child? She’s happy.
E/P: She doesn’t have a husband, though, does she? You had the kid ask where Daddy is but didn’t answer, just kind of avoided it?
A: Well, yes. Because she doesn’t need a man to make her whole. You see, that was the point of relationships X, Y and Z. To prove being in a relationship might be what’s expected of women these days but it doesn’t necessary lead to happiness.
E/P: Yeah, yeah. We get that. Girl power, feminism. All that jazz. But… you know… it’s not very happy. A happy marriage would make her happy.
A: But I’ve not mentioned anywhere that she’s married…?
E/P: No. No, but you did mention Bloke P in a scene once. Maybe throw his name into a couple more scenes, the ones where she’s back home and he could be on her mind? Then have him be the dad?
A: … Okay?
E/P: And have the last two sentences… The bedtime story. It can end with the mum telling the kid that she has to go because Daddy’s home. That would work.
A: [Resigned sigh] Okay.
And that basically sums up what went through my head when I finished the story. It didn’t feel like a natural end, nor like the one the author spent so long building up towards.
So there we go. Part of the reason my NaNoWriMo project currently stands at a measly 23065 words instead of the 40+ it should be right about now. And now I’ve spent ten minutes writing 700+ words on this blog, I’ll get back to the actual novel I’m supposed to be writing on.
Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US, Happy Gilmore Girls Day to those of you everywhere who enjoy the series!
(And Happy NaNoWriMo end is in sight to those who’ve successfully kept with it this month!)
Alexa Preece 