Taken from Goodreads:
They have tried to squeeze us out, to stamp us into the past.
But we are still here.
And there are more of us every day.
Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has been transformed. The nascent rebellion that was under way in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight.
After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven—pockets of rebellion have opened throughout the country, and the government cannot deny the existence of Invalids. Regulators now infiltrate the borderlands to stamp out the rebels, and as Lena navigates the increasingly dangerous terrain, her best friend, Hana, lives a safe, loveless life in Portland as the fiancée of the young mayor.
Maybe we are driven crazy by our feelings.
Maybe love is a disease, and we would be better off without it.
But we have chosen a different road.
And in the end, that is the point of escaping the cure: We are free to choose.
We are even free to choose the wrong thing.
Requiem is told from both Lena’s and Hana’s points of view. The two girls live side by side in a world that divides them until, at last, their stories converge
Spoilers included in review.
This last book of the trilogy was quite intense. The mystery of who was burning out the Invalids and homesteads kept the story going. The alternation between Hana and Lena's POVs connected the story together pretty well: what's happening inside and outside the walls.
Alex came out of nowhere, unexpected and alive. I liked how throughout the book, Lena was struggling between choosing Alex, her first love who freed her from Zombieland, and Julian, who helped her when she thought Alex was gone forever. The way the tension between Alex, Lena, and Julian was written was realistic: the jealousy of Lena when she sees Alex and Coral together; how she wanted to push Julian away but was hesitant because she knew he was one of the only people she could rely on. The character development of Julian and how others treated him was quite interesting. From an outcast in the Wilds, to an eager volunteer wanting to fit in with the Invalids.
Lena's mom's appearance was expected in this last book. The part where she sat down with her mom and poured all the feeling out to her was very emotional for me. The last two books showed how Lena felt toward her mom, and in this book, when they finally meet for real, it was obvious that Lena and her mom, although changed by the Wilds, have this strong relationship that time or hardship cannot take away. I thought it was interesting that although the characters are in different world than the one we live in, Lena is still behaves like a teenage girl. I felt a connection toward the way she didn't want to tell her mom about her relationship with Alex and Julian because I would probably do the same if I was in her situation.
Surprises in the book: Lu and Raven. The irony of the line Raven said, "Lu can come with us. She's a walking good-luck charm." The good luck charm led them into a trap. I think this is also a way of showing that there is always someone who will betray the larger group. In Zombieland, the Invalids rebel against the cure, and in the Wilds, someone will also end up having a change of heart and rebelling against the Invalids. Now, Raven's death was devastating. I felt really bad for Tack because of all those years they spent together, surviving, taking care of each other. If she had not died, she could have lived happily with Tack after the walls came down. She took a bullet for Pippa who had the bombs. However, they all understand that sacrifice is needed to keep safe what is important to them .
I liked the connection to the story of King Soloman. The revised version in the book was quite terrifying to imagine; cutting a baby in half. But the real version, where one of the mothers gave up her clam on the baby so her child would stay safe, I think it was a great influence on how the characters acted in the book. When Alex disappeared after his fight with Julian, I had to give it some thought to understand the note he left Lena. I think it could mean that he left so she doesn't have to be torn between him and Julian anymore. This already showed that Alex still loves her, despite how he acted. The other story, the story of Bluebeard and his room full of corpses of women. I think that story really impacted how Hana acted. She realized she was about to marry "Bluebeard". Fred, the major, was just like Bluebeard, killing innocent people and locking them up so the truth would not spread and any curious people would also be killed.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed about the ending. It was very vague. Alex and Lena found out they still love each other. Lena found Grace and together, they took down the walls, the barrier between the two worlds. There was no epilogue on what happened to Hana and Fred, nothing on the relationship between Lena and Julian (it was like Lena went straight back to Alex after his confession that he loved her and left Julian hanging). Maybe the author wanted to have a vague ending to give us room for imagination, but personally, I like straight forward conclusions to a story. Still, kinda sad that the story's over.
4.5/5 for mostly of the book.
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