Stranger Than Fiction

Revealed is a final ditch effort to install more drama into a dead series when the Casts woke up last month and realized they had two more books (Revealed and Redeemed) to tie this up. Remember how in Hidden, there was that hidden (oh, I get it now) chapter on the website? Turns out it's chapter one here so I guess that nullifies my rant in my previous review about Hidden's epilogue. Still though, that doesn't stop the crazy train from stopping at that station, it keeps going.

While Zoey has always had relationship problems throughout the book, it kind of died down in the last three books. She settled with Stark, admitted she found other guys attractive, but remained faithful to one man. However, her 'intrigue' with Aurox has gone beyond that as Aurox starts to remember more of his previous relationship with Zoey. In turn, Stark becomes more jealous and more possessive, chasing Zoey towards Aurox because she doesn't want to deal with Starks' 'Poopie' because he just can't understand how she really feels with all these emotions. Also, she drinks Aurox's blood. I didn't hate Heath's character, nor did I hate his relationship with Zoey. It was definitely one of Zoey's strongest relationships outside the one she has with her grandma. While there were some nice moments between the two, reminiscent of the earlier books, it just irritates me that the Casts are reverting back to boyfriend drama this late in the series to give it some life while it's singing it's Swan Song.

Neferet is noticeably absent through Revealed. We get her hiding throughout it's duration in a hollowed out log while she relives her toughest moments as a human and fledgling. While her earlier life wasn't easy, you'd think that after 'living' for so long, she would've seen some good as well instead of letting a few bad moments ruin her whole existence, later becoming the driving force on her path to evil.

They try to force more character development with side characters. While paying respects to Erin at her funeral pyre, Shaunee talks to Dallas and they have a fight over who's fault it really is over the death of their friend and girlfriend. Apparently Nicole is a lesbian and has the hots for Shaylin and, in turn, Shaylin happens to also be a lesbian and has the hots for Nicole. I don't know why I'm expected to care over little things like these with characters that weren't fleshed out earlier.

Also, Zoey is having killer mood swings, literally, because of the seer stone. Friends and family are dying and she's telling everyone to deal with it because they're in the middle of a war and she can't decide if she wants to stay with Stark or not. The stone eventually leads her to murdering a couple people and the book ends with her being hauled off in the back of a cop car. Again, that is the Casts inserting Drama for the sake of Drama. With the series finishing up in one more book, I'm wondering how the Casts are going to do it. They have so many subplots, so many characters, too much drama.