Group Re-Read: #19 The Departure

[Gafrash]

Focus people, focus.

Maybe Karen didn't have to enter the pool for Aftran to be safe. Aftran may have meticulously cooked something up while in Karen's head still. Instructing her to stay away from certain spots and push to get her family out of the country or something. But then I don't understand why Karen stayed in the same town, where she was seen later at the Mall. Surely she would have been spotted by known Controllers. But maybe Aftran would have instructed the little girl to say things that would throw them off, faking being a Controller still, dunno.
The Yeerk Aftran would have had to have a accomplise aid in getting down to the Yeerk pool and remaining unnoticed. But while there it's hard to know what she could have done to join the YPMovement. I think the YPMovement faction was already manifesting at that stage.

<Maybe we'll lose, maybe we'll win," I [Jake] said. <But if we win and someday it's all over, you'd better hope there are still plenty of Cassies in the world. You'd better hope that not everyone has decided it's okay to do whatever it takes to win.>

Quote from Gafrash: Jake had more than his responsibility at stake here. But I don't think he fully understood, nor believed, what he was stating here. Had he believed a word he said here, he wouldn't have felt so jaded by what Cassie had pulled on him in The Ultimate.

Actually, I think Jake was wrong about Cassie.  She will do anything to win, but she'll do things in the most unexpected way because her goals are different and less straightforward; she plays a different game than the others.  I think her actions in The Ultimate and The Departure prove that.   

I agree. In a way, Cassie also does 'whatever it takes'. Because she doesn't think 'rationally', she'll pull something c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y unexpected. But I think she's incapable of doing something at the cost of her consciousness.

[RYTX]

I just wanna comment

This was almost one of my favorite books in the series.
It was an interesting and creative plot, and was beautifully written. It was very emotional and it introduced some compelling views on the all the characters as well as their enemies.
HOWEVER
I cannot, cannot and never will come to like how this book ended.
That damn last paragraph, last line drives me into a white hot rage everytime.
"Whip out you credit card......we're adding some color"?!
It makes me sick.
It makes me think of some crappy freeze frame ending to an old movie, and for that reason alone I can never give this book the respect it truly deserves.
Sorry

Okay, had to say that. Felt good

[Chad32]

Yeah. Why would a 13-14 year old need a credit card anyway? You know, I think that may be the only time something like that is mentioned in the series.

[Terenia]

I think Rachel had a credit card. I think in one of the earlier books she mentioned that she was 'putting it under strain' or something. Odds are its their mom or dads card, but they ordered one in their kids name. My parents used to do that for me. I had a card that was linked to my parents JCPenney's account.

[Liz]

Yeah. Why would a 13-14 year old need a credit card anyway? You know, I think that may be the only time something like that is mentioned in the series.

To buy computer equipment for Ax, of course. 

I think that's what Rachel used hers for later in the series.

[Gafrash]

...This was almost one of my favorite books in the series.
It was an interesting and creative plot, and was beautifully written. It was very emotional and it introduced some compelling views on the all the characters as well as their enemies.
HOWEVER
I cannot, cannot and never will come to like how this book ended.
That damn last paragraph, last line drives me into a white hot rage everytime.
"Whip out you credit card......we're adding some color"?!
It makes me sick.
It makes me think of some crappy freeze frame ending to an old movie, and for that reason alone I can never give this book the respect it truly deserves....

Hehehe! As stories go, I thought The Departure was needing that 'happy ending' lift to finish up on. It gives that sense of optimism and hope, which IS what the story was trying to portray, I believe.
Over the top as the 'credit card' thing may be, think of it as a 'happy' tool to lighten the ending up.
Not sure if it really makes you sick, though. It just goes to show that the whole 'happy ending cliche' thing WAS something KA used to do. She just decided to NOT do it with the ending of the series in general, which is what I think you may like, RYTX...

Rachel seems to have come from a pretty well off American family. How else would a Mall rat, as she is described, buy so much clothing and fashion accessories without the use of her very own credit card?!
It isn't really THAT hard to imagine.... You see teenage kids swiping their credit cards e-v-e-r-y day.

It's more surprising to me that they weren't using personal mobile phones... It was growing big in the nineties, wasn't it?!


 

[Terenia]

I do think it would have done just as well ending on a hopeful note, instead of a happy note. Perhaps ending just a few seconds earlier, with Cassie's confrontation of Karen.

"I'm free, Cassie. I'm free."

End book.

[AniDragon]

Yeah. Why would a 13-14 year old need a credit card anyway? You know, I think that may be the only time something like that is mentioned in the series.

To buy computer equipment for Ax, of course. 

I think that's what Rachel used hers for later in the series.

I actually just read that bit. lol. She bought Ax an iMac. XD

At that point, it's referred to as her credit card "allowance", which implies to me that it might be one of those pre-paid credit cards. Something her mum (and probably her dad, too, actually) can put her allowance onto so that she can spend it as she'd like, and build up good credit.

[Chad32]

Ok, fine. I'm just a country boy that doesn't believe a young teenager has any need for a card or cell phone. I am glad she did a happy ending for this book. What is with the happyendingphobia?

[RYTX]

I'm not against happy endings.
I wanted the series too end happy, it took me a long time to accept how it did end.
But this one was just so smaltsie in it, it was too much for me.
The it's not even the line entirely, just the way I see it delivered....books should not have freeze frame endings

idk
it's hard to explain,but yeah, it was just too...end of third HP movie to me (which I also hate, who the hell wants to see the kids face smeared across the screen.)
And yes, I'm well aware this was years before potter.
/rant

[Gafrash]

Guys!!! Here's a concept rough I drew dedicated to the opening of this story.

[Terenia]

 

::in awe::

Amazing work as always!!!

[morfowt]

Personally, I imagined Karen to look a little different from that...