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osprey_archerI've finished Pamela Dean’s Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, which I loved loved loved even though it went off at the end. Possibly this is just something Dean’s books do? I thought Tam Lin ended quite abruptly too, although not quite as much as Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary.
But it’s not the kind of unsatisfying ending that spoils everything that came before. It doesn't retroactively invalidate Gentian's lovely friend group or her interesting family or anything else that happens in the book; it's just not very conclusive.
If anything, it’s unsatisfying because I wanted more. What’s going to happen to Gentian now that she’s lost nine months of her life because she’s been building a time machine with the devil? At least, I think Dominic is the devil. One of the reasons I’m not very fond of the ending is because it’s rather unclear.
Or, rather, I think everything is pretty clear up till the last chapter. Dean did a good job showing Gentian’s mental fog as she worked on the time machine, which made it seem that only days passed when in fact months slipped by. But the last chapter is set up like it’s supposed to Explain It All, but actually it totally confuses everything.
For instance, why didn’t Gentian’s parents interfere? I thought I understood - I thought Dominic messed up their sense of time so they didn’t realize how long she’d been gone - but in the last chapter, it turns out her dad did know, because he’s secretly a wizard, and also he placed a spell on all three daughters as babies which is...related somehow...to everything that happened... I don’t even know.
I appreciate the non-interference model of parenting, but at the same time I feel that when one’s daughter is spending nine months vaguely outside of time doing battle with the devil without realizing it, then that is a good time to interfere.
And her nine-month absence leaves so many questions! What will she tell her friends? What will she tell her school? What did her parents tell her school? I realize it’s an open school, but I imagine they want their students to attend at least occasionally. SO MANY QUESTIONS AND NO ANSWERS.
I wanted at least another chapter - not least because then we would get to see Gentian’s friends again, and I wanted to spend as much time with the lot of them as possible. We do get another lovely sonnet from her best friend Becky, but I wanted more.
But in a way, that wanting more is a recommendation in itself: the book is such a pleasure to read, the characters such a pleasure to interact with, that I never wanted it to end. Despite the conclusion or lack thereof, I highly, highly recommend Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary.
But it’s not the kind of unsatisfying ending that spoils everything that came before. It doesn't retroactively invalidate Gentian's lovely friend group or her interesting family or anything else that happens in the book; it's just not very conclusive.
If anything, it’s unsatisfying because I wanted more. What’s going to happen to Gentian now that she’s lost nine months of her life because she’s been building a time machine with the devil? At least, I think Dominic is the devil. One of the reasons I’m not very fond of the ending is because it’s rather unclear.
Or, rather, I think everything is pretty clear up till the last chapter. Dean did a good job showing Gentian’s mental fog as she worked on the time machine, which made it seem that only days passed when in fact months slipped by. But the last chapter is set up like it’s supposed to Explain It All, but actually it totally confuses everything.
For instance, why didn’t Gentian’s parents interfere? I thought I understood - I thought Dominic messed up their sense of time so they didn’t realize how long she’d been gone - but in the last chapter, it turns out her dad did know, because he’s secretly a wizard, and also he placed a spell on all three daughters as babies which is...related somehow...to everything that happened... I don’t even know.
I appreciate the non-interference model of parenting, but at the same time I feel that when one’s daughter is spending nine months vaguely outside of time doing battle with the devil without realizing it, then that is a good time to interfere.
And her nine-month absence leaves so many questions! What will she tell her friends? What will she tell her school? What did her parents tell her school? I realize it’s an open school, but I imagine they want their students to attend at least occasionally. SO MANY QUESTIONS AND NO ANSWERS.
I wanted at least another chapter - not least because then we would get to see Gentian’s friends again, and I wanted to spend as much time with the lot of them as possible. We do get another lovely sonnet from her best friend Becky, but I wanted more.
But in a way, that wanting more is a recommendation in itself: the book is such a pleasure to read, the characters such a pleasure to interact with, that I never wanted it to end. Despite the conclusion or lack thereof, I highly, highly recommend Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary.
