Wayward Sons 3/?

REDEMPTION POST....spoilers ahead...

I'm still in the middle of my first re-reading of Wayward Son. But I wanted to officially let y'all know that I'm feeling much, much, much better about this book.

My negatives/positives list is a little...okay, a lot long. So stay with me:

WHY I HATED IT BEFORE:

• Before, when I angrily posted how I was uber disappointed with the book, crying while typing, I had not given myself proper time to process the book, its events, its highs/lows. I have now.
• I had held Carry On in such high esteem, on such a lofty pedestal, so naturally, I gave Wayward Son very, very high expectations. Carry On just changed my entire view on what there is to read (and to write) out there; after reading this book, my entire writing style/themes/tone/passion changed. CO changed everything for me, so when WS fell a little short during my first reading, I was understandably very disappointed.
• The use of the classic Disney parent scapegoat method
• The money issue...then again, she had prefaced it several times, making it a little better, having the characters know they were wrong/will get in trouble.
• America having such a loose magic system/rulings. I was disappointed with that, still am to be honest.
• The romance, or lack there of (will get to the positive/reasons soon)
• The cliffhanger ending...with Penny's sub-romance-plot, with Snowbaz, with Watford
• Agatha deserved so much more, a bigger redemption plot, after almost everyone, myself included, hated in in CO

WHY I DON'T NOW:

• I had read WS as a reader, with so much emotion, and not as a writer, looking at craft. I went and read a lot of other opinions (on IG and reddit) and given this novel major, major thought. I get it now.
• As always, Rainbow Rowel delivered a masterpiece. The plot, conflict (internal and external), characters, dialogue, world building, etc was phenomenal.
• Romance:
• Lack of communication: they always had trouble here, not going to magically get better, especially with Simon dealing with depression and Baz still struggling with self-esteem issues. 
• Lack there of: they were high school sweethearts and have been thrown out into the real world, naturally they were going to have problems
• Room for improvement in the book 3
•  I hadn't realized that Rainbow had hinted at already planning/writing a third Snowbaz book, so imagine my glee and lowered anxiety when I saw those rumors re-going around.
• It had felt unfinished, because it was.
• One of the reddit posts I read said that this equation (1st book=stand-alone, 2nd and 3rd book act more as duloagy) was very popular with YA fantasy novels (which I don't read often enough) and we'll all freaking out for nothing.
• The tonal shift from book 1 to book 2 had given me severe whip-lash
• 1: light, fluffy, fun --> 2: bittersweet "kick in the throat" (not my words but soooo accurate)
• CO's epilogue seemed all happy, but there will still small issues there. Rainbow took those small issues and made them explode, becoming major issues in WS. Besides that point, her epilogues are always bittersweet, and ending in with cliffhangers gave her plot to explore in book 3
• Speaking of epilogues...I had not noticed (until seeing Rainbows slightly confusing tweet the other day) that the book started with an epilogue and ended with a prologue. It was not a manufacturing error. It's supposed to be like that. Someone said that maybe, the epilogue is the epilogue to book 1 (I thought maybe book 3, too), and the prologue is the prologue to book 3. Very creative craft choice from Rainbow; once again breaking all kinds of craft rules.
• The character development wasn't minor. Granted, they still have a crap ton of issues, but they've grown more into themselves
• Simon = more comfortable in his body and his wings
• Baz = more knowledge about himself/vampires that he lacked before
• Penny = realized her fatal flaw
• Agatha = majority matured, realized she can't out-run magic

Again, I feel sooooo much better about Wayward Son, but that doesn't mean the posts will slow down. ;)

But for those of you still in the dark about what Wayward Son is about, let me back up a little. Wayward Son is the sequel to Rainbow Rowell's Carry On. Wayward Son is the story of what happens when the Chosen One did what he was supposed to do, he defeated the big bad evil, he saved the world, he came home. This novel is about everything else....hopefully the first of two installments. 

Go read it, cry it out, and read it again. It'll be worth it.

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