jameson: is this a riddle? you know who loves riddles? avery. i can't live without her bro i'm a total asshole when she's not around
xander: imagine if you will, a viking epic had a child with an m. c. escher painting
libby: can i use this in my cupcake mix? im baking again
gigi: i prefer coffee but thanks
savannah: *pours it into a bowl for princess fluffbum to drink from*
rohan: *gets ptsd*
lyra: have you seen my family tree? my dad is my uncle and my mom isn't my mom--
JLB: remember that one unnamed character in the first paragraph of the fortieth page of the hawthorne legacy that served grayson his food at a fancy restaurant? she's in the cult too.
i might be stupid but once thigns got sorted out was it ever really mentioned or talked about by the other character that savannah won the grandest game?
i love tgg couples as much as the next person but tgb completely just reduced the characters to their relationships.
i'm glad that grayson found someone but i also wish that jlb focused on him doing things for himself now. like i know it's hard to do that with the plot of tgb but the epilogue could have been different. she kinda did it with him and lyra going to college and grayson not knowing what for yet, but still.
gigi had a realization that she's letting people make decisions for herself and yet she never really made any good decision for herself later.
savannah quit basketball and took a gap year, but that's all we know. i think savannah was reduced the least out of all of the characters, but i wish we got a scene with her and grayson.
lyra became a character that tagged along grayson while he did things and i guess jlb forgot about her trauma once it wasn't useful to her anymore.
we should have gotten an epilogue that fully covered all of the characters, not just all of them showing up at javery's wedding.
i loved games untold so much, but she should have written it after the gilded blade. she could have revealed alice differently and just published tsbaf instead of having half of tsbaf already in games untold. then games untold could have more stories post-tgb and also still ahve the stories that come after/around tfg and that would just be more nostalgic and satisfying as a whole and a good way to end. (in my opinion)
conformity gate but it's the inheritance games because tgb was so horrible and there's four suits in cards so shouldn't there be a final book with a spade?
only thing i know for certain is that if "breaking bad" took place during modern times, jesse would've used his cash to buy a drone and there would've been a sick ass sequence filmed from drone perspective and one episode cold open would've been all scary and sinister and it would end with an ominous shot of the drone laying all crushed and fucked up on the floor to imply harm done to jesse. and it would be really sad
EVE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A POV INSTEAD OF JAMESON. I love her and I wish we got more of her. She is the more nuanced and complex character in the series. Her talking about Grayson using her, her relationship with Mattias and his mother and Toby would have been so good to read about. At least I think so.
Avery should have saved herself and the kidnapping should have wrapped up within 10 chapters
A reveal on Mattias's father's criminal record and the 14 terrible things he has done. What was the point of emphasising that in GR if it was never addressed again?
Acacia finding out about Sheffield and a public reveal on what actually happened to him. If they can announce that Toby is dead why can't they do the same with Sheffield?
Jameson and Grayson having a proper conversation on that happened on Hawthorne Island. I get that Jameson acknowledged that his brother and Lyra were not completely in the wrong but that needs to be said verbally. Jameson's actions get excused way too much.
Darby should have been Lyra's biological mother. The whole plot line with Katalin being Lyra's mom was do dumb and unnecessary.
Tomas should have been dead. If alive he should have been a better person. Him being nothing more than a dead beat is very cliche considering that's how every dad in this series is (except Isaiah). He should have gotten an arc where he was a good man who made a series of bad decisions leading to a bad outcome. Lyra deserved a better reveal than her father just randomly talking to her over FaceTime.
Odette's relationship with Tobias. This is one of the main reasons why I continued the series, I needed to know what actually went down between these two and we never really found out. Her and Alice interacting would have been so interesting to read about.
Lyra should have used her street smarts to escape Hawthorne house, that would have been so epic. And it would have humbled Nash for thinking their security was top notch.
Grayson should have crashed out at his family for their selfishness
Lyra should have crashed out at Jameson for the way he was treating her
Lyra should have punched Jameson in the face. WHY ARE ONLY THE MEN ALLOWED TO THROW PUNCHES IN THIS SERIES???
Savannah and Grayson should have had a proper conversation on the whole Sheffield situation. We should have seen Savannah actually grieve her father, as trashy as he was.
Lyra, Eve and Nora in one room and Grayson walks in and gets incredibly uncomfortable, and Eve teases him for squirming.
Emily should have stayed dead.
The story was too crowded by the number of characters there, it should have only been the ones introduced in the beginning of TGG.
Eve should have shot Toby. As a feminist I support women's rights and wrongs.
Grayson's love confession should have been a proper love declaration. A simple "I love you" is not who Grayson is, the man is a poet we should have gotten something straight out of a 1800s romantic novel from him. I can't believe I am typing this but Jameson's love confession to Avery was better than Grayson's.
the best part about the epilogue was knowing that Grayson and Lyra are going to college together ( same college, who knows) and that even Avery herself can see how locked in they are AND that they’ve been dating for 8 months
I miss TGG lyrason a little so much today. THEY WERE SO PEAK. The helicopter, the masquerade ball, the escape room, the chandelier and Gray's "I need a moment", the theatre room, "come back to me or I'll make you come back to me", them touching foreheads, "you never stopped dancing" "when I told you to stop calling, I didn't mean it", the drawing, the cliff, the kiss!!! I WANT THEM BACK!!! TGB lyrason were okay but dear lord, the spark that they had in the first book was so out of this fucking world!!!
to begin with, i want to say that i rated it 3/5 on goodreads. im mostly satisfired with how things ended with characters, but not the plot (like the cult stuff)
things I liked:
grayson at mile's end and meeting lyra's family
CHAPTER 99 OMG ROHAN ON HIS KNEES FOR SAVANNAH
lyra and grayson's phone call
the grayson sisters telling acacia the truth and faking (not the word for it but whatever) sheffield's death
savannah taking a gap year and quitting basketball
nash and lyra's conversation
zara asking lyra what her intentions were with grayson
jameson didn't end up becoming worse
selling alice's ring to save mile's end
each of the brothers walking avery down the aisle! (and what grayson said omg)
grayson going to college with lyra but not for business!! (let's hope it's for art, i feel like everyone forgets he's artistic)
that's all that i can think of right now, but im sure that there are more. now here are things that i didn't like, and what i would've done instead.
lyra's confusing family tree. i don't think that katalin was necessary. we could've kept it that lyra's uncle died and her father is alive and that is it.
all of the extra characters that were added (ex. freya, helena, nora etc.) i don't think that they were necessary. i feel like there could've been such a more simple explanation for everything. i think the idea that someone like nora, who grayson only met once, is involved in this whole mysterious thing is interesting, but i think it was more for shock value and not used to the best way it could be if that makes sense.
emily being alive was unnecessary. i think it could've been really good, but she wasn't there long enough. i think it was another thing for shock value that wasn't executed as well as it could have. emily being alive was very shocking, but she was barely even there.
everything about the cult was so over explained and confusing and lots was added that I don't think was necessary.
did JLB forget that lyra was already in college? like when she mentioned lyra and grayson goign to college it sounded like she wasnt already in college but idk
lyra has so much ptsd then it's just gone even when she GOES TO THE PLACE WHERE IT HAPPENED??
theres a revelation about gigi not being able to make her own decisions but it never led to a moment where gigi makes her own like big decisions or anything?? like--
no time to process big plot twists
500 pages but still felt so so rushed
here are things that i wish happened
i wanted a conversation between savannah and grayson so so so bad because grayson understands savannah and her coldness. especially after acacia knows the truth i hope post tgb they get closer.
i like the idea of skyla, but i wish they met her and not pregnant skye. by the time she's an actual kid, the brothers will be adults. and nash doesn't want skye around his twins so i don't think skyla would grow up with nash's kids and cooper. which (i think) sucks. i think the brothers should see skye be a mom and although it'll hurt that they never got that from skye, at least someone is. and imagine how protective they would be over her! by the time she's a teenager they're old enough that they could be her dad. I wish she was like 12 when they're in their 20s, not like 12 when they're in their 30s.
the end :) let me know what you think! sorry this is so long.
Remember when joining fandom as a younger person meant lurking for a bit and figuring out the vibe and etiquette instead of coming in on day one and calling people weirdos for liking weirdo shit in the weirdo factory.
hey guysss so unfortunately the rumors are true and im leaving the narrative. Buttt the good news is my absence will create such a gaping hole in your lives that it will become a sort of presence itself, and so in a way it will kind of be like i never left! But i am. Leaving just to be clear.
