USA Today Bestselling Author of The Young Adult Trilogy The Breathing Series
You want more. To know what happens to these characters…after. To be re-assured they’ll be okay. To find out which relationships last, rekindle or fall apart. I hear you. I want to know too. And I am grateful that you have become so attached that you don’t want to leave them. It means that I’ve created a story and characters that have become important to you – as they are to me.
I needed to end this part of Lana’s story where I did…with her and Brendan discovering the truth they have been searching for and finally knowing – together.
I originally planned to extend the ending beyond this emotional moment with Brendan and Lana. To provide you with a more traditional Epilogue style conclusion. But when I reached this moment, I stopped typing and couldn’t move forward. I had to honor the truth that had just been revealed and allow these siblings to react to it. To feel it. To grieve it. And so I left it here.
Instead, I retraced my steps and created an “ending” with each of the characters during one of Lana’s last interactions with them. To allow their friendship, or broken friendship, to have its conclusion. Whether with Ashton on the beach. Or Arden before Lana slays the monster. Or seeing Joey off to be with Allie. They each had their heartfelt resolution.
There are a few plotlines that were left untied, waving in the wind without being secured to an answer. That was purposeful. Either to allow you to draw your own conclusion, or because Lana (or Faye) was never provided the answer to give to you.
I recognize it’s uncomfortable not having everything tied up nice and neat in a bow. It’s not really my style to be honest. Life is messy. And not everything can be fixed in nearly 500 pages. And it would lessen everything they went through to fix their pain in a single chapter. Healing takes time. But I do set them down the road of healing. So I hope you have faith they’ll continue down it.
Or maybe, just maybe, I should write another book…