Twilight

I am typically incredibly finicky about reading series in order. I scowl and grump if my book club even considers picking a book that is mid-series. I rarely agree to review series books if the entire series isn't offered up for my perusal. This sounds like I'm being a snob or don't like series. This could not be farther from the truth. I thoroughly enjoy series and love the idea that when I stumble on a good one, I will have countless books and hours to spend with much loved characters. But, I like to build my relationships up slowly, to start at the beginning, and to learn the whole back story of each major character as it is revealed. So I was surprised to find that I had inadvertantly grabbed the sixth book in Cabot's Mediator show more series from the school library book buzz pile. The fact that the library didn't carry books 1-5 made it nigh impossible to read up on the series (well at the very least, without going to the county library and as I am trying hard to work through my own backlogged books, I didn't want to commit to reading 5 other books prior to tackling this one). So I crossed my fingers, prayed that jumping in mid-series wasn't going to be the kiss of death, and opened the book.

Luckily, plunging into this book without having read the previous entries in the series turned out to be fine. I'm sure that I would have enjoyed knowing Suze, Jesse, and Paul's earlier interactions and that would have enhanced the book but it worked decently as a stand-alone. Suze Simon, who lives with her mother and step-father, is a mediator. This means she can not only talk to ghosts but she helps them move on in the afterlife. Suze is not the only mediator around though. Paul, a boy at her school, and his ailing grandfather, are also mediators. But Paul's moral compass is not exactly aligned with Suze's and they are incredibly adversarial and contentious with each other. Their touchy relationship isn't helped by the fact that he's trying to discover a way to go back in time to prevent Suze's ghostly nineteenth century boyfriend, Jesse, from ever becoming a ghost, thereby winning Suze for himself. Suze is torn, wondering if Paul preventing Jesse's murder is the right thing and if she's being selfish wanting to preserve her meeting with Jesse 150 years after his death. It's a race between Suze and Paul to figure out how to travel backwards in time and either let history repeat itself or change the outcome entirely.

Cabot has written a fast paced and entertaining book with an interestingly unique premise. The tension between Suze and Paul is biting but realistically teenaged. Suze is perhaps a bit too good but her strict and somewhat simple moral center is nicely balanced by the fact that Paul is multi-dimesional, shades of black and white, and not easily dismissed as the stereotypical villain. Ghostly Jesse is a little thin but the real story swirls around him rather than centering on him. I suspect that knowing the full backstory would have rounded out the characters better for me, especially Suze's relationship with her dead father, but over all it was okay not to have the full disclosure in my reading past. Teens who like un-creepy paranormal reading will fully appreciate this one and may want to start with book one. show less

Keeping in mind that readers' reviews tend to be how the story struck them at the time plus their expectations, fulfilled or not: I was less disappointed how this series played out than I anticipated. The main theme with the first three books in The Meditor series developed in an unexpectedly different romance trajectory.

The author appeared to change to a girl-adventurer-to-the-rescue theme, winding up the narrative with a neat bow. Series fans will know that the MC's romance turns out to be as foreshadowed in Books 4 and 5, so I guess the happily-ever-after trope fit right in.

What seemed unnatural was the evolution of Paul from a rather nasty piece of work to empathy and helpfulness, losing the "it's all about me" mentality. The show more flatlined ‘mediator’ persona was more focussed on reanimating Jesse, but my lack of interest by this point reached a ‘yeah, okay, whatever’ outlook. Despite this sentiment, I suspect that the younger YA audience will be happy. And one thing comes across for sure, Meg Cabot does write a good adventure with unique characters. show less

Continuing with the side discussion about love triangles, this is the book that really made me detest Paul. Not because of his reasons for travelling back in time, but because he’s such an egoistical bastard that he thinks Suze would attempt murder to shove her boyfriend’s spirit in his body. I…wow. I know the guy’s in high school, but come on, that is a logical stretch. Especially when that’s the first conclusion he jumps to when he reveals to Suze what shifters can do.

Speaking of, the time travel powers: There is a point in books where I will throw my hands up and go “Fine, we’re going with it.” While I had a similar reaction to this revelation, I let my frustration slide since it was pointed out that there were side show more effects to using the power extensively. (Although on this reread, I wanted to see some evidence that prolonged time travel had an effect on Suze and Paul. Not massive problems, but just little things.) I did enjoy this book, though. I thought it was fitting end to the series, even though there’s a lot of hand-waving and deus ex machine involved. I loved that Suze got to be happy at the end, seeing as how much of her life has been hindered by her powers. And that Jesse gets to get to be old and snarky with her.

(Anyone else find it ironic that that two books titled “Twilight” came out in the same year and respectively ended and started a paranormal romance series? Of course, I think this one is vastly superior. Vastly.) show less

I've decided to properly give each of the Mediator book reviews in anticipation of the seventh installment coming out in February. This book series was the series that made me fall in love with Meg Cabot's writing. Prior to reading it, I had read a couple of Meg Cabot's books but none of them made me think of her as my favorite author. However, all that changed with the Mediator series. I was immediately engaged from page one. I still can remember reading each of the books, exactly when and where I was at the time. For example, I read the first book in a silent airport, after my plane had been delayed time and time again and the area around our section slowly faded until there were few waiting for the one remaining flight. This book, I show more remember, I read on the bed in my hotel room before falling asleep, completely content with its ending. Twilight is the absolute perfect 'ending' for the Mediator series. I'm not entirely sure how others felt about it, but it was absolutely divine to me. While Remembrance will be coming out soon and continuing Suze's story, I think of it more as a spin-off or companion. The book is the end to the YA section of the book series, whereas Remembrance is the beginning of the adult (kinda like what Meg Cabot did with the Princess Diaries series).

Overall, what I basically wanted to say about this book is that is wonderful in every way and I loved it with all of my heart! show less

Awwww! In this book, Paul Slater's come up with another plan to get Suze for his own - not killing Jesse, but rather saving him from ever dying in the first place, so Suze will never meet his ghost. Will Suze give up ever knowing Jesse in order to give him another chance at life, or will she stop Paul and allow Jesse to be murdered? An interesting (but not too heavy-handed) take on the question of what it really means to love someone. The mechanics of time travel and changing things in the past are not on particularly solid metaphysical ground; a lot of what should be logical snags in the process are glossed over in the service of telling the story. I think because I was expecting the story to follow certain rules, I was expecting it to show more end very differently than it actually did. The ending as is, though, works just as well if you're willing to accept the slightly bent logic, which... it's a fluffy teen paranormal romance. Some things, you just have to take without quibbling. Overall, the book is right at the level of the best of this series: fun, exciting, fast-paced, and very sweet. show less

Suze is a mediator, someone who can interact with the dead. Her fellow mediator, Paul, tries to separate her from her ghost-boyfriend by going back in time and saving his life.

The problem with this book is that as breezily written as it is, and as nice as Suze and her boyfriend Jesse are, Suze is an utter moron. She is as dim as a blown-out lightbulb. She has the logical capacity of a piece of burnt toast. Time after time, she needs to have the absolutely obvious spelled out for her. It was so infuriating that I'm glad there are no more books in this series, because if I tried to read them, my brain would probably explode.

Awesome!! Suze is totally not very morale. But, this is what makes her a believable character. She doesn't instantly gives up Jesse but gradually realises that she loves him so much that she can't let him die and live as a ghost. It's not at all selfish, it's just natural. Almost every human being might find it difficult in the position Suze was. So, I just love her character which does not pretend to what she is not. She is selfish and I don't think there is any thing wrong in being selfish than to pretend being all self-rightous. At least her character realises what's best eventually. It's a good kind of character development.
Besides, everything ended fine. So, Cheers!!