A few months ago, I binged all seven books of fan-favorite Mediator series. You've heard my generally pleased thoughts on the first three books, but the true fangirling comes today, with the fourth book in the series, the most dramatic and well-crafted book in the series, Meg Cabot's beautiful version of a Buffy episode, Darkest Hour.
There are a lot of things I love about this book, but I think there are four major factors: it knows and embraces exactly what it's supposed to be (a fun and fluffy action-romance), the hilariously dramatic plot is carefully made, the ship hits next-level, and, finally, the characters are all in their own corner of extremity without going off the deep end.
I think often times when writers create something that should be fun and chill, they decide to take themselves so seriously instead, even if the concept isn't serious at all. Examples of this are all over long-running successful TV shows. To keep the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (because even if we hate Joss Whedon, we still love Buffy Summers) comparisons going, look at the final two seasons of the show, six and seven. I don't know if was Joss Whedon or the network or what, but someone clearly got bored of charming, 42-minute-solvable problems in that show. There was always a Big Bad, but in the last two seasons, the Big Bads became the only focus. It was so excessively somber, and why? It was never supposed to be such a serious show. It's a comedy, dramedy at worst - a structure that worked extremely well for five whole seasons.
Meg Cabot, however, does not make the same mistake (at least, not in this book). Even though there are serious moments, I still laughed. Suze still has her Buffy-like banter that makes her so enjoyable to read about. Jesse has a weird cat named Spike, Father D. is the good kind of old-school, Jake and Brad have such a distinct brotherly relationship - everything about this book screams have a good time.
This is especially impressive because it's also the most serious of the Mediator books, as it's Suze's "darkest hour." For a while, she's convinced Jesse is gone forever, creating a sense of hopelessness. Still, Cabot warded off any fear of becoming too bogged-down by adding in humor from the other people in Suze's life, people completely unaffected by the loss of Jesse because they never met him. Suze is also the type of person to push away her emotions and jump into action, so there was never any worry that we'd lose her truly iconic one-liners.
In fact, I ended up thinking this book is so truly what it's meant to be that I gave it a full five stars on GoodReads, unlike most of the other books in the series (except for the second book, Ninth Key, which I think builds on book one so extremely well), which all have either three or four stars. In the end, it didn't matter to me that it wasn't the most thought-provoking or original piece of literature because of the certainty and comfort in it.
Another reason I loved this book so much is because the plot just kills me. It's all pretty normal mediator stuff - angry ghost couple looks for revenge, Father D. disapproves of literally everything Suze does, Jesse is cryptic 24/7 - but the real cherry on top, the icing on the cake, is learning more about Jesse's history.
Meg Cabot uses this book to flesh out Jesse's past, which had been pretty mysterious up to this point. Before this, while he was still likeable, he was also kind of weird. Do you remember Angel in the first few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when he crept around and had unusual and pretty random lines, so no one really knew if he was a good guy or the Big Bad?
That's pretty much Jesse in the first three books.
Not to say I didn't love the guy, but this book really took the next step, turning him into more of a person outside of his relationship with Suze.
Jesse's slowly unfurling history is one of the most interesting aspects of the series, and this book is when we get the bulk of it. Visiting the CBTS Historical Society was definitely a stand-out scene; learning how historians thought of Jesse, Maria, and Diego answered some questions but also left the reader wondering how much of that story Maria created to avoid a ruined legacy (her rep is definitely important to her, considering she killed a guy for having her portrait in an office and not a grand dining room).
Without this book working on character building, it would have been a pretty usual Mediator book, so much so that it might have even created a monotone feeling throughout the series. The other drama is all about working at the resort, boy problems, and family drama. The monster-of-the-week format is used again, but this time in tandem with a slow-building mystery in full swing. This plot is very refreshing for people burning through the series quickly (like me).
The ship is also just too good. Suze really liked Jesse without being obsessed with him (book five, I'm looking at you). When she thought she'd lost him forever, she genuinely grieved him. In fact, we see that on both sides - when Suze found Jesse in the afterlife, he was terrified, believing she'd died. He went into autopilot, dragging her behind him as he searched for the exit. They're the Angel-and-Buffy of the series, and anyone who knows me knows that I always wanted those two to be endgame (that episode of Angel season one where he turns human and they think they're going to be together but then he has to give up his mortality to save her life? It kills me).
There's not much else to say about the ship in this book. They're just about the same as they were last book. Jesse punched The Worst Person to Ever Live in the face when he was rude to Suze, which literally gave me life. Violence is bad but that most definitely was not. That's basically the best highlight of the ship in Darkest Hour.
The characters were really distinct in this book. Even though Suze was noticeably reckless in her grief, Jesse was stoic and unreadable, Father D. tried to stop Suze from being stupid every second of every day, Jake and Brad were weirdo brothers that liked to disturb Suze, and The Black-Hearted Demon low key stalked Suze, it was all in moderation. In some of the books, Brad's stupidity makes me want to pull my hair out. He just gets so in the way that it's never funny or even pleasant. The same goes for The Spawn of Satan. He might suck more than any other character in the book, but there is no pure hatred towards him yet, just annoyance. Plus, he leaves at the end of the book, and for a moment, the reader thinks they might be rid of his gross, awful self (until the next book starts and he's at Suze's school like the stalker he is).
Overall, this is a great book, maybe even the best in the series. It's so fully high school while still having serious moments, tying together the best elements of the other books in the series to create a true real-world escape book that feels a little like binging a season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Sorry I've been gone so long. It was a short one today, too. I haven't posted since before the New Year (which was just last month, if you can believe it), but I have a few ideas lined up. I'll try to push out a few more reviews and posts soon, but life gets busy. See you (hopefully) in the near future. Until then, keep reading, readers.