Nine times out of ten, when I finish a book I write the review immediately. I find that while the book is still fresh in my mind it’s easiest to put my thoughts into words. For the first time in my 7 months as a book blogger, I have spent days trying to decide how to rate “Wayfarer.” I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was about it I didn’t love. Finally, this morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks: the author left too much unresolved.
“Wayfarer” is the second book in the Passenger series, which centers around the lives of two time travelers, Etta and Nicholas. Where Passenger left off (on a huge cliffhanger), Wayfarer picked right up and never slowed down. The amount of time Etta and Nicholas actually spent together was one of the biggest disappointments. They literally don’t speak to one another for the first 400 pages of the book. I understood why Bracken kept them separated at the beginning of the book — they each had their own adventures to embark upon. I enjoyed the time Etta got to spend with her father, Henry and Nicholas’s brother, Julian. The slow and unlikely friendship between Nicholas and Sophia was certainly a highlight of the book. However, I couldn’t stop wishing that the couple would find their way back to one another.
Etta and Nicholas are separated again minutes after finally meeting up. The build up to their meeting and the end of the book in general was so massive that I was immensely let down when it fell short. Throughout the book, Bracken builds up a romance between Sophia and Li Min. While they faced some very real issues as a couple, these issues were wrapped up too quickly for my liking. I won’t go into too much detail, but the resolution of their major conflict wasn’t a discussion, an apology, or anything spoken. They got over their issues in about two seconds, without even discussing them.
Sophia and Li Min aren’t the only duo who managed to work their problems out without a word. Throughout the entire series, Etta and her mother are at odds. The more Etta learns of her circumstances, the more angry she is with her mother. Where I was hoping for a long conversation between the two so that I could understand her mother’s motives, all I got was a look. Sure, the epilogue eased some of my frustration, but it just wasn’t enough of a resolution in my eyes.
Finally, at the beginning of the book, Etta’s growing relationship with Henry, her father, was one of my favorite things about her chapters. After a few chapters of bonding, they are separated again and Etta barely thinks of Henry. She only interacts with him one or two more times throughout the remainder of the book.
My Takeaway
I could go on for hours about all of the loose ends the author left hanging. However, I don’t want to bore anyone. While the writing was fantastic and the story was fun and original, I couldn’t enjoy the book. Unfortunately, nothing is ever really resolved. I wish Bracken had taken out some of the unnecessary chapters in the middle of the book and added more to the end.
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