Champion Review

This book broke me into a thousand pieces and managed to do this in its last couple of chapters. Even though this review is two books too late, that doesn't mean I hated this book. It is a perfect conclusion for this series, no matter how heartbroken I felt afterwards.

Champion by Marie Lu

I loved this book. It gave me everything I needed from the last book in this trilogy. Even though it includes a plot twist I will forever be unable to deal with, the ending is very powerful. Forget it. Read the freakin' book and come back here once you're done.

Rating:

5 stars (really more like 4,8)

Heartbreaking spoilers ahead!

Expectations

So there's a war on our doorstep and one of our narrators has something eating his brain. We have no idea where cute-but-disposable-side-character is and our OTP has no contact anymore. Oh, and our main character has an adorable little brother, the last member of his family!

I thought I knew what might happen. I thought it would be sad, but not like this. Never like this. It is the most cliché, painful and unbearable move in the history of books.

And I didn't even see it coming.

I thought either we would all live happily ever after or we would all live happily ever after minus Tess or Eden.
But before I rant about this ending and how all of the endings in this category killed me, I will first go over other aspects of the story.

The world

You know how I wasn't on board with the whole Antarctica-is-awesome-now idea? Yeah, I changed my mind. The point system is so interesting! At first, I didn't have much faith in the conflict between the Republic and the Colonies. It won me over, though. The politics and economic help and battles entertained me and made the book feel faster. I was brain-dead the next day at school because I'd been reading until after midnight and couldn't sleep after finishing. It felt like there were still planes shooting inside my brain.

Characters

So. That was interesting. I will just make a list.

1. No one died. I didn't see that one coming.

2. Characters are all still awesome. The only change is that Commander Jameson scared me a lot more than I thought she was capable of.

3. Eden is so adorable!

4. Our main characters had sex. Surprised? No. If I wasn't already going to crowd this review with lists and it wouldn't be such spoilers, I would now make a list of OTPs that (almost) have sex in their (last) book. And honestly, I don't think it contributes much to the story anyway (with a couple of exceptions). It's mostly more of the same.

"He pulls off my shirt hungrily."

"Then I realize again how hot he is and how low my self-esteem is and that I have to remind society that all young girls are insecure about their bodies."

"We feel like two souls in one body."

"I love him and he loves me."

Yes, sex is a part of life. Yes, it's something teenagers think about. Yes, girls are insecure about their bodies. Yes, boys in books always have six-packs. But apparently a relationship is not complete before you did it, especially when one of you is about to lose his memory or will most likely die.

Teacher: "What did this book teach you?"

Me: "That sacrifices have to be made for the ones you love, even if this sacrifice hurts you. I also learned that if a system malfunctions, you should change it, and not blindly jump onto the next train."

Teacher: "Good. What else?"

Me: "That if I'm ever about to enter a life threatening situation, I must first have sex."

Teacher: "Why?"

Me: "Because it completes my relationship!"

5. Metias <3 Thomas. That part's so sweet and tragic.

The battle

I loved the chaotic last battle in Los Angeles. First of all, because we are back at the beginning. Our story starts in LA, so it's going to go down in LA. I also really liked the chaos. It gave me the feeling the whole city was crashing down. Okay, enough self-control, I'm going to talk about the ending.

The ending

Fun fact: I can't deal with memory loss in fiction. I hated Wall-E because of the memory loss. I just think it's an unforgivable thing. I loved your story, got so engaged in your life, your love, and your friends, and we made all these beautiful memories together. You get the chance to live in that universe and experience all these wonderful things and people in person, whereas I have to read it from the page. And then you dare and FORGET IT? I just. I can't handle that. You can imagine how well I handled things like Mockingjay or the alternative ending for Allegiant (if they do this in the movie, people will get hurt). The Maze Runner, okay, I could live with that one, but THROWING AWAY EVERYTHING WE HAD TOGETHER is unacceptable. This is a rant, if you hadn't noticed, caps lock is allowed. So, reading this book was a form of torture of the worst kind for me.

"It’s nothing we can’t fix over the course of extended therapy. You see, the hippocampus region affects memories, both short- and long-term."

Really? Are we really doing this? Again? Why? We've done it before, remember? Almost one year ago! Authors? Why?

"He also doesn’t seem to recall you."

Side note: This exact kind of plot twist is the reason I decided not to read Where She Went after If I Stay.

Since it's a while ago I did this in a review, I decided to give you all an idea of how I think we got this ending for Champion. (I love a lot of these authors. I don't mean to offend anyone who wrote or read these books.)

Around the huge diner table of Veronica Roth:

Marie Lu: "Okay, guys, I think I've finally got the ending for Champion straight."

Veronica Roth: *sighs* "Well, would you like our opinion on it? Really, these endings are always a pain in the ass it seems."

James Dashner: "Marie, are you sure? They helped me, but..."

John Green: "It's your own fault, James! You didn't listen to me!"

Veronica Roth: "There was a sacrifice..."

Marie Lu: "Uhm. Hello? Champion?"

J.K. Rowling: "Go on, Marie."

Marie Lu: "So, I've still got two options, but I think I'd prefer this one: Day and June defeat the Colonies, but during the fight, Anden and Tess die tragically, leaving Day heartbroken and June feeling very conflicted about Anden's death."

Rick Yancey: "Okay, what else?"

Marie Lu: "Well, the other option is to kill Day."

Kami Garcia and Veronica Roth: "The second one is awesome!"

Suzanne Collins: "Both possible, but if you pick the first one, how will you deal with June reminding Day of his dead family members?"

Marie Lu: "Oh. You've got a point."

Tahereh Mafi: "I would avoid killing any more main characters. It, uhm, is getting a little bit sadistic."

Veronica Roth: "For the last time, it was character development!"

Marissa Meyer: "We can't just write one ending without murdering people, can we?"

Tahereh Mafi: "I didn't lay one finger on them!"

J.K. Rowling: "Tahereh, yours wasn't really an 'ending.'"

Suzanne Collins: "Can't we kill Eden?"

James Dashner: "YES! Kill the adorable!"

Suzanne Collins: "And let's blame Tess for all the deaths!"

James Dashner and Veronica Roth: "YES! BETRAYAL FTW!"

Marie Lu: "Guys, I think I'll just figure it out myself... Thanks for the advice."

J.K. Rowling: "No! Don't go. I promise we'll help."

Marie Lu: "Okay, but no betrayal or dead siblings."

Leigh Bardugo: "How about near-dead boyfriends?"

Marie Lu: "That sounds pretty good actually."

George R.R. Martin: "And then we kill everyone!"

Marie Lu: "I'd rather not."

Kerstin Geir and Stephenie Meyer: "Is immortality an option?"

J.K. Rowling: "Shut up, Stephenie."

Stephanie Ziel: "How about memory loss?"

James Dashner: "Amnesia!"

Suzanne Collins: "Sounds like a plan."

Kiera Cass: "How about a happy ending? You can always write a sequel with near-death."

Marie Lu: "Actually, I like the memory loss idea."

Leigh Bardugo: "Sounds like a plan to me."

Ally Condie: "What are you going to do?"

Marie Lu: "I'm going to hurt my fans so badly they'll smash my books to the walls!"

J.K. Rowling: "So, the usual, basically?"

Tomorrow, it's exactly one year ago I finished my first YA trilogy. So I'm in an extremely nostalgic mood. Because that first one changed the way my life would unfold throughout that year. I can't imagine what my life would be like without the books I read, and I am so grateful I found out about them.