It took me a long time to get to this last book (even longer to write this review). On one hand I was slightly disappointed by the last book, on the other I didn’t want this series to end. I also knew what would happen to David, so I was also afraid of reading that. But once I finished it I was glad I did.
First of all we get the reconciliation of Francine and Katchoo, but it’s not what we expect. Sure they’re friends again, but they’re also a bit distant. It’s not like it was before. They each have their own life now, and things are inevitably different. That was a nice change.
Katchoo has to deal with David and his tumor, which is the main focus of the series. Casey is also involved in this thread, since she is also in love with David. For some reason this three-some felt right. To add to the cast, Tambi is also involved and she looks for a cure for David. She’s also tailing a possible heir to David’s empire, but that heir is only teased to us.
Francine had her own problems with Brad. I know there are a lot of people who have affairs, but it’s not all of them!! Brad’s affair didn’t feel very real to me, after seeing all of Francine’s boyfriends cheat on her. But I guess it was a reason for her to get away from that life and go back to Katchoo. The death of Griffin at least gave this thread some more emotional punch. However going back to Katchoo wasn’t that easy, especially given David’s situation. I was a little disappointed that David didn’t get to interact with Francine much before dying, they were also close friends.
I must say David’s death was totally expected, ever since vol 2. But I could not help feeling very emotional. I was in a public place when I read that and I had a hard time controlling my tears. The most emotional part was the reading of his wish. That part basically summarized all relationships between these characters, and brought out all the secrets (Casey being Tambi’s girl).
The resolution to all these relationships at the end is satisfying, if a little too perfect (Tambi and Casey?!?!). Francine can finally have a life with Katchoo and they have all the money they need. Not only that, they have two babies (I assume one is David and Katchoo’s). Just the perfect happy ending for this long and dramatic series.
I was totally satisfied by this ending, I don’t think I’d have wanted anything else. There is one small problem I have with this series though. It all goes back to the future story line introduced way back in book 2. It was supposed to be the “real” future, but halfway through Moore (affected by 9/11) decided to change that future.
This is why he introduced all those possible futures in book 4, so that we’d think they were just Francine’s fantasy about her possible future. Unfortunately I didn’t get that at the time, so I still thought that future was “real”. And some of it is still real: David and Katchoo’s wedding, David’s death etc… So if I think about it, it can’t be Francine’s fantasy, unless she can see the future somehow. So it was annoying to me to have an end point presented to me, and reading the series looking forward to that end point, but in the end not getting it at all. But that’s the nature of long term storytelling, some things always change.
That being said, I still enjoyed this series a lot, and this last book is definitely an improvement over the last two. I really enjoyed spending time with these characters, and I will re-read this series in the future. The pocket edition is a great format, easy to handle (as opposed to a huge omnibus) and breaks perfectly in the story. I can’t recommend this series enough, this should in everybody’s collection.