Spoiler Alert - How did you feel about the ending of the book?

Use this forum to discuss the February 2018 Book of the Month, "The Reel Sisters" by Michelle Cummings.
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michmc3
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Re: Spoiler Alert - How did you feel about the ending of the book?

Post by michmc3 »

bobbiebryner wrote: 04 Jun 2018, 10:52 I think it would seem as though she is out of character, but I know from experience that it is not always the case. My husband served in the army for several years. He was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of the war. During that time, I had our second son. When his unit was returning stateside, they asked for volunteers to remain in country during the transition between those that led the assault and those that would be occupying the area. My husband volunteered to stay behind. I was devastated. How could he not want to come home and see his son? Although on the outside I was the strong and caring wife and mother, I was falling apart inside. After he came home, he was different. His PTSD was so terrible, we all walked on eggshells around him. I remember he could make me so angry, and I would respond in ways I that I could not even imagine before. During one argument, I stormed out of the house leaving him and my children and walked several miles before I realized I had forgotten shoes. When you have to be strong for so long, it is dramatic when you finally break. I can see how and why this character responded the way she did. Of course, since I could empathize so much, I hated the ending.
Thank you for sharing Bobby, and thank you for the sacrifices you and your family have made for our freedom. I can definitely see how you related to Amanda. <3 Best wishes to you and your family. ~Michelle Cummings
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[Valerie Allen]
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Post by [Valerie Allen] »

That certainly seems to be a matter of opinion. For what woman wouldn't have or haven't responded out of her emotions? But the ending was definitely so much more than I expected. Had Amanda not acted out character, it's possible the outcome would have been quite different.
And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. (Revelation 20:12 (NKJV) :reading-7:
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Post by holsam_87 »

Amanda wasn't acting in character, and finding out that he husband would go back to his job was too much for her since he almost died.
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Post by Itskai88 »

it was surprising given how put together she has been until then, what she did was risky and she didn't think about her kids. there would have been other ways to handle it i guess and that end would have been avoided because it didn't serve much of a purpose.
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Post by rumik »

It was really very surprising, I was not prepared for that at all! Not sure if it was a well-written twist or if it was one of those character deaths for no reason other than to shock... I would've liked to see the girls call out Amanda's husband to be honest, I know he has PTSD but no matter what you have, it's your responsibility as a human being to not be a jerk!
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Post by Joy Catap »

Yes. I think all her problems and anxiety just came crushing down at her at that time. She always deal with all the problems while Mike was in abroad. And when Mike came home, he became one of her burdens instead of one of her partners. It's all too much to take. She needs a break. Too bad her break is not temporary.
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Post by LyorBoone »

Amanda was in a difficult situation and made a choice. It wasn't her best choice, but people don't always make the best of choices. Sometimes we make choices that others would not imagine to be within our character. When I read that Amanda died, after thinking that the plane might go down--and then there was Melody's frightening experience with the storm--I didn't want to believe it. Yet, it made since that we were going to lose someone. Then, looking back, Amanda being the first to hear Clara's story feels a bit like foreshadowing. Then their is the irony that she was freaking out about Mike's safety to the point that she neglected her own, which strikes me as in character of her as a mother and all. When the final lines come and talk about the "catch and release," the whole story seemed to come around into a beautiful thing that I found quite fitting. Those are my thoughts of the end of the book.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” - Mark Twain. Dare we say the same thing about every story that gets told in the world?
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Post by Scrawling Pen »

I think that Amanda spent most of her life trying to hold everything together. In many ways, since her husband returned home, her life became even more difficult to handle. Her action was out of character, but I do not think that it was unrealistic. After trying to hold everything together for so long, it is understandable that she couldn't do it any longer.
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Post by MsH2k »

I definitely think she was acting out of character. She had just been out in that nasty weather and knew how bad the conditions were. As a mother of two small children with a husband on the mend and possibly going back out to fight in a combat area, it was extremely irresponsible. Her character had been more thoughtful than that. I was angry at her. I really got invested in these characters. That was one of the few things I didn’t like about this book.
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Post by Luna 24 »

I was so depressed about what happened to Amanda. But I don't think that she went out of her character. She had too many things going on her mind then. Her husband was recovering from his injury, her boyfriend from past started appearing in her life again, she was trying to make her husband and children close again. And with all these things going on, her husband said that he wants to be deployed again. So she just couldn't take all this at the same time. And without thinking about the dangers that were underlying she went out.
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Post by kelso9326 »

I don't know if what we saw of Amanda at the end of the book was really her character that we had seen. To be fair, we hadn't seen much of her with her husband around so maybe this was more like how she normally acted. I'm sure it can be a strain on anyone to have a soldier come back from deployment with PTSD issues he seemed to have.
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Post by tristenb »

You're not really supposed to drive when you are mad, but people do it all the time. They just need to get away. The fact that there was a storm wasn't probably a concern until she realized it was too late. While it may have been out of character, we all have our moments. We have to understand Amanda at that point in time. She didn't want her husband to leave and felt abandoned that he would want to leave her again. But, I hated that she had to die in the crash. I feel so bad for Jordan and Parker. They will grow up without a mother.
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Post by Reader5698 »

I think she might have felt a bit abandoned by her husband at this stage. He was away for such a long time, and she had to be strong, for his sake and the sake of her children. Having gone through the whole thing once, I think she might not have been prepared to do it again and just needed to get away from everything. I honestly did not expect that ending at all. When she was thinking about her family after the crash, I thought she would be rushed to the hospital, and that the accident would give her and her husband a chance to think everything through. The ending really took me by surprise, especially because the book had felt rather light-hearted for the most part up until the end.
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Post by Liana Mayhew »

Although it appears Amanda is out of character at the end, I think she wasn't. In fact, I would say she showed herself most in the end. Amanda didn't like confrontation or upsetting her husband and kids. staying in the house would have caused a big fight, which could have triggered anything in Mike, after his ordeal at war. That, in turn, would have affected the kids, even if they didn't hear anything first hand, they always know when something is up. I think Amanda was still trying to protect everyone from her built-up frustration that she had struggled with throughout. It is a terrible shame what happened to her, I would have loved her to survived after she had overcome so much hardship.
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Post by Chipochashe »

Snowflake wrote: 05 Feb 2018, 12:05 Do you think Amanda was acting in character at the very end of the book?
Anger has its own character. Amanda was constantly trying to keep herself together throughout the book. How does a woman feel when her husband makes it clear that she and their children are not his priority? "Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned," as the saying goes. Yes, she took a risk, but how could she have known she was on the way to her end? Anger and bad judgement go together, so it may be out of character, but not at all impossible.
:D Only God gives the strength to smile in the face of death.
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