Foster Fan Book (KOTLC Rants & More!)

Ranking the Cliffhanger Conclusions

SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 3-7 AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Shannon Messenger is definitely infamous for leaving her readers hanging at the end of each book. Excluding the first book and Exile, her final lines have taken a few years off of my life. I am going to be grading these based off of the last line, and the suspense/excitement that they caused. So, without further ado, here are my rankings of the cliffhanger endings:

5. Exile: "Let's go join the Black Swan!"

While this line is undeniably awesome, it is more of a placeholder or transition line until the next book is written. It definitely provokes excitement, but it's more of an excitement over what is coming next then that thrill of shock and nerves that I've gotten from the other books. So great line, but not the best cliffhanger.

4. Nightfall: "Who's Alvar?"

If this ending had come before Neverseen and Lodestar, it would have had much more of an impact on me. Given that the book before this one ended with someone who had had their memories wiped coming back into the story, and the book before that ended with someone who had been unconscious for a long time waking up, this felt repetitive. Alvar was just kind of a repeat of Amy and Prentice's endings, which were much more anticipated or unexpected. Besides, Nightfall left so many other unanswered questions that this was honestly not the biggest thing that I was left wondering about. That's why this is ranked #4.

3. Neverseen: "As of this morning, Prentice is awake"

This was seriously SO epic. It  was the first time that I really felt that entire year between books go by at a glacial pace. Prentice had been a part of the series from the beginning, one of those crucial pieces that the reader knew tantalizingly little about. Then Shannon finally introduced him in Neverseen, only to have him NOT BE AWAKE! The buildup to this moment (thought it proved a bit anticlimactic later on) made this cliffhanger both awesome and impactful, so Neverseen definitely deserves to be #3. 

2. Flashback: "Sophie Elizabeth Foster is Unmatchable"

This was almost my #1 ending I love it so much. It was so unexpected in that it doesn't directly have anything to do with the Black Swan and their fight against the Neverseen; I found it really refreshing that it's focusing on Sophie's personal life. And I don't know where this is going, or how big of a role it will play in the later books. However, I've got to say... it wasn't totally unexpected. Yeah, it creates a lot of suspense, but I've always figured that there would be some sort of drama when Sophie decided to register or not register with the Matchmakers. And while this is obviously important, I don't think that Sophie's Matchmaking status will dictate the plot of the next book. I'm thinking that it will play into finding out who her parents are, so fingers crossed for us finally getting that answer in Legacy!

1. Lodestar: "Sophie?"

Like I said before, this was really close to Flashback's ending, for me but this ending absolutely blew my  mind. It changed the whole game. Before the last few chapters, I will still emotionally recovering from all that had happened during the rest of the book. But I had a direction I thought the story was going and a list of questions I thought we were finally going to have answers. I thought the book had wound down. Then Shannon FREAKING Messenger decided I didn't need my sanity for the next year after all. After Keefe realized they were taking her human family, I was literally shaking as I read the rest of the book. Then the last line changed everything. How did Amy remember Sophie? How did she escape the Neverseen? Why did the Neverseen even want Sophie's human family? This ending completely changed my entire train of thought regarding the future of the theory, and although I'm trying not to use what happens in the first few chapters of the next book as part of this grading system, Nightfall definitely did not let me down when it came to the follow-up of this cliffhanger. Definitely best ending ever!

Make sure that you comment your own rankings of the cliffhanger endings!

~Team_Foster