Title: The Hidden
Author: Jessica Verday
Series: (The Hollow #3)
Published: September 6th 2011 by Simon Pulse
 

What a sad way to end a trilogy. I’ll have you know I both loved The Hollow and The Haunted. But I can’t say that to The Hidden. I felt half empty to be perfectly honest. When I finish the book, I felt so unsatisfied. Like “is that it?” “Is that all?” It took three books, only to end it where it started.

Once again there are a lot of unnecessary events. I’ll gladly skip them all and went ahead to the few remaining pages of the book. You know why? Because that’s where the answers I’ve been dying to know are. It was crammed in that last few pages. I have the feeling that if I did skip, I’ll probably still get the story. Yes, that’s how trifling some of the events are.

It’s been almost a year since I last read The Haunted, but I still remember the story (like I said, I like it). Although I did forgot about the revenants (as a term, I still know why they are there). After a year the term revenant is something I associate now with zombies (yep, I’m talking about Die for Me). I digress, getting back, I think it’s kinda frustrating to drag the story so much. I really wanted to know why Vincent is stopping Abby and Caspian. What is the revenants real mission? What really are they? And then I’ll find the answer at the very end. Are you kidding me?

I don’t mind if the important information is at the end, as long at the events prior to it are significant too (or really necessary). But really? The prom? The finding the dress for the prom? The talk about food? While it was interesting when Vincent when to Abby’s house as a pastor, I still don’t get the reason why he need to do it. Just a practical joke? That’s all time waster to me. Even Vincent’s motivations once I found out are really unexpectedly boring. Then there’s a new character, Cyn. I found it tad late to introduce a new character. I know, she serves as an important role in the story. But she’s so out of the picture most of the time, for someone important. All I know was she’s curious about Abby, and she has something to do (it’s a bit spoilerish) to Kirsten. Given that her character is significant there’s no groundwork to work with. It felt to me that she’s just there for convenience, because without her the ending wouldn’t be possible.

Aside from Cyn, I wanted to know why Ben had been dreaming of Kristen lately. But even that was just a piece of the story that didn’t bother to explain. I still have some questions and because this is the final book, it looked like I will never have the chance to know it. But it’s still hard to accept that everything happened is just that. Na-ah.

I like Caspian and Abby’s relationship. I really do. But even though the conclusion of their love story is sort of happy, I’m not. I’m not really satisfied with the ending.

I don’t know what to say anymore. It was really depressing for me. I’m so sad because I’ve been looking forward to read it. This is the final book, it should have that kick, but it so plain to me that even the “twist” didn’t come to me as is. I don’t know… I just can’t… *sigh*