Richard III

“Have I told you I love you recently?”
“No, you’ve been cruelly reticent and I’ve had no choice but to be sentimental enough for the two of us.” Cooper shook his fist at the ceiling. “Curse this new burden of being the most emotionally healthy person in the house. I hate it!”

I pretty much love this as a series conclusion. At the same time, I have a bit of mixed feelings about certain aspects, mainly the central mystery. I've enjoyed all the mysteries in the series so, so much. Some more than the others, but for the most part, it was super exciting to follow the investigations and make guesses. This time, the whole thing felt... well, I don't want to say artificial, but it hinged on too many factors that didn't feel organic and were more like coincidences? There was a certain assumption at the very beginning that I kept waiting to be twisted around/proven to be a red herring, and there were all those clues that I kept waiting to see subverted because why else would they be going over Cooper's head like that after everything I know of him from the previous books. It was just odd. 

I enjoyed getting even more immersed into the werewolves' politics and lore and how the two intersect, and watching Cooper get more and more immersed into the world of the wolves and grow more comfortable in it. The big reveal at the end, though, with Cooper's AQ and the whole Moon thing... I don't know, I'm not really a fan of it, I think. I do kind of see what the author was going for, but I also don't quite buy it? Maybe part of it is that we're always in Cooper's head, him being the sole narrator, and he's the one who doesn't quite buy it. Maybe it's just not the plot direction I liked. Maybe both.

Now onto the things I did unequivocally love, though! They were numerous! On a large, series-wide scales I appreciated a lot of things about how the plot was constructed, with plentiful nods to the events of all the previous books. I absolutely loved Eli's involvement and how he became such a part of Cooper and Oliver's lives. This is pretty much what I've wanted since Book 3. I may be weird, but I do enjoy it when an ex becomes a genuine friend of the family, and Eli is such a fun character. I know he now has his own spin-off, I've already bought the first book, and I'm eager to dive into it soon! (Also, the summary of that book is absolutely hilarious in light of one of Eli's quips in his last conversation with Cooper, 10/10). 

I really liked the presence of Cooper's family, how he continues to (re)build a connection with his brother, and how his relationship with his father grows. In Book 2, Ed and Cooper did take steps toward a better mutual understanding, but their relationship still felt strenuous and... not too promising, let's say? But now I can see both of them taking steps to meet each other in the middle.

That plotline that delved into Cooper's past with the FBI was... ugh, wow, let's just say some of those scenes left me thoroughly uncomfortable, as they should, and all of that explains so much about his character, the place he started from (and also showcases just how much he's grown throughout the series). Funny thing: when it just started unfolding, I was like, wow, I would've preferred some hints/build-up to this reveal in the previous books... and then I realized that hell, the hints were there. From as early as the very first book, they were just throwaway lines that didn't seem to mean too much at the time, except in hindsight, they meant so much. This is one of those examples of large-scale plotting that I'm absolutely here for.

And, finally, Cooper and Oliver! They're almost sickeningly sweet together so often at this point, and all this sweetness is so hard-earned and well-deserved. I do hope to see a bit of them here and there in the spin-off, but honestly, they both feel just so ready for their happy ever after. It's been delightful witnessing this relationship from that first meeting on the subway to the absolute fluff of this book's last page, and I just have SO, SO many feels for them. One of my favorite couples ever. <3

Provided that we are dealing with Histories, it is apparent that Richard the Third is the first true villain in the Shakespearean world of characters. Richard so conceives the scope of unscrupulousness that he makes it absolutely his own.

His character, with the self-blinding belief, lives beyond the pages of the text. As it seems, he's going to stay with you. How many characters have done that so far, I wonder. Surely, Sir John Falstaff, Henry the Fifth and his father, Henry the Fourth, to an extent.

To the playwright's credit, force and stance are welded to Richard's soliloquies; a hint of which we get in the previous play in the so called tetralogy. The play opens up with the memorable line which manifests Richard's own perturbation at not being at the centre of the royal attention:


Now is the winter of our discontent
. . .
But I,–that am not shap’d for sportive tricks,
. . .
I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion,
. . .
And therefore,–since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,–
I am determined to prove a villain,


His 'discontent' bred out of maliciousness for others, ambition of power and bitterness about his physical deformity results in the intent to deceive through political manipulation and instinct to kill whoever comes in his way between him and the throne;

And thus I clothe my naked villainy
With odd old ends stol'n out of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

In the end, it is by manipulation through words that Richard presents a series of misdeeds which internalizes his crimes. His evil-ness is more of an inward belief in his deformed self rather than his physical deformity; that he 'believes' to be the only one the way he is,

No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.
But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

Surely, the play works on the basis of heightened dramatization of a character's villainy led by extreme, selfish actions rather than the torments of mind one would encounter elsewhere in Shakespeare; and even though the play ends in somewhat of a whimper, the realizations of Richard's wrongdoings seemingly sudden (once we look back), it is hard not to get charmed by the import of its character portrayal.