I want to start by saying that I absolutely ADORED The Mediator as a teenager! It was one of my favorite book series back in high school, and I still enjoy rereading it even to this day. Yet despite that, or perhaps because of it, I hesitated for a long time to read this novella because I felt that the original series wrapped up pretty much perfectly with Twilight (no, not that Twilight). As a result, I was worried that this novella, along with the full length novel that was released after it, would ruin the original story for me. After all, both came out over a decade after the last book in the original series was released. In the end, however, I caved and decided to give The Proposal a try because I was just that desperate for more Mediator content after all these years. Sadly, my original instincts ended up being correct, and I very much wish that I had listened to them.
This novella turned out to be very disappointing to say the least. It didn’t have any of the charm of the original series and Suze just really didn’t seem like herself in this story. Unlike the Suze in the original series, this Suze grated on my nerves at almost every turn and constantly had me rolling my eyes or sighing in frustration. Rather than growing more mature with age, the Suze of this novella seems to have become much less mature as a person overall. It’s like all of her character development from the original books never even happened. For example, the way she handled the ghost at the beginning of the story had me wanting to literally bash my head against the wall in frustration. That poor kid! She wouldn’t even listen to his side of the story and even went full on judgment mode without knowing anything about him besides what she heard on the news of all places. Seriously, this Suze is an absolutely terrible mediator and she would also make an even more terrible councilor (which is apparently what she wants to do for a career).
I get that this was just a short little novella, but the story was honestly pretty bad as well. Not only did it feel a little too reminiscent of Reunion (a much worse version at that) but it just wasn’t very well thought out. Everything fell into place and resolved itself far too easily and neatly at the end. It didn’t feel realistic or organic at all. Suze pretty much screwed up royally at every turn during her mediation, and yet things still somehow happened to work out perfectly for her. This was more thanks to some very convenient coincidences and the antagonist being a complete moron than anything Suze did herself.
Probably the worst part of this novella, though, was the way that the relationship between Suze and Jesse was handled. I hated the fact that Suze acted so awkward around Jesse, who she has been dating for several years now, and the fact that she lied to him multiple times for no good reason. Then there’s the fact that she got all weird at a certain point and made him doubt their relationship for what is revealed later to be and incredibly stupid and almost entirely nonsensical reason. Rather than just communicating with him like a normal person, she makes some very odd assumptions and refuses to talk to him about it.
Another problem that I had is the fact that this is supposed to be adult fiction rather than young adult like the original series. Apparently, Meg Cabot’s idea of adult fiction basically just involves more cursing and Suze constantly thinking about wanting to have sex. In every other respect, this still feels very firmly like young adult fiction and I kind of wish that it had just stayed that way. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any problem whatsoever with cursing or even sexual content. I read plenty of books with mature content, many of which are FAR more explicit than anything in this story. My problem is that the “adult” content in this novella feels very shoehorned in. It’s like Meg Cabot doesn’t know how to actually write a more mature, adult story so she just threw more cursing and Suze’s constant sexual desires into it to try and forcibly push the story into the adult category.
Sadly, I can’t really think of anything good to say about this novella. It just really didn’t feel like The Mediator to me. It almost felt more like a poorly written fanfiction for the series than a true sequel. Needless to say, I will not be reading Remembrance, the full length novel that follows this short story. I wish that I hadn’t tarnished the original series by reading this, and I intend to do my utmost to forget about it entirely. For me, the end of the series will always be the sixth book.