Evany Traver > Recent Status Updates

I think the most fun part about reading this to me is following the recorded parts of lives and imagining how these escapades went. Specifically, I was looking for all the passages about Pretty Boy Floyd. He'd pop up randomly, disappear for a year or two, then partner up with someone else to rob a bank or something. I can imagine it was either really fun or terrifying for Floyd after he was chased for so long.

`I wonder if the definition of American patriotism was different in the early 1900s. Not the exact definition, but the meaning. America was going through an era of gangs, thugs, and the rise of criminal activity, meaning a lot of people had to do unnamed things to survive. The meta for the average American citizen changes, I think, with each change of the country itself.

I don't know if it's wrong of me to say, but I sympathize with some of the gangsters featured in this book, especially after reading some of Al Capone's quotes and the quotes of some other criminals on the page after. It's crazy to think that their part of America was almost a completely different world to them in their era, and although their actions left an impact on America, something in me feels for them.

I've never read a book like this. It's almost like an encyclopedia, or something that I've been given by a teacher to complete a specific assignment. It's only now that I have actually sat down and attempted to read from the beginning to the end, from page one to zero. It's definitely different from the fiction I've read, and much more informative.

This series has definitely been a fun rollercoaster to ride for me, especially after a long time of not actually sitting down and reading a book like this! I look forward to finding more of D.J. MacHale's books on the shelves.

Now that I've gotten over the whole "Oliva being a fake" thing, I've started to notice how much the story has drifted from the first book. I remember when the main conflict used to be about the Ruby and the military invasion of Pemberwick Island. And now, the ruby turned out to be one of the smallest cogs in the machine, and the same military that invaded is actually preventing the world from ending. Crazy stuff.

I KNEW IT!!!!! Well, kind of. So, I was right about Olivia. Since the first book, she's been manipulating everyone and was just recently revealed to be someone completely different than what everyone was expecting. However, her true role in the story isn't as an antagonist, as I had thought. And honestly? I like her more as a character now that I know who she truly is. But I can't forgive her just yet.

I'm about 90% convinced that Olivia is the one that has been deceiving everyone this entire time. Unless Kent or Tori are really good liars, or Granger was lying, I'm still rooting for Olivia's downfall.

OLIVA IS MANIPULATING EVERYONE!!!! I swear to everything, every time she catches Tucker at an intimate moment, calms Kent down, or even connects to Tori in some way, I get a gut feeling that it's fake. Maybe I'm crazy, and perhaps I just don't like Olivia, but I don't trust her at all! It's wrong that she's making Tucker have these complicated feelings when he feels like the whole world is on his shoulders.

I love how diverse all of the characters are, and I also love how D.J. MacHale explored that diversity and put them in a situation where they had to work together. However, there is one character that I've been hating since the beginning of this series, and that is Olivia. I feel this way mainly because she is a character who manipulates and plays with everyone's feelings, whether intentionally or not.

It made my stomach genuinely churn when the big secrets were revealed, and I can only imagine how it would feel to actually be in that situation. The theme of this book is one of my biggest fears, which probably came from the COVID quarantine. And then to have it revealed that my closest family was aware of it? It'd kill me inside.

So far, I've loved all of the D.J. MacHale books I've read. To be fair, I've only ever read the Morpheus Road trilogy, but it's still a very good series. And this book, SYLO, has me very curious about what sort of plot patterns MacHale has developed in his career. It's amazing to know that he's traveled to where these books take place. I can imagine it's almost like experiencing the book in real time.

I'm at a point in the book where the final battle has begun, and the clash of morality and reality, literally and figuratively, is about to go down. But there's something about how MacHale wrote the last chapter that threw me off a little. The new narrative perspective seems a little rushed. I wouldn't know if that's typical for books like these, but there isn't a lot of narrative to follow—just dialogue and actions.

A lot is happening in the part of this book that I'm currently at, where secrets are being revealed and the big fight has just started. But I want to talk about what happened with Cooper's grandfather and Maggie. I can get that admitting to something so heinous would be difficult to explain, but the fact that Eugene was still rude to Maggie is baffling to me. What a hypocrite, in my opinion.

I've read most of this book already, but the way Cooper Foley dies never fails to make my heart break. His death was so unfair and the result of something that initially had nothing to do with Cooper, which makes me feel closer to Cooper than anyone else in the series. He's a more complex character who experiences some situations in his life that I personally relate to, even if he's considered to be a misfit.