Re: Play Vol. 3

Title: Re: Play Vol. 3
Author: Christy Lijewski
Publisher: Tokyopop
My take: A satisfactory conclusion but felt far more predictable than the start of the series.

Spoiler-free thoughts: Singer Cree, guitarist Rail and bassist Iszak are starting to make it... but when Cree catches Izsak in a deep kiss with a strange girl who claims to know him, it forces all three of them to confront how they feel, what they want and what they'll do if they can't get it.



The writing quality was on par with the earlier books and the characters are as fun as ever. If I had to put my finger on what bothered me, I think it was just that everything turned out pretty much as expected in a romance-y story and given the massive hints about Iszak from the first two volumes. There wasn't the sense of the unexpected, of anticipation, from the earlier books. However, there were a few unexpected scenes and details that broke it up well, and it wasn't a *bad* reveal or ending by any means. All in all, I thought it was handled well, and I don't even know that I'd change it. this stuff just needed to happen, if that makes sense.

If you liked the first two books, everything wraps up well, and most importantly for me, it doesn't wrap up *neatly*. Lijewski treats her characters like people, and there's a sense that they're going to have problems going forward, like all real people, and they'll need to work to overcome them. Happiness isn't always easy. Sometimes the happiness we want is unattainable and we need to seek it elsewhere. But there's also the feeling that everyone can get there. It was a nice way to end things.


Spoilery info: First, AHAHAHA Cree getting ready to throw down with that woman was awesome. and then following up that with their intterupted somethin' somethin' in the bathroom... great way to get things started.

Background (again, since this is three in a series) Cree basically picked up Iszak off the street to be their band's bassist. Rail has been Cree's best friend for ages and wants to be with her, but can't seem to actually tell her. Cree is hot for Iszak, who likes her back but for reasons of knowing he's not a normal human and needing blood donors on a regular basis, wants to keep his distance. Still, they're sort of an item.

So when Cree catches him breaking off the kiss forced on him by a strange woman, her reaction is hilariously appropriate (in as far as violence is ever the answer). His "reward" for a sweet explanation of why he didn't try to look into his old life starts with a kiss and tries to go a bit further, but is interrupted by Char, another member of the group, who lets them know they're needed because the band is going to perform. All is well, right? All is awesome? And when they get an opportunity to have Izsak model for a hot magazine - and get a feature on their band Faust at the same time - things couldn't get better, right?

Wrong. Rail, never the most level-headed character in this story, finally boils over at Iszak getting everything, including a lot of things he wants. HE blows up. He issues an ultimatum. And I have to admit, Cree's response to his him or me demant - you don't want to ask that because you're not going to like the answer - is one of the best ways I've seen that particular scene handled. Only problem was we knew this scene would be coming for a shile. It's unfortunate, but every love triangle story is going to reach this point eventually.

So they go home, and Cree's hoping Rail will come back and try to talk things out, and Iszak gives her space... but when Rail gets there Cree is gone. Cree has been kidnapped! By the antagonists, who are incidentally my favorite characters in this. Especially Niji. There's just something about her cool demeanor.

This actually led to one of my favorite moments in the book - Iszak gets a call from Cree's phone, but before he can answer it, Rail snatches it away and answers it himself. After a short conversation with the person CALLING ISZAK'S PHONE, he hoolds that phone out to Iszak and says, "It's for you." It pbobably says something about my sense of humor that that made me laugh for a good while.

On the flip side, it also led me to a sort of weird moment. The person on the other end of the phone - the person who has Cree says if Iszak brings Rail along, they'll kill him (Rail, not Iszak). Does Iszak try to stop him from coming? No. Not a mention. It can be argued he doesn't think they mean it, I suppose, but it just came off as really cold and heartless, and Iszak had never really seemed like an ass until that point. Even now, having read through it twice (once to read, once more for this review) I'm not really sure what that's meant to be read as.

So, they go, and Rail's brought down pretty much immediately (not killed, but very VERY unconscious from the look of the attack that put him down) and then they confront Cree with the fact that her boyfriend is A VAMPIRE!

Well, they say he'[s not a vampire, he's an undead, but really, he's post-mortem and needs blood from others to survive, so that's vampire enough in my book. This was pretty well foreshadowed in giant neon letters earlier in the series, so it should not have been a big surprise to anyone. So, they show her, and it turns out that if he goes without blood too long, Iszak turns into literally another person, who is all kinds of mean. Cree has to offer her blood to save him and has to stay with him forever, to be sure he's actually taking his blood regularly, and of course she does, because she loves him and that's what you do for people you love. It does beg the question what happens after she dies, as she's human and he's really not. But it's a fairly sweet ending.

the book ends with two other short chapters that stand alone, one showing how Niji and her partner Laurent ended up together and another about Rail and Char in their younger days. Both were really great mini stories, and a great wya to end the book.