What a sweet and poignant end to a beautiful coming-of-age story for Dicey and the entire Tillerman family! My only complaint is that I wish Voigt had written more because I would love to see more of the Tillermans.
In this volume, we are back to where it all began with Dicey. At this point, Dicey has dropped out of college to realize her dream of being a boatmaker. She has a small shop, and a vague plan, and the strongest will of anyone, but will that be enough for her to succeed? Unfortunately, Dicey has to realize that dogged determination and a strong work ethic are not the only things she needs to achieve her goals; relying solely on herself and refusing the help of her boyfriend Jeff and loving family paint her into a corner of loneliness and regret. But this is where Voigt is best, putting young characters in challenging situations so they can reckon with the world and come out better on the other side.
This book also had a very challenging plotline with Gram, who was suffering from an illness and, shockingly, also refusing help or listening to reason. I wonder where Dicey gets it from… I was so concerned about Gram’s health and was getting a bit stressed out with her persistent cough. I was begging Voigt, not to kill her off in the last volume, and am grateful she didn’t, but glad to have put the character in danger. It was interesting to see the parallels between Gram and Dicey’s journeys to reckon with needing to take help from other people and that they can actually be stronger when they let others in.
Also, Gram had a poignant moment that will stick with me for a while…and also get jotted down in my therapy notebook.
“When I think about geology, it feels like time is so long – which makes my own time so short – I don’t intend to waste a minute of it. The hard thing is knowing what constitutes waste.”
Gram really gets it. That one sentence sums up about 85% of my mental chatter about doing what I “should” be doing or my preoccupation with always doing the “right thing.” But who says what’s right and wrong?
Voigt did a great job with this series and I would recommend it to anyone really who wants to time travel back to a time with fewer electronics and screens and reflect on the complexities of growing up.
