The Final Rule by Adrienne Wilder

Ellis and Jon need answers.
What is there to understand?
Why does it have to happen?
And what reason could ever justify losing those you love?

If only there was a simple answer. But the more questions they ask, the farther they must travel into the darkness and the things they see are not human, or even possible.
They are, in fact, Big and Terrible.

The plague is rising in Gilford. To stop it from spreading Ellis will have to embrace his destiny and Jon will have to let him go. Both men must be willing to lose everything in order to save the innocent.

It is, after all, rule number six.

If I tried to explain one simple scene in this book for you, it would be equivalent to handing you a puzzle piece and asking you to tell me the whole picture.  This last book in this story needs to be absorbed by the reader as a whole and on their own terms.  I am also going to struggle in not telling you every single emotion that this book caused in me or how it was feeding my soul as I read it.

Jon and Ellis are faced with decisions that will forever change their world in book 3.  I was happy to see that the author picked up in the same emotional anguish I was still feeling from book 2, it helped me go right in and reconnect with Jon and Ellis.  The question of why kept surfacing between them, fear kept Ellis wanting to push Jon away.  Every element that you go through when your world has shattered was present, but it was discovered that those emotions were what fed the demon that caused all of the pain.

As they lived by the rules of Rudy, they found the answers that they needed to stop the evil disease.  With the souls of their brothers who have passed guiding them, one of the lessons they had to learn was…

“Because everything has to have a balance. Light, dark. Life, death. Good, evil. Even the smallest particle exists in balance.”

When we watch each of them get to the point that they would rather run than sacrifice to follow the rules, my heart broke.  They had to save the innocent, even if that meant losing each other.  Another quote that I loved from this book…….

“Because little brother, the gift of being loved and loving someone else, makes the pain obsolete.”

I read this last book thinking back to people in my life who have lost everything, some have lost children, spouses, siblings and the anger and bitterness along with sorrow never left.  They began reaching out to others in dark ways to spread the pain they were feeling.  This is what I feel the book talked about.  You have the choice, the chance to choose your fate.  Will you allow the good things in your life to guide you with love and light, or will you allow the pain and evil things guide you farther into darkness? 

I hesitate to say this because I do not want to sound preachy, but I feel I need to. My father was the deacon of our Southern Baptist church that I grew up in.  I would watch church members come to him all of the time with requests and then complains when things didn’t go their way.  I use to ask him why there were times he would explain his choices and other times he would just listen and say nothing. He would smile at me and say “the truth will get twisted, ignored and abused unless it is told to someone who is willing to hear it. Your job is to decide if you want them to walk away feeling accepted and heard or rejected and dismissed.” I don’t think I ever really understood what he meant, but I tried to live by it the best I could as I grew up. 

This book explained it to me. My Brother’s Keeper is a set of three books that spoke to me deeply.  It is a lesson about good versus evil.  It is about how fear feeds the anger, jealousy and judgmental behaviors we see today.  To be vulnerable enough to risk your heart to spread goodness and light into the world no matter how much you have lost or been hurt by others. Or you could close yourself off from the love of others because you fear having your own heart hurt again, allowing the bitterness and evil to grow and spread.

I say every human being should read this set of books, the problem is most won’t because the two main characters are gay and love each other.  The idea of an m/m relationship will keep many from experiencing the same soul searching revival that I felt in the authors work. She wrote it in a way you can skip over the love part between Jon and Ellis if you decide to and NOT miss a single moment in the book, it really is your choice as to how much you are willing to listen and hear of their story.

   

Georgia bred and born, Adrienne Wilder spent most of her childhood exploring fantastical worlds hidden in her own back yard among tall grass, and shadowed kudzu tunnels. When she was not dragon hunting, she spent most of her time, reading, writing, drawing, and digging holes.

Currently Adrienne lives in Dahlonega, GA where she shares her home with a variety of dogs and one cat. She still spends most of her time, reading, writing, drawing, and digging holes. Although now she calls the reading "research," the drawing "artwork", the writing "books," and the holes "ponds" and "gardens".

Website || Facebook || City Of Dragons || Twitter