Playing Through Every Choices Book, In Order (Part 34: The Senior)

Hey! Today we finally finish our incredibly long education at Hartfeld University, but not before yet more petty drama!

Next time, we take a little break from reality to head to the tragic Braidwood Manor...and try to figure why our brother's freakishly malformed corpse is haunting us.

Link to previous reviews: https://www.reddit.com/user/stresseatingdog/comments/sj3s3m/all_choices_reviews_megapost/

SPOILER WARNING, AS ALWAYS!

The Senior

M/C: Stella Valentine

Final LI: Zig

Favorite Chapter: Chapter 15

Favorite Character(s): Zig, Abbie, Alice, Chris, Becca, Kaitlyn

Least Favorite Character(s): N/A

Overall Rating: 5/10

Review:

It’s weird that it took until the final book in the series for M/C to get a last name, huh? This book is more akin to the first 3 books than The Junior, and maybe that’s because The Junior was not received well. That’s not a good thing though. Like the first 3 books, this book attempts to patch up its sheer monotony with pointless petty drama, this time the main drama being your LI (or Zack if you’re single) and their future dreams clashing with your own. Honestly, it felt pretty forced, and kind of out of character. Like, why would Zig just decide that I’d be alright with going to Japan with him? Has he heard of any flourishing English authors over in Tokyo? The London chapter was honestly very nice, and Abbie was at her best in that chapter. M/C’s mom and dad getting divorced was so pointless, and just an attempt to jab a little conflict into this otherwise sluggish book, since they get back together at the end anyway. Vasquez’s journal was…boring. Just another cliche firebrand girl meets a shy boy and gets him to come out of his shell trope. Lame. Like, why not make Vasquez gay or something, or have some other interesting backstory for him to make me not resent his shitty treatment of M/C back in Books 1 and 2, or something besides a cliche hetero love story? The memory box is just another “collect these things for a small little scene at the end” thing that’s in a lot of Choices books, and it's so pointless here. All you get is one scene at the end of all the other characters pointing out which items they gave you, and M/C making lame jokes/corny comments in response. Zig proposing to me was sweet, and I do like him, but after playing through so many books with him, the fact that I can never romance him as a dude just makes me dislike him. He’s so amazing, but he’s also completely out of reach, much like hot straight guys in real life, except Zig is freaking bi. Also, I found it weird that Zack's boyfriend, Grant, doesn't even show up in the final chapter. Zack's own bf didn't show up to his graduation...that's pretty sad. The paintball fight scene reminded me of the paintball fights from *Community (*if you get that reference, you're streets ahead). So yeah, all in all, this book is kind of a mediocre finish to a series that far outlived its welcome. There were points I loved in this series, and there were many points I loathed, but I still had a decent time playing through it.

So yeah, that's The Freshman series for ya. The last OG Choices book I have left to play is Most Wanted, and we won't be getting to that for a while, so hang tight on that front. Anyways, following the next review, we have a slew of GOC books, so I can feel better about the Zig situation. Yay!