how obvious was it that kelly was going to die?

[Italiansweety1982]

I thought it would be Sliver, not Kelly

[Italiansweety1982]

I thought it would be Sliver, not Kelly. Maybe it's more impactful if it's the girl.

[WendyNorth]

I don't think it was incredibly obvious that Kelly was going to die. But I do agree with you on a total lack of character building.

[Bruin Dez]

I didn't expect it, but I wasn't too surprised. I guess I didn't think the characters were developed enough for me to foresee it as an option. I wonder if it made the story better or worse, or just a different direction than what was expected.

[Kibet Hillary]

I think the character development was not that bad and hence it was not necessarily a must that someone had to die so as to give the book some emotion.

[Kibet Hillary]

I didn't expect it, but I wasn't too surprised. I guess I didn't think the characters were developed enough for me to foresee it as an option. I wonder if it made the story better or worse, or just a different direction than what was expected.

I also did not foresee the death of Kelly. If there was someone to die, I never expected that it would be Kelly. I think it gave the book some direction more than the emotion it was able to create.

[TessaC]

An old writer's saying is 'kill your darlings". I expected someone to die but definitely not the main character because I think there will be a series of books. I sometimes think writers like to kill off girlfriends and dogs for the emotional feelings that provokes.

[Bianka Walter]

Actually, my thought process was similar. I thought Kelly would somehow be the cause of Silver's death. I was thinking that she would be taking revenge on him. And in doing so, Silver would then die.

Exactly. I pictured her taking control of the Chrome Wind at the end (wearing one of his trinkets) saying, "Let's get our revenge!"
Actually, that's pretty lame, but you get the point.
I saw him protecting her, and that was the direction she needed.

[[Valerie Allen]]

Actually, my thought process was similar. I thought Kelly would somehow be the cause of Silver's death. I was thinking that she would be taking revenge on him. And in doing so, Silver would then die.

Exactly. I pictured her taking control of the Chrome Wind at the end (wearing one of his trinkets) saying, "Let's get our revenge!"
Actually, that's pretty lame, but you get the point.
I saw him protecting her, and that was the direction she needed.

Yup! I certainly agree with your point of view.

[Braunsucre]

Kelly's death came as a complete surprise and somehow I love it that way.

[Alicia09]

I did not think that Kelly was going to die until she was actually running with Sliver to escape the shootings. I do think her death was instrumental in bringing Sliver to want to kill Ancarn even more though, because he saw her death as one more loss of someone he cared about in his life.

[María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda]

Honestly, I didn´t see it coming. Maybe it´s because I don´t usually read sci-fi and I´m not trained to detect patterns as in other genres, but it caught me by surprise. Or maybe I was just rooting for her...that happens to me often.

[jjmainor]

I have to admit to skipping to the end, so I knew Sliver wouldn't die (I tend to hit the end of the book to check out any author's notes and found this book ended at the last page...couldn't help catching a few words ). Kelly's death came as a complete surprise as I expected her to eventually warm up to Sliver and join him on his vendetta.

Sid note though, it was probably a bad idea to advertise it in the thread title. Many people come in having not read or finished the book. I'm not quite finished myself, and if I had been one day behind, her death would have been spoiled...maybe I'm being to nit-picky, but I guess someone has to point it out.

[Nanig83006]

due to gariffo lack of character building, it was inevitable that someone had to die to give some sort of emotion to the book. at first i thought it would probably be sliver who dies in the end to save kelly, (proving that he still can love) but then i saw they werent getting to his revelation soon so i surmised kelly must die.

When it happened, I was surprised. I wasn't expecting her to die, but I also wasn't moved by Kelly's death. Like you said, the lack of character building gave me no real connection to Kelly and she barely interacted with Sliver unless to attack/argue/harass/question him. We didn't learn anything about her other than being a farm girl hidden away from the world by her parents. I feel Sliver's response to her death was more because his memories as a young man trying to avoid the soldiers were triggered. I do believe he cared for Kelly in his own way, but his response was more about himself than about her.

[DC Brown]

I wasn't expecting Kelly to die. I guess I was holding out for a Cinderella, happy-ever-after type ending. My thought was that they would take the ship to a place where no one could find them, like Sliver did for the Shredders.