The Station Series [BOOK] by Trish Marie Dawson

This whole series I'd like to forget.

THE STATION SERIES
Book One: Dying to Forget
Book Two: Dying to Remember
Book Three: Dying to Return
Book Four: Dying to Known

Genre: YA Novel, Drama, Supernatural
Format: Kindle

Rating: 2 out of 10.

SPOILERS.
This series I picked up off the first one being free. I was intrigued because of the premise of the first book. This is a really disturbing premise so if you feel suicidal, have depression or otherwise are triggered by those topics, you may not want to continue or read this series. The rating on this series is because of the plot and the book and not the topic.

Piper Willow is a young teenage girl who is not handed things easily. She goes through the traumatic experience of being raped by a classmate and accidentally commits vehicular manslaughter to her best friend while fleeing away in the night. Piper, who can no longer live with herself and has no one to speak to because her best friend is gone (and she's responsible), takes her own life. 

Now, while this topic is very heavy hearted, the premise behind at this point is now very interesting. Those who choose to end their lives, end up at this halfway point, The Station. The Station is a place where those who ended their own lives can use their unique perspective to assist those still alive from making the same choices. This purgatory of the sorts gives those who were willing to part with life, a way to not yet part to the next side. The Station is like Earth however not exactly, because of the distortion with time and the way it flows. Wibbly wobby timey wimey. 

Piper ends up becoming a "volunteer" and being our protagonist, of course it can't be easy. She is suppose to go into her first body as someone similar to her and whoops, she ends up in a man. Sloan is considered an attractive man, at least from Piper's perspective. This seemed...wrong to me. After so close to going through the experience with Ryan, the guy who raped her in life, you'd think she would be averse to being in a man's body and his sexual experiences, however, you don't see that at all. Which seems, like we should forget details and move on with only big plots, which also seems patronizing to the reader in a sense. Sloan ends up also ending his life and meeting Piper at the Station.

Actually developed some interest at this point.

Piper starts another volunteering session, which is a bit better. She is in a female's body and she learns the girl's father was a murderer. It was interesting because it seemed like a cop out. The girl struggled in school because everyone seemed to hate her besides the hot teacher. Which is just...predatory. It seemed like they were going for "forbidden" romance saves the day. At the end, we learn that Piper teaches the girl how to flat iron her hair and magically, she's no longer depressed. It seemed like too easy of a solution and reinforces the idea that looks are everything, which just seems wrong to me. 

Piper then ends up on a mission, without realizing it, in tandem with Sloan. They are both in a pair of newly matched lovers. It really is also wrong because not only are they not suppose to be together on a mission, however the circumstances are insane. Jess (the girl whose body she is in), just got an abortion, thinks it's the right choice and her boyfriend comes over and gets aggressive with her and falls over a wall and dies from the fall. Right off the bat, Piper is dealing with this. Eventually, Cole (Jess's friend and Sloan in his head) tries to convince Jess to kill herself with him and Piper reigns them on in. They stay alive and fall in love with each other. 

That's it. Two books and Piper stops helping people. Besides walking children under 10 (the Ones) to their final destination. What we have here is now a Mary Sue situation. If you don't know what that is, it pretty much means the main character is so special, so top of the line she just pretty much gets everything handed to her for no reason aside from her being Piper.

What we learn from here is that the Station, get this. Is run by aliens. This felt like a terrible cop out of what was such a great idea and in-depth thought. This complex system that could be run with such thoughts of how the after life is...is aliens. WOW. AND GET THIS, the aliens created it because they were bored. Their planet is similar to ours, just more rich in beauty and colors. They look like us but they're what we call Seers (and have different types of powers) and guess who is one too? Good ole Piper. (this is where my reverence for the topics and the book changes my thoughts and is where the sarcasm starts to pop up.) Piper somehow becomes alive again when she travels to Rush (the alien's) home world. He's in love with her...which I don't understand why. I really don't. This love interest seemed awkward and forced when she already had Sloan. 

At this point, Piper now can't volunteer for some reason and is upgraded to mentor. Which she plain and simple sucks at. She runs around to different places and shirks her responsibilities to hang out with children and cross them over. She then stops volunteering and really just cries and complains. Piper pretty much gives up Sloan, because she's alive and well, an alien treats her like a child and she's somehow so all about that. Even though he betrays her trust and confidence and makes her run into her school rapist in another Station. She eventually falls in love with Rush and runs away into the sunset to be with him.

Really.

So I was more or less disappointed and more disappointed in myself that I read 4 books. The last two books it felt like I was just trying to get through it and I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I felt like I was reading to just get an ending and I wanted the book to end. I wish I actually found a summary of it to find out what the ending was like just so I didn't have to read the rest of it. I don't understand why the author went this route. This could've been a strong series. The first book was promising. This could've been the story of redemption for a suicidal girl who found her place and like belonging in a function of the after life. I would've probably enjoyed this story if I got to read it from her rapist's point of view. He ended up killing himself when he was in prison for raping another girl and ended up at another Station, where he tried every day to make up for it and improve someone else's life because of the torment of his. Or Niles. He had a child who died and because of that, he ended up taking his own life because the misery he felt. He ends up crossing over with another person who he ends up loving. This story, I think, had very strong characters, the author just focused on the wrong person. A great story doesn't need stupendous stuff to happen in it like aliens and Seers. It needs good character development, thoughtful or complex plot and a sensible story progression. I thought this could've been better from the point of view of some of the other characters. The universe does have much more to give us, just not with this character, who I would be okay with not hearing about again.