The END of "The Other Typist"

I would really like to stress that this is NOT a review of "The Other Typist," a novel set back in the 1920s where speakeasies and "modern women" ran rampant, the first novel by the obviously gifted Suzanne Rindell. No, this is not a review of her novel.

This is a review of the END of her novel, so if you have not read the book yet, please do NOT read this. Please. It will absolutely positively ruin everything for you.

I finished her book this very afternoon, and I have a horrid habit of always turning to the last page in the novel just to make sure the characters end up happy. Of course, when I do this, it is because it is already certain that the characters will NOT end the way I want them to, and that's what I did earlier on in this novel, so I knew that Rose wasn't entirely... herself... at the end of it all and was indeed going by the name Ginevra.

Even though I cheated to the end like I always cheat to the end, the end I knew was coming confused me, and didn't at the same time. I instantly went to google "the other typist ending," and it looks like I am not the only fan to do so.

I read a review of the end, and even though my idea is different from theirs, I will post both here because I think both of them are VERY plausible.

1) Not my idea, but I do slightly agree: I read a review by a website with a really long name that mentioned a split personality disorder and to me, it is possible that Rose, Odalie and Ginevra were ALL the same person. My reasoning behind this is my own, and it is that Rose never noticed Frank's advances, and when she finally did, she thought they were directed at Odalie. It makes sense to me that Rose would be offended by Lieutenant Detective winking at her because it was not her half that was supposed to be the seductress, it was Odalie's half. I also believe this is possible because Rose mentioned at the end that she was suddenly thinking of Teddy's face when he was sent to his death far below. How else could she think of the face if she hadn't thought of the face?

I firmly believe Rose when she said Odalie did it, even though believing a narrator in an institute for the otherwise-sane might not be the smartest move ever. Of course, trusting Odalie wasn't the smartest move ever, either. . . . Since I believe ODALIE did it, the only way ROSE could've seen his face was if they were the same person, but it was ODALIE'S side that did the dark deed.

I also believe that if this scenario is correct then Teddy not recognizing Rose but recognizing Odalie could've symbolized that their unified one confused him, since he had always envisioned the personality of Odalie, but when the character slipped into Rose he second-guessed himself.

I think that this is all very plausible, especially the Frank scenario, since if I was trying to get away with more than one personality, I wouldn't want them confused; I would want the seductress to do the seducing and the plain one to be just that, the plain one. If someone flirted with the plain one I would be upset that the siren wasn't good enough for them and would treat them like how Rose treated Lieutenant Detective.

2) My theory is that Rose is sane enough. I don't think she is completely sane, because she was obviously obsessed with Odalie, which to me symbolized that the young women of the 1920s were obsessed with being the image of a "modern woman."

The end of the book where Lieutenant Detective, or Frank, went to visit Rose symbolized a turning point to me. Before she received her "gift" from Odalie, Rose only thought of proving her innocence, but when Frank came to visit her, she saw something else: Life was one large board game, and Odalie was just playing it. Odalie stole Rose's life to play the game, so Rose decided to do that same.

She decided to finally enter the game by becoming Odalie, something she has always wanted to do. So she kissed Frank and seduced the knife from him and cut her hair into a silky bob like her not-so-bossom-buddy. Yes, she didn't believe that Frank would come back to visit her, but she was able to seduce all she needed out of him to start her transformation, and that was the knife and the lighter.

I believe that after these pages stopped Rose set to seduce the doctor and anyone else she needed to to get out of there as quickly as possible. Yes, she believed the doctor had morals, but that's what she also believed of Sergeant, and he was easily seduced by Odalie. In my head, she gets out of there, "Odalie"s her way up in the 1920s world as Odalie had, and tracks down Odalie.

I believe that they become corrupt business partners, but no longer out of real love/ fake love, but respect and an understanding, even if they could never trust one another.

This is just my theory though, and I agree when authors say that a book belongs to the reader, and it is their's to decipher.

"Two can play at this game."