At the end of the previous book, our protagonist, Gus, had achieved some personal insight, growth, and self-confidence, after having spent most of the book wallowing in self-pity and self-criticism. At the start of book 3, he starts that all over again, as if the conclusion of the previous book never happened. In fact, it’s worse, because he accomplishes far less than he did in the first two books. In the end, though, he goes through another increase in personal insight, growth, and self-confidence. I wonder, will the author use the same path of character development in book 4? Is Gus destined to run on the same treadmill until the author runs out of plots or will he allow Gus to retain some of his achievements?
Resetting characters at the beginning of every story is a common trope in serials, whether books or television programs, because it’s often the character’s flaws that allows them to get into trouble. It’s just so inconvenient to allow them to become better people for more than a few moments.