Take a photo of a barcode or cover
midnightbagel 's review for:
End of Days
by Susan Ee
*3.5 stars*
I'm kind of conflicted with this one. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I did have some issues with it, hence the 3.5 and not 4 star rating. However, most of the issues are because this got split from a 6 book series to a 3 book trilogy, so I don't know if that's the authors fault or the publishers fault, or a combination of the two. I don't think this was a bad conclusion to the trilogy, I just think it could have been stronger.
Plot- The plot of this book, especially in the second half, felt very rushed and a little messy at times. As a result of this series getting cut in half, there were a lot of dangling plot threads from book two that had to be resolved in this book. I could tell that Susan Ee was doing her best to tie these threads up, but I could also tell when she was cutting her losses on some plot points that I wish would have been developed further, or not given an easy wrapped up ending. A lot of things happened in this book, which did lend itself to being very fast paced, and something was constantly happening, making the book very engaging, and I didn't want to put it down. So, while reading I was enjoying myself and didn't ever get bored with the story, which is a plus that I think holds true for all the books in this series. I also appreciated how the signature gore and grit was still in the plot, she doesn't shy away from really gruesome scenes which I absolutely love. The ending was quite unbelievable in my opinion, too many "unexpected good things" occurred at the very end that just so happened to fix the situation perfectly. Also I so wished that the last chapter was the final ending, because I thought the epilogue was quite pointless other than adding one bit of information. I believe all that happened in this book, if able to be stretched out into six books as originally planned, would have been awesome to see and would have made for such an epic series with a more dazzling climax and conclusion than we ended up getting in this one.
Writing- The writing in this one was constant as in the rest of the books. Amusing dialogue amidst gritty descriptions of horrific things, while being very engaging. This writing isn't poetic, but it's not just barebones either.
Characters- I felt a bit of a disconnect, and a shift within these characters. While I still enjoyed them very much, they didn't feel exactly like the same characters as the first two books. I'm totally sure that part of that feeling is to blame on the fact that I haven't read the first two in quite a while so naturally a bit of a disconnect would be there, but that's not all of it. I definitely think the romance was forced in this, and at times it made me cringe a bit. Not all the time though, because there were some very cute scenes and I do like them overall as a couple, I just think since this was the last book, Ee decided to ramp up the romance and it just felt a little jarring compared to the other two books. Again I think this is because of the books being shortened to three books, but I still think it's an issue worth mentioning because the development of the relationship in this book didn't feel 100% natural. Also Raffe was extremely indecisive in this book, he leaves then miraculously returned so many times. Other than that though I really do like Raffe and Penryn as characters, I loved Pen's mom, her sister is such an interesting character as well, and the Watchers were just great.
Overall- I know that this sounds like a fully negative review, but I just didn't want to make it any longer than it already is, and I think pointing out the negatives can be more beneficial than pointing out all the positives. My general enjoyment level of this book was high, I had a good time reading it, and I was engaged. However, on a more critical note this book did have its downsides, and there were quite a few things that I wish could have been done better.
Series as a whole- I would still recommend this series to people though, because I think this series is fantastic in how scary and gruesome it can be at times, and it's definitely the best "angel" series I've ever read. Just because the last book isn't the greatest, I still think the series overall is worth a read, and I think if you read this series all at once, and were completely enthralled with the world / characters, then you may not even be bothered by my issues with this book.
I'm kind of conflicted with this one. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I did have some issues with it, hence the 3.5 and not 4 star rating. However, most of the issues are because this got split from a 6 book series to a 3 book trilogy, so I don't know if that's the authors fault or the publishers fault, or a combination of the two. I don't think this was a bad conclusion to the trilogy, I just think it could have been stronger.
Plot- The plot of this book, especially in the second half, felt very rushed and a little messy at times. As a result of this series getting cut in half, there were a lot of dangling plot threads from book two that had to be resolved in this book. I could tell that Susan Ee was doing her best to tie these threads up, but I could also tell when she was cutting her losses on some plot points that I wish would have been developed further, or not given an easy wrapped up ending. A lot of things happened in this book, which did lend itself to being very fast paced, and something was constantly happening, making the book very engaging, and I didn't want to put it down. So, while reading I was enjoying myself and didn't ever get bored with the story, which is a plus that I think holds true for all the books in this series. I also appreciated how the signature gore and grit was still in the plot, she doesn't shy away from really gruesome scenes which I absolutely love. The ending was quite unbelievable in my opinion, too many "unexpected good things" occurred at the very end that just so happened to fix the situation perfectly. Also I so wished that the last chapter was the final ending, because I thought the epilogue was quite pointless other than adding one bit of information. I believe all that happened in this book, if able to be stretched out into six books as originally planned, would have been awesome to see and would have made for such an epic series with a more dazzling climax and conclusion than we ended up getting in this one.
Writing- The writing in this one was constant as in the rest of the books. Amusing dialogue amidst gritty descriptions of horrific things, while being very engaging. This writing isn't poetic, but it's not just barebones either.
Characters- I felt a bit of a disconnect, and a shift within these characters. While I still enjoyed them very much, they didn't feel exactly like the same characters as the first two books. I'm totally sure that part of that feeling is to blame on the fact that I haven't read the first two in quite a while so naturally a bit of a disconnect would be there, but that's not all of it. I definitely think the romance was forced in this, and at times it made me cringe a bit. Not all the time though, because there were some very cute scenes and I do like them overall as a couple, I just think since this was the last book, Ee decided to ramp up the romance and it just felt a little jarring compared to the other two books. Again I think this is because of the books being shortened to three books, but I still think it's an issue worth mentioning because the development of the relationship in this book didn't feel 100% natural. Also Raffe was extremely indecisive in this book, he leaves then miraculously returned so many times. Other than that though I really do like Raffe and Penryn as characters, I loved Pen's mom, her sister is such an interesting character as well, and the Watchers were just great.
Overall- I know that this sounds like a fully negative review, but I just didn't want to make it any longer than it already is, and I think pointing out the negatives can be more beneficial than pointing out all the positives. My general enjoyment level of this book was high, I had a good time reading it, and I was engaged. However, on a more critical note this book did have its downsides, and there were quite a few things that I wish could have been done better.
Series as a whole- I would still recommend this series to people though, because I think this series is fantastic in how scary and gruesome it can be at times, and it's definitely the best "angel" series I've ever read. Just because the last book isn't the greatest, I still think the series overall is worth a read, and I think if you read this series all at once, and were completely enthralled with the world / characters, then you may not even be bothered by my issues with this book.