Review: End of Days

End of Days by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I went from Angelfall straight into World After. I went from World After straight into End of Days. I went from End of Days into the abyss.

The Angelfall trilogy turned out to be one of my most addictive reads of the year. Truthfully, I really shouldn’t have waited so long to pick them up. Alas, I was a fool. There was the tentatively. There was the wanting to have all three at my bedside before reading. There were many excuses, and all of them were foolish. This series was exactly what I needed in my life. It was more than worth the hype and I’m happy to jump on the bandwagon of recommending this series to every possible person.

For me, World After is my favourite book in the trilogy. All three books are beautiful in their own way, yet the second book is my favourite. What surprises me, however, is the number of people who seem to dislike this final book. After coming from the high of book two, the conclusion to the series would need to be out of the world to please everyone, and yet some of the words I have read have been overly harsh. Personally, I think it’s a great end to the series.

Endings are always hard. Everything needs to be brought together. People and events need conclusions, and yet everyone is left wanting more. When endings are done correctly, the author will leave the readers in a post-read slump. End of Days managed such a thing. It wasn’t my biggest post-read slump, but it was still a pretty hefty size. I was left wanting more of the world; I was left feeling as though the next book I picked up would be second rate (in fact, this might explain why it took me longer than usual to finish the next book I read).

Truthfully, I can understand why some people were disappointed by this one. Understanding and agreeing, however, are two very different things. I agree that there could have been more from this one, but what we were given did bring things around nicely.

I feel as though the biggest issue was the change from five books to three. I feel as though I can see books three, four and five within this one. I’m not sure why Susan Ee went from five books to three, but I’m sure she had her reasons. Nevertheless, I feel as though I can see where the plots of each of the three books were compressed together into this one book. It means a lot is happening in this book, at the same time it means some events felt as though they were not given all the attention they could have been given. Whatever the reason for three books instead of five, I cannot help but feel as though I would have been happier with the five. Each of the aspects of this story were thoroughly enjoyable, and I cannot help but wish we had been given even more.

Despite things feeling somewhat compressed, I had a lot of fun. There was non-stop action in this book. Everything came together, all aspects of the story reaching the single resolution point. Putting the book down was an impossibility: you were either being given action or answers, with something always happening to keep your attention. All our questions are answers. All the events move on. All the characters reach new points (the way characters were dealt with, especially certain characters I will not name, made this book wonderful for me). Honestly, it was magnificent. I feel as though I read a different book to those who did not enjoy it.

A beautiful end to a beautiful trilogy: I cannot wait to see what else Susan Ee has to offer.

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