BOOK REVIEW | End of Days by Susan Ee

Title: End of Days
Author: Susan Ee
Series? Yes, End of Days is the final book in a trilogy.
Pages: The paperback edition has
Publication Date:
Publisher:
Source: I checked out End of Days from my local library!

End of Days is the explosive conclusion to Susan Ee’s bestselling Penryn & the End of Days trilogy. After a daring escape from the angels, Penryn and Raffe are on the run. They’re both desperate to find a doctor who can reverse the twisted changes inflicted by the angels on Raffe and Penryn’s sister. As they set off in search of answers, a startling revelation about Raffe’s past unleashes dark forces that threaten them all.

When the angels release an apocalyptic nightmare onto humans, both sides are set on a path toward war. As unlikely alliances form and strategies shift, who will emerge victorious? Forced to pick sides in the fight for control of the earthly realm, Raffe and Penryn must choose: Their own kind, or each other?

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You guys, (not so) funny story. I actually read this is the beginning of July, and I'm just now posting my review of this book!! Essentially, my draft just got lost in all those blogger posts... Luckily for me, I laid out what I did and didn't like so I can actually form a coherent review instead of saying "I loved it; great conclusion!" Yay!!

Okay, so on to the actual review and not my preface! 

End of Days is the third book in Susan Ee's End of Days trilogy, so if you haven't read the previous two books, you might be a bit confused in this review. As always, my reviews are spoiler free, but this review might have some spoilers for the first two books, so you've been warned!

What I have always loved about this series is how original it is. I mean yeah, it's a post apocalyptic book about girl and blah blah, but that's not really what the book is about at all. It's more of a survival/sticking together story with a strong focus on angel politics (which I LOVE!!). End of Days literally picks up minutes after World After, which was really good for me because I was able to recall a lot of what I initially remembered.

The characters in this series have always been standout, and the same goes for this book. Penryn is a pretty kickass character, and I love how much she has grown since the first book. In Angelfall, she was hiding from angels and now she's killing them! She has also gotten to be much more accepting of both her sister and her mom. There was this "ugh, mom!" vibe I got from her in the beginning of the series, and now Penryn trusts and respects her mother, as crazy as she seems. Penryn's mom is the real star in this series for me. She's so weird, and in the best way. Every scene she is in, she just captivates my attention. I would love to see a short story all about her. Paige, Penryn's little sister, is also one of my favorite characters. She's SO different from the first book because of all she has gone through, and is still such a brave and good person. Paige's moral and physical struggle to eat was so hard to read, but done so well. Susan Ee was able to translate really well what type of person Paige is without any dialogue from her, which is very impressive.

As for the secondary characters, I wish we had more of them! This is actually a common complaint of mine, but it's normally because they didn't seem fleshed out or were barely mentioned in the book. The reason I want more of Dee and Dum though are because of how much I like them! They're a pair of ingenious twins that add that bit of humor that really lightens the mood of the book when it's teetering on being to dark and twisty.

As for the writing itself, I thought it was pretty good. Susan Ee doesn't do any lyrical prose; she's very straight to the point, which I find very refreshing. There's a lot of times, especially in fantasy, where all this flowery language is happening and teeters on purple prose. Well there are no times of purple prose in this book, or the series. The directness of Susan Ee's writing meshed really well with the tone of the book and how it's basically do or die without anytime for lollygagging. The chapters themselves are super short, which adds to the feeling that things are happening quickly. Even in rising and falling actions, I wasn't even a twinge bored. I could not put down End of Days, and actually read it in one day!

I've been praising this book left and right for most of this review, so onto the little tidbits that didn't quite hit the mark for me!

First of is the mythology. There was a lot of angel mythology that was introduced in this book, and it felt out of place. I did like reading about it, but it was weird to be introduced to something in the final book. I felt like it came out of nowhere and just served as an explanation that was at times confusing to all the questions I had. Talking about the questions I had, there is still not an answer to how Penryn's mom knows so much about angels! Penryn's mom knows how to ward off mythical creatures in book one! Like, how?? I just have this feeling that my question would have been answered if the publishing house didn't change their minds and make this series a trilogy because trilogies were popular at the time. I feel as if the mythology would have been introduced better, and every question would be answered.

Also, Penryn and Raffe have had this extremely slow burn romance in the first two books, and the way their romance progressed in this last book felt a bit messy. Yes, I loved that things actually happened, but it was weird to see it happen because it felt out of character. There's this one scene pretty early on in the book in this abandoned house, and it felt all sorts of weird. I wish that the romance was actually dialed down (who would have thought I would say that??) so that it would be cohesive with the rest of the series.

Besides my complaints, I still very much enjoyed End of Days. It is one of my favorite books this year, and this series is one of my favorites as well. They have been such a blast to read. If you haven't read this yet, please do! The series is fast-paced and thrilling, and it is quite a ride!

With that, I give this book
4.5 out of 5 Stars!

Have you read this series? What did you think?

Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon with another post!

Happy Reading!

Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!