Phto credits: Karin Henseler
Edited by Vaishali
Title: ‘End of Days'
Author: Susan Ee Series: (Penryn & the End of Days #3) Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Angles, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Year of Publication: 2015 Version: Paperback ISBN: 978-1-444-77855-7 Review
“Who’s going to save us? Who’s crazy enough and strong enough to hold everyone together while we ram our heads against this impossible enemy?”
The wind flaps the jackets of the dead around us. “Me.”
‘End of Days’ is the final instalment in this post-apocalyptic series, and an end to Penryn and Raffe’s struggle through the conflicts of apocalyptic aftermath and the barriers forcing them apart toward opposite sides of this oncoming war.
‘Maybe there’s an art to being human.’
‘Sometimes, I feel like my whole life is lived in this twilight space between sunshine and darkness.’
After escaping the angels, though Raffe and Penryn are travelling together again, they are cleaved in their pursuits of their own freedoms and what that means to the each of them. Raffe desires for his dear wings to fly again with his people, to clear his name as thefallen and lead his people back to glory. Penryn desires for her sister to be restored and helped in any capacity she can be to rid her of the pain and anguish she suffers daily. Loyalties exceed farther than family though, and through loss, and catastrophe, and bloodshed, and violence, and horrors too, Penryn realises that humanity is lost without direction and guidance, that stability is needed for all survivors of this wreckage, not just her family…but Penry and Raffe both desire each other, more than they allow themselves to believe because walking towards each other and away from the their innate duties as well as their kind’s classifications means breaking resolute practices and declaring themselves as traitors.
"Look, people make mistakes. We’re driven by fear and exhaustion and outright stupidity sometimes. We’re not perfect like the angels. All we can do is rely on each other and do our best.”
Raffe could be the one chance for Penryn’s people to survive an oncoming war and send his people back to whence they came, but it doesn’t make their separation at all easier because personal whims are tributary when love is inconsequential in the face of earthly calamity. Heralded as an angel-slayer and a demon associator, Penryn has a price on her head, on the run from the angels and hellions who want her blood, and the ‘apocalypse’ bringer driving earth and its inhabitants to charred ruin as real as any hell, and Penryn is unsure as to whether she can trust the desperate humans willing to trade her for their own safety .
"If you don’t let me go, you won’t feel quite so human anymore. Being human isn’t about whether you fit in or look like the rest of us. It’s about who you are and what you’re willing to do or not do.”
Not only the End of Days but the end of an action-centred, survival-focussed story of a hopelessly morose and a faintly hopeful world of oppression and devastation with dark pits, deceitful angels, equally adulterous humans, saviours and schemers where only death and uncertainty are promised. 'End of Days' is satisfyingly climactic - though not to full capacity - with romance fluttering through the rubble of such ruin, a fitting finale for this dark fantasy!
"You accept me just the way I am, regardless of whether or not I even have wings. Even when I had my demon wings, you’ve never looked at me with pity. You’ve never wavered in your loyalty. That’s who you are – my brave, loyal, lovable Daughter of Man.”
I gave this book 3.5 stars -
My Rating System:
★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read
THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Favourite Parts:
1) Penryn’s mother becoming a Resistance captain. 2) What Penryn’s mother becomes when she is given purpose, and risking herself to always save Penryn as opposed to the other way around. How she proves how much she cares for Penryn even if she can’t show it in a rational way. Their difficult relationship hasn’t been subtle or easy to navigate but there is an understanding between them and her mother really comes into her own in this book. 3) Past Beliel and his sacrifice. 4) The final battle
Queries/Concerns:
1) How did Penryn’s mother know since the start that the hellions fear the smell of rotten eggs? 2) I’d really like to know what Penryn’s mother’s name is. 3) I still don’t clearly understand why the apocalypse was brought here. 4) There wasn’t any exploration as to why and how exactly Paige is an aid in humanity’s survival when we don’t know how she can help the race or what ‘powers’ she may have. Though Paige is an integral piece in this puzzle, we didn’t see how or what was different about her biology – how Doc changed her. I would have like more clarification of Paige’s transformation
Favourite Quotes:
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“Just because I don’t have a problem on the outside visible for the world to see doesn’t mean I’m not messed up on the inside. That can be just as hard to deal with.” “History is filled with teenagers who lead the fight. Joan of Arc. Okita Soji, the samurai. Alexander the Great. They were all teenagers when they began leading their enemies. “Look, I know that we’re from different worlds and different people. But I’ve realised that it doesn’t matter.”
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