Note: Spoilers for End of Days as well as the series in general are hidden with spoiler tags.
End of Days by Susan Ee • read by Caitlin Davies for 8 hours 43 minutes • published May 12, 2015 by Brilliance Audio • classified as Dystopian, Fantasy, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult • obtained through Bought • read as audiobook • shelve on Goodreads Synopsis:
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?
Failed to meet Minimum Expectations
Reading End of Days made me wish Angelfall was a standalone. The series of Penryn and the End of Days held so much promise, especially with Angelfall, which I found very original with its unconventional portrayal of angels.
World After was great, though a little tiresome with all the waiting. I shrugged that off though because such seems to be a rather standard sentiment towards middle books in fantasy trilogies. And so my anticipation mounted, as I expected End of Days to best World After and do Angelfall justice. Now with the disappointment that is End of Days, my excitement would’ve been better spent elsewhere.
On the bright side, apparently this series was cut short to a trilogy from the supposed five-book series it was meant to be. At least I won’t have another DNF series looming over my head since I finished reading the trilogy after all.
Continuation into Nothingness
If we consider middle books as bridges, then third books are the destinations. Third books shouldn’t be yet another bridge with the very end a Fata Morgana of the destination. Yet that’s what End of Day became: a bridge to a Fata Morgana. The plot stretched out; little more happened than in the second book.
Characters
The characters were hardly developed further, and in fact, regressed. The only exception was Beliel whose motivations were revealed quite well. Finding out more about Beliel tore me up inside and despite his status as an antagonist, it was towards him that I felt most sympathetic.
View Spoiler »Thankful for the Narrator
Caitlin Davies narrated all three books in the series. That lent a lot of consistency and helped anchor Penryn’s voice in my mind. The written text alone would’ve likely made me question the development of Penryn as a singular character. The same goes almost every other major character in Penryn and the End of Days for they started out so strong but ended up comparatively flat in the end.
This is where Caitlin Davies saved End of Days from being a complete waste of my time. She breathed life into her narration, which allowed me to recognize the shadows of the world and characters that I had first encountered in Angelfall.
Hmmm, I’ll still give it a shot. It is disappointing to hear your concerns with it! But World After was already not as great as Angelfall, so I was predicting that it would go down in quality as the series went on. Wold After didn’t feel different enough from Angelfall.
Ah yeah this is what I worried about when I found out that the series was cut short. It just sounds like there was too much to be put into one book, so it ended up getting “complete mess” status. I wish it had worked out better for you, but I guess that saves me the time from reading this one and ruining what I loved from the first book!