End of Days (Penryn & The End of Days Trilogy #3); Susan Ee

Well, that’s it, I finally finished this trilogy. I’ve loved this trilogy from the start. I loved the idea of the angels fabricating an apocalypse just because one of them wants to be the Messenger and was tired of waiting around. I loved the constant struggle Raffe has with wanting to be with Penryn, but also yearning to be back with his brothers, his kind. I love that Penryn is so aware of his struggle, that she doesn’t hold these desires against Raffe and takes the time to stop and think, if our positions were switched, wouldn’t I do the same? This final book had a lot of loose ends to tie up, between Raffe still needing his wings back, Paige starving because she refuses to eat her new food source due to the barbaric experiments done on her, and you know, saving mankind along the way. But for all the new, creepy and action filled areas and new locations Ee takes us to in this book, it took a while to get going, and then ended all too quickly.

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This last book starts right where the second left off, so the characters are fleeing from a bad situation and need to lay low and rest for a while. It makes sense for the timeline, but it made for a slow start to the book. It’s not until around the 40% mark where things really start escalating again and it feels like we are finally moving toward the conclusion of the story. That’s when the character complexities really shine, too. Ee was always amazing at making grey villains, drawing out sympathy for a character who has done terrible things to the characters we love, and never is that more true with Beilel. We learn more of how he became the demon we’ve seen in the past two books and it makes for some deliciously complicated emotions, let me tell you! Same goes for Paige once again. This little girl monster who may be the key to saving humanity. All of the characters are grey (well, except Uriel really) and I loved that there was this constant bitter sweetness around the good guys, the bad guys… just everyone. But it is mainly guys because for some reason, there are 0 female angels. Well, there is ONE but she’s only ever mentioned off screen so you don’t actually see her this time around.

I guess that’s still an issue for me, wondering where the female angels are at and wondering why the issue was only ever around Daughters of Man. Do lady angels not exist and therefore don’t care about Sons of Man? It always felt odd to me. Plus, in this book, there’s some interesting… travel going on that includes time and odd gates. I liked where these gates led, it was incredible and dark and definitely more on the NA side then YA, but the process of getting through these gates made little sense to me. And, for as slow as the start was, the ending felt so rushed. Some of the best parts of this entire series (and this book, too) is the banter between Raffe and Penryn, of seeing them together, fighting together, and that yearning tension between them. But, once again, Raffe is off screen for long stretches of the book and while those parts were ok, they were just ok. I needed more Raffe is really what I’m getting at here!

I loved how this book ended though, I really did. I just wish there was a little more tacked on to the end. Sometimes it felt like this trilogy was actually meant to be longer, maybe 4 or 5 books instead of the 3 because there was just so much that got crammed into that last 30% that I felt wasn’t explored nearly enough, because it was all interesting things! Perhaps this is just selfish of me though, in just wanting more of these characters I so love. And even though I am never a fan of the ancient being falling for the teenage girl trope, it’s actually done well in this series. It’s never an abusive or creepy relationship and how Raffe and Penryn grow and get feelings for one another is based in a mutual respect for the other and acceptance of who they are, while allowing each other the freedom to do what needs to be done. It’s never controlling which is so important in a relationship where the power dynamic can otherwise be really problematic. And while I loved this book, I did want a bit more, which is why it’s getting 4 stars, but the series as a whole? That gets 5 stars. All the stars. Just, read this trilogy, will you?