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? – Goodreads
Alright, it’s no secret that I’m a little bit obsessed with the Penryn and the End of Days series. I reviewed Angelfall and World After, both with glowing reviews. I enjoyed End of Days, too, but not as much as the first two in the series.
Though I still loved the darkness, the apocalyptic/survival-is-priority feel in book three, it fell a little bit short of my expectations for the end of the series. For one, the relationship between Raffe and Penryn was obnoxious and angsty. If there is one thing I hate more than angsty teenage love, it’s angsty love between an immortal and a teenager (*cough* Twilight *cough*). Ohhhhh, she’s just so much younger and inexperienced at life that my decades-old self….ohhhhh, woe is me, but she is a soooo mature and special….but this will never work….Ugh, shut it. If we think it’s creepy and inappropriate for a seventeen-year-old girl to date someone, say, in their thirties—how the eff is a thousand-year-old angel any different?
I digress.
The monsters that Ee fabricates in this book are fantastic and original. Whips with creepy detached heads that chew through your body so they can pop your head off and use your body for themselves? That’s messed up. Not to mention, her descriptions of places are amazing. I could almost smell the rotten egg sulfur smell of the pit of hell. I could see the desecrated streets of the Silicon Valley. Her descriptions are what makes a book pull you in—it’s like watching a movie in your head. It’s like you’re there. I truly hope Ee writes more, because this is my favorite part of her writing.
Penryn is still a great main character. She cares about her family and their survival above all else. She’s strong and kick-ass. What more can you ask for? I let the whole weakness for muscled archangels thing slide—she’s a hormonal teen, after all.
The ending was the bit that killed me. I have high expectations for the third book in a series. After all, I’ve dedicated about 950 pages to get to that point—the conclusion. The conclusion had me like, “Wait, I have 1% left in this damn book? I’m almost done? What the hell can happen in two pages?” and then shaking in disappointment. I won’t give it away, but I’ll be honest: I thought the ending was kind of a cheap letdown.
Overall, I rated End of Days a 3.5 on Goodreads. I give the entire series a 4.5/5 and highly recommend it.
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