Reviews - Until The End | The StoryGraph

255 reviews for:

Until The End

Derek Landy

4.37 AVERAGE

lucyabilene's review against another edition

2.0

2.5 / 5

jpanslabyrinthofbooks's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Landy has an exceptional ability to create multiple narratives and interlinking plot points with efficiency and efficacy; seamlessly blending stories to accumulate a mass of adventures. There is such mastery by interlacing these narratives for one major scheme, sometimes it's truly baffling. But I enjoyed every second of the second wave of Skulduggery Pleasant.

Valkyrie grew tremendously throughout the series, starting at 25 and a long break away from Haggard to reestablish herself and focus on nurturing and training her body, building up barriers in her mind, coping with the loss of Darquesse, and just becoming more of the badass she is destined to be. Not to mention, bringing even more wit and humour as an adult. It was great reliving the companionable antics of Skulduggery and Valkyrie again.

Then there's classic Skulduggery with a never ending stream of knowledge, humour, and fantastic sense of fashion mostly in suits and love for the Bentley.

I can also say, I truly enjoyed the development of new side characters; Omen Darkly and Milista Gnosis. Omen was completely unremarkable in the starting phases of the second series, but truly found a calling that resonated in the form of Sebastian Tao. Travelling through time and dimensions to help save the world. And Milista was the perfect pairing for Valkyrie, keeping her grounded with reasoning and love.

And then there's the reset...what does it all hold.

Encapsulating all of the major plot points will be difficult, and spoilers will entail...so just read!

bubbataylor's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

dandoyle17's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

theglossreview's review against another edition

5.0

Hahahahaha Derek fooled us. He got me good! Until the End unfolded magnificently. Sometimes, even too smoothly. It progressed and progressed, and most of our beloved main characters, who we were sure would die at the titular End, stayed alive. Countless characters were even BROUGHT BACK. We’re dealing with a reverse body count, y’all.

And the last page - OMG. It turns out that Until the End was only the End of Season 2. Everybody, get ready for Season 3!!!

Daaamn.

The Bad: Frightening Jones and Temper Fray’s small sub plots were unnecessary. Totally unnecessary.
Also, what was the deal with Nuncle???
Apart from that, the main issue is how convulsed the who-is-related-to-whom plot got. There were three or four so-called big reveals that did nothing for me, or even harmed the experience because there was no time to process them or assign emotional meaning to them. (I mean, who can keep track of 6-20 siblings who are barely in the books? Who would dare to draw that family tree now? I mean, okay, it’ll probably be me – it’s necessary as an aid for understanding this mess.)

The Good: I really loved how much time we got to spend with Val & Skulduggery. So many chapters were about THEM. Perfect. That’s where the spotlight should have been, and so it was.

The Fantastic: For all of Season 2, I’ve been thinking: “This Sebastian Tao / Darquesse Plot better go somewhere good.” At one point, it finally seemed to be heading in an excellent direction. Then, a plot twist took it to a FANTASTIC new level.
Everything was masterfully done. Every word hit how it was supposed to hit. The Faceless Ones showed their true colours. Astonishingly, we had time to go into yet ANOTHER dimension. OMG, the scenes from LA had me tapping the pages of my exclusive, signed, limited edition as if it was a mobile device I needed to reset. It felt unreal – like a crossover with another series.
Most importantly: Valkyrie, Skulduggery and yes, even Omen Darkly, are dead cool – and will continue being so.

Edit 2024: OMG I just realised the play on words: the Nulls… the Void World… Null and Void… as if everything was null and void… Hot damn.

gamerreaper13's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Thanks Derek, I'm sobbing at work.

I've been reading this series since I was 12, finding Valkyrie relatable and funny while going through the most traumatising and formative years of my life. The story has come full circle and I am so happy..

Thank you Derek, for getting me through my entire childhood (as rough as it was) and leading me into my young adulthood, now 21 years old (almost 10 years since starting the series) my heart feels so complete knowing the gang got their happy endings

midnightrox9's review against another edition

5.0

what a beautiful ending. answered so many of my questions and yet still left me with more questions. honestly an incredible ride and I could barely put it down once I started reading. gonna sit around feeling empty for the next couple weeks now.