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A review by bookph1le
End of Days by Susan Ee
2.0
For me, this book was thoroughly meh. I disliked it for a stretch, but I give the ending major props. Complete review to come.
Full review:
Major spoilers ahead, folks. Read at your own risk.
What is it with these YA books that cause me so much cognitive dissonance? I find it so bizarre when I read a book, adore it, eagerly anticipate the sequels, and am ultimately left dazed and confused, wondering how the heck I got here in the first place. It's like I got on a plane to go on a trip to Paris but when I disembark I find myself slogging through sewers. I'm very sorry to say that Penryn and the End of Days fits this bill. The first book was so amazing, and I loved it and gushed over it so much that I keep wondering if I was hallucinating or something, because I sure don't want to gush over this book. Where the second book was disappointing, this one was a complete letdown.
What happened to Penryn? When did her personality transplant occur? I don't remember too much about the second book, other than that I didn't like it much and was afraid it was going in a bad direction, so I can't speak to her character in that book. I do remember, though, that the character in this book bears very little resemblance to the character in that first book. Penryn goes from hard and kick ass, responsible for protecting her family, to a self-absorbed lovesick teenager. What gives? I could totally understand her feeling some ambivalence about the drastic change her sister has gone through, and this book gives some lip service to Penryn's wanting to save her, but mostly she doesn't worry about it because she's too busy mooning over Raffe.
Why? Why do YA novels do this constantly? Yes, we're idiots in love, and, yes, love can make us do stupid things, but when young women are dedicated to something and committed to it, falling in love is not going to make them chuck everything else away with both hands. I really hate when authors sell female characters short like this. I really hate when they continue to reinforce the message that the most important thing in a woman's life is to be loved by a really, really hot guy. I'm not saying that people don't make sacrifices for love, because they do, and sometimes women do give up everything for someone they love. What I am saying is, does it occur to YA authors ever that it's possible for women to find a balance? To be in a meaningful, passionate relationship yet still manage to be focused on other goals? If you read YA, you wouldn't think so, and yet real world examples are plentiful.
I was so frustrated and sometimes angry with certain aspects of this novel. The biggest, most egregious example comes about when Penryn manipulates Raffe's hand so he's fondling her while he sleeps. This is not okay. Ever. Under no circumstances is this behavior okay. Period. Ever. She does not have the right to willfully violate him by having him do something he's made clear he doesn't want to do. If the situation were reversed and she woke up to his having manipulated her into fondling him, I can imagine the uproar. Yet this book makes it sound like it's okay because she's a woman and he's a man and men always want it? No. No, no, no, no, no. No.
Eventually, though, she somehow manages to wear Raffe down because, again, apparently people in books are never ever able to sacrifice their romantic inclinations for their larger ambitions or beliefs. Whatever. That aside, I could not get over how insane I thought it was when, trapped in a hellscape from which they must escape or face eternal torment and torture depicted in very graphic terms, Penryn and Raffe take advantage of being alone to make out. What? In what reality would anyone facing mortal peril decide to get frisky rather than trying to figure out how to save their own skin? If you're going to add romance to a book like this, it needs to be done in quiet moments, when the characters have a breather from the constant danger in their lives, not when they're in the middle of a dire situation. It's nonsensical.
So many other elements of the book take a backseat to Penryn's annoying swooning over Raffe. She does feel twinges of conscience here and there, but they never stop her from doing idiotic things, nor do they instill in her a sense of urgency to actually act. The plot basically consists of Penryn and co rushing from one disaster scenario to another all while Penryn thinks about how great Raffe's abs are. It gets old very quickly because I never once had the sense that I ought to worry about any of it. I don't need to worry when locust husks burst out from the ground during the show Uriel puts on, because Penryn is more concerned with how magnificent Raffe looks. I don't need to worry about Penryn, Raffe, and his warriors being trapped by Pit bosses because Raffe is just so darn hot. I don't need to worry about Penryn's sister possibly starving to death because Raffe's wings really need to get sewn onto his back before they wither completely. Yes, secondary characters are there, but they exist on the periphery of Penryn's consciousness because her main concern is always Raffe. What happened to the girl in the first book, the one who was willing to face off against an angel so that she could save her sister? Oh, right, she's now busy swooning over that angel and so has no time to be as concerned about Paige's condition as she should be.
It's so obvious that this book has shifted from a post-apocalyptic narrative to a romance novel, which makes so many other elements feel forced. Tweedledum and Tweedledee really got on my nerves because their "banter" never comes close to feeling organic. They're there to add color, to help smooth the edges of the unrelentingly graphic and grotesque nature of what's happening in the book--not that any of that matters because, again, Raffe is hot. The twins felt so stereotypical to me, and their behavior was flat-out annoying.
I won't go into the ending. I just can't. I was consumed with disbelief when I read it. I tried really hard to ignore that, to look at the talent show as being an out-of-the-box plan, but I just really failed. There were many opportunities for humanity to shine at other stages in the book, but it never does. Instead, it puts on a talent show at zero hour. How this was a legitimate battle plan, I'll never understand. Humanity makes its last stand courtesy of ballet and acoustical guitar performances, with a little help from stage lighting and really loud rock music. Yeah, that happened.
So why two stars instead of one? Well, there are some things I think this book did right, which makes everything wrong with it all that much more disappointing. For one, I like that the humans in the book don't all get along and band together. I like that Penryn is still capable of looking unflinchingly at humanity, knowing it's often bad and selfish and mean, but still doesn't deserve total annihilation. I like that she understands that Raffe's objectives might not mesh with hers, and that she gets why he feels that way. I just don't like that it leads to her doing stupid, stupid things. I like that the ending isn't all unicorns and rainbows, that the world is crappy and has a long way to go. There's an intense realism to these books that I admire, especially when plenty of other YA airbrushes the bad, pulling things back just enough that it doesn't get too scary or bleak for its characters.
This series had so much potential that it's especially painful to see it all wasted. It's not that the romance shouldn't have happened, it's that the romance was poorly done within the world's context. It's that, while the book does go into some interesting moral questions, none of that is given any real page space or substance because it's quickly pushed aside in favor of standard, run-of-the-mill teen romantic angst. This series could have been so much more, but instead it's relegated itself to the realm of the forgettable and generic.
Full review:
Major spoilers ahead, folks. Read at your own risk.
What is it with these YA books that cause me so much cognitive dissonance? I find it so bizarre when I read a book, adore it, eagerly anticipate the sequels, and am ultimately left dazed and confused, wondering how the heck I got here in the first place. It's like I got on a plane to go on a trip to Paris but when I disembark I find myself slogging through sewers. I'm very sorry to say that Penryn and the End of Days fits this bill. The first book was so amazing, and I loved it and gushed over it so much that I keep wondering if I was hallucinating or something, because I sure don't want to gush over this book. Where the second book was disappointing, this one was a complete letdown.
What happened to Penryn? When did her personality transplant occur? I don't remember too much about the second book, other than that I didn't like it much and was afraid it was going in a bad direction, so I can't speak to her character in that book. I do remember, though, that the character in this book bears very little resemblance to the character in that first book. Penryn goes from hard and kick ass, responsible for protecting her family, to a self-absorbed lovesick teenager. What gives? I could totally understand her feeling some ambivalence about the drastic change her sister has gone through, and this book gives some lip service to Penryn's wanting to save her, but mostly she doesn't worry about it because she's too busy mooning over Raffe.
Why? Why do YA novels do this constantly? Yes, we're idiots in love, and, yes, love can make us do stupid things, but when young women are dedicated to something and committed to it, falling in love is not going to make them chuck everything else away with both hands. I really hate when authors sell female characters short like this. I really hate when they continue to reinforce the message that the most important thing in a woman's life is to be loved by a really, really hot guy. I'm not saying that people don't make sacrifices for love, because they do, and sometimes women do give up everything for someone they love. What I am saying is, does it occur to YA authors ever that it's possible for women to find a balance? To be in a meaningful, passionate relationship yet still manage to be focused on other goals? If you read YA, you wouldn't think so, and yet real world examples are plentiful.
I was so frustrated and sometimes angry with certain aspects of this novel. The biggest, most egregious example comes about when Penryn manipulates Raffe's hand so he's fondling her while he sleeps. This is not okay. Ever. Under no circumstances is this behavior okay. Period. Ever. She does not have the right to willfully violate him by having him do something he's made clear he doesn't want to do. If the situation were reversed and she woke up to his having manipulated her into fondling him, I can imagine the uproar. Yet this book makes it sound like it's okay because she's a woman and he's a man and men always want it? No. No, no, no, no, no. No.
Eventually, though, she somehow manages to wear Raffe down because, again, apparently people in books are never ever able to sacrifice their romantic inclinations for their larger ambitions or beliefs. Whatever. That aside, I could not get over how insane I thought it was when, trapped in a hellscape from which they must escape or face eternal torment and torture depicted in very graphic terms, Penryn and Raffe take advantage of being alone to make out. What? In what reality would anyone facing mortal peril decide to get frisky rather than trying to figure out how to save their own skin? If you're going to add romance to a book like this, it needs to be done in quiet moments, when the characters have a breather from the constant danger in their lives, not when they're in the middle of a dire situation. It's nonsensical.
So many other elements of the book take a backseat to Penryn's annoying swooning over Raffe. She does feel twinges of conscience here and there, but they never stop her from doing idiotic things, nor do they instill in her a sense of urgency to actually act. The plot basically consists of Penryn and co rushing from one disaster scenario to another all while Penryn thinks about how great Raffe's abs are. It gets old very quickly because I never once had the sense that I ought to worry about any of it. I don't need to worry when locust husks burst out from the ground during the show Uriel puts on, because Penryn is more concerned with how magnificent Raffe looks. I don't need to worry about Penryn, Raffe, and his warriors being trapped by Pit bosses because Raffe is just so darn hot. I don't need to worry about Penryn's sister possibly starving to death because Raffe's wings really need to get sewn onto his back before they wither completely. Yes, secondary characters are there, but they exist on the periphery of Penryn's consciousness because her main concern is always Raffe. What happened to the girl in the first book, the one who was willing to face off against an angel so that she could save her sister? Oh, right, she's now busy swooning over that angel and so has no time to be as concerned about Paige's condition as she should be.
It's so obvious that this book has shifted from a post-apocalyptic narrative to a romance novel, which makes so many other elements feel forced. Tweedledum and Tweedledee really got on my nerves because their "banter" never comes close to feeling organic. They're there to add color, to help smooth the edges of the unrelentingly graphic and grotesque nature of what's happening in the book--not that any of that matters because, again, Raffe is hot. The twins felt so stereotypical to me, and their behavior was flat-out annoying.
I won't go into the ending. I just can't. I was consumed with disbelief when I read it. I tried really hard to ignore that, to look at the talent show as being an out-of-the-box plan, but I just really failed. There were many opportunities for humanity to shine at other stages in the book, but it never does. Instead, it puts on a talent show at zero hour. How this was a legitimate battle plan, I'll never understand. Humanity makes its last stand courtesy of ballet and acoustical guitar performances, with a little help from stage lighting and really loud rock music. Yeah, that happened.
So why two stars instead of one? Well, there are some things I think this book did right, which makes everything wrong with it all that much more disappointing. For one, I like that the humans in the book don't all get along and band together. I like that Penryn is still capable of looking unflinchingly at humanity, knowing it's often bad and selfish and mean, but still doesn't deserve total annihilation. I like that she understands that Raffe's objectives might not mesh with hers, and that she gets why he feels that way. I just don't like that it leads to her doing stupid, stupid things. I like that the ending isn't all unicorns and rainbows, that the world is crappy and has a long way to go. There's an intense realism to these books that I admire, especially when plenty of other YA airbrushes the bad, pulling things back just enough that it doesn't get too scary or bleak for its characters.
This series had so much potential that it's especially painful to see it all wasted. It's not that the romance shouldn't have happened, it's that the romance was poorly done within the world's context. It's that, while the book does go into some interesting moral questions, none of that is given any real page space or substance because it's quickly pushed aside in favor of standard, run-of-the-mill teen romantic angst. This series could have been so much more, but instead it's relegated itself to the realm of the forgettable and generic.