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A review by celjla212
Strange and Ever After by Susan Dennard
4.0
This is one of my favorite series I’ve ever read. It’s also the only steampunk type series I’ve ever read. I originally started the series because of the promise of zombies, but I got into it quickly and discovered the books were about a lot more than just that.
The final novel starts out right in the middle of where the previous book left off. This can be a problem if it has been a long time since you read the books in the series, as was the case with me. The author does drop some hints about what happened to get us up to the point where we are, but I ended up having to Google to recall who certain characters were and I still found myself a bit lost at times.
Thankfully, the action in Strange & Ever After is immediate, and I found myself once again lost in Eleanor’s world. You can tell that Eleanor has changed so much, not just over the course of the series, but actually from one book to the next. She has experienced so much loss at the hands of Marcus, that her singular fixation is on making sure he is destroyed. She doesn’t intend to let anyone get in her way, be they friend or foe.
The reader can tell Eleanor’s magic has changed her as well. She is no longer tentative about using it, even though internally she is struggling with the thought of taking it too far. Her use of necromancer magic has many effects: it physically drains her; it puts her at odds with her fellow Spirit Hunters; it makes her forget any sense of propriety she ever had. I’m not going to say I didn’t like Eleanor in this novel, but her new demeanor did take a lot of getting used to, and I felt bad for some of the interactions she had with other characters.
I’m still undecided on whether I liked the ending. I think I’m going to go back and give it a second glance and maybe change up this review a bit. I will say that I’m happy I read this series; as I stated before it’s one of my favorites from start to end. I definitely recommend it to steampunk fans, zombie fans, romance fans, and anyone who loves to see the main characters grow and change throughout a series. Very well done, Ms. Dennard.
The final novel starts out right in the middle of where the previous book left off. This can be a problem if it has been a long time since you read the books in the series, as was the case with me. The author does drop some hints about what happened to get us up to the point where we are, but I ended up having to Google to recall who certain characters were and I still found myself a bit lost at times.
Thankfully, the action in Strange & Ever After is immediate, and I found myself once again lost in Eleanor’s world. You can tell that Eleanor has changed so much, not just over the course of the series, but actually from one book to the next. She has experienced so much loss at the hands of Marcus, that her singular fixation is on making sure he is destroyed. She doesn’t intend to let anyone get in her way, be they friend or foe.
The reader can tell Eleanor’s magic has changed her as well. She is no longer tentative about using it, even though internally she is struggling with the thought of taking it too far. Her use of necromancer magic has many effects: it physically drains her; it puts her at odds with her fellow Spirit Hunters; it makes her forget any sense of propriety she ever had. I’m not going to say I didn’t like Eleanor in this novel, but her new demeanor did take a lot of getting used to, and I felt bad for some of the interactions she had with other characters.
I’m still undecided on whether I liked the ending. I think I’m going to go back and give it a second glance and maybe change up this review a bit. I will say that I’m happy I read this series; as I stated before it’s one of my favorites from start to end. I definitely recommend it to steampunk fans, zombie fans, romance fans, and anyone who loves to see the main characters grow and change throughout a series. Very well done, Ms. Dennard.