Scan barcode
A review by christajls
The Descent by Alma Katsu
4.0
This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic
What constantly amazes me about the Taker Trilogy is that each book is so unique but yet still part of one story.
The Descent brings us a few years into Lanore’s future. Luke has died, victim of a terminal brain tumour, and she is alone once again. But before long she begins to suffer from horrible dreams. Dreams involving, who else? Jonathan. They’re disturbing dreams where he being kept and tortured by the Queen of the Underworld. She may have put her romantic feelings for Jonathan behind her, but she will always care about him and resolves to go rescue him. But there’s only one man who can help her get to the underworld – Adair.
The Descent reunited the two best characters of this whole series – Lanore and Adair. Don’t get me wrong I love all of the characters but these two are the real shining stars. Both of them have changed and grown so much since we first met them way back in The Taker. I think that’s the main reason I’m so attached to them. I’ve watched them grow up (so to speak). I also enjoyed that after two whole books of running from one another and being cruel to one another, they finally learned that they work better together than they do apart.
But even though the characters are familiar the settings are all new, keeping things interesting. There are three main locations where this novel takes place, all dramatically different but all equally fascinating. There’s the island where Adair has hidden away – deserted except for him and two women and it was interesting to see how he has fared so far away from society. And then there’s the Underworld where Lanore is searching for Jonathan. I like that Katsu didn’t fall back on conventional ideas of heaven/hell/the afterlife. The underworld is an interesting place and as a nice bonus a few of my favourite secondary characters have a cameo. And last but not least, through flashbacks, we get to see a little more of Adair’s past – this time in Italy. As always the transitions between time periods are seamless and it is incredibly easy to lose yourself in this book for extended periods of time.
I don’t want to say too much more about the story, since this is the final book in the series. I’ll just conclude by saying that this is an satisfying and touching end to what has been one of my favourite series. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting this book you won’t be disappointed and if you haven’t picked up Alma Katsu’s work yet now is the perfect time to binge read.
What constantly amazes me about the Taker Trilogy is that each book is so unique but yet still part of one story.
The Descent brings us a few years into Lanore’s future. Luke has died, victim of a terminal brain tumour, and she is alone once again. But before long she begins to suffer from horrible dreams. Dreams involving, who else? Jonathan. They’re disturbing dreams where he being kept and tortured by the Queen of the Underworld. She may have put her romantic feelings for Jonathan behind her, but she will always care about him and resolves to go rescue him. But there’s only one man who can help her get to the underworld – Adair.
The Descent reunited the two best characters of this whole series – Lanore and Adair. Don’t get me wrong I love all of the characters but these two are the real shining stars. Both of them have changed and grown so much since we first met them way back in The Taker. I think that’s the main reason I’m so attached to them. I’ve watched them grow up (so to speak). I also enjoyed that after two whole books of running from one another and being cruel to one another, they finally learned that they work better together than they do apart.
But even though the characters are familiar the settings are all new, keeping things interesting. There are three main locations where this novel takes place, all dramatically different but all equally fascinating. There’s the island where Adair has hidden away – deserted except for him and two women and it was interesting to see how he has fared so far away from society. And then there’s the Underworld where Lanore is searching for Jonathan. I like that Katsu didn’t fall back on conventional ideas of heaven/hell/the afterlife. The underworld is an interesting place and as a nice bonus a few of my favourite secondary characters have a cameo. And last but not least, through flashbacks, we get to see a little more of Adair’s past – this time in Italy. As always the transitions between time periods are seamless and it is incredibly easy to lose yourself in this book for extended periods of time.
I don’t want to say too much more about the story, since this is the final book in the series. I’ll just conclude by saying that this is an satisfying and touching end to what has been one of my favourite series. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting this book you won’t be disappointed and if you haven’t picked up Alma Katsu’s work yet now is the perfect time to binge read.