Thursday, November 29, 2012

Endlessly by Kiersten White

Endlessly (Paranormalcy #3) by Kiersten White
Release Date:
July 24, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Library

Summary

Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate.

The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands.

So much for normal.(courtesy of Goodreads)

Review

Endlessly brings the Paranormalcy series to a fabulous end. With this series, Kiersten created a rich, well-defined world with absorbing plots and lovable, memorable characters. I am sad to see the series end but thrilled that Endlessly does such a good job of finishing it.

Throughout this series, Evie's preconceived notions of who is good and bad and what is right and wrong have been continuously challenged. Paranormalcy showed Evie that the IPCA is not the saving grace that she thought it was. Now she has to fully take it on. She's come full circle from her initial distrust of most paranormal creatures to relying on the beings she once would have bagged and tagged without hesitation. Particularly interesting are her reliance on Jack and Reth, who she learned were decidedly unreliable in Paranormalcy and Supernaturally.

Evie always retains an uplifting sarcastic spirit no matter how difficult her circumstances. It's her humor that makes this series different from other paranormal books. Much like Sophie in the Hex Hall series, Evie always has a snarky comment. Evie's particular brand of sarcasm leans towards the cutesy, sparkly, pink side. I do think that she would eventually get on my nerves if I knew her in real life, but in these books, she is a constant burst of light.

Setting Evie aside, this is really Reth's book. I can hardly put into words how impressed I am with the way that Kiersten characterized him. Reth came off as an arrogant albeit handsome villain in the previous two books. He is much more layered in Endlessly. Kiersten has always been a talented writer, but Reth's complexity shows just how much she's grown with this series. I adore Reth. He is neither good nor bad. He is not human. He is faerie, but sometimes not even that. Reth has very strong ideas of what's best for the future of the paranormal and human creatures. He loves Evie - not in a traditional adoring 'I'd do anything for you' way, but his love is palpable through his actions. Reth will do things that seem incredibly wrong to us but he always has a defined reason He has a conscience, but one that conforms closely to his view of the world. Even though Evie (and I) disagreed with his actions throughout much of this series, by the end of the book, Evie (and I) understood and cared for Reth.

Endlessly ends with a bang. There's a lot of complex magic going on, not all of which I understood. Regardless, I loved the story's fast pace and how so many different, important things happened in the course of 400 pages. We understand the characters much better, learn more about paranormal lore, and best of all get to read Evie's unstoppable snark. I highly, highly recommend Endlessly.

Rating: 4 / 5

12 comments:

  1. Great review Alison!! I still have to read this as well! There are just too many awesome books in my TBR mountains that it's hard choosing one over the other! I get excited about my current read and then I read reviews like this about other books I still want to read and then it makes choosing my next read all the harder!

    Been reading a lot of YA lately, so I might take a one or two book break from that and then I think I might try this one! Of course I say that now! Who knows what will happen in the next week or two!

    But once again, GREAT review! So looking forward to this one and seeing how Reth changes somewhat or seeing this other side to him really! Very anxious about reading it now!

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  2. I really liked Reth in this story, which is odd because I didn't like him in the other ones (I don't think we were supposed to). I also really liked Jack, who annoyed me in the other books. Strange. Anyway, great ending to the series -- I love how she managed to keep the same tone all the way through.

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  3. Hey, great blog! I only just discovered your blog but I’m liking it so far.
    Wow. I cannot believe that this series has come to an end. Great review, I am really going to miss this series.

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  4. I enjoyed this book and yes it brought back the bag too. totally agree it was Reth's book :) Great review

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  5. I thought it was a good ending as well. I'm glad this series made a little comeback after Supernaturally.

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  6. I'm so glad that this series ended on a bang! I've yet to read Supernaturally in fear of the angsty feel that many found, but I love Evie and Lend so I'll definitely will pick it up soon. :)

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  7. Ahhh! I'm so far behind in this series Alison! I still need to read Supernaturally. I'm really glad to hear this is mostly Reth's book though, he was one of the more fascinating aspects of Paranormalcy for me, and I'm really looking forward to his development in this one:)

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  8. Nice review! I love this series as as whole. It had a wonderful ending that I loved.

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  9. :) I'm behind! I need to read this one. I really loved the first two.

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  10. I'm so glad I'm hearing good things about this one still. I loved the first two, and I have this one waiting in my kindle for me. I just have to get around to it.

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  11. I was surprised by how much I liked the portrayals of Reth and Jack in this book after hating them in previous books; it was quite the turnaround and I'm very impressed with how White managed that.

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  12. After reading your review, I'll be bumping this up my TBR pile. I really enjoyed the other two and I'm glad Evie still has her uplifting spirit! :) Great review.
    Alex @ Possession of Books

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