Until the End

Book Title: Until the End

Author: Derek Landy

Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #15

Date Started: April 18th 2022

Date Completed: May 10th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Action, Horror, Comedy

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I love this series - I adore it. But even I have to admit that there is a lot going on at this point. Amazingly, I can still follow most references and a lot of names, but there are some moments where I have to scan my brain. Regardless, these books are just so enjoyable to read. How many books do I get to read that just make me feel happy, make me laugh, and make me proud?

The politics is always so good in Derek's books, especially since he upped the audience's age with this sequel series. And not just the parallels to our own world, but also the empowerment of characters in smaller ways and their own agency within situations that are largely outside of their control. It's nice to know I made good choices as a young reader, and it was an honour to get to grow from a child, to a teenager, to an adult with these books.

Of course, with this being a Derek Landy book, some of the twists are satisfying. But I do want to say I'm not a fan of the trope where everyone is ultimately related to each other - I much prefer when people have their own agency to get themselves into trouble. I don't think it completely strips the characters of their own identities in Until the End, as often happens when this is used, but it was a moment where I just had to have a little sigh before I carried on. That being said, there was also another certain trope at the end and the way Derek pulled it off is the only time I've come across it done well.

Until the End seems to have tied up a lot of threads of the series ahead of what I believe is the final book. That's actually very, very clever; the last one won't need to be obsessed with finishing all these storylines and instead get to tell its own narrative focused on completing the characters' arcs rather than cleaning up in-jokes and mysteries. I'm sure it will be just as epic as we've grown to expect, and are never disappointed by.