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A review by noirverse
The Final Descent by Rick Yancey
My feelings towards this book are complex to say the least, from Will Henry's drastic change in attitude to the broken relationship between Will and Pellinore.
To start with Will Henry, the story gives us a sixteen-year-old Will Henry who's deeply jaded and already filled with resentment towards Pellinore. That Will is a far cry to the Will of the third book, who indeed did kill people, but ends the book uplifted by the message of hope that was the baby being rescued. There are certainly seeds planted hinting to Will becoming more unhappy with Pellinore, but he looks at Pellinore's choice to not fall into despair over his failed goal with admiration and clear affection. His final decision to kill John Kearns is a pivotal turning point in him becoming more jaded, but it's only the start of his descent.
In the earliest of chapters with a sixteen-year-old Will Henry, we see a version of him that murders without restraint and with nothing left of the affection he once felt for Pellinore remaining. The difference is jarring even though I could see the hints that point to Will Henry going down a darker path. There is a strong sense of having skipped a book, one that takes a closer look at Will Henry's changing feelings towards Pellinore and his outlook on murder. I spent my time reading curious to see the actual descent, but we never get it with the book skipping ahead several years.
The book's formatting also lets us see Will Henry as an adult, visiting Pellinore who's only a shadow of his former self. As the book jumps back and forth between a sixteen-year-old Will Henry and an adult Will Henry, we are given a look at a relationship that is fundamentally broken from the start. I became frustrated at how their relationship feels so drastically different from their past adventures with all signs that they care for each other, one of the things that I love most about their dynamic, almost completely gone.
Oddly enough, even with the book set up to wring emotional reactions from its readers from its series of tragic events, there's a sense of detachment. I don't quite recognize the characters as being who they are from the previous books. I find myself hoping that I will catch onto the line of events that leads Will Henry to developing into the teenager he is at sixteen but leave unsatisfied.
As we know in the previous books, Pellinore is dead by the time the journals are written. It's revealed that Will Henry mercifully kills him, the last action he takes as his master's apprentice. Even the pivotal scene of Pellinore being killed by Will Henry feels distant to me, as I'm the outsider looking into a relationship that I had once known but ends as it does due to events I'm shut out from being able to fully understand or care about.
When the moment of them giving up on each other comes, it's as impactful as a shrug of acceptance because they are so incredibly awful to each other in this book. Any reason for me to care about them staying together has been completely confined to the previous books, which are events that happened years ago for the characters. Why care about them going their separate ways when it seems like something that could have just as well happened at the very start of the action plot with little difference from both Will Henry or Pellinore?
I keep circling back to feeling that the characters were static, undergoing no notable change in how they felt about each other. Considering the central theme is of Will Henry and Pellinore's relationship being destroyed, an event that had every reason to be moving, that isn't a good impression to walk away with. The plot has things happen but the characters themselves, even with events such as Will Henry running away and Pellinore keeping him in the dark about his plan, never show enough emotion that isn't wholly negative to convince me that their relationship being torn apart is worth being upset over.
What makes tragedy between characters effective to begin with is the clashing of emotions both positive and negative. There must be a reason for wanting them to not become estranged with each other that makes the reader cry and want for them to change their fate. There are zero reminders that they once had a better relationship or had the slightest feeling of affection for each other, a contrast bitterly needed in order to for there to be a proper emotional arc.
Moving on, the snake being the monster that would immortalize Pellinore's career is almost silly. In the previous books the monsters are impressive in their own right and even in the third book, the monster has a strong presence as something terrifying. The book is more focused on showing humans as the real monster through Will Henry which didn't work for reasons I outlined above. I found myself missing the adventure of Will Henry and Pellinore trying to find the monster, something that I didn't realize I missed until this story had them acquire the snake right away.
There are several formatting and story structure changes that rubs me the wrong way. The book is noticeably shorter than the others with only three hundred pages, an important factor in making the story feel compressed to a ridiculous degree. Not only that, but we get quite a bit of Will Henry repeating things several times which cut into the main action story even more, leaving a rushed impression of events happening one after another with no pause.
I grew annoyed at the messy format jerking the reader back and forth. The heavy philosophizing from Will Henry about the nature of man is overdone in sections to the point of making me feel bored, something I never felt while reading the previous three books. The reveal of Will Henry as a man who steals the real Will Henry's name comes across being put in for the sole purpose of shocking the readers, the equivalent of pulling "and it was all a dream" on its own narrative.
Even with my criticism, I can't say that I hate the book as I enjoyed the concepts it was trying to show. Had this book kept the general format of the previous books and made it as long as necessary to explore Will Henry's shifting feelings with himself and his mentor, taking care to touch on their positive moments, it could have been a masterpiece. A compelling final story that shows descending into darkness with a complex view of a troubled relationship. If anything, I'm the most disappointed that this book presents the vague outline of ideas that had the potential to be thought-provoking and emotional even if extremely dark but the finished product is hollow of any impact involving the themes it failed to portray.
Due to my mixed feelings, I'm abstaining from giving a proper star rating. I'm happy to say that I have far less complicated emotions towards the previous three books and will gladly return to them many times. Will Henry and Pellinore's adventures have been wonderful to read with all the ups and downs of their relationship. As for this book, I'm not sure if I will ever feel the urge to reread this one. The Final Descent is ultimately unfinished, a rough sketch at best of what could've been a moving tragic end for their adventures but was never properly fleshed out.
To start with Will Henry, the story gives us a sixteen-year-old Will Henry who's deeply jaded and already filled with resentment towards Pellinore. That Will is a far cry to the Will of the third book, who indeed did kill people, but ends the book uplifted by the message of hope that was the baby being rescued. There are certainly seeds planted hinting to Will becoming more unhappy with Pellinore, but he looks at Pellinore's choice to not fall into despair over his failed goal with admiration and clear affection. His final decision to kill John Kearns is a pivotal turning point in him becoming more jaded, but it's only the start of his descent.
In the earliest of chapters with a sixteen-year-old Will Henry, we see a version of him that murders without restraint and with nothing left of the affection he once felt for Pellinore remaining. The difference is jarring even though I could see the hints that point to Will Henry going down a darker path. There is a strong sense of having skipped a book, one that takes a closer look at Will Henry's changing feelings towards Pellinore and his outlook on murder. I spent my time reading curious to see the actual descent, but we never get it with the book skipping ahead several years.
The book's formatting also lets us see Will Henry as an adult, visiting Pellinore who's only a shadow of his former self. As the book jumps back and forth between a sixteen-year-old Will Henry and an adult Will Henry, we are given a look at a relationship that is fundamentally broken from the start. I became frustrated at how their relationship feels so drastically different from their past adventures with all signs that they care for each other, one of the things that I love most about their dynamic, almost completely gone.
Oddly enough, even with the book set up to wring emotional reactions from its readers from its series of tragic events, there's a sense of detachment. I don't quite recognize the characters as being who they are from the previous books. I find myself hoping that I will catch onto the line of events that leads Will Henry to developing into the teenager he is at sixteen but leave unsatisfied.
As we know in the previous books, Pellinore is dead by the time the journals are written. It's revealed that Will Henry mercifully kills him, the last action he takes as his master's apprentice. Even the pivotal scene of Pellinore being killed by Will Henry feels distant to me, as I'm the outsider looking into a relationship that I had once known but ends as it does due to events I'm shut out from being able to fully understand or care about.
When the moment of them giving up on each other comes, it's as impactful as a shrug of acceptance because they are so incredibly awful to each other in this book. Any reason for me to care about them staying together has been completely confined to the previous books, which are events that happened years ago for the characters. Why care about them going their separate ways when it seems like something that could have just as well happened at the very start of the action plot with little difference from both Will Henry or Pellinore?
I keep circling back to feeling that the characters were static, undergoing no notable change in how they felt about each other. Considering the central theme is of Will Henry and Pellinore's relationship being destroyed, an event that had every reason to be moving, that isn't a good impression to walk away with. The plot has things happen but the characters themselves, even with events such as Will Henry running away and Pellinore keeping him in the dark about his plan, never show enough emotion that isn't wholly negative to convince me that their relationship being torn apart is worth being upset over.
What makes tragedy between characters effective to begin with is the clashing of emotions both positive and negative. There must be a reason for wanting them to not become estranged with each other that makes the reader cry and want for them to change their fate. There are zero reminders that they once had a better relationship or had the slightest feeling of affection for each other, a contrast bitterly needed in order to for there to be a proper emotional arc.
Moving on, the snake being the monster that would immortalize Pellinore's career is almost silly. In the previous books the monsters are impressive in their own right and even in the third book, the monster has a strong presence as something terrifying. The book is more focused on showing humans as the real monster through Will Henry which didn't work for reasons I outlined above. I found myself missing the adventure of Will Henry and Pellinore trying to find the monster, something that I didn't realize I missed until this story had them acquire the snake right away.
There are several formatting and story structure changes that rubs me the wrong way. The book is noticeably shorter than the others with only three hundred pages, an important factor in making the story feel compressed to a ridiculous degree. Not only that, but we get quite a bit of Will Henry repeating things several times which cut into the main action story even more, leaving a rushed impression of events happening one after another with no pause.
I grew annoyed at the messy format jerking the reader back and forth. The heavy philosophizing from Will Henry about the nature of man is overdone in sections to the point of making me feel bored, something I never felt while reading the previous three books. The reveal of Will Henry as a man who steals the real Will Henry's name comes across being put in for the sole purpose of shocking the readers, the equivalent of pulling "and it was all a dream" on its own narrative.
Even with my criticism, I can't say that I hate the book as I enjoyed the concepts it was trying to show. Had this book kept the general format of the previous books and made it as long as necessary to explore Will Henry's shifting feelings with himself and his mentor, taking care to touch on their positive moments, it could have been a masterpiece. A compelling final story that shows descending into darkness with a complex view of a troubled relationship. If anything, I'm the most disappointed that this book presents the vague outline of ideas that had the potential to be thought-provoking and emotional even if extremely dark but the finished product is hollow of any impact involving the themes it failed to portray.
Due to my mixed feelings, I'm abstaining from giving a proper star rating. I'm happy to say that I have far less complicated emotions towards the previous three books and will gladly return to them many times. Will Henry and Pellinore's adventures have been wonderful to read with all the ups and downs of their relationship. As for this book, I'm not sure if I will ever feel the urge to reread this one. The Final Descent is ultimately unfinished, a rough sketch at best of what could've been a moving tragic end for their adventures but was never properly fleshed out.