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A review by blessedwannab
The Final Descent by Rick Yancey
4.0
Darkness has always been the theme of the series, but in The Final Descent that darkness is taken who a whole new level.
The fourth and final book in this quartet was quite a change from the first three books. Unfortunately, because this the last book, I can't say too much about it without giving away the direction the story took. Just note that the book veered off in a direction that I didn't expect and I can see how some fans may have found it disappointing.
I will say that there was a giant change in the writing style from the first three books to this one. In the story the reason for this change is explained. As the reader though, it took a bit of time to become accustomed to. It jumped around a lot. The jumps weren't from character to character like other books, but it instead moved rapidly through time. One page would be the past, then you'd get half a page in the future, and the chapter would end in the present. I found myself frequently having to remind myself of when the scene was taking place.
I didn't like it as much as I had the previous ones, but I also wasn't as disappointed as I read others were. Things didn't turn out the way I'd been hoping, but that's alright. It mirrors life.
We are vain and arrogant, evolution's highest achievement and most dismal failure, prisoners of our self-awareness and the illusion that we stand in the center, that there is us and then there is everything else but us.
But we do not stand apart from or above or in the middle of anything. There is nothing apart, nothing above, and the middle is everywhere-and nowhere. We are no more beautiful or essential or magnificent than an earthworm.
In fact-and dare we go there, you and I?-you could say the worm is more beautiful, because it is innocent and we are not. The worm has no motive but to survive long enough to make baby worms. There is no betrayal, no cruelty, no envy, no lust, and no hatred in the worm's heart, and so who are the monsters and which species shall we call aberrant?
The fourth and final book in this quartet was quite a change from the first three books. Unfortunately, because this the last book, I can't say too much about it without giving away the direction the story took. Just note that the book veered off in a direction that I didn't expect and I can see how some fans may have found it disappointing.
I will say that there was a giant change in the writing style from the first three books to this one. In the story the reason for this change is explained. As the reader though, it took a bit of time to become accustomed to. It jumped around a lot. The jumps weren't from character to character like other books, but it instead moved rapidly through time. One page would be the past, then you'd get half a page in the future, and the chapter would end in the present. I found myself frequently having to remind myself of when the scene was taking place.
I didn't like it as much as I had the previous ones, but I also wasn't as disappointed as I read others were. Things didn't turn out the way I'd been hoping, but that's alright. It mirrors life.