What a page turner! This book captured by imagination and I was unable to put it down. The cover says that it is a "The feminist update to Rosemary's Baby we all needed." Indeed, this book follows in this tradition but adds a layer of unexpected tension that draws you in.

…more The story follows Anna Alcott and her attempts to become pregnant by IVF. Her husband is supportive, but definitely challenges her along the way. Everyone is suspect as Anna's pregnancy progresses adding to the tension. Ms Valentine is particularly adept at presenting Anna's paranoia and fear.

I would select this book as a worthy summer read, particularly if you seek drama and thrills. I also encourage readers who haven't explored this genre to use this book as a entry into the world of thrillers. (less)

I was excited to read this book because of the very real topic of parents dealing with a major psychiatric illness in their adult child.

However, I found this book to be a disappointment. The writing is quite labored and is difficult to settle into. I found it to be overly …more dramatic, but not at the places where true drama is presented. Every part of the book was over the top, including parts where a lighter hand could have been effective.

The author begins this journey with clear personal points of view (e.g., pharmaceutical treatments). While part of her own journey, it would have been more interesting to discuss the rationale for her position. I am not saying that she is incorrect for her situation, but I think the memoir would have more breadth if we knew the author's motivation and underlying thinking as she goes through a difficult situation. (less)

The God of Endings follows the life of a ten-year-old girl, Anna, who died in the 1830s of tuberculosis. The book opens with the Anna describing her home life with her father, a gravestone carver, and brother, Eli. With a tuberculosis epidemic, Anna's father is busy making …more the gravestones for the townsfolk. Aware of his fate, her father, who is not named, begins making his gravestone, inscribing it with a verse from Donne's tenth Holy Sonnet, "Death, be not proud." However, Anna discovers that he did not finish the stone, and she decides to finish it. Before dying, Anna's father wrote to Anna and Eli's grandfather, a man the children did not know. However, Anna's grandfather sets Anna's fate when she dies of tuberculosis. He drinks her blood when she is near death, turning her into an immortal vampire.

The remainder of the book is split between Anna, later called Anya, and Colette, whose story begins in 1984. Her grandfather sends Anya to Europe with his butler, Angoston, but he does little to prepare Anya for her new way of being in the world. Anya begins to learn about her new life and instincts during the journey. She is introduced to new cravings, urging, and powers but doesn't understand them. Anya's story begins with that journey and continues through France, Germany, and Egypt. Out of fear of herself, she isolates herself from local populations learning how to feed her thirst for blood without killing people.

Colette has grown into her character, understanding her vampiric needs and managing her strong impulses. She has opened a preschool at her grandfather's home. Colette's fears begin when she discovers that she likely has gruesome blackouts. Her worries are crystalized around the coming of Czernobog, the God of Endings.

Ms. Holland has written a rich, character-driven novel that explores the emotions of Anya/Colette as she works to reconcile her needs as a vampire with her guilt and anguish about what those needs require. This conflict of emotions is presented in a gentle way, present but not overwhelming the characters. As Anya begins to understand her new life and Colette fears her blackouts and Czernobog, Ms. Holland draws the reader in with a careful exploration of their fear and resignation to this life.

Anya/Colette's strong moral compass is the center of this story. It is also a story of beginnings and ends, good and evil, constraint and abandon. There are no tidy resolutions to the conflicts. Instead, the reader is guided to a place of understanding.

The God of Endings is a vampire story that does not focus on gore or horror but rather on the human story, which I found compelling and engaging. Anna/Anya/Collette is a character that I will remember. Indeed, as I finished the book, I found myself missing her.

"Together, we are starving in the darkness, sinking, brittling, growing gaunt, our only hope some mysterious clemency that may never come." (less)