Dear Reader Reviews

by Jacqueline Holland

Dear Reader,

I was looking forward to reading Jacqueline Holland’s 2023 debut novel, The God of Endings, for quite some time. It was one of those books that grabbed my attention with it’s striking cover and intriguing title as soon as it hit the shelves. I stalked it in my favorite book stores for months, waiting for it to finally come out in paperback (I’ve always preferred the feel and flexibility of paperback to hardcover books). Dark academia is one of my favorite genres and the blurb promised me a version with a mythological fantasy twist. Holland didn’t let me down when she presented her protagonist: Anna – or Anya, or Collette – a kindergarten teaching, Nazi eating, one hundred and something year old vampire.

I know now that I liked The God of Endings, but I still haven’t decided how much.

I thoroughly enjoyed that Holland’s epic didn’t focus on romantic love, but on platonic love, on the love of a mother, the love of a friend. Sure, our heroine has the occasional romantic relationship, but those are never the focus of her story. The lessons on love and life tucked into The God of Endings are derived more from Anna’s relationships with her friends and the children she teaches.

I also fell fully in love with little Leo Hardman. I understood Anna’s need to protect and comfort him. I was fully invested in Leo’s story and in his teacher’s role in his young life.

However, I was surprised to find myself a bit bored in parts of Anna’s life before opening her French prep school in upstate New York in the 1980s. Usually, the historical side of a vampire’s life would be my favorite part of the book. And I did enjoy parts of it, I enjoyed sitting in the woods, learning to paint with Anna alongside Paul. I was devastated by her losses in war ravaged France and in the slums of Alexandria.

But on the whole, I was a bit bored. Every other chapter as we flashed back I found myself wishing I was still in the 80s trying to decipher just what was going on with Katharine Hardman. I would have been happy if the book had been a bit shorter and if fewer animals had died often a bit gruesomely.

Generally, though, the beauty of Holland’s prose made up for a plot that moved a bit too slowly. She uses the immortality that Anna never wanted and longs to be rid of to explore what time and community mean. She also questions the power implicit motherhood and the act of creation.

What arrogance is implicit in the act of love that calls another into existence?

The themes of The God of Endings – motherhood, immortality, and, as the name implies, endings, and beginnings – are artfully rendered by Holland in the pages of Anna’s story. I don’t want to give too much away with this one, because the ending was an excellent and well-built to twist, and I encourage you to read this book. I look forward to reading more from Holland and I hope she doesn’t keep us waiting for too long.