I abide by a 100 page rule. If I’m not enjoying a book by page 100, I drop it. Very few books have ever surprised me past that point, and I have other things to read. People to see. Things to do. Life’s too short for books you aren’t even enjoying anyway.

I broke the rule with The God Of Endings, and I am so glad I did.

The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland at first glance, is much like many other vampire novels. The narrative centers around Collette née Ana, a vampire who in 1984 is running a prestigious preschool, but the narrative flashes back every second chapter to her past; how she became a vampire, how she learned to survive in the world, and how she occupied her time since 1830, more or less. 

I didn’t enjoy the beginning much because I felt, despite some brutal scenes during the flashbacks, that modern day Collette was just too twee for my tastes. I like my vampires to have a lot of bite. I don’t love narratives where they simply feed off of animals and whinge about the burdens of being immortal. Collette doesn’t kill, she doesn’t burn in sunlight, and much of the prose is spent describing the sweet little children and their art.  I also grew annoyed that Collette spent three pages trying to figure out what mysterious injuries could mean in a wife and child, though in the end that seemed to be intended to foreshadow her lack of empathy, not her utter failure as a teacher to spot warning signs of abuse.

Colette is facing a problem, however, and that is that her hunger is growing, and growing. Why this change has come, she doesn’t know. What she should do about the potential abuse in her student’s life, she isn’t sure, but her past and her present collide as her hunger grows out of control. This is where the book started to surprise me, and took me off guard. 

In the end, this book is melancholy and brooding, a meditation on the cruelties of humanity and the decision, however painful it might be, to be present and to love others. Collette at times is just as brutal and indifferent as she thinks the world is, as she runs from the god of endings, wishing to hold nothing so as to not lose anything. 

The first 100 pages were a slog, for me. But the last 100 I read in just a few hours, unable to put it down. The God Of Endings is one of the best vampire novels I’ve ever read. I might even say its my new favorite, but I’m only hedging a little because my favorite is Suckers by Anne Billson and I don’t really want to have to choose between them.

I recommend it if you like slow, meditative reads about moody vampires, if you wonder if there’s any point in bringing life into the world with the way things are going, if you find yourself doom scrolling in the wee hours of the night.

Megan C