The Final Descent
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings4
Average rating3.5
In the fourth and final horrific adventure in the award-winning Monstrumologist series, Will Henry encounters unprecedented terror, a terror that delves into the depths of the human soul. Will Henry has been through more than seems possible for a boy of fourteen. He’s been on the brink of death on more than one occasion, he has gazed into hell—and hell has stared back at him, and known his face. But through it all, Dr. Warthrop has been at his side. When Dr. Warthrop fears that Will’s loyalties may be shifting, he turns on Will with a fury, determined to reclaim his young apprentice’s devotion. And so Will must face one of the most horrific creatures of his monstrumology career—and he must face it alone. Over the course of one day, Will’s life—and Pellinor Warthrop’s destiny—will hang in the balance. In the terrifying depths of the Monstrumarium, they will face a monster more terrible than any they could have imagined—and their fates will be decided. “Beyond a simple finale, this is a brave statement about the duplexity of good and evil, and the deadly trap in which all of us are snared” (Booklist, starred review).
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4 primary booksThe Monstrumologist is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2006 with contributions by Rick Yancey.
Reviews with the most likes.
“To hell with all of you...To hell with monsters and to hell with men. There is no difference to me.”I was wrong. In my review of [b:The Isle of Blood 9955669 The Isle of Blood (The Monstrumologist, #3) Rick Yancey https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389393836s/9955669.jpg 14849405], I said that Yancey better dial back the introspection for the final installment and give us more monsters instead. However, The Final Descent is far from the tightly woven monster hunts of the first two books, and it is deathly brilliant. But maybe Yancey did give me what I wanted. He gave me monsters. Just not in the shapes I was expecting.Will Henry has fallen off the plate. No longer is the young boy with no other wish than to serve Pellinore Warthrop the best he can. In his place is a swaggering, cruel, manipulative, malicious adolescent, the tasty adjectives could go on for days. Up until this point, Will played Watson to Warthrop's Sherlock. Will may have been the narrator, but Warthrop was undoubtedly the main character. He filled up every page with his blustering bravado and intelligence, while the indispensable Will Henry swept up his messes as he walked. Now, in this book Will Henry swells, he grows tall with age and venom, his reach and influence both catastrophic and careless. And in turn, Warthrop shrivels. The genius monstrumologist so swept up in the creatures he studied – most of all, his greatest find, the xenomorph-esque python, T. cerrejonensis – he's blind to the monster that he's created. And no monster terrifies him more.I think maybe that's where some of the disappointment that others have expressed stems from. When I browse around Tumblr and Goodreads I see a lot of love for Warthrop. I'm not really sure why. He's an awful man. And The Final Descent shows him for what he truly is – genius, perhaps, but ultimately greedy and selfish and horribly abusive. Then again, here I am waxing romantic about his teenage serial killer. But at least Will Henry knows what he is, and never pretends to be anything else. The story told here is a disjointed one. It's not a plot that ramps up like a roller coaster and then falls. It's more like a downward spiral. You can see the point you're heading towards, but you can't stop falling. It's entropy, a world of chaos that inevitably leads to decay. Even the institution of monstrumology doesn't escape, but again, you know that it won't from the beginning of the series. I was a little disappointed that Will didn't become much of anything after Warthrop. With all his terrible skills, he could have been a great villain in someone else's story. But I can't blame Yancey for wanting to tie things together more neatly, even if the book he wrote was remarkably untidy. There aren't a whole lot of true horror novels in the YA world, and definitely none at the level of this series, in terms of quality, sophistication or sheer scariness. I am sad that it's over, but this was a true and fitting finale. Not loud or dramatic, but true to the characters and the story that Yancey meant to tell.
I've been trying to read this for weeks and I can't do it. The series is fantastic, I recommend it, but this last one is just a disjointed mess of scenes where characters act unrecognisable.
I'm not torturing myself any longer when this series would have deserved a much better conclusion, that makes sense and doesn't just pull apart everything that got built so far. I'm really not going to put more effort into this. Sorry.
