I featured this book in a book haul section of a vlog because I KNEW this was going to be five stars. The literary promise of immortality prose??? I was sold. Will update when final review posts, but like I said, I'm expecting 5 stars!

It took some time on this one. I started and life happened. I plan on going back and starting it over soon.

The description is intriguing and the title definitely grabbed me. I started this but the plot didn't grab me soon enough so I set it aside. However, I may pick it up at another time as the time may not have been right for me to pick this one up, and certain books are best read in specific seasons.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me around 44%. While I found the historical plot lines extremely fascinating and beautiful to read, the modern timeline was confusing and much less engaging. Whenever the timeline shifted forward I found myself bored and wanting to skip to the historical part of the story again. I also found to overall pacing to be quite slow. Overall, I liked this much more as a concept than as an actual reading experience.

Collette LeSange has been hiding a dark secret: She is immortal. In 1834, Collette’s grandfather granted her the gift of eternal life and since then, she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache. Now, almost 150 years later, Collette is a lonely artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.

I found the author's writing in this novel to be so beautiful. However, I could not get into the story, and at 400+ pages, it was a bit dense. I think it the story had been faster paced, I might have enjoyed this vampirical historical fiction more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for an ARC of The God of Endings in exchange for my honest review.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. Jacqueline Holland weaves a tale of immortality like a true master. I truly felt as though I was with Collette through her journey from becoming a vampire and just existing in the world for centuries afterwards. This felt like such a true portrayal of what being a vampire would actually be like. Immortality endlessly stretched out full of love, loss, confusion, trying to figure out how to just exist. This book left me breathless when I was done, and I truly cannot wait to read more from this author. This is one book I will be returning to time and time again.

Jacqueline Holland's "The God of Endings" is a richly atmospheric and haunting novel that blends elements of gothic horror with a profound meditation on the human condition. At its center is Collette LeSange, an immortal artist running an art school in upstate New York while grappling with the lonely curse of eternal life bestowed upon her nearly two centuries ago.
Holland's exquisite prose casts a hypnotic spell, her poetic descriptions of Collette's inner turmoil and the decaying upstate landscape she inhabits dripping with a melancholy beauty. As Collette contends with a prodigal student, a sinister figure from her past, and her own growing, monstrous hunger, the novel evolves into a simmering psychological nightmare.
Yet "The God of Endings" contains a depth that transcends traditional vampire storytelling. Through the centuries-spanning context of Collette's cursed existence, Holland examines the profundities and contradictions of the human experience - the ephemeral joys we desperately cling to and the inevitable suffering we endure. Her storytelling probes profound philosophical questions about life, death, love and art.
It's this seamless balance of the exquisitely crafted and the searingly cerebral that makes "The God of Endings" such a transfixing read. Part lush gothic chiller, part poignant existential dirge, it announces Holland as a striking new literary voice. For those who revel in fiction that marries intellectual heft with bewitching storytelling, this novel casts an irresistible spell.

The God of Endings is a unique vampire tale, switching timelines between the book's current time, 1984, and Colette's past. This book felt a little long, and yet I wish it had been expanded into multiple parts!

Changed into a vampire by her step-grandfather and cast adrift upon the world, Anna falls in love and loses everything many times. Now a preschool teacher to the children of the wealthy, Collette becomes entangled in the troubled life of one of her students.

Why do I keep striking out with vampire books? I've read a variety of takes on vampires, so I don't think it's not any particular trope that's throwing me off. Maybe I just can't take them and their existential angst seriously enough. And Anna/Anya/Collette's got plenty of that.

We start off with a bang, with a scene Anna and her brother being forced to consume the ashes of their father in a misguided cure for their tuberculosis (which is a thing that really happened in 1830s New England!). This sequence, as well some others such as Anna's interlude with Paul and the children's visit to the graveyard, are compelling little vignettes enlivened by lovely writing. The author has a knack for painting vivid scenes, which is doubly enjoyable since Anna is an accomplished artist.

However, the book is overlong for the amount of plot its got, and out of the many characters Anna runs into only a couple ever really make an impression. I also found myself utterly bored and somewhat uncomfortable with the preschool storyline - Collette's relationship with Leo and Katherine is dark and tangled, but the way she becomes consumed in their drama was unintentionally disturbing for me, and so the ending was anything but cathartic. I also found myself frustrated by how much the author glossed over without explanation - how Collette reunited with her grandfather and came back to New England, for example, and the puzzle of her increased hunger throughout the whole book.

“How presumptuous is the gift of life? What arrogance is implicit in the act of love that calls another into existence? This world, my love, I give it to you. All of it. You’re welcome, and I’m sorry.”

Look, I’ll be honest- I saw “vampires” and a pretty cover, and hit the NetGalley request button. I didn’t have much more information than that, and this book was a complete surprise.

GOD OF ENDINGS is beautifully written, has a great cast of characters, and poses some really gratifying questions about life and why it is (or isn’t) worth it. Holland is also very good at creating VIBES- especially unsettling suspense. There were a few moments where I had to put the book down and message someone who had finished the book to reassure me that I was going to survive reading it.

“‘Children do deserve perfect love, but it isn’t because they’re perfect, which means it has to be some other word besides deserve; but I don’t know what the word is. But then it’s true for adults too; after all, we’re just the warped remains of imperfectly loved children. None of us gets the perfect love we ought, but maybe that’s what life is for, to give us time to collect it in bits and pieces, a little here, a little there. Maybe we’re supposed to put it together ourselves slowly.’”

I have a few minor maybe-quibbles around the folklore/mythology included in this book, and feeling a bit like there were a few related loose ends. But- I’m calling them maybe-quibbles because I also think this may have been an intentional choice by the author- humans create folklore to help explain life’s mysteries- doesn’t mean it solves them.

An elegant, leisurely paced vampiric epic, the easiest way to summarize The God of Endings, is that it is a thoughtful mix of A Dowry of Blood (first-person narrative featuring a female vampire), and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (an undying protagonist who lives across centuries and observes the evolution of humanity). Even though at times I question whether its drawn-out length is truly necessary (I went in expecting this to be more of a horror novel, but in retrospect it definitely leans more towards historical fiction in style), and I'm much more engaged in the contemporary narrative comparing the historical ones (where the material is a little bit 'been there, done that'), yet as a whole I really enjoy Jacqueline Holland's emotive writing style, and a very mature, thoughtful observation around beginnings and endings.

I picked this one up a couple of times and am glad I waited until the time was right to complete it - stunning. I loved our main character's back story and all the winding roads she had been taken on that led her to teaching young children.

What a creative debut! It was a bit reminiscent of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (another favorite) in that it jumped between different time periods of an immortal being's life, but I love the fact that this time it had VAMPIRES. It's not everyone's cup of tea. It gets a bit morose at times. But it is still an interesting journey into a unique new author's world. 4 stars!

As I am writing this and recalling the writing in this novel, I cannot help but remember how dry it was. The book did not leave me with much of an impression. Oddly, I felt like I was reading a textbook. I really wanted to enjoy reading this book, but ended up not finishing it (DNFed). I will try to pick it back up at a later date when I am in the mood to read about how a woman has lived with immortality.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and the author for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

“How curious it is that in nature, the most vibrant colors are those that precede death. The delicate pinks and blues of spring are wan in comparison to the dramatic crimson of the hawthorn berries or the bloody gashes of the buckthorn leaves in late November. Stars blaze pale in their infancy, but in old age they melt and simmer in reds and oranges just as the oaks and maples do. Youth, it seems, is a state of diffuse abundance, while death’s approach concentrates.“

Read if you like:
📖 Historical Ficton
🧛‍♀️ Fantasy
🍁 Fall Vibes
😬 Tense Reads

Anna grew up surrounded by death. In 1834, her father was the village gravestone carver. As plague descends upon them, their world is shaken, neighbor turns on neighbor, the dead are exhumed and made sure they cannot come back and curse the living with the plague. Anna is saved by her grandfather and gifted, or maybe cursed, with eternal life. Now, 150 years later, a gifted artist, Anna (as Collette) runs a school for gifted children. Everything is going well until a special boy from a troubled home joins the school and Collette must decide how best to help him.

This book is a fantastic debut from Jaqueline Holland and perfect for the beginning of spooky season. The prose is beautiful, I found myself rereading passages because they were so wonderfully crafted. The storyline switches between past and present and at times this made the plot lag a bit, but I did love all the historical details. The book explores what makes life precious; it’s brevity or the connections we make to each other.

this books has the most beautiful prose ever!!!! also, i loved the intriguing take on vampires in this one, it was quite fresh and invigorating.

The God of Endings is not like most vampire stories I've read, so it took me a little while to become invested in the story.

Collette (Anna) has lived as a vampire for over a century. She has found a place for herself as a teacher and runs a small school out of her home in upstate New York. She manages to keep her hunger in check by feeding from a small horde of cats she keeps in her attic and the neighbor's cows if need be. Though lately her hunger is growing and she feels a change is coming. Soon she begins blacking out and not remembering what happened while she was out.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. Jacqueline Holland is a gorgeous writer and I felt transported to the small life Collette has made for herself. The story is told in two timelines, showing Collette's life before she was turned (early 1800s) and all the way up though the start of the second World War. I enjoyed both timelines, but enjoyed spending time in Collette's past more than in the present day. My heart broke for Collette as she kept finding families and then having to start over again for one reason or another.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who doesn't mind a slow burn story with beautiful writing. I saw another review comparing this to Matilda if Miss Honey was a sad vampire and I really think that sums it up. I'd also recommend the audiobook if you're having trouble with the physical copy - I listened to the second half via audiobook and it was really lovely.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for a review copy.

The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

ARC provided by Flatiron Books

It took me a while to get into this book. I found the writing quite good and the settings vivid. A somewhat nontraditional vampire novel, this one follows a woman’s journey through immortality. The main story is about her present (1980s-era) existence where she runs a small preschool in New York state, peppered with flashbacks that gradually explain her life leading up to that time. There is a lot of lengthy and only loosely connected exposition in the beginning, but eventually Holland got me hooked with a masterful injection of creeping dread in the 1980s preschool plotline, and the pathos of the character’s past tragedies. I found it interesting that the author kept the traditional mechanics of vampire birth and blood drinking (sans aversion to daylight), but in a kind of rogue move, completely precluded vampire sexuality by making her vampires physically sexless (they don’t have genitals or nipples). It definitely shifted the focus of the narrative and the overall tone away from those typical of traditional/popular vampire fiction. Overall, I found the book a solid debut novel, with some promising strengths and forgivable weaknesses. I’d love to read some horror-adjacent stories by this author.

This is a non-typical vampire novel, better written than most, and with a reluctant female vampire as our hero. She's got some generational trauma, too.

This book was beautifully written but unfortunately the actual storyline was just okay to me. I ended up not being able to finish this book.