Entertain the End

Everworld #12

by K.A. Applegate

There is a place that shouldn’t exist. But does. And there are creatures that shouldn’t exist. But do. Welcome to a land where all of your dreams and nightmares are very real—and often deadly. Welcome to Everworld.

April, David, Christopher, and Jalil have come to the end of the line. Senna, their only passage back to the real world, is gone. And she’s definitely not coming back. But that doesn’t change any of the harm Senna managed to cause in Everworld. And April and the others know it’s up to them to help Merlin make things right.

But making things right involves another meeting with Hel. Hel, who before meeting with April and the others, had never been outsmarted. Hel, who would be more than happy to see them dead—or even better, suffering for eternity. And eternity’s a mighty long time.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Mythology, Fiction, Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction

156 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

also published under the name Katherine Applegate

Reviews

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Everworld was a TV series, the previous book was like a season finale. It was epic, there was drama, there was chaos, there was progress, it ended with a bang, … It was awesome. Continuing the comparison, this book can be seen as a kind of season premiere. We get to see the aftermath of the previous story, the consequences of their actions and how it has changed the status quo. Questions have been answered, yes, but there are still so many questions left unanswered.

A heist/rescue mission in Hel’s domain was a cool idea. An idea which started out as just the tiniest little seed planted inside the reader’s mind so many books ago but you’re just now realizing its importance. Revisiting this already established storyline was a big plus in my book. Throw in the dwarves and some real-world troubles and you have an adventure worth reading.

I like how the characters have grown in Everworld, how it’s taken over their lives in the real world and how the boundaries between these two different worlds are fading. Literally. As with the series as a whole, once again it are the characters that drive this story forward. And at least in that sense, we do get some closure.

It really does feel like the start of something new, instead of what it should have been: a proper ending for the series. However, the powers that be decided otherwise. K.A. could have rushed the series to an end but considering the amount of progress we made in the last book and how many questions are still left unanswered, she decided to go for the next best thing. She ended the things she could and provided us with as many puzzle pieces as possible to fill in the blanks. Not all of them, which is a shame. Just enough to know, had the series continued, how it would have gone and how it would have probably ended.

The story in itself is great but as the series’ finale, it feels kind of disappointing.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

And thus concludes my second Grand KAA Reread! After the sheer perfection of the Animorphs ending (yes, sorry, I'm going to keep compare-contrasting the two...), this one is underwhelming. By itself it's actually probably 4 stars -- Entertain the End is pretty awesome, featuring a driven goal, political scheming, pretty good strategising on the kids' part, unnerving repercussions in the real world from Senna's death, bringing back old enemies so that it's all come full circle, adding more gods to the party, and HELL YEAH NORSE MYTHOLOGY TO THE RESCUE.

But in being the very last book, it's also a disappointment, because it feels more like a cancelled TV show than a finale. "Where's the 13th book?" I've been asking myself for 15 years -- because one more book would have been just enough to cover the war with the Sennites and Ka Anor, the potential liberation of Everworld and the kids settling into their new lives (brb writing fic set like a year later in which Christopher gets over Etain with April!!), showing how they find meaning & purpose, AND Jalil could have gotten his missing POV book that got lost in the sequence thanks to Senna's narration. 13 also just feels like a thematically apropos number. They probably could have picked up the abandoned plotlines of the Great Scrolls, maybe David succeeding LeMieux, Brigid doing... whatever it is she was supposed to do rather than just be a useless Macguffin... As it stands, you don't actually know how any of the big plotlines end.

Unlike Animorphs, where the main storyline was resolved perfectly and completely in lots of detail and you can guess how the last incident turned out, Everworld unfortunately dumps its entire main storyline, cutting out right before the equivalent of the final boss battle. Instead, the climax is their sneaking through Hel, which was honestly just kind of dull: it read like a D&D campaign with random monster encounters popping up out of nowhere and them hack-and-slashing their way through, and then right when they were in dire straits, some deus ex machinas showed up to save them. The funny thing is that my vague, 15-years-later memory of this book was them entering Ka Anor's chamber and his legions swarming around him, and them just about to mount an attack when the book ends; which, now that I've reread, turns out is actually a scene from #6 Fear the Fantastic?? The halfway point? Apparently my mind just spliced it into the ending, because it's literally the only sight of Ka Anor we ever get, and his absence at the climax is really palpable.

Also, to talk about April in this book, with spoilers for #11 and this one: I really don't buy her changing her mind about Everworld that quickly. Her being the only one to 'fade' back to the real world makes total sense, considering the character development and motivations we've seen from all of them so far. She has had moments of feeling like Everworld was more bright and real than her real life, but she still remained committed to the old world, unlike the boys. ALSO, this book just didn't cover as much of her guilt as I wanted; considering her Catholic background, I would've loved to see even more rumination about confession and the fact that she is now a murderer, whether or not that might damn her soul to hell, etc. There were a couple good chapters about it at the beginning -- which merited my 'sibling feelings' shelf, because ahhh that page where April starts remembering how Senna used to take her coffee, ouch, my heart! -- but considering the massive thing she's done, I wanted more addressing of it, similar to the horrible thing that happens at the end of Animorphs. And just as I feared, there was no legendary April/Senna conflict revealed in this book either. The way their dynamic had been written, to the extent of April apparently wanting her dead before Everworld, always gave me the feeling that there were more incidents lying behind their antagonism; as it stands, their childhood together just doesn't feel vicious enough to merit the enmity between them. (More fic for me to write, I guess?)

This individual book is actually very good; as mentioned, 4 stars for what it is. It's fast and exciting and compelling, and I found myself devouring it! But for what it's supposed to be -- a series finale -- it's just not good, because it misses so much and doesn't wrap up as much as it had to. I kept staring at the book while I was reading: 'only 50 pages left, how are they going to wrap everything up? Only 20 pages left... welp, 10 left...' etc, until it suddenly ends. I really like April's final message which reveals the touchstone themes of the series, but mostly the ending just feels slapdash, something strung together at the last minute. So 2.5 stars for this one, I guess.

I'm still fond of Everworld as a series; where Animorphs was formative reading for me in terms of scarred soldiers, PTSD, moral ambiguity, and hard choices, Everworld is a sampling of diverse casts, mental illness, abuse, alcoholicism, racial issues, and awesome mythological melting pots a la American Gods. The worldbuilding, setting, and characters are wonderful, but the plot/ending is weak. I still have a soft spot for Everworld -- mostly because of the mythology and cast, I genuinely love Christopher, Jalil, April, and David in ways very different from the cast of the other series -- but if you're going to pick up a KAA series, you should most definitely do Animorphs instead.

Favourite quotes added:
I wanted to reach out to him, offer comfort, and yes, take what comfort he could give me. But David was too far gone, too far away to be touched right now. Least of all by me.

***

  I felt someone put an arm around my shoulders. I turned my head. It was Christopher, crouched at my side. Ordinarily, I'd be wary of such a gesture on his part. Christopher was not above trying to cop a feel, even in a moment of sadness. Well, the old Christopher, anyway. He'd changed. We all had. But somehow the changes in Christopher seemed more obvious than those the rest of us had undergone.
  He proved this now by giving my shoulders a gentle squeeze and singing, softly, ironically, "So no one told you life was going to be this way..."
  He made me laugh. But, it came out to be more of a sob.

***

  But nothing had happened to me. The blood had covered my hand, a witch's blod, my half sister's blood. I had watched it slick and dark against my pale skin. And I'd lived.
  Suddenly, sitting there on the banks of that little stream, I remembered a million little facts about Senna. A million little details I'd never bothered to list and review. Why should I when she was always there? Now that she wasn't I couldn't seem to stop the torrent of facts that comprised the person named Senna Wales. How she drank coffee black. How when she sneezed she always sneezed at least three times in a row. How when she was twelve she wore her hair in a loose ponytail straight down her back and made it look sophisticated. How for a while she wore a small silver star on a black cord aroudn her neck. How one day, it was gone.
  Hundreds of insignificent details, details that belonged to Senna alone. It was like learning all you could about a character you were going to play on stage. Almost as if gathering every seemingly arbitrary detail could finally put a person together.
  But it didn't work. I couldn't construct a person out of my memories of Senna. At least a person I could understand. Her personality, her character, her motives and dreams and emotions--nothing.
  In life, Senna was an enigma. In death, she remained an enigma. At least to me. And I guessed to everyone. Especially David.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: This section seriously punched me in the heart. Ow.]

***

  I knew, at that moment what [Jalil] was about to say.
  "Are you saying you want to stay in Everworld?" I asked. "I mean, if it comes down to a choice. If..."
  "If I fade right away here, would I miss it?" He gestured mockingly at the shelves of packing materials, rolls of tape, stacks of colored construction paper. "All this?"
  "Yeah."
  "I don't know, April. I really don't. There are my parents. And sisters. And Miyuki, she and I, you know, we're getting close. But there's the OC. And everything here, it's not the same anymore. Now there's Everworld, always in my mind. Memories that won't go away. I see everything here now so differently. Things I had tolerance for once, no more. This ordered universe, the rules I know by heart? It all seems somehow dull. Not enough. I just don't know. It might be too late for me, this world. You know?"

***

  Then the paramedics hoisted the gurney up and into the back of the ambulance.
  "Christopher, I want to go with you," I said.
  "Only family, please," the stocky paramedic told me and helped Christopher's mother into the back with her son. When she passed close to me I thoguht I smelled alcohol.
  "April, I..."
  I didn't hear what Christopher was about to say. The stocky paramedic slammed the doors shut and locked them into place.

***

  "Why do I have to go?" I asked.
  "Jalil's too busy playing master engineer. I need someone to keep Christopher in line. He doesn't listen to me."
  "What are you afraid he's going to do?" I said.
  David frowned. "Ruin everything, destroy the whole plan. He's determined that Etain won't marry Baldwin. If he freaks and tries to do something like kidnap her, everything is screwed."
  "And you really think he'll listen to me?" I asked.
  "Yeah. I do."

[NOTE FROM JULIE: I am Christopher/April shipper trash even while David is literally talking about how devoted C. is to Etain, oops]

***

  I closed my eyes.
  This was it, it was over. An eternity in hell, perpetual damnation and suffering beyond all imagining. Hel had me now in her horrible grip.
  It was what I deserved.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: AAUUGH FEELINGS]

***

Loki rolled his eyes like a typical exasperated father dealing with a typical spoiled-rotten daughter. If I weren't so scared I'd have laughed. Hel was a handful. That's what my father used to say about Senna.

***

  Slowly, I sat up. In time to see Hel slither away with an entourage of goblins and other misshapen creatures.
  Loki turned to Odin. "She is terribly spoiled and headstrong, that daughter of mine. I fear she will never find happiness."
  I scrambled to my feet. Thought, Happiness? Just how insane are you, Mr. Loki, sir? I don't think happiness is what Hel is all about.

***

  I remember describing Everworld, back in the beginning, as a place not touching reality. How much had changed since then. Or maybe nothing had changed but me.
  There's a famous saying, quoted by poets and other writers for centuries. "No man is an island." I'd amend that to "no person," but otherwise, I think it's true. None of us is truly alone. We live in relation to others, either in troubled times. Or peaceful ones.
  But I think that at the major moments of transition, at the big comings and goings, something else is even more true. "You live and die alone." Just you, coming in and going out. Just you. Your choice to go back or move ahead.
  I got under the covers. My head hit the pillow. And I slept.

[NOTE FROM JULIE: And here we have it, the 'final message' of the series, KAA cobbling it together into some sort of coda just in time for the ending. I actually really like it: the whole thing is rushed as hell, but it does dovetail with what we've seen of it so far. Where she stated before that the central theme of Animorphs was war, I think I remember her saying that the key theme to Everworld was transition, which works on several levels: Everworld is more like typical YA in that the characters are actual young adults, going through adolescence and close to being chucked out of the high school system and having to figure out what in the world they want to do with themselves; that anxiety manifesting itself as latching onto Everworld, an almost escapist grab for fantasy & adventure; all four of them growing and changing and becoming better people through adversity, sorting through their old baggage; plus they're literally transitioning, hopping back and forth between universes, and it's more like a standard 'portal fantasy' in that regard. And it seems the main point here, at the end, is how you deal with those changes and transitions and what you make of yourself as an adult: do you choose to grow and move on, or do you hang onto the old? JACD all eventually embraced the changes that tested them, leaving their old lives behind. They worked together as a team, a large part of the series being defined by their relationships to each other, but in the end the final choice of whether or not to stay in Everworld was theirs.]

[Talbot Hook · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the most disappointing endings to a series I have ever experienced.

[Nemo (The ☾Moonlight☾ Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

April and the EverWorld gang, minus Senna for obvious reasons, have one final quest now that the gateway has been closed forever: get King Baldwin of the dwarfs on their side and free Thor who will somehow make it so they can defeat Ka Anor and remove the threat of the god-eater from EverWorld.

Here’s the annoying thing: David’s convinced the quest is to get back to Athena on Olympus (which never happens, so I don’t know what’s up with that). The audience is convinced the quest is to defeat Ka Anor, as that’s what we’re being told. Neither of these things happen in this book. This book is all about rescuing Thor. I know there was a lot of unrest when Animorphs ended on a cliffhanger, and it seems Applegate can’t help repeat herself. It’s like the Battle of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings, if we followed all the preparation but then way before the battle started, before the elves even show up, the book would end.

The other part of the book is the gang fading from the real world as EverWorld pulls them in. But it’s their choice to go, and I’m unhappy with April’s final decision. The entire series, she’s been the only one who wanted to get back to the real world. She has a life, she has hope and a future, and she hates EverWorld, unlike the three boys. David wants to be a hero, Christopher’s got no chance in the real world, and Jalil doesn’t have to fight his OCD in EverWorld – plus, his intelligence is a massive bonus. The boys have reasons to stay. April doesn’t. She doesn’t even necessarily like who she is in EverWorld, unlike David who’s become a general, Christopher who’s slowly turning into a decent human being, and Jalil who’s worshipped for his knowledge.

So all along April’s wanted to stay in the real world. And when she starts fading from EverWorld, that’s the cue. Instead, for no reason whatsoever, she decides to stay in EverWorld. It’s not like she’s become a different person, like Christopher. Or that she enjoys it, like David and Jalil. She very clearly prefers the real world. But all of a sudden it’s bye-bye, April. Kaput.

It’s one of the better books because it has an actual goal the kids work towards, but as a series ender it’s a major disappointment – not only because April’s decision is majorly out of character, but because we never get the final showdown between the real worlders and Ka Anor, which was the very reason the gang was dragged into EverWorld to begin with. The whole thing feels like it kind of fizzled out instead of going out with a bang.

PS – all through my childhood I thought that red-haired girl on the cover was April, but I actually think it’s Etain, the red-haired half-elf princess.

[veelox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel generous giving it 2 stars. The book was great, but as i was nearing the end, i kept thinking, only 20 pages left, how are they going to end this... 10 pages can she end this in 10 pages... 5 pages... 2 pages...then no more pages. wtf! this serie was one of the best i've read in forever. even this book was awesome up until the last 2 pages. i'm insulted. this book had so much potential but the ending was shit. So much more could have happened, and we don't even know for sure how it ends. the feeling i had when i was done was like reading the end of a story that ended like "i woke up and it was all a dream" The serie itselft is worth 5/5 stars. but the ending doesn't even deserve a 0.01/5 stars... what a shame.

[Melissa Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the first 11 books, I couldn't wait to find out how it was all going to end. For most part, I liked most of this book. It finds the group traveling to the fortress of the dwarves. There they have to try to talk them into digging a tunnel to be able to sneak into Hel. While all this is taking place they find themselves all fading in the real world except April, who is fading in Everworld. The realize that they have to decide which world they really want to be in because the other will fade out. Though the book does let you know in the end what the four decide, it does not tell you the rest of what goes on. This whole time through all of these books, they are on a quest to help Everworld from falling into the hands of Ka Anor. The book never tells you whether they win or not. What happens if they do win? What happens if they don't? I guess it leaves you to make your own ending but I would have like to either see one last book with the battle with Ka Anor or another 50 or so pages added to this one to help end it. There were so many unanswered questions... did all of the Coo Hatch make it back to their own world? Who won the final battle? Did all the gods help in the battle? Did they destroy the Sennites? I really was expecting more at the end.

[Ben Lever · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had read the first 11 of these as a kid, and it was annoying me that I hadn't read the last, so I went back, found them all in second-hand bookstores, and read them from start to finish. And after like fifteen years of waiting, the ending was kind of underwhelming.

The sort of semi-cliffhanger worked on Applegate's other series, Animorphs, but it really didn't work here - with Animorphs it started a whole new chapter of their lives and left them effectively riding off into the sunset, going out fighting like they always did, &c &c. But that was AFTER she'd resolved the main storyline, and given the readers closure.

Whereas with Everworld, she sort of got us to within sight of the finish line, and basically left the ending as an exercise for the reader. It would've only taken her one more book to do the damn thing properly (which would've made 13 books and probably fit better with the whole vaguely-occult theme than 12) but for some reason she didn't. So I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it just irritates me.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now I think I know why I could remember so little about how the series ended: it kind of doesn't. From the beginning the threat of Ka Anor loomed in the background. Even gods were afraid of him. For four books, David tried to get back to Olympus to continue the fight, and then the series just ends. Senna herself is dead, but her followers are still around, and so is Ka Anor. Although David and Merlin have a plan, there's really no resolution. It's like having a TV show you like canceled and only a really lame final episode to wrap things up.

[Kinsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am legit DEVASTATED that this was the last book. i honestly could've read 70 more books about this f'd up world and these idiot children.

[Paris Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a fan of the animorphs series as a kid (though the covers were really cool), but this series really grabbed me. It's full of Gods and monsters in a culmination of science fiction and fantasy. I wanted to spend my waking hours in Everworld, well. . . the less life threatening parts of it anyway. The idea of having an other-self run on "auto pilot" while the characters are away bothers me a little, but the rest of the mechanics of the story are pretty sound and fluid.

[Brandon Waters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading the Everworld series since I was 10 years old when it all began. I'm 23 now and I finally finished the last book and judging by the number of stars I gave it you can probably tell "Entertain the End" was definitely not one of my favorites. It was a heartbreaking ending to something that ultimately helped shape my imagination and creativity growing up. It was so important to me as a kid that it made reading something to be excited about which is saying a lot for kids that age. It pains me to see it all end with just a two-star rating.

The series itself had the potential to become even bigger than Animorphs and around the time of the fourth book things really took off. "Realm of the Reaper" came with an iron-on print that you could make your own Everworld t-shirt with and the series even had it's own soundtrack called "The Everworld Experience". Gradually the series evolved to have a cookie-cutter format with the main characters venturing from one mythos to the next meeting new friends and deities in each book. Slowly as the story progressed, the characters edged closer to the big finale against the main villain of the series, Ka Anor.

Something must have happened at Scholastic that brought the series to an end, though. Halfway through "Entertain the End" you can see a shift in Applegate's writing and instantly things felt very rushed. It was as if halfway through writing it she was told that there wouldn't be another Everworld book and she scrapped everything to wrap things up as quickly as possible. It was an ending that was right up there with the season finales of Dynasty and Lost. Entire plot-points within the series were ditched and at the end I was left scratching my head wondering what happened to certain major characters. It's not a stretch to end things with David, Chris, April, and Jalil living the rest of their days in Everworld - I can live with that, and I'd already assumed that was going to happen to at least one of them. But what about April's body phasing out in Everworld while the rest of them disappear in the real world? Did she just change her mind and decide she wanted to stay? If so, why didn't we hear about it? What about the FBI investigation into the disappearances in the real world? What happened to Brighid? The Sennites? Ka Anor? Are we just supposed to assume that with the help of Merlin and the rest of the Scooby-Gang of mythological beings that everything turns out alright? We never see Ka Anor defeated and we never see the main characters come back to reality. It just ends. K.A. Applegate has expressed that she hated the way the series ended and that it was a result of over-committing to something that became very demanding to write. I don't know all the details but I think that if she knew there was only going to be 12 books she would have had a lot more time and room to end things in a proper manner. The way things were going it wouldn't have been a stretch to think there could have been twenty books.

If I hadn't been so invested in it for so long I might have even given it one star, but there's still some good things in "Entertain the End". The sub-plot revolving around Chris and Etain continues and I finally started seeing Chris as a different person outside of the joker he'd been running around as in the first ten books. Also, seeing things continue past the death of Senna made the series significantly more interesting because it raised all new questions as to how the characters were going to get back to the real world without her. It's a shame we wont see things progress any further and after thirteen years as a fan it breaks my heart to see it end so abruptly.

[Louel · Rating 1 out of 5]

The end of this series peters out like a series that has obviously been cancelled. Many loose ends are left twisting in the wind, and a few new enticing threads are introduced only to be added to the scrap heap. We never get to see the resolution of the conflict in Everworld. No implication as to how the Ka Anor war ends, what happens to the Sennites, the fate of the Coo-Hatch or how Olympus has fared in the absence of the protagonists.

A lot of new possibilities were added a few books back in Understand the Unknown; The character of LeMieux introduces the possibility of random gates forming in the old world, potentially due to a nuclear explosion. This character also puts on the table the idea of The Great Scroll of the Gods, the very foundation of Everworld written by the gods who formed it. It seems like these two new factors would set up the goals for the following books, but they are never mentioned again even in passing.

The character of Brigid is also introduced around this time, a god still trapped in the real world but having some form of influence over her domain in Everworld. It feels like she should have played a larger role, but is only actively 'on-screen' once, and devolves into a useless prophecizing mouthpiece instead. The land she influences in Everworld, Merlinshire, proves to be peaceful and technologically advanced. But this area is quickly razed to the ground with the sudden climax of the conflict with Senna.

The protagonists' vanishing between worlds feels like a hastily written device that moves way too quickly. If it was spaced over the course of the last 3 books, it would have been a great plot device and conflict. But it made the kids' lives in the 'real world' a jumbled mess and a quick solution to their problems. April's choice towards the end really made no sense, since she was the one character who felt very strongly about her connection to the real world and had the firmest convictions. Jalil choosing to stay in Everworld also makes little sense, as his knowledge is finite and choosing to fade out of the real world will cut off his access to additional knowledge that makes him so valuable to others in Everworld.

It is baffling that all the plotlines introduced during the course of 12 books are all cut off without resolution, the only closure for the protagonists being a short newspaper blurb about their disappearances. It really feels like the series lost steam, or the author lost interest, or the series was cancelled, and the author didn't want to leave the series 'incomplete'.

I'm glad I finally finished this series, as reading the first few books was very formative for me as a kid, but good lord did it turn into a disappointing and frustrating trainwreck towards the end. Each book felt like it made less and less progress in the story line and in the end it came to a complete standstill.

[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cast struggle to unite the gods against the Sennites and Ka Anor, but with the gateway gone there's a real chance they'll disappear from one of the two worlds. Practically speaking, this is an adequate ramp up to a finale; but we never see that finale, and are given a lingering afterword that explains only where the cast ends up. --And that's no small thing, but the reveal feels unsubstantiated (and for April, PoV for this book, even unwarranted).

But I'm not torn up about a sudden end to the series. Everworld shares some DNA with Animorphs, but is nowhere as successful; it's a rocky read and ultimately not worth recommending. But having come this far, the series provides a fantastic penultimate book that offers much of the closure an ending needs, and a final book then gracefully lets the series die--lingering in the imagination but not forcing the reader through another handful of mediocre books. I call that a win.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

   This book carried on the momentum and direction started in Mystify the Magician (Everworld #11), though it did not quite follow through in the end. A solid three stars, though it had the potential – given more space to work through things – to be four or five stars.

   The plot is solid, JACD have a clear and defined direction and plan of what they are going to do and how to go about it, and there is a good amount of introspection, internal dilemmas, and character growth to balance out the action of the story. Basically, it feels as though just when this series was hitting its stride, really flowing and coalescing, it gets cut off with a premature open ending. Which, in comparison to the Animorphs open ending, does not work nearly as well in its favor, in my honest opinion. This open ending leaves the reader in the middle of things, seeking out the next non-existent book. The only justification I can think of at this time for this particular ending is that the goals of the series were never what we thought they were. Instead, the goal Ms. Applegate had in mind for this series overall was to address how teenagers fit into their world based on their past experiences, and how there is always a choice to change the future, to forge a new path instead of taking the one expected of you.

   From the beginning: As expected, April has taken her “sin” very hard, and is doing mental gymnastics to try to understand what drove her to do it, was it justified, did she do the right thing, and how will she live with what she has done. She talks with the others, seeking something (I’m not even sure she knew exactly what she wanted – probably forgiveness?), and instead she gets validation and reassurances that there was no other way, it had to happen, and if she didn’t do it either they all would have died or despite the prophecy someone else would have had to do it.

   Probably as a result of what she did - killing Senna - JACD are slipping between the worlds. Parts of them are disappearing in one world, fading, trying to merge into one person again without the gateway to tether them across two worlds. It does make me wonder how much of their double lives was actually intentional on Senna’s part (or unintentional in that she might not have had the full ability yet to open the gateway enough to fully bring each of them over?), if the being between the worlds was the actual impetus for their split selves, or maybe even if it was something that Brigid was able to do for them with her limited powers when she felt the gateway first open back on the lake. April spends some more time thinking and asking others about staying in the real world or in Everworld to determine what she wants to do. Once again she turns to each Jalil, Christopher, and David to talk about this choice they each need to make. Each one has their own reasons for faltering, for choosing one world – the real world or Everworld – over the other, and it is interesting to see how those reasons may have changed since the beginning of the series.

   So you see, there was some really great material in this book, plus the whole mission via the dwarven kingdom (where they have to make some dubious deals) to Hel’s kingdom in order to free Thor and Baldur and raise an army against the Sennites before they join with Ka Anor. (Though the psychological torture Hel puts them through on their way down seems… pale in comparison to what they have already lived through, in my honest opinion.) JACD have finally become movers and shakers in Everworld, and embraced their new roles. It’s a great defining moment, showing how far these kids have come, from wanting nothing but to go back to the real world to fully embracing Everworld as their new home instead, because of the people they have met and come to care about in Everworld. These relationships built through adversity proved much stronger than the relationships they had back in the real world, to the point that they all decided at varying times to make Everworld their permanent home instead. But now that we know their ultimate decisions, now the series is over. We’ll never know the answers to what I at least thought some of the goals of the series were, like how Ka Anor is defeated (if he is), or if they find the Scrolls to rewrite Everworld’s software (if they want to), if Christopher and Etain will actually manage to get together… if, if, if. So many unanswered questions, more than there really should be. On the plus side, that does mean a LOT of room for fans to finish the story on their own – good opportunity to encourage fan fictions.

Quotes:

   Still, I couldn’t imagine the effort it must have taken for [Goewynne] to stand so tall when the ordered, peaceful society of Merlinshire had been destroyed, crushed by the technology of a more advanced and civilized society. That was a sad and sick irony. – page 2-3

   There was David, our leader because he needed to be, because we needed him to be. The responsible one. The hero. The one still in possession of Sir Galahad’s sword. Beaten and bloody and bruised but standing.
   Jalil, our scientist, the voice of reason. The smartest. Brave, too. Ruthless, unsentimental, and self-serving when he had to be – but utterly trustworthy. He’d saved my life on more than one occasion, at no small risk to himself. Now his spirit was broken by the public humiliation Senna had cruelly sentenced him to suffer. He stood stoically, staring directly in front of him.
   And there was Christopher. He’d carried Etain from the castle, through the dark, dank stone tunnel and released her only when we’d reached the hilltop. Only moments before Christopher had been under Senna’s spell, ready to betray us all, his gun aimed at my head. But he was free of Senna now. He was wounded and discouraged, but one of us again.
   Finally, there was me. April O’Brien. Led from the castle by Goewynne, taken by the hand like a person in a trance, a person stunned and in shock. Led to the hillside, away from the scene of the crime.
   April O’Brien. Pretty decent citizen, good in one world. Murderer in another.
   There were only four of us now because Senna was dead.
   I had killed her. – page 4-5

   Senna was dead and nothing was the same. But now it’s the way you wanted it to be, April, right? my brain taunted. This is what you’ve always wanted. Senna gone, Senna out of the house, out of your life.
   It was true. I had wanted Senna dead. I had hated her beyond reason. Oh, I had a long list of actual reasons for hating Senna, but none of those could really justify wanting her dead.
   Or could they? – page 9-10 – This internal monologue is very relatable to anyone with siblings, I’m sure (though to varying degrees). I mean, what kid has not at some point wished their sibling(s) had never been born or would just go away?

   [Like Senna’s death, e]verything was always David’s fault. In his own mind, anyway. – page 10

   No one had made me kill Senna. I did it because I’d wanted to. Because I believed it had to be done. I still believed that. And yet with every passing moment, with every step I took, the guilt became nearly overwhelming.
   Oh, please god, I just wanted out of Everworld. There was no place for me here. Go back home and forget it all happened. That was my impossible dream. Because in the real world it would never be okay that I killed Senna. In Everworld, it had been necessary. – page 12 – I wonder if “god” was supposed to use the small ‘g’, or if it is a typo of “God”? Hard to tell, with April’s fluctuating faith as of late.

   I felt someone put an arm around my shoulders. I turned my head. It was Christopher, crouched at my side. Ordinarily, I’d be wary of such a gesture on his part. Christopher was not above trying to cop a feel, even in a moment of sadness. Well, the old Christopher, anyway. He’d changed. We all had. But somehow the changes in Christopher seemed more obvious than those the rest of us had undergone. – page 14

   Hundreds of insignificant details [came back to me about Senna], details that belonged to Senna alone. It was like learning all you could about a character you were going to play on stage. Almost as if gathering every seemingly arbitrary detail could finally put a person together.
   But it didn’t work. I couldn’t construct a person out of my memories of Senna. At least not a person I could understand. Her personality, her character, her motives and dreams and emotions – nothing.
   In life, Senna was an enigma. In death, she remained and enigma. At least to me. And I guessed to everyone. Especially David. – page 16-17

   Jalil was proud and unsentimental. I’d always known that about him and respected it. I would never mention what we’d seen. Would never say I was sorry. My sympathy wasn’t what he needed. What would bring Jalil back to us was something concrete for him to do. – page 20 – Given their decisions at the end, I wonder if Jalil’s OCD came back with the rest of him in Everworld? I am inclined to think not – if the gods didn’t write OCD into their Scrolls to govern Everworld, that would be a good explanation for his lack of OCD in Everworld from the very beginning.

   “Twenty years! But…”
   “Do not worry, Christopher. I am part elf. That heritage will protect me from physical change. I will not have grown older.”
   “Yeah, that’s great, Etain. Really. But that’s kind of not the point. I mean, you’ll be all peaches and cream but I’ll have gotten older. I’ll be, what, thirty-seven? Oh, my god, I’ll have a potbelly. I’ll have gray hair. I’ll have ear hair! Jeez, twenty freakin’ years! What am I supposed to do with myself for twenty years? Sit around and wait for your husband to croak? Wait for him to achieve the eternal horizontal? Twiddle my thumbs until he decides to take a dirt nap? This is so not going to happen.”
   I didn’t have the heart to tell him that yes, most likely it was absolutely going to happen. – page 31-32 – More evidence of Christopher’s growth! In the beginning, it would have been about Etain’s appearance, probably. But not now.

   Jalil grinned. “[…] Anyway, in Everworld, no OC. From the very beginning, it was just gone. My world was turned upside down – sometimes literally – every fact I’d ever known and every theory I’d ever proved since the day I was born was being shown as false in this new place. I was frustrated and angry and determined not to bend to this new reality of chaos and uncertainty. This shifting version of reality, whatever, I still don’t know what to call it. But still, I was free. In the one way I could never be free here.”
   I knew, at that moment what he was about to say.
   “Are you saying you want to stay in Everworld?” I asked. “I mean, if it comes down to a choice. If…”
   “If I fade right away here, would I miss it?” He gestured mockingly at the shelves of packing materials, rolls of tape, stacks of colored construction paper. “All this?”
   “Yeah.”
   “I don’t know, April. I really don’t. There are my parents. And sisters. And Miyuki, she and I, you know, we’re getting close. But there’s the OC. And everything here, it’s not the same anymore. Now there’s Everworld, always in my mind. Memories that won’t go away. Things I had tolerance for once, no more. I see everything for once, no more. This ordered universe, the rules I know by heart? It all seems somehow dull. Not enough. I just don’t know. It might be too late for me, this world. You know?” – page 46-47 – Emphasis added. I love his exposition on this point, SO MUCH.

   [Christopher said,] “I’m sorry [Senna] got to me again, at the end,” he said in a rush. “I was going to give you up, April. I know it wasn’t really me but still, I’m sorry. I felt the moment she died. I was released, just like that. I’m glad she’s dead, April. We all are. She had to die, you know that.” – page 51

   “One other thing,” David said [to King Baldwin].
   “He could have thanked the guy, first,” Jalil muttered.
   Baldwin frowned. “What is it?”
   “We intend to rescue Thor. He’s being held prisoner.”
   “Who dares to hold mighty Thor against his will?”
   “Hel.”
   “Here it comes,” Christopher whispered, calmer now. “The product has hit the fan.”
    “Are you mad?!” Baldwin thundered.
   “Yup,” Jalil said under his breath. – page 71-72 – Very nice commentary from the peanut gallery!

   It was getting progressively harder for real-world April to keep Everworld April at bay. I suspected also that real-world April was not trying as hard as she once did to keep both worlds apart. – page 77

   It was strange, too, to keep silent in the real world about all the other people who had become so important to me. People whose lives affected mine so closely. – page 78

   [I said harshly, having just been woken up from sleep,] “You’ll just have to move on [Christopher].”
   Christopher looked at me like he was disappointed. Like he’d thought he was talking to someone named April but had just discovered he’d been talking to someone named Fred.
   “You know, April,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s just not that easy. Man, I thought I’d never hear myself say this, but I’m in love with Etain. I love her. Have you ever been in love? Do you even have a clue what it feels like? And I don’t even have a fair shot with her. I don’t even get to date her and drive her crazy with my stupid TV obsession and have her give me this big Ultimato – that she wants to get married now or she’s moving on. I don’t get to buy her a ring and get down on my knees and make a fool of myself asking her to be my wife. I don’t get to hold her hand while she’s delivering our baby. I don’t get to show her off at office Christmas parties…”
   [… “] Christopher, if you get too involved here, you’ll lose the real world.”
   Christopher sat up and leaned towards me. His tone was urgent.
   “Would that be so awful, April? What would I be giving up, huh? Two drunk parents. An obnoxious little brother. A future all mapped out for a guy like me: middle management, an affair that breaks up my marriage, kids who become druggies, bald by the time I’m fifty, a heart attack by the time I’m fifty-five. Prostate cancer by my late sixties. You know, the usual suburban scenario for the average American male. Here’s the worst of it. I used to think that all would be okay. I’m a simple guy, April, never wanted much. Always thought I’d be content to slide by, have some laughs among the way. Man, I used to rag David, we all did, about his bitter vision of adulthood. Now, well, I’m no wanna-be hero type like David, but now that life just doesn’t seem right.” – page 85-87

   Once Jalil had said he thought the real-world versions of us were becoming the subset. That the more that happened to us, the more we experienced in Everworld, the smaller our “real” lives were becoming. I was so angry with him then. I was angry because I knew he was telling the truth.
   Now, here we were, the four of us, planning an invasion of Hel’s domain, fading or already gone in the real world, more than likely we’d spend the rest of our lives in Everworld, a place of massive uncertainty, fear, and violence. And one some distant level, I really didn’t mind. – page 114

   I kept my mouth shut. No one was even suggesting I go on the mission. […] Which didn’t entirely make sense because as a woman I was somewhat immune to Hel’s “charms.”
   “What about me?” I protested.
   “We need only two people for this mission,” David said. “No point in risking more lives.”
   “I’m going.” I insisted. “You guys are going to need someone to haul your sorry butts out of there when she gives you the eye.”
   David didn’t look convinced. “I can’t stop you.”
   I grinned. And I’m not quite sure why. – page 116

   The passage was psychological torture. Watching, trying not to watch, afraid we’d be pulled into the mess. But we passed through the scene unnoticed. No one reached out a bloody hand to yank me off my horse. No one – nothing -- attacked. We were passing calmly through a living panorama of horror and abuse. A tableau of psychotic exploits. A ride from a lunatic’s amusement park, complete with Smell-o-Vision and sound effects in Dolby Surround Sound. It succeeded in frightening me deeply.
   [They make it safely through the horrorscape.] “Good call, David,” Christopher said. Sincerely.
   “Thanks,” he said. “I think. But it’s been far too easy so far. I don’t like it. The worst is yet to come. Gotta be.”
   “David? Can you please hold back the happy act? Okay? Just this once?” – page 129

   With a grunt that came from my feet I slashed at the first “man.” His body fell a second later.
   The other men surged forward.
   And then it struck me: Was this a crime or an act of mercy?
   Self-defense, April, another voice inside me cried out.
   I lunged. Again and again. Eleven in all.
   I shut down. April went away.
   I watched as flesh suddenly melted away […]
   I felt a hand on my shoulder.
   “You had to do it.” David.
   Christopher. “Yeah. If it hadn’t been for you, April…”
   “Don’t say it,” I said. “Don’t say anything.” – page 133-134 – This scene – it harkens back to when April went on auto-pilot fighting on Mount Olympus, when she just shut down and fought, unthinking, unfeeling. Doing what needed to be done.

   I closed my eyes.
   This was it, it was over. An eternity in hell, perpetual damnation and suffering beyond all imagining. Hel had me now in her horrible grip.
   It was what I deserved. – page 144

   “What happened?” I said [to Merlin]. “How did you get Loki to join you? How did you get him to release Odin?! Oh, and thanks for saving my life, by the way.”
   “It is a life worth saving,” Merlin replied. – page 149 – This startled me – that April’s questions all seemed to run together, it seemed off for her character somehow. I do love Merlin’s response, though.

Continued in the comments, oops!

[Joshua Glasgow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally, here we are at the end of EVERWORLD. It’s tempting to think that a lot of the plot was wrapped up in MYSTIFY THE MAGICIAN with the, er, *resolution* to the Senna problem, but the final installment actually has a lot of ground to cover still as the Sennites remain a force to be reckoned with and the threat of Ka Anor and his Hetwan army looms large. Also, there’s the little problem that the loss of the gateway leaves our heroes stranded in Everworld with no way home. Only one of these issues will be solved by book’s end.

I guess let me talk about that first. This book does nothing to “wrap up” the story. At its close, Ka Anor is still out there; the Sennites are still causing mayhem. The reference to the “Scroll of the Gods” in UNDERSTAND THE UNKNOWN comes to nothing. Jalil hasn’t “broken the code” of Everworld. The only real conclusion-y thing that happens here is that the kids—all of them, including April—realize that they’ve been so affected and changed by their time in Everworld that they can’t really function in the real world anymore and are more or less okay with staying where they are, in spite of the horrors and hardships they encounter on the daily. Good for them, I guess. The official ending is a scrap of a newspaper article about their mysterious disappearance. But wait, aren’t there like 30+ “conservatives” (the Sennites) who have also disappeared? Won’t the other people in their evangelical churches wonder where they’ve gone? Shouldn’t this be a story about *35* missing people?

So the ending is a disappointment. I get the sense that the series was cut short before everything could be tied up. But on the other hand, I do think it makes sense for the next, unwritten installment to be Jalil’s book. It’s his destiny, after all, to bring peace to Everworld by dissecting and re-engineering it. I have to assume he does.

What I really liked about this book was how much of it was about April’s internal struggle with whether to give up her life in the Old World and, more importantly, her struggle with being a stone-cold killer. The first *several* chapters are really centered on April coming to terms with the fact that she killed Senna and her ambivalence about the act. This transitions smoothly into her struggles about giving up the thing she thought she had been fighting for all along—a way home. That unsettled feeling as she realizes where her own heart lies is explored very well here. And the whole conceit (or should I say “hole” conceit?) of the teens’ bodies fading in the Old World is both surprising and intriguing.

I was surprised by how much of the plot of this one was internally-focused and I really dug that. But the outwardly-focused part of the book, the stuff about the dwarves and Hel and Thor and Loki, it’s pretty pale. And then ultimately, like I said, we’re left with an ending that leaves a lot of threads undone. So I would say that I like this book on its own, but as a capper to the series it falls significantly short. My rating is for the book on its own.

I *could* rate the series as a whole on GoodReads, but I think I’ll just say it here. Overall, I liked EVERWORLD quite a bit. It definitely does not hit the same highs as ANIMORPHS but it does hit some highs and it is a little more consistent, perhaps owing to being much shorter. There’s some cool sci-fi concepts and character growth, but it meanders a bit and unlike ANIMORPHS’ strong condemnation of violence and war, I think EVERWORLD is a little more open to carnage. All of the teens decide it’s better than their boring nonviolent lives in the end. The ending is also fairly disappointing, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly here—but Senna’s end is also a disappointment because she changes from a clever strategist to a short-tempered, short-sighted antagonist. Also, couldn’t she see the future? In the first book she knows that David will later become “General Davideus”. Could she not foresee her death?

I gave ANIMORPHS four out of five stars because there’s some that are extraordinary and some that are just awful and both make up the series. None of these are *awful* per se, though they frustrated me at times; the series as a whole was very good sometimes but never quite great. I told my wife yesterday when I finished this book that I’d probably give the series 4 stars too, but the more I think about it I think on a GoodReads scale it would be more honest to go with 3. I liked it—sometimes I really liked it, but overall it didn’t pull together as much as I like. It’s a high 3 maybe, but I think still more three than four. Nevertheless, I’m glad to have read them.

What now? On to REMNANTS? 😜

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is a book series and not a movie, but I can't help quoting Cinemasins here:

"Wow, she was really confident in a sequel wasn't she?"

Cause that's exactly how this book felt. Either a) like a sequel series was waiting in the wings, so Applegate left a shit ton of loose ends. Or b) like a tv show that's been cancelled so suddenly you haven't got the budget or interest in tying up all the loose ends, so just end it on a massive cliffhanger (*sobs while remembering Netflix's Marco Polo*). Listen, maybe Murakami can get away with shit like that, but Murakami is an exception to the rule.

That is the biggest problem with this book. The ending is sooo rushed.

The series in general is basically chockful of unfulfilled promises made by the author:

1) She teased David as the successor to that dude who was Mayor of Atlantis - what was his name? The French guy? What happened to that? Bubkiss.
2) I could have SWORN there was a scene where April actually did meet Brigid in this book to try to find a way to stop them from fading. Well apparently there isn't one because April downright forgets to go see her. What??
3) They free Thor and Baldur and Odin, recruit Loki, reunite Thor with Mjolnir, start recruiting an army, ready to go up against Ka Anor and then...bubkiss...what the actual hell? It ends there?! THERE??!
4) They never even got back to Athena at Olympus which was their main godsdamned goal since the end of book 9!!
5) Keith is still alive, mind you! Christopher did not kill him in the last book, which means that gun-toting Nazi is still yee-hawing and pewpewpewing at some innocent civilians somewhere, vile twat that he is.

There are so many more, but my mind is still reeling from the sheer inadequacy of that ending that I can't remember them all.

That is not to say the book was all bad. As always, I give Applegate serious props for calling out toxic masculinity right from book 1:

Whoever said real men don't cry is a fool. Okay, Thor and Baldur were gods, but they bawled in each other's arms with joy

However, I will say it seemed a little too easy, breaking them out of their ice prisons. All it took was some hacking with Galahad's sword? What? If that's all it took why were these big-ass gods paralysed inside those ice blocks? Is ice like some sort of godly Kryptonite? Because there is nothing saying it's a special sort of ice, or that Thor and Baldur are under a spell, given that they're perfectly okay, albeit a bit weak when they fall out.

One thing I did love was the fading scenes. Seeing the teens disappearing from the real world in stages: David first and completely, because he has always felt he found his purpose in Everworld. Then Christopher, with his love of Etain (goddamn did that boy turn into more of a gentleman than a horndog).

Of all the fades, Jalil's was the saddest for me. Especially that scene where he tells April he wants to spend what little time he has left with his new girlfriend. April's fade was the most intriguing because of how it switched from her fading in Everworld to her fading in the real world. It showed her battle with uncertainty, and not knowing which world she wanted to be in. Now, the Everworld wiki says she chose Everworld because her guilt at killing Senna was so great she could not face her parents anymore. That, I have to say, did not come through enough in this book. And I really was expecting it to, knowing how devoutly Catholic April was. In fact, it was the one reason I was excited that the final book in the series was her POV book. I wanted to see more of the internal battle she no doubt faced following the event. We saw a bit of it when she started remembering small things about Senna's habits, like how she drank her coffee, or wore her hair. However, overall, I was disappointed.

Could Applegate not have done one final book? You know, the missing Jalil POV book? The one she instead swapped for a Senna POV? Don't get me wrong, I loved Senna's POV, but the hurried bullshit ending of this book makes it all the more evident we should have had a book 13.

So overall: I still love this series, partly for the nostalgia it brings me rereading it, and partly because it is actually a lot of fun. However this particular book gets no more than 2 stars from me, for the most disappointing ending to a good book series I have read in recent memory.

[TheGeneralLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is my review for the Everworld series as a whole.
I rate the entire series as 4 stars.

I REALLY enjoyed the series. Reading it for the first time as an adult, I think gave me some insight and extra appreciation for the books.

To start, I think they are well written. The shift in character perspectives is well done, each character has their own unique voice and are well developed. I enjoyed the character growth (or lack-there-of) for some and that Applegate didn't shy away from serious topics. The author did a great job of handling these topics in a way that was realistic and appropriate for the age of the characters without dumbing it down for the readers. I think the humorous moments were placed and not overused. I actually laughed out loud at Christopher's "Wildebeast" joke.
I was pleasantly surprised when "Inside the Illusion" actually didn't make Senna a sympathetic villain as I had anticipated. It actually made me dislike her more and acted as a catalyst for her to become an even darker, more dangerous villain. I liked that this went against the usual "villain is actually just misunderstood" trope and solidified her intentions. Yes, it explained how she became what she did and I did sympathize with her childhood trauma's but I liked that the author didn't use this as a way to excuse her current choices and ambitions. If anything it made her an actual player in the game and added more thought into David's mentality and short-comings.

I really enjoyed the premise. The mixing of worlds and mythologies was extremely fun for me. I felt like Applegate took an interesting approach to the God's, their temperaments and lifestyles.

I am, however, torn on the last book. It was a great read. The scheming and adventure were great and the aftermath of the gateway being closed was really original (Cue existential dread) but I did feel as though the story wasn't resolved. I USUALLY enjoy when books end without answering all of my questions or end in an unexpected way but this just felt... unfinished. It was a decent ending for this book in particular but the article at the end as an ending to the series fell flat and felt rushed. I honestly has to google when I got down to the last 15-20 pages to see if I had made a mistake and there were more books because it didn't feel like the series could be resolved in that short amount of time (especially considering April, David and Christopher were still in Hel's domain.) The ending is probably the main reason I didn't give this series 5 stars. Not everything needs to be wrapped up in a bow but it seemed, to me at least, that this wasn't MEANT to be the end and you can tell. Within the last few chapters the reasoning of the characters becomes a bit less believable and I felt that Loki's change of heart was too sudden and out of place. And Hel's reaction and being brushed off as a tempestuous child felt like a disservice to such a terrifying character. I usually love unconventional endings but this was disappointing, quite frankly.

Overall, I give the whole series 4/5 stars and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a light fantasy series. It was funny, well thought-out and well written. BUT, if you thrive on clean-cut, explicit endings... this may not be for you.

[Sandy Maguire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revisiting Everworld was a trip.

If I recall correctly, Gateway to the Gods was the first book I ever bought with my own money. The cover looked cool and so I picked it up. Despite reading the series haphazardly as a child, in retrospect it's had some pretty profound effects on my life and the person I've become. So thanks, K. A Applegate!

For 2019 I decided to give up TV, which meant I needed something new to do before bed. My usual books are heavy and thought-provoking, and entirely /not/ the sort of thing you want filling your head in an attempt to wind down for the day. Since I didn't know of any fiction I was dying to read, I thought it might be fun to pick up some YA stuff from my past. And thus Everworld.

As a series, it's super hit-or-miss. The first few books are definitely finding their footing, the next few are quite good, followed by a couple of shit ones in a row, and then the masterpiece of #11. And then this one.

Entertain the End isn't particularly bad, but neither is it particularly good. If it were a standalone book in the series it'd be a solid 4. But it's not. It's the finale, and damn does it underwhelm on that front. I remember being frustrated by this as a child, and now I'm just as frustrated as an adult. It's a shame because this world does have a lot to offer; there's just something about the idea of a god who eats other gods that gets me excited. I like how David's been planning on getting artillery for like eight books now. Talk about foreshadowing! But the series just ends abruptly, full of promise but sorely lacking on execution.

This series could really use a good fan-fiction ending.

Anyway, now that I'm done the series, I thought it might be fun to write a little bit about how it's shaped me as a person. I was struck more than a few times over the last few books. Several of the things that I say---that nobody else says, and people look at me funny when I do---are all direct quotations from Christoper. Despite not having read the series in 15 years, I still could quote some of the passages verbatim. "Good grief, he was more David than David. And that's way too much David."

Speaking of David, he was a huge role-model for me growing up. Something about the romance of being an unwilling hero, of needing to prove to yourself that you're capable; something about that really resonated with me. I wanted to be just like David. He doesn't drink, and so neither did I. "Personal choice." He finds purpose in being the man the situation needs, and doing it because nobody else is stepping up. I like that. I think the world could use a lot more people like that.

I'm a little sad to be finished this trip down memory lane. The Everworld series was a fun read. It's mostly-well written and has lots of great moments. Unfortunately, the series is lacking a proper send-off, but then again, who isn't.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading these books back in high school. I loved them, or at least the ones that I had read. I was that weird child that read books out of order, still do. No regrets.

Anyways, we have 5 kid, 4 of which who were dragged against their wills to Everworld. A world created by the gods of many different pantheons because they got tired of the "real world" and wanted to go back to the old ways. As usual, the gods are fickle, childlike, and murderous. I was annoyed with every single one of them and was kinda rooting for the bad guy, Ka Anor. Not sorry.

Sadly, I didn't have a favorite character. No one just stuck with me, however, I did find one that I just hated. Senda, or Senna, as we know her. This chic was a piece of work. If villainy was a blood type this chic would have it. Man, she was evil. She was the Joffrey of Everworld and I celebrated her HEA. David got on my nerves with his constant need to prove himself, April was tolerable but not memorable, Jalil was an annoying know-it-all, and Christopher was just an annoying racist who did get better in the end. Personally, he had the most character development for me.

Let's talk about Everworld! A clusterf*** of worlds thrown together like some patchwork quilt sewn by a toddler. You would think these gods had a better imagination. I mean they are the maker of worlds, all-powerful, and smart. However, they all got outsmarted and outmatched by a bunch of teenagers. Yep.

All in all, I give this series a 4 out of 5. It was entertaining and imaginative.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughts on re-reading what was my first fantasy series not called Magic Tree House:

1) This was NOT topically appropriate for 5th grade Megan. Definitely reading level bypassing content - including child sexual assault, using mental health (OCD) as leverage, alcoholism, forced castration, both casual and organized racism and homophobia, and lots of torture/gore. But, hey, no swearing.

2) Related: there are definitely things that didn't age well on the PC front, especially in terms of LGBT terminology, that were pretty shocking to read now.

3) Horrible individual book plotting/pacing. It's really 1 story with POV jumps when you change mythologies, not 12. If you read it that way it's much less jarring.

4) SO MUCH cool world-building and use of mythology. Really impressively done for a young YA series and definitely one of the reasons I still love fantasy novels today.

5) This series could not be more '99-01 if it tried. All the shopping mall/chat rooms/pop music references.

Overall, enjoyed it with my nostalgia goggles, but won't be buying my daughter a copy anytime soon.

[Katelynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I wish the ending had been more sentimental, it was perfect. I'm not emotionally demolished like I was when I finished Animorphs, and I'm glad because these kids were different than those ones and they deserved this. Both series deal with war. In Animorphs, they started off innocent and were ruined over time, while in Everworld, with the exception of April, they were each already broken in their own ways and they learned through their innate strength and bravery how to become whole and good. I love that. It ended the way it should have, on such a hopeful, satisfying note. It ended in a place where I feel okay about leaving them. I'll miss April, David, Christopher, and Jalil very much, but I'm so happy they got the ending they deserved.

[Tommy Grooms · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the death of Senna, the four teens continue to work toward eliminating the threat of Ka Anor, all while finding themselves disappearing in the "real world." I can only speculate as to why it ended so abruptly, but the final result is very disappointing to a series with so much promise. Entertain the End’s plot of infiltrating Hel’s domain to rescue Thor and Baldur takes second fiddle to the “fading” element, which fails to achieve thematic meaning beyond the characters essentially finding Everworld more interesting than the humdrum real world. This final entry merely sets up an ending that deserved several books to tell.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good ending, the last two books of the series were very good. That said, the ending felt incomplete. There were a few times that characters did things that they just wouldn't do (the author pointedly says they cannot change who they are multiple times but suddenly they do change) and they never accomplished what they had been working towards throughout most of the series. The mini plot from this book finished and instead of finding out what went down with the "big picture" plot, it just kind of ends. I still enjoyed it.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these books so much!
I read them like at least 10 times xD
The way those 4 wonderful idiots learn and evolve, the fun and the adventures they have. Honestly, I fell in love with them. Well, exept for Senna...I hate that girl ^^

It was so sad, to know that the series would end. I couldn't imagine it. When I read the book I was left empty. I do like the ending, as an ending of A book. It all makes sense. But NOT as the end of the whole series! There is so much more they have to do! The fight just got real and .. that was it.

I really wish Appelgate would write more of it!

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was this the final one in the series? I remember loving this series to start with but getting bored by the end, much like with the Animorphs series. That being said, this many years on I still remember the characters and some of the crazy historical figures they met. Also that guy peeing his pants that one time.

Kids today just don't get the quality we got back in the 90s.

[Michi · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end, I wanted to throw the book across the room. Yes, it ends satisfactorily, but is that all she can give us - hope? How about something resembling a conclusion to the massive war going on and not just the characters' decision?

[Stephanie Carr · Rating 2 out of 5]

That...that's it? That's the end? What happened? Did it get canceled or something? It's so rushed and then it just..ends. Like, what about the main plot line? So upsetting. It finally hit something really good and then, bam, it's done. Lame.

[Arbré Écorce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was clearly not meant to end the series. It was good if there were more books coming but it was not an ending. 11 have a better ending. It didn't have a bad ending it just didn't have an ending.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In contrast to the previous book, which was the real climax of the series, this one is mostly about cleanup.

In all honesty, though, that's completely okay. The story this series has been telling is one that needs to feature some cleanup, and tacking it on at the end of the previous book would only have served to drag things out. Senna might be dead, but her followers are still out there, they're extremely well armed, and they get their kicks out of causing as much bloodshed as possible. They haven't even touched Ka Anor, who's still an active menace that's going to tear Everworld apart if not stopped.

On the topic of Senna, it's pretty clear from context that she needed to go down. As an individual, Senna is power-hungry, ruthless, amoral, manipulative, and completely incapable of empathy or of caring for anyone other than herself. Her primary motivation was always control, not just of her own situation (which would have been understandable), but of everyone and everything else around her as well. Over the course of the series, we've seen her force David to relive his own rape for daring to make decisions without her say-so, out Jalil in the most degrading way possible for refusing to be her willing slave, hand April over to the Hetwan for pure spite, torture her own followers for making a mistake, deliberately recruit the worst kind of human monsters to do her bidding because they could be relied on to shoot first and ask questions never, and ruthlessly plow through any man, woman, or child who got in the way of her lust for power. There might have been a time when locking her up for life (like Merlin had originally planned) might have been a viable solution, but by the end of the series, that time has long passed.

All of that said, though, and even in the light of their lifelong loathing for one another, it also feels right that April takes no joy in having been the one to kill her—is, in fact, completely horrified with herself. Just because April hated Senna, that doesn't mean she feels right about having taken a life, even in justified self-defense. That's just the kind of person she is. Killing Senna was a necessary evil, but it's not something that anyone can triumph in.

One other thing that I liked was that, when the characters choose to make significant personal sacrifices for the sake of the greater good, the author doesn't cheapen those sacrifices by giving them an easy out. Etain agrees to marry Baldwin to secure the help of the dwarfs, then she's going to go through with it. There's no last-minute save to allow them to get the help that they need and for Etain to be with Christopher—the only option they have is what they originally discussed, that of waiting for her much older husband to die of natural causes, and there's absolutely no guarantee they'll both still feel the same way after ten or twenty years apart.

It's a bittersweet ending all around, because the story isn't really over—it's just the start of a whole new story. They've freed Thor and Baldur and secured alliances with the elves and dwarfs. The gods are well on their way to forging their own alliance to take on Ka Anor and the Sennites. The protagonists have all chosen to stay in Everworld rather than returning to their normal home lives. What happens next could be a new series in its own right—and one I wouldn't mind reading if K. A. Applegate ever chooses to write it.

[Brunna Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

No no no no no no no no no nonononononono!!!!!!

WHERE IS THE THIRTEENTH BOOK?!

Why is this how it ends?????? This is the biggest cliffhanger EVER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

If you are expecting ANY kind of resolution from this book, don’t hold your breath. We don’t learn ANYTHING. No Sennites, no Ka Anor, what was up with the Great Scroll that was never mentioned again?

Our heroes just disappear from the real world and that’s it? WHAT HAPPENS IN EVERWORLD?!

Deep breath

Okay, as much as I despised this total lack of an ending, the book itself is worthy of its four stars.

We finally get another April book (but Jalil gets left out? No fair! How did he react to Senna outing him???), and Applegate completely failed her. She didn’t take the opportunity to fully explore April’s Catholic guilt over Senna’s death, she transitioned from fading from Everworld to fading from the real world way too quickly. Plus, the moments when April faded makes no sense if doing what they love anchors them to the real world (if TV can anchor Christopher, then why doesn’t hanging out with her friends and going on a date anchor April?)

Ugh ugh ugh.

Plus, Christopher’s one true love is going to get married off to some old dwarf? Gross.

But anyways, Etain offers to marry the king of the dwarves in order to secure an alliance, and Merlin goes off to recruit Loki and Odin, while our heroes decide to break into Hel’s domain to rescue Thor and Baldur. We started off with Norse mythology, did a full trip around the globe (definitely ignored any Native American lore though), and came full circle back to the Norse.

Also, why does no one use Senna’s mom as a gate? Like, obviously she’s one too? SO MANY PLOT HOLES. I really need Applegate to write us a follow up series, but considering this book was published in 2001 and she still hasn’t released an Everworld Part Two series, I’m not going to hold my breath for it.