Review: God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

Review by Lex Weber

“Death, to me, was tied inextricably to cherished things: to craftsmanship and poetry, to my father and to the beautiful things he made, and I couldn't help but feel some tenderness for all of it.” 

Colette LeSange is the director of preschool who has lost her immediate family, all except her vampiric grandfather who changed her as a young girl after she passed from a feverish disease. She has been living as an immortal for the past two hundred years. 

To describe Colette’s character as unwilling in her immortality would be an understatement. Colette finds everything about immortality to be necessary for her survival, but completely empty of the excitement and intrigue that others may imagine. 

What strikes in this story, then, is the experiences of Colette in the 1800s as a newly changed vampire, traveling to Eastern Europe to learn the ways of her new lifestyle, through the 20th century’s world wars and up to the book’s present 1980s as a preschool director. What we get a front row seat to is Colette’s constant changes throughout her life and humanitarian struggle with her condition.

With the dark, whimsical prose Holland utilizes masterfully, it’s almost shocking that this novel is in fact her debut. She writes with the seasoned abilities of someone with far more experience under their belt and turns her dark fantasy story into a contemplative novel about life and death. The transitions through time and space, as Colette changes location, setting, cultures, are crafted in a way that flows together beautifully. 

If you like a story similar to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, but also appreciate gothic fiction and the tales of Dracula, Carmilla and The Vampyre, then this updated feminine take on Interview with the Vampire is the novel for you. 

Why are we here? What is our purpose? How can we appreciate the lives we live and their mix of good and evil? These questions are no better answered than through Holland’s exploration of the life of a vampire and her journey through the shadows of history.