Book Review: The God of Endings

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Review by Gretchen Purvis

Jacqueline Holland’s novel The God of Endings, released in March 2023, follows Collette LeSange, a vampire who was turned by her grandfather after the death of her parents and brother during a tuberculosis epidemic left her deathly sick as well, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago as a teenager in 1834. When the story opens in 1984, she now spends her time in upstate New York, where she runs her own private arts school for young, rich children during the daytime, teaching her students painting and French language skills she has picked up during her long life. Colette keeps a large group of cats that she has trained to act as her personal blood donors so that she can take what she needs and avoid hurting any one of them by taking too much at once.

But this peaceful lifestyle becomes complicated when she meets Leo Hardman, a kind and artistically talented child whose complicated home life and sickly nature makes Colette worried for him once he shows up to school one morning with an injury neither parent explains to her satisfaction. She tries to find out more about Leo’s relationship with his parents, but is apprehensive of running afoul of them and is not certain how to go about this investigation. At the same time that Colette is trying to walk a fine line
between showing concern for one of her young student and avoiding meddling in family matters, she also begins to find that her appetite for blood—which she had previously been able to satisfy with her pet cat donors—has increased, and she begins to sleep fitfully where she had once slept peacefully before. Finally, both issues come to a head; when Holland draws the story to a close, the ending might be slightly unexpected and bittersweet, but it also contains a sense of hopefulness.

The God of Endings is on the slightly longer side—Amazon lists the hardcover copy’s length at 480 print pages—and Holland takes full advantage of that length to narrate two separate storylines: Colette’s attempts to find out more about Leo’s family life, and her life in Europe after her grandfather sends her across the Atlantic, where she struggles to find her place and eventually creates a new network of family and friends. This network of relationships is mortal, unlike her, and when they pass away, she
travels around the world as she deals with her grief and finds a new place in life. This past storyline might be Colette’s past, but it explains many of her present choices and informs her ultimate decision at the book’s end. The God of Endings can be found for sale in print (either hardcover or paperback) or digitally at many major retailers, like Amazon and Barnes & Nobles; and is also available to borrow for free as a print book at the Camden County Library System, where current Rutgers Camden students who live on or work for the campus, regardless of permanent residence, can register for a library card for free, which will be valid for one year (more information can be found by following this link: https://www.camdencountylibrary.org/get-library-card).