Saturday 28 August 2021

Review on Against All God's

 




Elliot only has one more chaos stone to find. The problem is that without the Olympians around to guide him, Elliot plans on handing them straight over to Thanatos in exchange for his mothers soul. Meanwhile, the God’s are preparing for the inevitable war with Thanatos and his demons, where they will be severely outnumbered. Will Elliot make the right decision, or will Thanatos succeed in his plans of ruling the world?

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS THE LAST BOOK! I’ve loved this series and I’m honestly going to miss Elliot, Virgo and all the crazy Olympians. Elliot’s journey finally comes to an end after collecting all four Chaos Stones and handing them over to Thanatos in exchange for his mum’s soul. However, Elliot soon realises he has made a huge mistake, and after reuniting with the Olympians, decides he must take Thanatos down once and for all. I loved how action packed this book was, and how it took us through practically every emotion you could think of. There was plenty of humour of course, but there was also suspense, relief, sadness, forgiveness and so much more. This book made me laugh, cry and throw the book across the room (metaphorically of course I don’t actually hurt books!)

 I have no idea where to start talking about this book so first I’m going to focus on the characters.Elliot goes through a lot in this book, and after losing his mum his plan it to take Thanatos up on his offer. Elliot practically goes through the stages of grief, but finally comes to accept that bringing his mum back would only cause her more suffering. As Elliot has been pretty selfish in the past, I loved that he put his mum first despite it causing him pain. I thought the series perfectly showed Elliot’s grief, and how he was eventually able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

 One thing I was extremely happy about was we got Hermes back! The last book left a big Hermes shaped hole, so I was so happy we had him back to his old antics. Honestly I almost cried when Elliot was reunited with Hermes and Virgo. He was in such a vulnerable position and having his two best friends come to rescue him just when he needed them was heartwarming. I adore how important the friendships in this series are, and how despite pretending they don’t care about each other, Elliot and Virgo are constantly trying to save each other.

 I loved that we finally got to meet Elliot’s dad! SPOILER ALERT! The man who we believe to be Elliot’s dad in book three turns out to be Nyx in disguise, so in this book we have to drop all of our anger and hatred towards Elliot’s dad and give him a clean slate, and it turns out he’s actually a pretty nice guy! Dave Hooper spends the majority of the book searching for Elliot, who unbeknownst to him is busy trying to save the world. Dave Hooper is nothing like what we believed him to be, and I loved that he was able to get a second chance after coming out of jail. We seem to be living in a world of cancel culture, where people aren’t given the chance to learn from their mistakes and become a better person from them. I think that if someone is willing to admit what they did was wrong and work hard to redeem themselves, they should be given a second chance… I mean maybe not if they murdered someone but you get the idea! 

I’ve mentioned this series perfectly combining fantasy and reality before, but something I loved was how it was difficult to tell if the main villain was Thanatos or Mrs Porshley Plum. They both posed a huge threat to Elliot’s wellbeing in two very different ways, and although Thanatos was the bigger threat on a wider scale, I think I actually hated Porshley Plum more.Honestly she reminded me of Umbridge, and I think we can all agree that we hated Umbridge more than we hated Voldemort! She was completely selfish and self absorbed, and used others for her own gain. Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan of Mr Boil, he at least realised what a horrible person Patricia was, and did the right thing by helping Elliot regain his house. Even though Mr Boil had treated Elliot horribly in the past, Elliot helps him to keep his job at the school. I loved how kindhearted Elliot was, and how a big part of this book was about forgiveness and becoming a better person. 

 I overall loved this series and although I’m sad it’s over, I think it ended perfectly and gave us an insight of what Elliot’s future would be like. Although Elliot sadly lost his mother, he gained some great friends. I loved how the God’s were practically like an extended family, and even though the God’s were leaving, it was heavily implied that they would regularly visit Elliot. I loved that Elliot finally had the chance to be a normal kid after having years of his childhood taken from him. I highly recommend this series for anyone looking for a distraction from the current crisis, as it really does take you on a journey. I hope anyone who decides to read this series ends up loving it as much as I did!