ARC Review: The Brink of Darkness (The Edge of Everything, #2)

About The Book:

  Title: The Brink of Darkness (The Edge of Everything, #2) 

  Author: Jeff Giles 
  Pub. Date: July 3rd, 2018 
  Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens 
  Pages: 400  

  Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal  

  Rate: 4/5 stars 

Synopsis :

Things have changed for seventeen-year-old Zoe ever since the otherworldly events that brought her together with the mysterious bounty hunter she calls X. In order to save Zoe and her family, X has done the unthinkable - he's given up his freedom and returned to captivity in the Lowlands.

X is determined to break the lords' hold on him once and for all, but being stripped of his power pushes him toward a darkness he's never experienced and a past he's never known. The secrets that surface could be the key to reuniting X and Zoe... or they could mean the destruction of everything they have been fighting for.

Review:

The Brink of Darkness is the follow up to Jeff Giles' Edge of Everything. I really liked The Edge of Everything so I was very excited to read the sequel. I think I initially read The Edge of Everything after I got it at BEA in 2016 so the wait has been real. 

"You don't believe you're going to get out of here."

"I want it far too much to believe it." 

The Brink of Darkness picks up with Ripper making a mockery of the Bounty Hunters in the Lowlands by evading them. She is seeking out the graves of her children and nothing will stop her, except X, who is the only bounty hunter she'll return with. Zoe is still recovering from the harsh truth that instead of her dad dying a hero, he was a coward who left their family. However, this sequel mostly focuses on X and all the questions that were left unanswered regarding his past. The Brink of Darkness has more of a setting in the Lowlands, which I love! That underworld that Mr. Giles created has such lush and rich world-building. I'd read 100 more book taking place there. The Lowlands is never boring and neither are the characters there, which makes The Brink of Darkness difficult to put down! 

I adored the characters in The Brink of Darkness. We see our favorites (um, Ripper, obviously) as well as a few new faces (Plum, Maudlin). The characters all had interesting backstories that came in to play and were all thoroughly developed. It was obviously great seeing X again and equally as great that he had ample page time. Zoe was just as she was in the fist book (kind of a pain in the ass), but the fact that I loved the other characters so much made up for it. When I first started this book, I was unaware as to how many books were going to be in this series. So when I started getting closer to the end, I was thinking 'wait is this the last book'? And indeed it is only a duology. I was disappointed because just as I felt like I was becoming to REALLY love the characters, they were being taken away from me. However, I will say, this book does an amazing job tying up loose ends and providing a good conclusion. 

The Brink of Darkness is the emotional and satisfying conclusion to The Edge of Everything Series. And I have to say, this follow up was better than The Edge of Everything. If you've read the first book and you aren't sure you want to read the sequel, I'd HIGHLY encourage you to do so - especially if you love X. And while I'm quite disappointed that this series is over, I'm excited to see what Jeff Giles writes next. It would be great if he wrote a series of short stories from the Lowlands! I'd 1000% read that! 

Thank you to Bloomsbury USA Children's for
providing this book in exchange for my honest review

- Jocelyn