I usually try to write my reviews as spoiler free as possible but I can't with this one.

First of all, I was looking at the book cover before I started reading and I thought to myself "this must be Old Man Reap!". Then I start reading and the character is the first person we run into and I'm like, "seems like I was wrong, he seems pretty nice". So I keep reading and well, it turns out he actually is Old Man Reap and I'm like Holy Molly, what the hell. So yeah, you had me fooled for a while, Mr Shan!

Anyways...
I loved this book and I loved this series. I already miss Archie, Inez, Cal, Winston. I feel I'm saying goodbye to friends I made in 2020 and I got to love and adore them (and lose some) and went on all these adventures in the last 2 years. Even though I re-read the first 2 volumes before I started reading the final volume last week, I feel like starting over and reading the whole series one more time just because I already miss it. Regardless, I know this is one of those series I'll be coming back to over the years.
As the finale, this book was perfect. It was unpredictable, it was suspenseful, and the action was well paced.
The loss of Ghita and specially Cal was heartbreaking but it's not a Darren Shan book unless at least a couple of your favorite characters die, is it?
Speaking of Cal, I remember that he reminded me of someone else the first time I met him in the series, but I never figured out who. But I finally realized he is somehow similar to Big Sandy from [b:The Evil And The Pure|20623020|The Evil And The Pure|Darren Dash|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390500388l/20623020._SX50_.jpg|39907976] in some ways.

And the ending and the big revelation... it was the moment everything started to make sense.
I always hoped we would get to see Archie's Born family and I was kind of disappointed when we didn't but now it makes sense why they weren't included much.
And to be honest, I always found it weird how the parts where Archie was supposedly explaining his absence to his Born family (and the police) were never in the story. Both times he had to go back home after being away for a long time were just referred to as if they weren't a big deal while they should've been. I'm not going to lie, I was really disappointed when I read those parts because it felt rushed to me and I knew it wasn't the Darren Shan way, but I still tried to ignore it. NOW it all makes sense.
Then it was Archie's last name. As I was re-reading the first two volumes this time around, I noticed his last name was never mentioned. I didn't think it meant much but I thought it was an interesting detail (or lack of). Now I realize why!
Really, the ending was absolutely PERFECT. It was like that missing piece of a puzzle that when you find it, everything else starts to make sense.