Book Review: "The Last Quarrel: Complete Edition" by Duncan Lay

Gaelland is a nation gripped by fear.

In the country, fishing boats return with their crews mysteriously vanished, while farms are left empty, their owners gone into the night, meals still on the table. In the cities, children disappear from the streets or even out of their own beds. The King tells his people that it is the work of selkies – mythical creatures who can turn from seals into men and back again – and witches. But no matter how many women he burns at the stake, the children are still being taken.

Fallon is a man who has always dreamed of being a hero. His wife Bridgit just wants to live in peace and quiet, and to escape the tragedies that have filled her life. His greatest wish and her worst nightmare are about to collide.

When an empty ship sails into their village, he begins to follow the trail towards the truth behind the evil stalking their land. But it is a journey that will take them both into a dark, dark place and nobody can tell them where it might end ... - from NetGalley.com

I received this copy from the publisher, Momentum Books (Pan Macmillan) in exchange for a review, through Netgalley.com.

This title had crossed my path before, and I had not jumped at it, but this time around it was different. Previously, there were five parts, I believe, and I was not interested in reading a serial series, so did not look twice. However, this selection was the five parts combined into one, and I was intrigued by the story description.

I openly admit I did not read the whole book. The beginning was fine. My attention was grabbed, the characters were being introduced, the on-going conflict beginning to be formed. All that was fine .... until about halfway. By that point, I was struggling to understand what was going on among all the <my opinion> whining the characters seemed to be doing. I started skimming, hoping that this was just a "slow part" that would resolve itself shortly, and get back to the story it had started out to be. I could not find that spot. I skipped a couple pages, then a couple more. I could tell the story was still on-going, but just couldn't tolerate the writing.

That being said, it truly felt like five separate sections/serials were lashed together to form this novel. Unfortunately, the writing style seemed to suffer, as once about halfway, I am not sure if the author's tone while writing the story changed (be it from life events, tiredness, etc) or what happened, but it felt completely different than the start of the story. I would still recommend the book to one that likes YA.