Book Review: The Endless Song

Spoiler Alert: This is book 2 of the series. If you haven’t read the previous novel, there may be spoilers for events in book one. If you wish to see my review for the first book, click here.

Kindred has finally left the surface of the sea to dive below. Her small crew is beside her, and all three of them anxiously await the start of a new wonderful life. She hopes to find her grandmother, but there is so much ground to cover. Where should she start? Flitch is the fourth child in the Borders barony. He is slowly being left behind as his siblings move forward with their lives while he fights to remain the same. There is nothing he wouldn’t do to try and keep him and his siblings together like they always have been. Yet, they seem to move forward just the same.

The Endless Song is a magnificent sequel to The Forever Sea. Joshua Johnson has continued to build a beautiful and unique world with amazing characters that come to life. This book centers around two separate storylines. Kindred, who risked everything to dive beneath the sea, continues to search for her grandmother. Meanwhile, up above the sea in Mainland, we meet Flitch, the youngest of the Borders barony. Though the barony is not what it once was, all the family believes they can be great once again. Plus, they have a secret down below their house. No one can ever know what their secret is and must protect it at all costs.

Johnson’s writing style is simply phenomenal. His way with words is crisp and clear with the perfect amount of detail. He truly brings his world to life on the page. Sequels don’t always live up to the original book, but Johnson has done an excellent job maintaining the high quality of the first novel while also subverting all expectations of where this story is going. The story continues to grow and change instead of stagnating or becoming redundant.

That is one of the best things about this novel. There is no way to have guessed what would happen in this story based on the first one. The world continues to grow as new characters are introduced and new possibilities are presented. The depth that this fully unique and interesting world has seems to be endless. Johnson is truly an amazing author to have created something so fresh and exciting. Every moment and every character has importance and a direction they will take that is vital to the plot.

Even with so many new characters being introduced in this novel (like Flitch, his family, and those who live below the sea), all of them are well developed rich characters. Even the characters from the previous book continue to have growth and development. Nothing feels rushed or put in just to explain things to the reader. The entire book paces the readers to develop the characters and events naturally. Even the storyteller, mysterious with little known about him in the scheme of the first novel, gets his own development. Each and every character truly serves a purpose.