10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

Endling: Book One: The Last Reader Reviews

Back To Book Page

Endling: Book One: The Last

Endling will draw you into an amazing adventure with fantastical creatures. You will fall in love with Byx, the main character, as she loses her family and finds a new one, human and other.

Endling is a truly wonderful book. It will make you laugh and cry and draw you into an amazing adventure with strange, fantastical creatures such as felivets and wobbyks, but also a human girl named Khara. Most of all, you will immediately fall in love with the main character, Byx, a dairne, which is a dog-like creature, apart from their preference to walk on their hind legs and the fact that they can communicate with humans and other species. 

 After losing her pack to humans, who hunt the dairne, Byx fears that she is the last of her kind. She starts a terrifying quest to seek out the answers to her pack’s rumours: that there are more dairnes on the ‘living island’. Along the way, she encounters numerous obstacles, but finds a new family while doing so, human and others alike.

 To overcome all that jumps in her way, Byx must unleash all the courage she has, and prove that, although the youngest and weakest in her family, always the least, she can choose her own path rightly and become strong enough, both physically and characteristically to help herself and her friends, using her strength, wits and brains. 

 I think that Endling is a brilliant fiction book, but read in a certain way, can pass the message that humans do not care much for the wildlife and will go to great lengths to achieve power. Reading through Byx’s perspective proves how dire the extinction rate of species truly is.

I would recommend this book to anyone aged 7+ who enjoy adventure fiction. While I was reading this book, I couldn’t take my eyes off it for a minute! I strongly recommend this book and can’t wait for the next one.

Lila Arbel

Best book I have read this year so far! It's so exciting and the characters are great.

The Endling was such an exciting, fast-paced book. I read it aloud with my mum and we both thought it was brilliant.

At first, it was hard to pronounce the names and places but once we got into it all fell into place, the second half of the book we raced through not wanting to put the book down to go to bed. 

I will definitely be reading the other books in the series and I can't wait to find out what happens with Bynx, Tobble (my favourite), Khara and Gambler.

Bella Rix-Clancy

I really liked this story. I loved the creatures and can’t wait for the next book in the trilogy!

This book was very long and I wasn’t sure at first, but the front cover and the blurb on the back made me think I would try it. 

I got into the story quite quickly. I think the author is a good storyteller and has a really good imagination. I loved the creatures she created and their funny names. I like the way she describes the scenery around them on their journey and I really like that the two main characters, Byx and Khara are girls. I think it is good that there is a little bit of magic in the story, but not too much. It’s really nice that the travellers might start out a bit sort of thrown together but learn to trust each other. I think this book would be good as a movie because I can see all the characters in my head but I’d really like to see them on the screen as well (although they won’t be as good as the ones in my head). 

I really can’t wait for the next book in this series. Thank you, Katherine Applegate, for writing such a brilliant tale and please please can I be a reviewer for the next one!

Lily O'Dwyer

Byx, who is like a dog, but isn't quite, she is a Dairne, has to go on a quest to save her family, This is a great fantasy for older children like me, but may be scary for littler ones.

Endling is a long book with lots of adventure in it. I liked the main character, she is little but strong and I can feel like that sometimes. She has to save her family and band with other animals to stop being killed by man.

Florence Bridgeman

rachelreadit.co.uk

Brilliant story about a brave dairne

It is a lovely book about a dairne Byx who had seven siblings but later find herself alone and is the last of dairnes-an endling. Byx is a very kind-hearted and scared dairne. My favourite character was Khara who was a human but still helped a dairne when dairne was unable to trust a human. I liked this book as it was full of adventures about how dairne fight against the soldiers. I would recommend this book to all children as it shows one has to be strong and brave even if you are small.

Prisha Yadav

https://prishayadav.blogspot.com/2018/10/endling-book-one-last-by-katherine.html

A very exciting, strange adventure.

When I looked at the front of the book, I thought the Endling would be the funny, small Fennec Fox. But the Endling is a dog-like thing called Byx. Byx walks on two feet and is a Dairne who lives in Nedarra. His family were all hunted and killed because they can do things, like knowing if someone is lying. Byx thinks he is the last of the Dairnes. He decides to find Dairneholme and to see if there are any hidden Dairnes left. There are all sorts of strange animals in this book. Byx is helped by Khara, a girl, she becomes one of his friends. Also, there is a cat-like animal called Gambler and the small fox-like animal is a Wobbyk, called Tobble they all go with Byx on his quest.

It is a bit sad and scary at times but it is a very exciting adventure. I would recommend this book. I want to find out what happens in the next book now.

Rob Anderson

You may be small but you can do big things!

ENDLING - THE LAST is about a courageous young dairne (a creature that is part human, part dog) who goes on a quest through Nedarra to find more dairne. It begins with Byx in her pack but one night when she sneaks out, the pack is killed. In her wanderings, she meets a wobbyk and saves his life, so the wobbyk Tobble has to save her life three times - it is wobbyk code. I kept turning the pages wanting to know what happens next. It is a darnie characteristic that they can detect any lie so other great governing species value them but humans - who lie - despise them. In addition, the Murdano king wants to kill all darnies for their fur because it is the softest in the world, so Byx has to elude him. When she is caught, she deceives the Murdano to get away.

This story is exceptional. It lingers in my memory and is a thrilling tale. It is told in the first person and that makes you feel closer to Byx, even though the world is a fantastical one.

Cecilia Barth von Wehrenalp

A great book that all should read, it will inspire you to never give up and aim for your dreams.

Endling is a really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It inspired me to believe and have confidence that you can achieve anything.
The main character Byx was portrayed as the runt of the litter but she persevered to do things that were brave and courageous and I really liked her beliefs in this.

Josh Parcell