Fantasy Book Reviews

Epilogue

Author: ColumnatedRuins
Title: Epilogue
Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/55417146-epilogue

Epilogue is a post-apocalyptic story like no other. Inspired by manga and the Walking Dead comics, its story arc-based plot is guaranteed to be like no book you've read before.

So, the world has ended. Only it's the beginning of something freakishly bizarre—and it's not what you would expect. We meet Em (short for em-dash) as he floats through a sea of white void, trying to get a handle on the situation. Then Comma (a girl) shows up, and after some brief introductions, they encounter the first baddie of the story: glowdarks. After witnessing the vomitous death of a random boy, they escape the glowdarks by ripping a hole through the white nothingness into the (a) physical world. Sounds trippy? Well, that's just the start! There, they trudge through snow-like stuff and meet a host of colorful characters, including the "beast", an invisible monster that threatens to tear them to shreds.

From the get-go, Epilogue sets itself up to be a dark and humorous take on an end-of-world story. It's almost a parody of the genre, which often carries a more solemn tone. The story is told in first-person POV; Em's sarcastic sense of humor sets the tone for the story and I can imagine no other character more suitable than him to witness all the crazy events that will unfold. When you find yourself laughing your ass off at a gory scene of severed limbs and soaring entrails splattering onto every character, you know there's something special about what you're reading. The author is a master at crafting humor, injecting it where necessary to balance the tension and lighten the mood of what would otherwise be horrifying to read. And when we do get those moments of serious contemplation and reflection, it is all the more powerful and memorable.

The story has a large cast of characters who are all part of the same group. Epilogue is very fast-paced and action-packed, and because of this, some of the characters get lost in the action, and we're sometimes left wondering "what was that guy doing during all of that?" This isn't a huge problem and goes unnoticed most of the time. Despite the large cast, each character stands out; we get a good sense of their personality and role in the group. There's: the caretaker, the complainer, the skeptic, the dominator, and the guide. As the story progresses, I assume we'll meet more, and staying true to the genre, the author will make them suffer terrible things and then cut them down (literally) to a manageable core cast.

Normally, I would never compliment a writer on his stellar grammar and punctuation (cause that's expected in the world of publishing and it'd be rude to presume otherwise!), but on the planet of Wattpad, it's such a delight to see the proper usage of commas, semi-colons, em-dashes, and ellipses. I can't get enough of how the author uses punctuation to create pacing and add tone to the story. Short sentences and well-placed periods are used for dramatic effect, and it worked perfectly. Other writers can definitely learn a thing or two from reading Epilogue.

What more can I say? The story is quirky. The writing is stellar. It's full of sarcasm and absurd metaphors (that somehow make sense). Grab some popcorn and cozy up to this rare treat on Wattpad!