John F.D. Taff, while accomplished in a great variety of writing styles, tends to showcase himself most often in short fiction. With the Fearing showing up in small pieces every 6 weeks, it's easy to forget that it was originally conceived and executed as an epic doorstop novel, something Taff is not necessarily known for writing. Would Taff be able to wrap up a work north of 500 pages in a satisfactory manner?

Yes.

Okay, some elaboration. Reverend "please don't call me Rev" Mark becomes the primary focus, and Earth & Ember sees him help to rally the troops against wannabe dictator Tim Jacoby. As has become a staple of these books, not everything goes according to plan, and for the umpteenth time we find ourselves shaking our fists at the sky and cursing the King of Pain, who sits in his ivory tower laughing at us. From there we barrel towards the end, and the inevitable reveal of who Adam really is, who Monday really is, and how this wild hayride all turns out.

This installment is pretty hefty at 167 pages, at least in comparison to the former entries. Book four is necessarily heavy on plot development, but still finds time to put in some of the demonstrations of fear we've come to anticipate. In fact, there's one scene that I found to be the most disturbing, out of all the books. Full credit to Mr. Taff, because outdoing the camp attack in book three wasn't going to be easy. He kept telling us "it gets so much worse". I guess we should have listened.

If you're reading a review of book four, there's a solid chance you're already invested in this series. Or maybe you just wanted to see if the ending would justify your time and energy. That's fair, it does. I won't offer up spoilers for how everything shakes out, but speaking as a reader, I felt fully gratified. Of course, it's possible you may have a different experience, but I can assure the lingering questions get answered and we don't wrap things up with cliches or deus ex machinas. The epilogue and the author's afterword are both required reading, and only serve to compliment your experience. And the closing line? Absolute perfection.

If you have looked forward to this as much as I have, may you enjoy yourself as much as I did.