Take Realm Of The Reaper (Everworld, #4) Drafted By Katherine Applegate Listed As Physical Book

this book is narrated by Jalil, He keeps up the narrative of trying to rationalise things, trying to understand the formula of Everworld, He doesn't deny that things like gods and talking pigs etc exist, but he does try to understand the rules that allow them to exist.
Which I do like. Because any wellwritten magic system should have rules, and costs, otherwise anyone can do anything,

Interestingly, you find out right at the start of the book that Jalil has OCD, but for some reason, that OCD only manifests in the real world, and not in Everworld.
For a rational person like him to have to fight an irrational compulsion is a brilliant piece of irony,

One thing I have noticed is that the characters seem to learn information offpage between books, For example, Jalil mentions that humans make upof Everworld's population, whileare dwarves, To my memory though, there weren't any dwarves in previous books,

Once again, Applegate gets my vote for diverse mythology, This book introduces some Irish mythology alongside the Norse, Not a lot that comes in later books I believe, but we do get mentions of The Daghda and the Fianna, I love this. Christopher has provided a running joke of "so when do the leprechauns arrive" Of course there's much more to Irish mythology than leprechauns and pots of gold, so I'm looking forward to some Tuatha Dé Danann.
There is even a mention of a feud between Hel and Ahriman, a Zoroastrian deity entity Apologies, my world religions knowledge is a bit rusty, which I don't think ever materialises on page, but I appreciate the mention.


Applegate's version of Hel's underworld is creative, disturbing, and somewhat Danteesque, It's refreshing to see something other than fire and brimstone,

One thing I like about Jalil is that he seems to be the only one of the group able to outsmart Senna.
The two of them are constantly in a battle of wits, She tries to use his compulsion against him, but he is quite good at batting her back, Interestingly he also seems to have a good dynamic with Christopher, despite their previous clashes over racism, Maybe this is because Christopher is changing, becoming less bigoted one hopes, but they often agree with each other, meet up in the real world, and support each other in arguments.
Jalil and April of course, is a dynamic I've always liked, Although they fundamentally disagree on the topic of religion, they have a mutual respect, April's is the hand he grabs when getting swept up in a river, Jalil is the one April feels most comfortable and safe sharing a bed with,

David the man child is the character I like least, just after Senna who is absolutely vile, He gets all huffy when people question him, as though it's a blow to his authority, and he's still stupidly blind to Senna's manipulation a lot of the time, even when he's not directly under her spell.
So I don't think it can all be put down to him being bewitched,

Overall, I liked seeing Jalil's perspective, He's the voice of reason and really if anyone is going to make sense of Everworld, it will be him, However, I really wish we had seen more of Jalil's home life in this book, I feel like out of all the characters, I know him and his backstory the least, He's also the only one out of the four main narrators who getsPOV books while the others get, It really is a shame, He deserves more credit and more page time,

At the moment the characters are still sort of "passing through", There's no real direction to their "questing", apart from finding Senna and getting back home, But even at the points when they do come across Senna, they never sit down and try to figure out a game plan because they're too busy having to run away from danger, and also Senna would rather serve them up on a silver platter while she escapes.
She just can't be trusted,

I believe things do change eventually: they get allies, join a war effort, etc, But right now, they are still a group of lost humans completely out of their depth in a strange world they are trying desperately to understand.
Which is actually quite believable, You don't just pick up a sword with no training and become a mythical hero, That's not how it works, And in a series full of gods, monsters and magic, I really do appreciate that realism,

full for my man Jalil, Hope we get more of his backstory in his next POV book, Okay, that was creepy. Loki's daughter Hel, half living and seductive, half dead and putrid, starts drawing our heroes into her underworld, Not appetizing. And there's even a nice tee shirt transfer of her face in the middle so you can iron her on a shirt.
Nasty. This one was super good, too, Loved Jalil. Very creepy stuff, though. I am awed at the imagination required to write this book, I actually started liking Senna when she was in the pit with Jalil, before that quickly changed back, Also LOL at Christopher and his leprechaun obsession hahaha, The fourstar rating is definitely within the context of the series and not generally applicable, What Im looking for is something that excites or impresses me, and this book delivers in that it provides some of the creepiest images so far.
In particularjust jumping right to itthe group gets trapped in a walled city which they quickly realize is some kind of prison they then learn that its a feeding breeding ground for a creature called Hel, who is half Sirenlike beauty who cannot be resisted and half decomposing corpse who completely repulses.
Shes also Lokis daughter small Everworld! Hel selects our group for her next torture session and leads them through hypnosis out of town and up a mountain to her cave lair.
As they walk the cobblestone path they suddenly realize the cobblestones are not stones at all but human skulls, As they near the lip of the cave, they can see that the path continues inside and that up ahead the “stones” are men buried up to their necks in the ground, many still screaming, crying, begging for mercy.
Closer to the entrance to the cave there is a split:of the “stones” there are bare, while the remainingare men still clinging to life, bone showing through their tattered skin from being repeatedly trampled.
This is an extremely gruesome image! That intensity really wowed me,

The other thing that I liked about this entry is that it deepens the plot in an interesting way, Jalil is revealed to have OCD in the real world but not in Everworld, More of the politics of the gods are discussed, as well as musings on their limitations, and Senna answers a few questions by informing us that she can shapeshiftor at least convince people that she looks different.
Then, perhaps most exciting of all provided that they actually follow through with it, Jalil determines that he is going to figure out the mechanics of Everworld.
Hes a born skeptic and an atheist though they dont use that word he realizes that magic is just what we call something we dont yet understand.
He is confident he will be able to unlock how Everworld functions, Hes already wellattuned to the fact that all of the gods are far more vulnerable than they present themselves as being including Ka Anor, the godeater.
If Jalil can get the upper hand over Everworld, that would be thrilling, Im keeping my eye out for more on this front,

I did wonder if this was meant to be the third book given Aprils eagerness to find an exit from Everworld and criticism of David for wanting to be a hero.
I thought at the end of the last one she had agreed there was no escape so long as a gateway Senna remains open.
And since nobody is willing to bring up killing Senna as an option, the only other option is to become the saviors of Everworld.
She seems to have forgotten that by this book, but perhaps in the time intervening she has lost hope Unclear,

Oh! Another thing, just since Im thinking about it: this book reveals that if the kids fall asleep in the real world they will actually just sleep.
Thats been a question for me do they go back to Everworld if they sleep in the real world Turns out no.
Jalil sleeps in Everworld and “wakes” to himself sleeping in the real world, having a nightmare in fact, Good to know thats how it works, Like Jalil, Im all about figuring out the mechanics of the system, Any bit of info like

this is gold,

Anyway. Strong entry. Im taking a break after every four books to read something else but I admit I am already feeling a bit of a pull to find out what happens next.
Not a ton yet, but its starting to get me, Im eager to find out where the next four leave me,

ETA: One egregious bit of racism from Christopher in this book, suggesting that the only songs Jalil might know are about “popping a cap in some hos”.
He better be getting some karmic justice or learning the error of his ways down the line, otherwise this feels like a bizarre thing to introduce and repeatedly reinforce in one of the putative heroes.
.