Ren: The Monster’s Death

The Monster’s Death (Ren #5) was a great read by Sarah Noffke. Ren is ready to prove that he’s the most powerful man in the world. God makes a move to carve Ren’s heart out for the rest of his life. He will do his best to outmaneuver God. The is the final part of Ren’s evolution. I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.

REN: THE MONSTERS DEATH (Dream Traveller: Ren, book 4) by Sarah Noffke. Narrator: Tim Campbell
This final book in the Ren series exceeds all expectations, it has a soul of its own and will tear you heart out with its poignant beauty. It is the continued tale of Ren and Dalia’s love story and it tells of love, loss, consequences, sacrifice and the search for completeness, it is truly breathtaking. This story is full of surprises, breath holding moments, parts that make you rant and others that bring you to tears. Ren has always been more alive to readers than any other character and I think it is the connections and association with his thought process and feelings (along with his sarcastic humour and snarky personality) that has made him so real. There is so much emotion in this story it is difficult to get it into words. It is a story of loss on so many levels; it is both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
** DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK AS THE REST OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS **

The emotion and beauty the author infused into Dalia’s dignified decline has a realism to it, it has the feel of a cancer victim who has accepted their lot with poise. The depiction of her slow decline and the gradual wasting of her body puts visuals into the readers mind that makes one actually feel her pain of her slow deterioration. It is both heart breaking and yet it has a quiet beauty to it too. Ren’s “not giving up” talk is tender and pulls at your heart. He is still Ren and puts things in a way that sounds self-centred, his statements blunt, but the sorrow and depth of his caring seeps through while at the same time creating tension as to what he is up to. His interactions with Trent and Trey makes your heart hurt as well, you can feel their depression and loss of confidence and the listener/reader’s curiosity grows as to what happened to bring them to this. It leaves you dying to for the story of the Apocalypse to be written.
The goodbyes in this book made me a mess, they are right up there with Rogue’s death in the Reverians Series. At first you cannot believe Ren’s selfishness, he appears so caught up in being with Dalia that he does not consider the hurt his death will inflict on his family and friends, or the consequences the loss of his abilities will have for the Lucidites. Adelaide has only just found her farther and is still adjusting to being a Dream Traveller and a mother. The hurt she shows initially breaks your heart and you wonder how he can do this to his daughter. It also gives hints to the reader about new series and of Adelaide’s move to prominence in those books. It is intriguing, but at the same time sad, as we know that Ren can only cameo in future books, and even though his snark will probably show in his words, it will never be the as before. The same with his goodbye to Trent and Trey, it felt like he was kicking a dog when it was down. Ren’s ability to compartmentalize his feelings and his apparent disregard actually made me angry. You don’t know whether to love Ren for his love and commitment to Dalia or hate him for his selfishness for leaving. The author captured the sense of love and loss expertly. The goodbye section with Lucien was cute and funny, but also gave the reader hints of how bright and crafty this child is and made you think that he may be a future “Ren” intelligence wise. One wonders if Lucien knew that Ren was planning on leaving and is acting baby like in order to give Ren’s dad purpose. Ren’s dad’s relationship with Lucien is great, the love and tenderness shown is warm and it lets us see the love and caring that Ren received as a child. I can understand why he could not tell his dad he was leaving but it broke my heart to think of him finding Ren’s body. I could not imagine the pain caused by my child leaving, never to be seen again, and knowing they choose not to say goodbye. I also loved that last scene with Adelaide, her understanding, selflessness and love for Ren was beautiful. You can feel how she has grown since the last book and see glimpses of the confident, intelligent woman she is becoming. It was heart wrenching, tender and beautiful when Ren finally showed his love for her, it brought tears to my eyes. Like Adelaide, in the end his dad will understand. Ren needs to move on, not only so that he can be with Dalia but to find his completeness, his peace. He knows that his absence will force the people he has touched to evolve too and he has done what he can to set them up to succeed. They have all sacrificed their need for him because they know it is the only way he will ever find the completeness and peace he deserves. Without Dalia he had lost the part of himself that allowed him to feel joy. The love for Ren is illustrated well in this book, from Aiden helping him without question with his secret projects, to his family and friends acceptance of his decisions. Even though they know they will lose him, they love him enough to let him go. As Wayne Dyer
said: “Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you”
I loved the interpretation the author put on souls and wormholes. Plato’s tripartite soul and immortality theories flow well into this story and adds credence to Ren’s plans. The way the author linked wormholes, dimensions, reincarnation and mind/body/soul was brilliant and definitely made you think. The flickering of the souls through their different lives was a nice touch too, enhancing the feeling of reincarnation while at the same time showing the power of love. My heart was in my throat when Ren found the wormhole into the land of souls, I didn’t want him to enter, as I knew it meant his death, but at the same time I did; I didn’t want to keep reading but I just couldn’t stop. The dichotomy created within the reader between not wanting to lose Ren from the Dream Traveller world and him reuniting with Dalia and at last finding the completeness he deserved is well done. It broke your heart and left you happy at the same time. Ren’s reassembly in the land of souls was heart stopping. You can literally feel his disorientation, and you fear that the Ren we have known will be lost and become something else. His mind/body/soul reconnections were very well written, especially the one with his mom. Getting to do the goodbye he never did as a teen was beautiful and touching, the love felt by both shined through. It is a part of what had been missing in his life and in achieving it, he achieved a completeness that allowed him to move on. I loved the spirituality of this story, the combination of love, religions and theories were well done and totally fascinating. This story shows that all losses, even the most heartbreaking ones, are really a means of evolution. Loss forces one to change and grow, even though it may leave footprints on your heart, it gives you the chance to find yourself and in the end you never really loose anyone completely. What they have taught you, be it good or bad, remains with you, as part of you and it will affect your life and the lives of those you touch in one way or another. We grow and change but those who have affected us has influenced how we have grown and thus part of them stays with us. Perhaps people are immortal in some way after all.
Tim Campbell once again does an excellent job of bringing Ren to life. He manages to capture Ren’s character perfectly and makes you feel all the emotion in this story. Whenever I read a book that mentions Ren, his voice will forever be in my mind.
In Ren, a character was created that became real to the readers, taking on a life of his own and we experienced his love, fear, hope, pain and loss as if it were our own. I’m sure many of us will be left scarred by his death, while at the same time rejoice that he has at last found the happiness and peace he deserved. Sarah Noffke’s ability to draw emotions from a reader and her masterful storytelling that put visuals into one’s mind continues to amaze me and gets better with every book.