Angel Fire East by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Angel Fire East is the third book in Terry Brooks' Word and Void series, and the conclusion of the trilogy. It is not a stand-alone book, so don't start here. Read Running with the Demon and A Knight of the Word first.

This story picks up ten years after the second book (fifteen since the first). We're back in Hopewell, Illinois with Nest Freemark, and demons have come knocking. This story describes the third and final time she and John Ross cross paths. While John is a central character, this is very much Nest's story with him acting mostly as a catalyst. I found myself getting pretty annoyed with John at times for being useless.

Along with the carry-over characters of Pick, Josie, and Two Bears, we see the adult versions of Nest's childhood friends Robert Heppler and Bennett Scott, along with some new additions. The cast on the side of the void is expanded as well, with two central demons and two backups, each with distinct traits and personalities.

Trigger warning: Like the second book in the series addressed the topic of homelessness, this one tackles drug addiction and the potential fallout of that lifestyle.

It took me a while to get into the book because the pacing was pretty slow. There was a lot of overly-descriptive exposition and "sit-and-think" moments. There's a nice twist at the end for Nest, though not so nice for anyone else. The book, and therefore the series, ended on a hopeful but rather melancholy note.

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