Ruinous Ends: A Good Morning America YA Book Club Pick (The Souls of Blackwood Academy)

A Good Morning America YA Book Club Pick!

The future of Blackwood Academy—and the entire afterlife—is at stake in the must-read sequel to the viral dark fantasy sensation Immortal Consequences.

This stunning hardcover edition features gorgeous, flower-patterned sprayed edges, colored endpapers, and an exclusive foil-stamped case!

The Decennial is over, but for the students of Blackwood Academy, the fight for the afterlife has just begun.

The infamous school was hiding more secrets—and lies—than any of the Decennial’s participants could have imagined. And there’s still so much that remains buried beneath its ancient foundations. Now the future of the academy, and all the souls within it, rests in the hands of six former pupils:

The charmer and the golden boy . . .
The traitor and the girl desperate to save her . . .
The Chosen One and the one who would choose her over and over again . . .

Any of them could be the hero the afterlife needs . . . or the villain who will destroy it for good. Because the truth is, Blackwood’s biggest secret has yet to come to light—and when it does, it will shake the institution to its core.

I.V. Marie is the instant New York Times, USA Today and Indie Bestselling author of Immortal Consequences. She born to a Peruvian mother and Chilean father in Miami, where she acquired a penchant for afternoon cafecitos and developed an all-consuming obsession with books. Her writing ambitions began behind her grandparent’s computer, where she spent her childhood crafting spooky and fantastical short stories. When she is not writing, you can find her rock climbing or watching atmospheric YouTube videos with her dog, Mr. Darcy.

Ruinous Ends by I.V. Marie is a dark, emotionally charged fantasy story that centers on the fragile line between love and destruction, and on what happens when grief, power, and desperation collide. The book follows its main character as she moves through a world scarred by old sins and fresh betrayals, where the past is never really finished and every choice seems to carry a terrible cost. At the heart of the story is a relationship that is both deeply loving and deeply dangerous, shaped by promises that were once made in innocence but have slowly twisted into something that can shatter lives. Marie writes about people who are already wounded when the book begins, and who are then forced into situations that make their wounds impossible to hide. The title itself, “Ruinous Ends,” hints at the way the story works: it moves steadily toward consequences that feel inevitable, yet are still painful and shocking when they finally arrive. The reader is invited to watch how small decisions, half-spoken truths, and buried secrets gradually build up into a ruin that no one can completely escape.

From early on, the book creates a strong sense of atmosphere—heavy, tense, and slightly claustrophobic. The world feels like it has been through something terrible even before we arrive, and that weight hangs over everything the characters do. There is magic in this world, but it is never simple or clean; it is tangled up with blood, memory, and sacrifice. Using power always seems to cost something, either to the one wielding it or to someone they care about. The main character, caught between what she wants and what she has promised, learns that the forces she tries to control have their own logic and demands. In her attempts to protect, heal, or save, she sometimes causes the very harm she fears. Much of the tension in the book comes from this painful irony: the stronger her desire to keep people safe, the more she risks hurting them. Marie lets this truth unfold slowly, showing how noble intentions can still lead to ruin when they are mixed with fear and refusal to face hard truths.

Relationships drive the story more than grand battles or complicated politics. There is deep love here, but it is love living under pressure—pressed by time, danger, and the shadow of past mistakes. The bond at the center of the book is intense, intimate, and often tender, yet it carries within it the seeds of catastrophe. The characters are not simply good or evil; they are layered and conflicted, sometimes making admirable sacrifices, at other times acting out of selfishness or denial. One of the strongest threads in the book is the way Marie portrays attachment: how far someone will go to avoid losing the person they love, and how easily that fear of loss can become possessive or controlling. When the story forces the characters to choose between what they want emotionally and what is morally or practically right, the results are heartbreaking. Readers see people who are trying to hold onto each other even as the ground crumbles under their feet.

Marie’s writing style supports this emotional weight. Her prose tends to be vivid but accessible, balancing sharp, haunting images with everyday language so the story feels both fantastical and very human. The darker themes—such as obsession, sacrifice, and the temptation to use destructive power for a seemingly good cause—are handled with seriousness, but also with empathy. The book does not mock its characters for their weakness; instead, it shows how easy it is for anyone to be pulled down a path that leads to disaster when they are grieving, terrified, or convinced they are the only one who can fix things. There is a strong sense of inevitability as the story moves forward, like watching a storm gather on the horizon. Yet the characters keep trying, keep hoping, and keep loving, and this stubbornness gives the book an emotional core that stops it from feeling empty or purely bleak.

Plot-wise, “Ruinous Ends” unfolds as a series of increasingly intense confrontations—between characters, between past and present, and between the desire to rewrite history and the painful truth that some damage cannot be undone. Old choices come back to demand payment. Long-buried secrets rise to the surface, often at the worst possible moment. The main character has to face not only external threats, but also the realization that some of the danger comes from within: from the parts of herself she has refused to examine. The story builds toward crucial turning points where she must decide what she is willing to lose and what she is willing to become. These decisions are not neat or easy. Marie does not offer simple victories; instead, she shows outcomes that feel honest to the emotional and moral struggles at work. There are moments of hope and tenderness, but they exist alongside harsh realizations and costly sacrifices.

As the book approaches its final act, the pace quickens and the sense of approaching doom grows stronger. Conflicts that have simmered in the background break into the open. Promises that once seemed like protection are revealed as chains. The question of what “ruin” really means becomes central: is it the loss of a person, the loss of innocence, the loss of power, or something deeper—the loss of oneself? In the end, the story does reach its ruinous ends, but not in a hollow or purely tragic way. Instead, the ending feels like the painful completion of a hard truth the book has been whispering all along: that love without honesty can destroy, that power without humility can consume, and that clinging too tightly can break what one most wants to save. At the same time, there are glimmers of meaning in the wreckage—a sense that facing the full cost of what has happened, however devastating, is itself a kind of clarity.

Overall, Ruinous Ends is a character-driven, emotionally intense fantasy that focuses less on wide-world politics and more on the inner worlds of its people. It explores how ruin is rarely the result of a single moment, but rather the slow accumulation of avoided truths and desperate choices. Through vivid language, strong atmosphere, and complex relationships, I.V. Marie guides the reader through a story where love and destruction are never far apart, and where the end of one thing may be the only way another, more honest reality can begin. It is a book for readers who enjoy dark, intimate fantasy that delves deeply into the cost of love, the burden of power, and the ways our strongest attachments can both save and undo us.