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stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
jezabelh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Torture
karalara's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
lettigirl101's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
bluejayreads's review against another edition
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
The first two books in this series were bloody, violent, and fun. They’re not the kind of thing anyone would describe as a literary masterpiece, but if you like your fluff reading on the gory side, they’re quite entertaining. This one went off that track quite a bit.
That’s not to say it wasn’t violent or bloody, because it was. But it was very much toned down (although with this series, “toned down” still puts it in the “very gory” category). Darkdawn was much more about mythology and gods, why darkin are the way they are, the nature of family, and the complexities of father-daughter relationships.
Normally I love cool stuff about gods and fantasy religions, so it’s weird for me to say I didn’t like it as much, but I didn’t. I was expecting something high-energy and brutal, not too complex, and focusing on Mia’s goal to murder these specific people as well as anyone who gets in her way. Instead there are god squabbles and Chosen One save-the-world stuff and everything and everyone trying to convince Mia to give up the revenge she’s spent the past decade working towards and suddenly be altruistic and self-sacrificing. It just wasn’t realistic. On top of that, the gods weren’t all that interesting, I strongly dislike love triangles, the Absurdly Powerful Protagonist trope that I loved from previous books was nearly absent, and the climactic fight was boring more than anything.
I did finish it, and though the tone of this review may indicate otherwise, it was engaging enough that I overall enjoyed the reading experience. It was just a dramatic departure from the core of the previous two books, going from Mia’s personal bloody revenge to fate-of-the-world deity shenanigans. It felt like a low-energy, large-scope ending to a high-energy, small-scope story.
This isn’t a bad book, and I didn’t hate it. I just had hoped for the conclusion to the action-packed, violent delight of the Nevernight trilogy to be different, and I guess a little more, than it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death and Body horror
Minor: Infidelity
journeythroughthechapters's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thoughts
I'm conflicted. I don't know if I liked this book or not. As I was reading it I didn't feel compelled to keep picking it up and to me that's a sign I wasn't fully invested in this book. But I'm saying that I didn't hate it.
Things I liked
- The Relationships: Specifically the loyalty. I love the loyalty Mia fosters around her and in turn projects. She hurts deeply when someone she loves dies and will do anything for the ones she loves. That is something I love and respect in characters.
- The Action: there was a lot of mini plots and side quests to get to the bigger overarching plot. I like this plot style but I do feel the book was dragged out a bit. But overall I think it was done well.
Things I didn't love
- The Writing: this got to me a little bit this time round. It was trying to be funny but towards the end it got a bit much. I mainly mean the section where the author breaks the forth wall. He takes the piss out of the footnotes and I felt like it was just flogging a dead horse. It was just unnecessary.
- The Pacing: I talked a bit about that above. But there were some mini battles that were super short and that surprised me.
- The Romance: my biggest gripe is they were written to be this iconic OTP BUT all there was in my eyes was smut. And if that's what it was written to be that they were with each other for the sex I'd be down for that. But there was a push that they were each other's one true love but there wasn't enough emotional scenes for me to believe they were meant to be.
It was a decent conclusion but I felt a little underwhelmed unfortunately.
Representation
Gay (side character), Albino (side character), Bisexual (main character), POC (side character)
Trigger Warning
Violence, Blood, Child Rape (mention no description), Child Abuse/Violence, Suicide, Self Harm
I'm conflicted. I don't know if I liked this book or not. As I was reading it I didn't feel compelled to keep picking it up and to me that's a sign I wasn't fully invested in this book. But I'm saying that I didn't hate it.
Things I liked
- The Relationships: Specifically the loyalty. I love the loyalty Mia fosters around her and in turn projects. She hurts deeply when someone she loves dies and will do anything for the ones she loves. That is something I love and respect in characters.
- The Action: there was a lot of mini plots and side quests to get to the bigger overarching plot. I like this plot style but I do feel the book was dragged out a bit. But overall I think it was done well.
Things I didn't love
- The Writing: this got to me a little bit this time round. It was trying to be funny but towards the end it got a bit much. I mainly mean the section where the author breaks the forth wall. He takes the piss out of the footnotes and I felt like it was just flogging a dead horse. It was just unnecessary.
- The Pacing: I talked a bit about that above. But there were some mini battles that were super short and that surprised me.
- The Romance: my biggest gripe is they were written to be this iconic OTP BUT all there was in my eyes was smut. And if that's what it was written to be that they were with each other for the sex I'd be down for that. But there was a push that they were each other's one true love but there wasn't enough emotional scenes for me to believe they were meant to be.
It was a decent conclusion but I felt a little underwhelmed unfortunately.
Representation
Gay (side character), Albino (side character), Bisexual (main character), POC (side character)
Trigger Warning
Violence, Blood, Child Rape (mention no description), Child Abuse/Violence, Suicide, Self Harm
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death and Suicide
Minor: Rape and Self harm