Reviews with content warning for Racism - Tower of Dawn

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

7 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

Did I like this more than Empire of Storms?? Crazy. It was definitely slower paced, but felt very cohesive. I also loved that Chaol had a beautiful redemption arc- I hated him the last few books and this book actually changed my mind. I really appreciated getting to see the nuance and inner turmoil of his character. I adore Yrene and I also love Nesryn and Sartaq and felt like I was interested/invested in every plot line of this book. It ends much more hopeful than EoS so I feel like it fits in the series better before EoS if you don’t want to do the tandem read.

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jelkebooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.0

A four star? To a Throne of Glass book? From me? Yeah, I didn't see this one coming either. Truly, I still can't fully believe it, but I thouroughly enjoyed this book. I guess they'll just never make me hate Chaol, no matter how much of the fandom might do. No, my enjoyment of this book has nothing to do with the fact that I love Chaol. Well, it's not just that. I truly think this book and Empire of Storms are the best books from this series (so far) and which one you'll like more depends on your prefferences.
This isn't as action packed as Empire of Storms. It's pretty slowly paced. Most of it is spend healing Chaol, getting to know this different part of the world, and most importantly learning more about the Valg. We also got introduced to a brand new cast of characters with only Nesryn and Chaol returning from our old cast within this book. It did get some getting used to at the start of this one, but I still had a blast reading this book.
My biggest compliment for this book is that it didn't feel like its size to me. Like, this is a pretty long book, and considering not a whole lot happened this just flew by. It was an incredibly compelling read, and I did not want to stop reading. I thought the new land we were in was really interesting. I also loved the healing scenes. I mean, it was full of ableism, but when it comes to the magic and how the healing magic works I do think it was really interesting. Nesryn's storyline was also incredibly interesting in this book. We learned a whole lot about the Valg and their history as well, and I loved those parts as well. That came with some crazy reveals as well, so I can't wait to see it all play out in Kingdom of Ash.
The new cast of characters were great. I didn't care for all of the royals, but the characters that really took center stage this book I quite liked. As I mentioned before I have never hated Chaol, like most people, so I also loved that we focussed quite a bit on him in this book. Yrene was easily the best character of this book. She was just absolutely incredible. With new characters also come new romances, and I also really liked those. One of them is probably my favourite from the series as well. I won't tell you which one to keep you from getting spoiled but if you've read this book you can probably tell from this review as well. So yeah, not a perfect installement, but easily my favourite and I truly can't wait to get into the final book now.

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liesthemoontells's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A welcome disruption to the drawn out repetition of the previous book. The worldbuilding of a new civilisation and continent injects some variety into the series, although at times I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief at the glowing descriptions of the khaganate's empire and political structure.

While I don't know if Chaol *needed* a redemption arc, this book executes one remarkably well for a character who was so insufferable in earlier .

While this book at times felt like it is just moving the chess pieces into place for the finale, it also includes some delicious twists and revelations to be explored in the next book.

I took half a star off for the overuse of classic Maas phrases such as "eyes lined with silver" and characters saying something "too softly" - girl needs to pick up a thesaurus.

PS: lampshading the irony of me accusing Maas of needing to pick up a thesaurus when I use the word "book" five times in four paragraphs

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