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A review by ghosthermione
Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed it but the middle part did not feel like a right fit for the rest of the trilogy. There were plot decisions surrounding the ending especially around the Wish itself that could have been better thought out, especially to avoid a pretty blatant bury your gays trope. I know practically everyone dies, but the focus specifically on these two gay characters' deaths was painful and not in a satisfying way. Yes, even if they're happy ghosts together in the afterlife... . I felt like the pacing kind of suffered in this book as well. Simply way too much fighting was crammed in. The fight with Genno which was planned for 2 books was barely a footnote, and then it goes from fight to fight and I felt like the author kept having to up the stakes (this has been true throughout the trilogy, going from small demons to bigger demons to i guess bigger and stronger demons every time...) for some reason to keep making it interesting and really, you don't have to.
We also knew Seigetsu was planning things the whole way but i don't think that was done in a satisfying way. I'd have liked to be more suspicious, to have a *hint* of what he truly planned. As it stood that whole chunk of the book was just me going "what the f*ck??? Why???" (And being bored by all the fighting and the characters needing to come up with more tricks. Every. Time. Somehow.) and the half glimpse we get of Seigetsu's memories just doesn't justify things.
This seems like a very negative review, and to be honest I did enjoy the conclusion of this book, I'm just struggling with the tone of the middle segment vs the very lord of the rings hopeful feel of the earlier books. Yes, we're told early on that they're all gonna die. I didn't expect Tatsumi to live tbh, I didn't see a way out of it. But the point is that prophecies that do fullfill themselves are usually boring, and we're led to hope that the future is movable. At least Seigetsu's been shaping it the whole time. But I guess that the future won't move for queers.
I'm bitter about this trope and just how utterly dark this was, and while the epilogue is a lot lighter and I did find it satisfying, it didn't ring true with what happened before.
The book mightve been more satisfying if the tone of the earlier volumes had been different.
We also knew Seigetsu was planning things the whole way but i don't think that was done in a satisfying way. I'd have liked to be more suspicious, to have a *hint* of what he truly planned. As it stood that whole chunk of the book was just me going "what the f*ck??? Why???" (And being bored by all the fighting and the characters needing to come up with more tricks. Every. Time. Somehow.) and the half glimpse we get of Seigetsu's memories just doesn't justify things.
This seems like a very negative review, and to be honest I did enjoy the conclusion of this book, I'm just struggling with the tone of the middle segment vs the very lord of the rings hopeful feel of the earlier books.
I'm bitter about this trope and just how utterly dark this was, and while the epilogue is a lot lighter and I did find it satisfying, it didn't ring true with what happened before.
The book mightve been more satisfying if the tone of the earlier volumes had been different.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death