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A review by dwinn5
Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I’m not even sure where to start. This is kind of more of a review of the whole series than just this book, but I could really write an essay about it.
I love the way that the author portrays war in this series. It’s horrible, gritty, traumatic, and tragic and craps all over the idea that there is some kind of glory in war. That whole message comes mostly from Max’s personal development, I think, which leads me to my next point, which is that Max is one of my favorite fantasy men ever, and maybe even one of my favorite characters ever.
My Max rant:
I think too often, male fantasy characters-especially if they are warriors/soldiers, like Max- are thrust into the same stoic, serious archetype that prevents them from feeling like a full person. And even when they experience emotion, it feels stilted and shallow. It was refreshing to see a male character who experienced the full breadth of emotions, who had tried so hard to be “tough” and militant the way he knew he was supposed to be, but ultimately failed because he had always had a soft heart. But at the same time, it didn’t make him any less of a powerful character or undercut his powers- only his motivations/willingness to do things. On the flip side, a lot of the male fantasy characters with the sort of unshakable morals that Max possesses come off as condescending or holier-than-thou, and even when Max did wield some sort of moral superiority, he did it with enough humor and willingness to admit when he’s wrong that it never came across that way to me.
He’s a flawed, feeling, human character that I just loved. Also he was hilarious- definitely the funniest lead fantasy man I’ve ever read.
A couple miscellaneous things I really enjoyed about the series:
-I LOVE when the “villains” don’t really seem to fit the title. This has some true moral greyness to it, and even when I vehemently disagreed with character’s methods, I always understood exactly why they did it.
-Carissa does a great job of setting up the stakes of the story in a way that is believable and increases the intensity of the story to keep you invested. The stakes never felt manufactured or overblown to me- which I think had a lot to do with her willingness to absolutely decimate her characters, lol.
Anyway, long story short- I think a lot more people should be reading this series.
I love the way that the author portrays war in this series. It’s horrible, gritty, traumatic, and tragic and craps all over the idea that there is some kind of glory in war. That whole message comes mostly from Max’s personal development, I think, which leads me to my next point, which is that Max is one of my favorite fantasy men ever, and maybe even one of my favorite characters ever.
My Max rant:
I think too often, male fantasy characters-especially if they are warriors/soldiers, like Max- are thrust into the same stoic, serious archetype that prevents them from feeling like a full person. And even when they experience emotion, it feels stilted and shallow. It was refreshing to see a male character who experienced the full breadth of emotions, who had tried so hard to be “tough” and militant the way he knew he was supposed to be, but ultimately failed because he had always had a soft heart. But at the same time, it didn’t make him any less of a powerful character or undercut his powers- only his motivations/willingness to do things. On the flip side, a lot of the male fantasy characters with the sort of unshakable morals that Max possesses come off as condescending or holier-than-thou, and even when Max did wield some sort of moral superiority, he did it with enough humor and willingness to admit when he’s wrong that it never came across that way to me.
He’s a flawed, feeling, human character that I just loved. Also he was hilarious- definitely the funniest lead fantasy man I’ve ever read.
A couple miscellaneous things I really enjoyed about the series:
-I LOVE when the “villains” don’t really seem to fit the title. This has some true moral greyness to it, and even when I vehemently disagreed with character’s methods, I always understood exactly why they did it.
-Carissa does a great job of setting up the stakes of the story in a way that is believable and increases the intensity of the story to keep you invested. The stakes never felt manufactured or overblown to me- which I think had a lot to do with her willingness to absolutely decimate her characters, lol.
Anyway, long story short- I think a lot more people should be reading this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail