A review by huntingforagoodread
Awakening the Dark Throne by Jessica Ann Disciacca

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

It has been a while since I’ve had a book keep me up all night to finish it. This book did it. I read a few chapters, then the next evening I really dived into it and it was AMAZING. Quick synopsis: elves are referred to as alfar. There are the Light Alfar and the Dark Alfar. The Light Alfar, while they sound good, are really just the lesser of two evils when you consider humans. There are other magical creatures mentioned like faeries and nymphs but the faeries eat human flesh and the nymphs dress like the Croods. 

Genevieve is a half breed- half human, half Alfar. By Alfar laws, she shouldn’t have even been born but her human mother hid her and kept her safe until she died when Gen was 11. She’s since been an orphan and has been taken in by a local Catholic Church, along with some other orphaned children. One of them, Lilian, is the closest thing that Gen has to a sister. When she’s kidnapped by the Dark Alfar and taken as a slave, Gen offers herself to the Light Alfar as an “indentured servant” to get closer to the lands that Lily were stolen away too. 

While Gen is in the Light Alfar’s lands, she becomes mistress to the future king, and while she makes a friend, she also goes through a lot of suffering. Because even though they call it indentured servitude it’s really just slavery and all the humans are treated poorly with no choice in what they do or who they sleep with, men or women. 

We meet members of the Dark Alfar court and fantastical magical creatures that would make your skin crawl. There were times that I smiled, and times that I cried. There were even times that I shivered or broke out in goosebumps while reading. This book reminded me of ACOTAR, in the Tamlin vs. Rhysand with Feyre sense (with Tamlin being Gaelin, Rhysand being Erendrial, and Feyre being Genevieve), but much much darker. Darker than Under the Mountain. I believe this story is BETTER. I think Jessica said this is one of five for the series and I am SO VERY EXCITED for the remainder. 

This is a dark fantasy horror. Please check your trigger warnings. Notable tropes/TW/CW include: kidnapping, slavery, noncon (not with any main male characters), blood & gore, discrimination.