Reviews

Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin

berbs's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

rsk1315's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

hannahgarstang's review

adventurous

Was an enjoyable read. Would recommend to someone who enjoys fantasy YA with action, mystery and romance elements. 

Wouldn't recommend to someone who is grieving. 

The world building really captures your imagination, with a society built physically in the spreading trees. Exploring customs and details, like standing vigil for the dead or beads marking the trees, made the world feel lived in. 

The characters were good company. Loved the queer rep.

Careful world building, paired with a plot line that focuses on one part of a larger situation, meant there was alot set up at the end to be resolved. 
The epilogue did its best to wrap things up, but there was so much to reconcile

between the people's different cultures, their long history, the expansion of the people and all the pain and loss from the conflicts in the book. 

My interest was piqued reading the different reactions in vethaya to the conclave envoys. I was glad the author chose the reconciliation to peace narrative because stories can shape the limits of our imagination. 

Both societies had internal issues to resolve too. The hollow's strict heirachical class system where orphans are abandoned and power and blood rule. And the peoples long war with the beasts and wearing their skin and hearts as armour despite their sentience.  

The potential for nuance in all of these threads meant the epilogue  could have been a political drama novel in it's own right. Thats how good the set up was.

opalmars's review

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

 

I don’t know what to say about this book. 🫤 The story is really good, *on paper*. We’re following Eshai (a legendary beast killer) and Seri (a girl who killed her best friend after he got possessed by a beast – something that no one would believe happened). These 2 end up meeting and teaming up to kill beasts who recently started behaving and strategizing like humans. They go to the capital city to let people know what’s been happening with the beasts. There, Seri meets (and falls for) Tsana, who is revealed to be part of an outsider group that can control the beasts that are attacking the People. Seri is then torn between saving her people, or joining Tsana and her group (who, turns out, knows things about Seri’s family).

It sounds SO interesting!!!! Genuinely! But, for some reason, it just didn’t work for me. 😭💔 This book never managed to grab my attention or keep me invested, unfortunately. It took me daaaays to even reach the 25% mark – the first time the book managed to catch my attention; and, even then, I lost interest really quickly.

This is the type of book that, even though I didn’t care about, I could still actually recommend. Like, YES, I was bored reading this, but I can’t actually pinpoint exactly anything BAD about this book. Even the things that I didn’t like weren’t *enough* for me to be THIS bored while reading this book. I genuinely DO NOT KNOW what happened for me to not like this book more. 😅


Things I liked:

➤ The setting!!!!! A high fantasy story that takes place on a tropical rainforest, with tree-top societies, is SO UNIQUE! The setting was definitely my favourite part of this book! I also enjoyed the magic system (where valiants kill beasts and use their remains to forge armor and weapons specifically tailored to them). Very interesting.

➤ As I mentioned, the story is really interesting, on paper. I genuinely found the plot interesting, I just didn’t get invested, for some reason.


Things I didn’t care about:

➤ The romance. Eshai and her childhood friend Lavit’s relationship was kind of interesting, but I never really cared about it. The main romance was just boring to me. Seri and Tsana start liking each other really fast. They knew each other for just a couple of days and Seri was already really intent on finding and protecting Tsana (who, as far as Seri knew, was part of a group that commands beasts and murders Seri’s People). Their bond didn’t make any sense to me; they barely knew each other! 🫥

➤ The characters were fine, but I think I’ll forget about them quickly. Perhaps if I had cared more about the other aspects of the story I would’ve cared more about the characters, too.

➤ As I already said, while the story was overall interesting, I never managed to get invested in it. So I didn’t care that much about the characters, or the romance, or the plot. To me, this was just a book I read. 😐

 

azurahh's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

OK bitches now HERE is a good book! 

Dauntless is a SOLID 5/5 sapphic YA fantasy romp featuring THREE female POV characters (and no men 🎉 [lol]). 

I loved this one + it genuinely might be my fave book club* read so far this year! 

* "book club" here means my bestie and I reading stacks of sapphic novels and bitching. 

It served vibes like a slightly more grown up (and GAY) version of those 1990s/2000s middle grade fantasies like Tamora Pierce, Emily Rodda, or Linda McNabb. The world and plot captured that immersive fantastical quality that those books had when you were a kid! 

The themes, character development, and plot were definitely solid YA, but I still found them enjoyable as an adult. The setting is apparently Filipino-inspired and the world and setting were really immersive. 

The world wasn't homophobic at all which was also nice! (And had the added bonus that there was no identity talk which always takes me out of fantasy/sci-fi). 

This one is a standalone and it's super satisfying as is, so I highly recommend for a quick, fun summer beach read (or equally a curled-up-in-bed winter read!). 

Recommended for fans of Tamora Pierce, Motherland: Fort Salem, or Willow (TV show). 

thedragonqueen's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

4.0

magmaaa's review

adventurous

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

bhavya_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

emily_mh's review

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Everything about this book was pretty much perfect apart from the execution of its theme, which I’ll get into later. For now I want to talk about the good stuff.

First of all, this book wasn’t trying to accomplish too much. Quite often in standalone fantasy, especially ones centring a conflict, the author makes the scope WAY too broad, so that nothing within the book feels fully fleshed out. This was not the case here! The story focusses on one stage of the broader conflict/situation. As such, the plot is well-paced, with ample space for world-building and character development.

Bonnin presents a fascinating world here. I was particularly compelled by the armour magic system (how armour functions and how it is governed), spreading trees, and the death rites of the People. Bonnin also never info-dumps; she spreads her world-building across the narrative.

The story is told from multiple POVs, which was incredibly effective. Mostly we read from Seri’s POV, but we also get Eshai’s and Tsana’s. This meant that the story had a clear focus driving it (from Seri), but could dip into other perspectives to give broader context. The character work within these three POVs was excellent. Seri had some of the most natural, yet significant, character development I’ve ever read. Across the story we see her evolve from secretary to warrior, yet there is never a clunky moment where this change is sudden. Eshai was really interesting to read from as she embodied the reluctant hero trope: all she wanted to do was explore and be in love. Tsana was also compelling, as her development was driven by her marginalised position in her own society, and also her abusive relationship with her mentor.

There is a romance between Seri and Tsana, and I enjoyed it. They pushed each other to be better. They also saw the ugliest parts of each other and still wanted to be together regardless. The romance is very much a side-plot, so don’t go in expecting anything swoony.

All this is disseminated through Bonnin’s writing style. It very much reminded me of how adult fantasy is written, letting the reader interpret the story, characters, and theme. I also appreciated how well Bonnin wrote the action scenes; I was genuinely gripped by them, and they were conveyed really clearly.

Despite all these positives, I have a big criticism of this book. That is that the theme of war was executed muddily. The book was simultaneously trying to depict war as futile and unnecessary while glorifying the valiants, who are essentially a military. I understand that the valiants were not aware of what their actions signified, but that doesn’t make these actions okay or heroic, which is how they were painted to be right til the end of the book. I also found it hard to view the conflict the valiants were involved in as a war, because the beasts’ side was fuelled by self-defence of their territory that the valiants are encroaching upon. The villain on their side is purely a lone agent. So painting the conflict like both sides have good reasons to fight didn’t make sense to me. I understood why the valiants needed to take down the lone agent villain, but the narrative kept justifying their overall fight against the beasts as good and heroic, because they were protecting the People. Protecting them from what? The consequences of their own colonising?? I really wish the book had been about rejecting the way of the valiants. As I said before, it’s not like Seri ever realises the folly of their ways; she just keeps on praising the military. Right at the end,

it’s just the Hollows making reparations for the war. The valiants keep wearing armour, which might I remind you is constructed from dead beasts! And the valiants themselves continue to exist, even though they were formed to fight the beasts - now there is no fight, why do they still exist? A force like that can’t be “reformed.” They should have been disbanded.

(By the way, I don’t know if I’m completely misinterpreting everything here, and I’m happy to adjust this review if I am.)

Despite my criticisms here, giving this book less than four stars didn’t feel right. I would ultimately recommend it with the caveat that the theme may not play out well for you. I’m really looking forward to reading more of Bonnin’s work in the future.

Rep: lesbian (word not used) Filipino-coded MC, sapphic Filipino-coded LI, Filipino-coded SCs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: War, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content, Confinement, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Colonisation, Abandonment, Addiction, Excrement, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Ableism

Moderate: insects, mind control, loss of a loved one Minor: sick parent, gentrification

grey_skiess's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.75

Overall, I enjoyed this story but I did find myself getting bored at times and wondering how much was left in it however, I'm not sure if that is a reflection on the plot line and writing itself or on the audiobook narrator whom I did not enjoy at all. The different character voices were very nasally and not easily distinguishable, a lot of the names were pronounced in ways that blended together making it hard to tell who was being spoken about. At other times, the voice was almost robotic and just reciting lines rather than trying to bring the book to life.