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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
Ah, Darkdawn. The end of another beloved series, one I will greatly miss. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It’s a fun, bloody ride with unforgettable characters and a brilliant story about getting over your fears and being a complete badass while doing it. I will say, this series, and this book specifically, is not for the faint of heart. Tons of gore, violence, sex, strong language, and the one that hurts the most, the deaths of your favorite characters.
“Part of having is the fear of losing.
Part of creating is the fear of breaking.
Part of beginning is the fear of your ending.
Fear is never a choice.
Never a choice.
But letting it rule you is.”
That’s one thing this finale got right: no one is safe. This entry also continued the tone from the first two books. Kristoff doesn’t hold back and it’s one of my favorite things about this series.
Well, the author doesn’t hold back in most cases. I don’t know, maybe it’s my dark and bitter soul, but I wanted this ending to tear my heart out, stomp on it until it was a pulp, and then take a few bites out of it before returning it to my chest cavity. I teared up a lot in the second half, but I was promised an ending that would HURT. The ending itself was fine and still brought tears to my eyes, but I really really really really wanted it to make me cry like a baby. So, I WISH he pushed the ending a little more, but everyone else seems to think it’s fine the way it is.
Even though the ending didn’t necessarily break my heart the way I wanted it to, it still did a good job of weaving the two main storylines together. I wasn’t a big fan of the final battle, but I can see where it came from and it played out the way it did.
I already find myself missing the characters so much. I definitely have a book hangover from this that’ll only be cured by rereading this glorious series.
“Part of having is the fear of losing.
Part of creating is the fear of breaking.
Part of beginning is the fear of your ending.
Fear is never a choice.
Never a choice.
But letting it rule you is.”
That’s one thing this finale got right: no one is safe. This entry also continued the tone from the first two books. Kristoff doesn’t hold back and it’s one of my favorite things about this series.
Well, the author doesn’t hold back in most cases. I don’t know, maybe it’s my dark and bitter soul, but I wanted this ending to tear my heart out, stomp on it until it was a pulp, and then take a few bites out of it before returning it to my chest cavity. I teared up a lot in the second half, but I was promised an ending that would HURT. The ending itself was fine and still brought tears to my eyes, but I really really really really wanted it to make me cry like a baby. So, I WISH he pushed the ending a little more, but everyone else seems to think it’s fine the way it is.
Even though the ending didn’t necessarily break my heart the way I wanted it to, it still did a good job of weaving the two main storylines together. I wasn’t a big fan of the final battle, but I can see where it came from and it played out the way it did.
I already find myself missing the characters so much. I definitely have a book hangover from this that’ll only be cured by rereading this glorious series.
What a finale! Everything came together so neatly by the end. I loved the new characters and how well they were introduced.
4.5/5
Loved this book and this series overall, but I must rant a little bit gentlefriends...
I loved Ashlinn in the first book, she made a great snarky best friend, which made it a betrayal beyond words when she murdered Tric.
So when she became the love interest for Mia I was like
Nope Nope Nope
There was so much attempt to justify what she did with ‘hey, we’re all murderers, so it’s totally fine’, but Nope, totally NOT fine. She killed her friend, or at least someone she’d conned into being her friend. And she barely grew as a character. She was so obsessed with Mia that I would have no trouble believing she’d slit Sid or Bladesinger’s throats if it meant saving Mia. It wasn’t love gentlefriends, it was obsessive and possessive. And when she FINALLY apologizes to Tric, it was too little, too late.
I probably would have given this book 5 stars if she’d stayed dead, her dying in that moment redeemed her character somewhat. But alas, the happy jig I did upon her death was short lived. I really wish they’d been no romance at all in this series, it didn’t need it.
However, there were plenty of amazing moments and characters in this book that it didn’t really matter in the end. I know I just did a whole rant about it, but it’s just something that I needed to get off my chest. Overall this series was AMAZEBALLS. Loved Mistly Kindly, Bastard, Eclipse (
Loved this book and this series overall, but I must rant a little bit gentlefriends...
I loved Ashlinn in the first book, she made a great snarky best friend, which made it a betrayal beyond words when she murdered Tric.
So when she became the love interest for Mia I was like
Nope Nope Nope
There was so much attempt to justify what she did with ‘hey, we’re all murderers, so it’s totally fine’, but Nope, totally NOT fine. She killed her friend, or at least someone she’d conned into being her friend. And she barely grew as a character. She was so obsessed with Mia that I would have no trouble believing she’d slit Sid or Bladesinger’s throats if it meant saving Mia. It wasn’t love gentlefriends, it was obsessive and possessive. And when she FINALLY apologizes to Tric, it was too little, too late.
I probably would have given this book 5 stars if she’d stayed dead, her dying in that moment redeemed her character somewhat. But alas, the happy jig I did upon her death was short lived. I really wish they’d been no romance at all in this series, it didn’t need it.
However, there were plenty of amazing moments and characters in this book that it didn’t really matter in the end. I know I just did a whole rant about it, but it’s just something that I needed to get off my chest. Overall this series was AMAZEBALLS. Loved Mistly Kindly, Bastard, Eclipse (
It hurts when you feel utterly disconnected from a series you thought you loved.
First of all, this book, unexpectedly, has a weird pacing - considering my phisical need to keep reading Nevernight until the last page, I couldn't understand why the same spell did not happen again with Darkdawn.
The book was very slow, there were several chapters that seemed unnecessary, and/ or excessively dragged. The result? If Godsgrave was incredibly focused on Mia's revenge, Darkdawn was blurry, even if the main plot was easily accessible (Mia's revenge and her 'darkin' quest): I often found myself thinking that the book was definitely stalling. This sensation was also reinforced by the extreme attempt by the author to put massive irony, inside jokes, sex puns and profound quotes in almost every dialogue.
I was not expecting to have a natural conversation taking place in Darkdawn, after all this is an important piece of Kristoff's exquisite purple prose, that I loved and cherished in Nevernight, but this time it looked to me it was quite empty, a task the author had to do.
Moreover, I was puzzled by the frequent intrusion of Jay Kristoff in this book, defending bitterly his choice of writing this and that, the footnotes and the erotica parts. I'm no fan of direct moral instructions provided by fantasy authors (I prefer allegories), so being told what to think by the author = eyeroll, I'm sorry.
A second element that made me think is the huge change of scenario in Godsgrave: the Venatus Magnii plot was so long and detailed that made it the perfect 'transition book', still Darkdawn is so dense and full of deaths, fights, cities, ambushes, sex and inside jokes that perhaps, and this is my personal opinion, part of Darkdawn's plot should have been transferred into Godsgrave, to even out the developmentof the series, instead of having the gladiator storyline as interlude between two instalments full of facts, plot-wise.
Then, I must also admit that a great part of my disappointment is simply based on the choice of cliché: everyone has its own favorites, and unfortunately Jay Kristoff's and mine are not the same. First of all, after Jurassic Park I have adopted a no-kids policy in my adult readings, because children in action-packed books present the same problem: they need to be protected (of course!) and in doing so, the plot is warped by these recurring children's-life-is-threatened scenes, and I don't like it in general.
Second point, despite being positively aware that Mia was going to be the ideal Mary Sue, still I didn't love the addition of being the Chosen one appointed by a Prophecy.
This cliché brings about a lot of convenient narrative choices that very rarely convince me.
Third point, bringing back the dead to life is always a risky business, because most of the time we suppose that death, as any other important experience, must change people, and we also want to know how it works. Here instead the problem of how much of the old Tric was left in the undead Tric distracted my attention so much. I know that he was supposed to become more 'human' according to the proximity to Truedark, yet I did not understand why his dominating feature was his love for Mia.
In Nevernight, I liked the two because they dated each other well aware of the fact that they both prized themselves first, and they had their revenge to carry out, before anything else. And despite Tric's obvious infatuation that Mia sadly did not reciprocate, I thought that Niah brought Tric back because he was a fine avenger, not because he was going to loom over Mia, waiting for Ashlinn to leave the room to profess his endless love. I felt it a bit out of character.
Likewise, Ashlinn's childish remarks about sleeping with Mia looked silly and inappropriate, considering that Mia a) did not blame Ash for Tric's murder, accepting the fact rather easily, b) was not particularly interested in reigniting the affection for Tric, since he looked visibly dead inside.
Mia in this book was baffling, to say the least. The ambiguity in her didn't bother me, until it was the only reason why she did things. In the first book she was ambitious, manipulative and cruel, but here she's basically good, she cares for everyone she loves and tries to save them, so I can't really accept the picture of the blood-thirsty assassin/ unstoppable killing machine they sold me in the first chapter of Nevernight.
In Darkdawn, I had the impression that she was unnaturally shallow, short-sighted, and polarized by Scaeva. The relationship with Ashlinn could have been explored more from a psychological point of view, in my opinion, because that ending scene was a little bit misplaced.
So, forcing a love triangle where it shouldn't have been one (I still don't understand why Kristoff had written an alternative Chapter 35 in the first place), the soulless irony, the tiring length of this narration, crowned with an epic, earthquakes-inducing night-vs-day fight, and the feeling of being emotionally disconnected from the characters I loved so much, prevented me from enjoying the conclusion of this trilogy, which is still remarkable and original.
First of all, this book, unexpectedly, has a weird pacing - considering my phisical need to keep reading Nevernight until the last page, I couldn't understand why the same spell did not happen again with Darkdawn.
The book was very slow, there were several chapters that seemed unnecessary, and/ or excessively dragged. The result? If Godsgrave was incredibly focused on Mia's revenge, Darkdawn was blurry, even if the main plot was easily accessible (Mia's revenge and her 'darkin' quest): I often found myself thinking that the book was definitely stalling. This sensation was also reinforced by the extreme attempt by the author to put massive irony, inside jokes, sex puns and profound quotes in almost every dialogue.
I was not expecting to have a natural conversation taking place in Darkdawn, after all this is an important piece of Kristoff's exquisite purple prose, that I loved and cherished in Nevernight, but this time it looked to me it was quite empty, a task the author had to do.
Moreover, I was puzzled by the frequent intrusion of Jay Kristoff in this book, defending bitterly his choice of writing this and that, the footnotes and the erotica parts. I'm no fan of direct moral instructions provided by fantasy authors (I prefer allegories), so being told what to think by the author = eyeroll, I'm sorry.
A second element that made me think is the huge change of scenario in Godsgrave: the Venatus Magnii plot was so long and detailed that made it the perfect 'transition book', still Darkdawn is so dense and full of deaths, fights, cities, ambushes, sex and inside jokes that perhaps, and this is my personal opinion, part of Darkdawn's plot should have been transferred into Godsgrave, to even out the developmentof the series, instead of having the gladiator storyline as interlude between two instalments full of facts, plot-wise.
Then, I must also admit that a great part of my disappointment is simply based on the choice of cliché: everyone has its own favorites, and unfortunately Jay Kristoff's and mine are not the same. First of all, after Jurassic Park I have adopted a no-kids policy in my adult readings, because children in action-packed books present the same problem: they need to be protected (of course!) and in doing so, the plot is warped by these recurring children's-life-is-threatened scenes, and I don't like it in general.
Second point, despite being positively aware that Mia was going to be the ideal Mary Sue, still I didn't love the addition of being the Chosen one appointed by a Prophecy.
This cliché brings about a lot of convenient narrative choices that very rarely convince me.
Third point, bringing back the dead to life is always a risky business, because most of the time we suppose that death, as any other important experience, must change people, and we also want to know how it works. Here instead the problem of how much of the old Tric was left in the undead Tric distracted my attention so much. I know that he was supposed to become more 'human' according to the proximity to Truedark, yet I did not understand why his dominating feature was his love for Mia.
In Nevernight, I liked the two because they dated each other well aware of the fact that they both prized themselves first, and they had their revenge to carry out, before anything else. And despite Tric's obvious infatuation that Mia sadly did not reciprocate, I thought that Niah brought Tric back because he was a fine avenger, not because he was going to loom over Mia, waiting for Ashlinn to leave the room to profess his endless love. I felt it a bit out of character.
Likewise, Ashlinn's childish remarks about sleeping with Mia looked silly and inappropriate, considering that Mia a) did not blame Ash for Tric's murder, accepting the fact rather easily, b) was not particularly interested in reigniting the affection for Tric, since he looked visibly dead inside.
Mia in this book was baffling, to say the least. The ambiguity in her didn't bother me, until it was the only reason why she did things. In the first book she was ambitious, manipulative and cruel, but here she's basically good, she cares for everyone she loves and tries to save them, so I can't really accept the picture of the blood-thirsty assassin/ unstoppable killing machine they sold me in the first chapter of Nevernight.
In Darkdawn, I had the impression that she was unnaturally shallow, short-sighted, and polarized by Scaeva. The relationship with Ashlinn could have been explored more from a psychological point of view, in my opinion, because that ending scene was a little bit misplaced
Spoiler
if you consider that Mia seemed uninterested in a future life with herSo, forcing a love triangle where it shouldn't have been one (I still don't understand why Kristoff had written an alternative Chapter 35 in the first place), the soulless irony, the tiring length of this narration, crowned with an epic, earthquakes-inducing night-vs-day fight, and the feeling of being emotionally disconnected from the characters I loved so much, prevented me from enjoying the conclusion of this trilogy, which is still remarkable and original.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
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:
N/A
Una bona lectura, però que per mi ha tingut defectes significatius. Tinguem en compte que desde el segon llibre vam entrar en una mena de farcit de la trama que s’ha allargat un bon tros dins d’aquesta última part. Això, juntament amb alguns esdeveniments que no comentaré per no fer spoilers, han fet que el llibre se’m faci poc adequat. Per dir alguna cosa. Igualment recomano la trilogia, però remarcant que el primer llibre és el millor amb diferència.