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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
I'm not okay.
I'm not sure if I'll recover.
Just the way I love it.
I'm not sure if I'll recover.
Just the way I love it.
A satisfying end to the trilogy. Mia Corvere is OP, yes, but somehow it's still interesting to see how she does it. The climax of the Red Church story line was the most interesting, but, unfortunately, I didn't like the last battle and the overall closure.
There's themes of how fear should influence your life, how young love feel so strong, the importance of family and standing your ground and doing your thing. All of them are handled pretty well, especially the main theme of fear, though some a trope by now.
If you like a new take on assassins, don't care about the gender or sexual tendencies of the main character, don't care that main character is a killing machine, OP, and a generel c*nt (Mia Corvere would agree), like an interesting world in a sort of ancient Rome setting with magic and a few gods, a new magic system, like a strong supporting cast, and don't mind the author breaking the 4th wall from time to time, this is for you.
3,5 stars.
Trilogy total:
Nevernight: 3,5/5 stars
Godsgrave: 4/5 stars
Darkdawn: 3,5/5 stars
Total: 11/15 stars
There's themes of how fear should influence your life, how young love feel so strong, the importance of family and standing your ground and doing your thing. All of them are handled pretty well, especially the main theme of fear, though some a trope by now.
If you like a new take on assassins, don't care about the gender or sexual tendencies of the main character, don't care that main character is a killing machine, OP, and a generel c*nt (Mia Corvere would agree), like an interesting world in a sort of ancient Rome setting with magic and a few gods, a new magic system, like a strong supporting cast, and don't mind the author breaking the 4th wall from time to time, this is for you.
3,5 stars.
Trilogy total:
Nevernight: 3,5/5 stars
Godsgrave: 4/5 stars
Darkdawn: 3,5/5 stars
Total: 11/15 stars
WHAT A BOOK!
This was so so so so good. Really sad it's all over. The trilogy has ended and I'm so going to miss this series!
This was so so so so good. Really sad it's all over. The trilogy has ended and I'm so going to miss this series!
A book and a character I will never forget, a slow start to the book for sure but I cried buckets and if that isn’t a 5 star and more than I don’t know what is
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
just found how problematic this author was and how he watched lesbian porn to get inspiration for the smut in these books not to mention the fact the smut he wrote was about teenage girls?? JAIL TIME!
adventurous
tense
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The conclusion finally! And I've never taken as much time to finish a 3-book series as I took with this one.
.
Thankfully, I was not dissatisfied with the ending! From page 1 of the book, we knew that Mia will die. Book 1 of birth, book 2 life and book 3 death. So when despite this knowledge, the book doesn't fail to surprise you, it's worth it.
.
A build-up so elaborate, all those theories initiating throughout the first 2 books, they would have been for naught, had they not been given a proper climax. So when Darkdawn here concludes all those open ends - the reason behind the 3 Suns and Truedark, the secret of the Darkin, reference and the role of Cleo's journal and Chronicler Aelius, character growth of Jonnen and entry of Cloud Corleone, and the end-non end of love-betrayal-murder-backfromdeath of Tric and Ashlinn and Mia - these were all the elements that made this book what it is! I might be missing several of thsoe elements here, but you get what I'm trying to say.
.
So thing is, this is not a series which takes your heart, or makes you fall in love with the characters or crave for more. It's a tale of blood and gore. Ask me to summarise this series in a sentence and I'll say it's the story of a girl hell-bent on revenge. But that revenge spans a whole world, takes down a complete republic, becomes a lot less personal, and results in a quest to right a wrong, restore a balance.
.
So this series, despite lacking those "crave more" elements, is so much more in what it is!
.
Thankfully, I was not dissatisfied with the ending! From page 1 of the book, we knew that Mia will die. Book 1 of birth, book 2 life and book 3 death. So when despite this knowledge, the book doesn't fail to surprise you, it's worth it.
.
A build-up so elaborate, all those theories initiating throughout the first 2 books, they would have been for naught, had they not been given a proper climax. So when Darkdawn here concludes all those open ends - the reason behind the 3 Suns and Truedark, the secret of the Darkin, reference and the role of Cleo's journal and Chronicler Aelius, character growth of Jonnen and entry of Cloud Corleone, and the end-non end of love-betrayal-murder-backfromdeath of Tric and Ashlinn and Mia - these were all the elements that made this book what it is! I might be missing several of thsoe elements here, but you get what I'm trying to say.
.
So thing is, this is not a series which takes your heart, or makes you fall in love with the characters or crave for more. It's a tale of blood and gore. Ask me to summarise this series in a sentence and I'll say it's the story of a girl hell-bent on revenge. But that revenge spans a whole world, takes down a complete republic, becomes a lot less personal, and results in a quest to right a wrong, restore a balance.
.
So this series, despite lacking those "crave more" elements, is so much more in what it is!
Jay Kristoff is one of those authors I'd been curious about for a long time. My tsundoku ways collected all the books in his repertoire, but afforded me none of the time to read it. So I read Nevernight and Godsgrave a few weeks back to prepare for Darkdawn. I decided to buddy read the final book and found it to be such a blessing to hear her thoughts on the final book juxtaposed to my own thoughts. I think we helped each other process our feelings on the last book.
Some spoilers in this review, so please read with caution.
TW: lots of blood. So much blood.
Darkdawn takes place immediately after the end of Godsgrave. Mia has just taken her brother and meeting Mercurio and Ash after killing Cardinal Duomo and Senator Scaeva. Right off the bat, the story moves quickly. You get a lot of info in the first 100 pages that you assume the rest of the book will take off just as quickly.
However, what I thought was a super quick start to the book turns out to be just the start and the next 400 pages were filled with a huge journey across the sea, across the desert, and across most of Itreya. For all intents and purposes, it was a great ride but I felt there was a huge lag in the story. It was almost like Jay Kristoff couldn't make up his mind on how he wanted the story to end. What I assumed would be a straightforward storyline turned out to be filled with twists and loops I didn't anticipate. It set me off a little, but when thinking about it in hindsight, my feelings for its pace are completely subjective and in truth, I think Jay Kristoff approached this book with a lot of heart being that it's the last book in the series.
Also, I wasn't a fan of how Jay Kristoff approached certain parts of this book. When Mia finally retrieves the Crown of the Moon, it almost felt like an afterthought. I also thought it a little easy for Mia's antagonist to get his powers so easily. Both of these points I was really hoping for some more story, but I guess I have to just take it as it's written.
I don't want to talk too much about the plot of the final book because there's a lot of surprises and I don't want to ruin that for anyone who hasn't read it yet.
But despite its pace, the character growth in this book is tremendous. I loved how much Jonnen grows by the end of the book. I loved how much Mia goes from a heartless wench out to murder the people who killed her family to someone who had something to stand up for. It wasn't just a sociopath we were dealing with, but a person who dealt with a lot of bad things in her life and towards the end I like to think she saw a glimmer of happiness.
I mean, it was a small glimmer. Let's not forget who wrote this book.
I also loved the surprises. I think Jay Kristoff seriously has a gift for making you second guess yourself and keeping you on your toes because each truth being revealed was so surprising and different than what I imagined.
But I think my favorite part of this whole series was the lore. Jay Kristoff did an amazing job building this world and I was so invested in finding out what happened to Cleo and the darkins and what Mia's special powers means to her. I was so excited to see Niah and Aa and Anais and how their stories incorporate to the bigger story with Mia. Seeing how this all unfolds in the final book was beautiful and so exciting. All the little poems and lines just finally click and make sense and when you see how all of it fits together, it's like a mosaic of magic I wasn't expecting to fall so in love with.
In the end, I absolutely loved these books. I don't think they're the perfect fantasy series; I mean I have my fair share of critiques for all three of the books. But I absolutely loved the plot, the world, and the characters so much that I'll cherish this series and hype it up to anyone who wants to read something subversive.
And with that, gentlefriends, I say...
Never flinch
Never fear
And never ever forget.
TW: lots of blood. So much blood.
Darkdawn takes place immediately after the end of Godsgrave. Mia has just taken her brother and meeting Mercurio and Ash after killing Cardinal Duomo and Senator Scaeva. Right off the bat, the story moves quickly. You get a lot of info in the first 100 pages that you assume the rest of the book will take off just as quickly.
However, what I thought was a super quick start to the book turns out to be just the start and the next 400 pages were filled with a huge journey across the sea, across the desert, and across most of Itreya. For all intents and purposes, it was a great ride but I felt there was a huge lag in the story. It was almost like Jay Kristoff couldn't make up his mind on how he wanted the story to end. What I assumed would be a straightforward storyline turned out to be filled with twists and loops I didn't anticipate. It set me off a little, but when thinking about it in hindsight, my feelings for its pace are completely subjective and in truth, I think Jay Kristoff approached this book with a lot of heart being that it's the last book in the series.
Also, I wasn't a fan of how Jay Kristoff approached certain parts of this book. When Mia finally retrieves the Crown of the Moon, it almost felt like an afterthought. I also thought it a little easy for Mia's antagonist to get his powers so easily. Both of these points I was really hoping for some more story, but I guess I have to just take it as it's written.
I don't want to talk too much about the plot of the final book because there's a lot of surprises and I don't want to ruin that for anyone who hasn't read it yet.
But despite its pace, the character growth in this book is tremendous. I loved how much Jonnen grows by the end of the book. I loved how much Mia goes from a heartless wench out to murder the people who killed her family to someone who had something to stand up for. It wasn't just a sociopath we were dealing with, but a person who dealt with a lot of bad things in her life and towards the end I like to think she saw a glimmer of happiness.
I mean, it was a small glimmer. Let's not forget who wrote this book.
I also loved the surprises. I think Jay Kristoff seriously has a gift for making you second guess yourself and keeping you on your toes because each truth being revealed was so surprising and different than what I imagined.
But I think my favorite part of this whole series was the lore. Jay Kristoff did an amazing job building this world and I was so invested in finding out what happened to Cleo and the darkins and what Mia's special powers means to her. I was so excited to see Niah and Aa and Anais and how their stories incorporate to the bigger story with Mia. Seeing how this all unfolds in the final book was beautiful and so exciting. All the little poems and lines just finally click and make sense and when you see how all of it fits together, it's like a mosaic of magic I wasn't expecting to fall so in love with.
In the end, I absolutely loved these books. I don't think they're the perfect fantasy series; I mean I have my fair share of critiques for all three of the books. But I absolutely loved the plot, the world, and the characters so much that I'll cherish this series and hype it up to anyone who wants to read something subversive.
And with that, gentlefriends, I say...
Never flinch
Never fear
And never ever forget.