Reviews with content warning for Ableism - Tower of Dawn

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

67 reviews

aksmith92's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

I read Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn as a tandem read, as requested by most BookTokers I've seen out there. Many recommend this because they love Aelin and Rowan and didn't want to be a part of them for one whole book; plus, there will ALWAYS be Chaol haters. I honestly don't care much about Aelin and Rowan (sorry!), and I am notoriously known for thinking there is more than meets the eye with Chaol. But, I will admit it: the tandem read slightly improved my experience with my Throne of Glass journey. While reading nearly 1400 pages, give or take, seemed daunting, I did fly through this read (these reads?).

Set up: The main characters are thrown into every direction as war breaks out between citizens and the infamous Vlag. Empire of Storms follows Aelin, Rowan, Dorian, Manon, Lysandra, Aedion, Elide, Lorcan, and others we know and love. Tower of Dawn follows Chaol and Nesryn as they trek to the southern continent to, hopefully, gain support from the kaghan there in the upcoming war. Also, to see if they can get Chaol walking again. In this book, we meet Yrene again after briefly meeting her in The Assassin's Blade.

What I liked: Lysandra. I also enjoyed Elide's and Lorcan's characters. I liked their romance. Theirs didn't feel forced per se, but their POVs were sometimes redundant. Finally, I was invested in this plot. I wanted to see how SJM wove in all the moving pieces and how it would end. I was invested. I didn't see TOO many plot holes. This is some decent high fantasy plotting.

What I didn't like: Aelin. Always. She's so annoying, even if she spouts some funnies occasionally. I didn't enjoy Rowan and Aelin either. "Just bang!" I would say throughout this novel, and THEN they did, and I was underwhelmed. Something about velvet-strapped steel also just....yuck.

"She really tortured them, she realized, by shoving her way into danger whenever she felt like it. Perhaps she'd try to be better about it if this dread was at all like what they felt." LOL, yeah, AELIN.

This (these) book(s) also did teeter on the ROMANCE scale so much. I was finally glad not to have a love triangle anymore, and thankfully, those (kinda) went away, but everybody is paired with somebody. I'm not sure why it annoyed me because I've read other books where this happens (Roots of Chaos - Samantha Shannon), but I don't think anybody quite hypes it up and makes it a considerable plot point like SJM. I also wished I counted how many kisses characters gave at the "corners of mouths."

"She thought of the new, delicate scars on his back - marks from her own nails (*cough* sex *cough*), that he'd refused to heal with his magic, and instead had set with seawater, the salt locking the scars into place before the immortal body could smooth it over. Her claiming marks, he'd breathed into her mouth the last time he'd been inside her. So he and anyone who saw them would know that he belonged to her. That he was hers, just as she was his." WHAT. First. What? Second. How would people look at his back and be like THOSE ARE FROM F'in! Third. What. Fourth. The dramatics. Fifth. What. Lastly, they can do that with salt water? Since freaking when? This internal monologue was also the start of a BATTLE IN WAR. Lol. Just lol.

Lastly, there is a plethora of toxic perseverance and the glorification of war, which is something I must get used to with SJM writing. In addition [I'm putting a spoiler on this just in case], but

kind of healing Chaol's injury wasn't done super well in my opinion. He was disabled and then "magically" healed, yet still tied to Yrene's life and it can still go wrong? It's honestly a cop out of him being healed enough to still be mr macho man yet then things can go wrong? I don't know, it didn't quite sit well for me.

Overall, though, it was fine. This was a solid read (reads). However, I have officially decided that my TBR is too long for any more SJM. I will finish this series with Kingdom of Ash, and I will stop reading her works. Fated mates, toxic perseverance, and unnecessary romanticism of war simply isn't for me and I will officially put the books down after.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0

I wanted to read this book as I’ve never read any of Sarah J. Maas’s work and I was interested to see what the hype was all about. I was kindly gifted this series and A Court of Thorns and Roses by my parents. So, I thought I would start at the beginning. I’ve been really enjoying this series and this tandem reading stressed me out from page one and now I'm nervous for the final book of the series.

This book follows Chaol Westfall and he has always defined himself by his unwavering loyalty, his strength, and his position as the Captain of the Guard. But all of that has changed since the glass castle shattered, since his men were slaughtered, since the King of Adarlan spared him from a killing blow, but left his body broken. His only shot at recovery lies with the legendary healers of the Torre Cesme in Antica. The stronghold of the southern continent’s mighty empire. And with war looming over Dorian and Aelin back home, their survival might lie with Chaol and Nesryn convincing its rulers to ally with them. But what they discover in Antica will change them both and be more vital to saving Erilea than they could have imagined.

I love Chaol, since the first book, I have loved Chaol and just wanted him to be happy and at peace. I love multiple POV and loved that Sarah did this and gave us Chaol story at the same time with Aelin being back home. I think his emotional healing journey was needed and I know some people don’t like or struggle with this book, but I adored this journey. I was wondering when we would see Yrene after the start of her journey in Assassin’s Blade and holy smokes the way that she comes into and the tension between Chaol and Yrene at first, ooof. I loved it. I cannot wait for Yrene to reunite with everyone in the next book and the fact that Chaol knew who helped Yrene, I was squealing.

It took quite a while for me to get into this book and I don’t know if it was the Tandem read, or just because it took a lot for the catching up of the previous series and trying to remember where all the characters were and all the dilemmas. I am so scared for Chaol and Manon and Elide. I wanted more of Yrene and was hoping she would kick ass. This book dropped a bit with all the planning and the healing, and I wanted more action, but once all the planning had been done, the plot twists and the actions were so jaw-dropping.

I am so ready for the last book of the series as well as not ready because I don’t want this series to end but I also want to see if everyone is going to survive.

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neko_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

So I read this book in the tandem with eos, and honestly I think that it’s the only way to enjoy this book the best. Anyway onto the actual review

I DONT UNDERSTAND THE CHAOL HATE. He got so much character development in her book and by the end I was grinning at this book lol.

I also love how yrene made such an amazing comeback and honestly she’s one of my new favourite characters (as someone who wants to be a doctor)

Anyway this is amazing and a criminally underrated book. Anyone who didn’t like it read it again. But tandem read it this time. If you still don’t like it your out of luck

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anndreya's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

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clursternhop's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Meh, this one really had ups and downs. This man really needed a woman to therapize him, gods forbid he reflect on his own. There were definitely icky moments of "wow I might as well be dead now cause I'm disabled" that really bothered me, but in the end I felt like SJM tried to kinda make up for it. I'm not sure it worked and it's not my place to judge it in that way, but I felt really weird with Choal's negatively sometimes.

I will give it to SJM I did NOT see the Maeve twist coming. I'd assumed she'd end up being the big bad in the end but just cause she's so selfish, not cause she's literally Valg. That did get me.

I've made it this far, I will finish this series. I'm ready for it to be over I think. I get why this was it's own book and I was almost intrigued with the political bits, but SJM just doesn't write rich politics like that sadly. Oh well. Excited for this to be over!

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