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poati's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Death of parent, Ableism, and Pregnancy
Minor: Murder, Torture, Sexual content, and Vomit
katharina90's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
A good amount of fluff could have been edited out but the character development is solid.
Devoting an entire book on side characters is an interesting move that mostly paid off.
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Ableism, and Death
tanvi45's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy and Ableism
Minor: War
booksofautumn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Death, Pregnancy, Murder, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Torture, War, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, and Self harm
d_iris's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
The problem with this book is that it doesn't actually advance the plot. More than half of this story takes place during the last book, but we're these characters now, who don't know anything. Everything they're learning, we already know, so what is keeping my interest? This literally only appeals to the five people out there who actually like Chaol; who care about his "growth." Now, Chaol isn't a bad character--he changes the most (second only to Aelin, who literally transplants personalities when she goes from Celaena to Aelin.) but I wouldn't say he grows, which is the issue at large with the entire series. SJM doesn't know how to grow a character, she just changes/morphs them into who she wants them to be. The resulting affect is more than a little jarring and upsetting; Your favorite characters are suddenly going against the very core of who they are (or so it can seem.) but I'll drop that topic as I've already hashed that out in my review of Empire of Storms.
I think the worst part about this book is how good it could have been. Chaol in a wheelchair trying to regain his manhood/ discover what it really means is something that could have been so compelling, but SJM didn't know how to write it. Chaol is whiny, petulant and possessive the whole book through. He says he changes at the end, but it doesn't feel that way. It feels like the fake journey that she takes ALL of her characters on; they see things differently at the end because of twue lurve! It was all they needed! All anyone needs to not be manipulative, entitled, abrasive, vindictive, reductive, and petty! Except...no. This story could have yielded so much more had Yrene and Chaol NOT been romantically linked. Yrene's journey of forgiveness could have been more touching had she NOT fallen in love with Chaol (spoiler alert... I guess? It's a pretty obvious plot point...)
Oh and absolutely EVERYTHING is linked for no other reason than SJM thinks it's incredibly clever to do so. I swear she thinks it makes it look more like a fully crafted, well plotted series rather than the fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants, moment to moment series it actually is.
I'm ranting at this point...I'll return to fix it at a later date, when my ire has died down. Suffice to say that this is the 3rd, possibly 2nd worst book in the series.
2/5
Minor: Ableism
aileron's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Blood, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Physical abuse, Pregnancy, War, Sexual assault, Suicide, Animal death, Slavery, and Torture
sarahyjackson's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Also best steam.
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Blood, Sexism, and Ableism
Moderate: Vomit and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexual violence
ksykes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book definitely needed a better editor—a) it didn’t need to be this long, and b) there are sentence fragments, typos, etc. GALORE. I also think this would have been much better published before Empire of Storms. We were left on such an emotional high at the end of that book and I feel like Tower of Dawn has dissipated that. Plus, not knowing what was happening with Aelin would have ratcheted up the tension had Tower of Dawn been published first.
All in all, it was okay—I loved Nesryn’s storyline, but the rest of it was kind of boring. It just wasn’t as fun as the other books in the series, and to be honest, that’s why I’ve always overlooked so many of the issues in Sarah’s books. Will definitely be continuing the series with the final book—I’m too far in now!—but I do hope it’s better edited and the joie de vivre that’s in the other books returns.
Moderate: Cultural appropriation and Ableism
Initially I felt a little uncomfortable with Sarah’s approach to Chaol’s injury and disability at first but I actually kinda like how she ended it, and was interested to read Brittney’s review [herbookishthings.com/towerofdawn] that talks a bit more about that:
Sarah mentioned she spent a long time reading and researching Ghengis Kahn, and spent a long time in front of the audience describing how he ran his empire. Despite being seen as a ‘villainous’ figure in history, his empire was founded on the acceptance of all religions. She talked a lot about how he valued education and reading and such. I’ve seen people throw the ‘culture appropriation without research’ accusation at Sarah, but she credits Ghengis Kahn in the end of her book, and it was really neat to hear about the time and effort she spent studying him.
[T]he new cultures and characters were such a breath of fresh air. A majority of the book is spent world building and the development of new characters that will play vital roles in the next installment. I can’t speak to the accuracy of how these characters are represented, but I really loved how strong and courageous they are. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but the Southern Continents are lead by the khagan and his royal family. The new princes and princesses are literally SO cool and easily became my favorite characters. There are also ruk riders which I won’t touch too much on, but holy crap, they are going to bring a whole new level of epic to the series.
I was also unsure about her approach to Antica as I feel like Sarah as a history of cultural appropriation but, again, I was surprised at how decently Sarah handled this. Almost all of the characters are POC; I think Chaol and Yrene are the only white people with page time in this book. And there’s also a major side character who is queer, though I think that was handled a little oddly at times.
madmadmaddymad's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It’s the perfect breather, for how intense this series has been to this point. A romantic, emotionally deep, healing journey. And told from the point of view of Chaol, a character that I damn near forgot about. If you had told me when I started this series, that a one-off book told from a random side character’s point of view would a: hold my interest, and b: leave me feeling so invested, I never would have believed it.
But this book is just! So incredible! I really felt every emotion, and I am ready to get back to Aelin and the others, I’m ready for them to save the world, now!
Let’s go!
Graphic: Ableism and Mental illness