Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

19 reviews

lettigirl101's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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dark
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

The first two books in this series were bloody, violent, and fun. They’re not the kind of thing anyone would describe as a literary masterpiece, but if you like your fluff reading on the gory side, they’re quite entertaining. This one went off that track quite a bit. 

That’s not to say it wasn’t violent or bloody, because it was. But it was very much toned down (although with this series, “toned down” still puts it in the “very gory” category). Darkdawn was much more about mythology and gods, why darkin are the way they are, the nature of family, and the complexities of father-daughter relationships. 

Normally I love cool stuff about gods and fantasy religions, so it’s weird for me to say I didn’t like it as much, but I didn’t. I was expecting something high-energy and brutal, not too complex, and focusing on Mia’s goal to murder these specific people as well as anyone who gets in her way. Instead there are god squabbles and Chosen One save-the-world stuff and everything and everyone trying to convince Mia to give up the revenge she’s spent the past decade working towards and suddenly be altruistic and self-sacrificing. It just wasn’t realistic. On top of that, the gods weren’t all that interesting, I strongly dislike love triangles, the Absurdly Powerful Protagonist trope that I loved from previous books was nearly absent, and the climactic fight was boring more than anything. 

I did finish it, and though the tone of this review may indicate otherwise, it was engaging enough that I overall enjoyed the reading experience. It was just a dramatic departure from the core of the previous two books, going from Mia’s personal bloody revenge to fate-of-the-world deity shenanigans. It felt like a low-energy, large-scope ending to a high-energy, small-scope story. 

This isn’t a bad book, and I didn’t hate it. I just had hoped for the conclusion to the action-packed, violent delight of the Nevernight trilogy to be different, and I guess a little more, than it is. 
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ieneh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-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

5.0

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midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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princess_oatmilk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

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whatevertheysay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

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breezer's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a (quite literally) earth shattering ending. Couldn't ask for anything more
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wardenred's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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.

I've started this review a few times and inevitably descended into lots and lots of spoilers for the entire trilogy. So instead of listing my entire jumble of thoughts, I'll be brief. This is a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy, unexpected in the way only inevitable things can be. It's got plenty of blood, sharp twists, sharper wit, characters fluent in deadpan snark, beautiful moments of pathos, horrible depictions of deaths, interesting worldbuilding, and, of course, vengeance. The book made me laugh a lot and cry at least four times.

Also, early on I thought the author was being too quick with revealing a few things the previous two novels were building up to. But the way he then twisted those reveals, and how much more exciting stuff he built upon them? Perfection.

 Read for the following October 2020 readathons:
- BooAThon: Blood
- StrangeAThon: Finish a series
- Sbooktober: Fantasy Costume (Fantasy)
- Gothtober2020: Female protagonist
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kommatator's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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