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A review by lucysmith13
The Daughter of the Night by Laekan Zea Kemp
4.0
Spoilers ahead!
Ok, so I did race through this book. It was longer than I thought it would be, and I was desperate to find out how it all ended after that cliffhanger we were left with at the end of Children of the Moon. I loved The Girl In Between and The Boy In Her Dreams, and really enjoyed The Children of the Moon. While I enjoyed elements of Daughter of the Night, it wasn't as enjoyable as its predecessors.
The nature of the story has always meant that boundaries are blurred - what is reality and what is the dream state? Who can be trusted? While this adds to the story in some ways, we reach a point where it is almost impossible to tell what is a dream/nightmare and what is the real world. It becomes increasingly difficult to follow the story. Bryn's abilities fully manifest in the novel, but this also causes confusion at times. For example, she is able to move people (not in the dream state) across the world in the blink of an eye, and develops abilities similar to Roman.
The ending was difficult to accept. Major spoiler alert. Actually, I'd say it begins around a third of the way from the end. In brief, Bryn confronts Sebastian and Anso's children meet again through them. Bryn wakes up in a hospital and remains there for a good 20 chapters - this part was originally clever, but started to drag. Why was Bryn there? Was it real? Who were these other Dreamers she had never heard of? Was she actually mad? It turned out that Vogle was actually, already dead, and had been for a while. Dr Banz wasn't so bad. Apparently everything, including Bryn's death, happened because Bryn feared it would. What about the prophecy? Wasn't Anso responsible for everything that happened? Wasn't this all because of the madness of the first Dreamer? Bryn returned to Roman and confronted Sebastian again. She took his dreams and gave him back his Rogue. She imagined a future with Roman. She confronted Anso. She gave him Rodrigo's dreams, so she couldn't use his power to come back to life. (Essentially, she gave her life to Anso.)
Then we cut to Bryn and Roman living happily ever after. All of Bryn's family is alive and well, including Felix and his eye. All of Roman's family is alive and well. Bryn is going to college. We see them involved in a car crash. Bryn wakes up in hospital and remembers Anso and the Dreamers. She is the only person who does. Then she states that she is living in the dream she created.
Wait. What? Where are the other Dreamers and Rogues? Did any survive? Did they all die? What about Adham and Cole? Shay? The other Rogues who were definitely alive when Bryn faced Anso? Where are they? Do they all happen to meet anyway like Roman and Bryn? Are they all dead? Was the whole series of novels a dream? A nightmare? While the 'this-might-all-actually-be-a-dream/nightmare/inside-your-head' idea works for Inception, it really doesn't here. The happily ever after is too easy. Bryn and Roman were broken and changed by what happened, and we needed to see them cope and move on with the help of their friends and family. The books appeared to send a powerful message about being able to overcome personal issues such as mental health and family tragedy, but this was lost with the ending, or lack of it. I also felt that casting such doubt over the reality of the events devalued the whole series, and made me feel as thought it was a bit of a waste of time reading it. I felt as though I had been cheated out of an ending.
Overall, it was good, but not as good as previous installments.
Ok, so I did race through this book. It was longer than I thought it would be, and I was desperate to find out how it all ended after that cliffhanger we were left with at the end of Children of the Moon. I loved The Girl In Between and The Boy In Her Dreams, and really enjoyed The Children of the Moon. While I enjoyed elements of Daughter of the Night, it wasn't as enjoyable as its predecessors.
The nature of the story has always meant that boundaries are blurred - what is reality and what is the dream state? Who can be trusted? While this adds to the story in some ways, we reach a point where it is almost impossible to tell what is a dream/nightmare and what is the real world. It becomes increasingly difficult to follow the story. Bryn's abilities fully manifest in the novel, but this also causes confusion at times. For example, she is able to move people (not in the dream state) across the world in the blink of an eye, and develops abilities similar to Roman.
The ending was difficult to accept. Major spoiler alert. Actually, I'd say it begins around a third of the way from the end. In brief, Bryn confronts Sebastian and Anso's children meet again through them. Bryn wakes up in a hospital and remains there for a good 20 chapters - this part was originally clever, but started to drag. Why was Bryn there? Was it real? Who were these other Dreamers she had never heard of? Was she actually mad? It turned out that Vogle was actually, already dead, and had been for a while. Dr Banz wasn't so bad. Apparently everything, including Bryn's death, happened because Bryn feared it would. What about the prophecy? Wasn't Anso responsible for everything that happened? Wasn't this all because of the madness of the first Dreamer? Bryn returned to Roman and confronted Sebastian again. She took his dreams and gave him back his Rogue. She imagined a future with Roman. She confronted Anso. She gave him Rodrigo's dreams, so she couldn't use his power to come back to life. (Essentially, she gave her life to Anso.)
Then we cut to Bryn and Roman living happily ever after. All of Bryn's family is alive and well, including Felix and his eye. All of Roman's family is alive and well. Bryn is going to college. We see them involved in a car crash. Bryn wakes up in hospital and remembers Anso and the Dreamers. She is the only person who does. Then she states that she is living in the dream she created.
Wait. What? Where are the other Dreamers and Rogues? Did any survive? Did they all die? What about Adham and Cole? Shay? The other Rogues who were definitely alive when Bryn faced Anso? Where are they? Do they all happen to meet anyway like Roman and Bryn? Are they all dead? Was the whole series of novels a dream? A nightmare? While the 'this-might-all-actually-be-a-dream/nightmare/inside-your-head' idea works for Inception, it really doesn't here. The happily ever after is too easy. Bryn and Roman were broken and changed by what happened, and we needed to see them cope and move on with the help of their friends and family. The books appeared to send a powerful message about being able to overcome personal issues such as mental health and family tragedy, but this was lost with the ending, or lack of it. I also felt that casting such doubt over the reality of the events devalued the whole series, and made me feel as thought it was a bit of a waste of time reading it. I felt as though I had been cheated out of an ending.
Overall, it was good, but not as good as previous installments.