A review by wardenred
Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

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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