A review by swampbooks
Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

3.0

It was so creative how the actual books you are reading were made a part of the story. He added layers to this series. The different fonts, the footnotes, the narrator of the story talking directly to you, and then the books themselves became a plot point. It’s just such an intriguing way to make the reader a part of the story.

The moments where he called out the problematic parts of his own writing were funny too.

ALSO!!!! He made many references to metal/rock song lyrics and I enjoyed that very much.

I will say, however, that it’s a bit messed up he brought back a black character as white. I mean I get he’s supposed to be a spooky specter but c’mon, he could’ve at least been made of shadows or something. How are you gonna whitewash your own character??

Tbh I don’t think anyone should have been brought back. It made for a corny ending, and Tric coming back brought on kind of a love triangle? It’s also important to note that he was a dead man walking throughout this book and sleeping with him would basically be necrophilia.

And speaking of sleeping with someone! It felt like there was a lot more smut in this book. If that’s your thing then hey! Perhaps you’ll enjoy this! That’s just not my thing and it was kinda a bummer that this one had so much more of it. Like he literally had them 69-ing at one point. That’s wild. At least it was bi representation I guess??

It just.... had a lot going on. Too much. It seemed to take me a lot longer to get through reading this book because I found myself not really wanting to pick it up much. O, well.