 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about Dark Dawn. If you've watched my channel then you know that I am a fan of Jay Kristoff and I'm a fan of the Nevernight Chronicle, or I was. I did not care for Dark Dawn and this just is a continuation of a trend this year. I did not like Aurora Rising and it was extremely disappointed and now I didn't like Dark Dawn. And my pet theory about this is that Jay Kristoff is stretched too thin that he's writing too many things all at once and he can't give any of them his full attention because again I have read his books before and loved them and the only thing that I can perceive or conceive of that has changed is how many different projects he's working on simultaneously and I think it's to the detriment of all of those projects. Now you're here to hear about Dark Dawn. I didn't like Dark Dawn. I have very mixed feelings about it and I didn't rate it as low as I might have done if it wasn't part of the Nevernight Chronicle because the third book it's still kind of living off the fumes of the greatness that was Nevernight and God's Grave. So remnants of that greatness sort of carry this book but pretty much everything about it that is new, everything about it is its own thing in my opinion was terrible and terribly executed. There were so many things about it that I disliked from the choices made with the plot, the choices made with the characters, the choices made with how to tell it that there was very very little that I liked about the book which is a huge letdown because it's the conclusion of the series so it just leaves everything with a bad taste in my mouth. If the middle book in a series is not great I also usually still consider reading the last book and if the last book sort of redeems it then it's okay then I'll still rate the series highly because you know it took a dive in the middle but it fixed itself. When the last book in the series is the dive there's nothing to save it anymore that's it it's done it's over and it's bad. My last impression of this series is that it's bad and it paints the other the previous books in a bad light to me because my last memory is of the last book it's bad. So why is it bad? I'm going to try to talk briefly just generally and then dive into spoilers so if you haven't read it yet then you can at least see the beginning bit. So it's already kind of spoilery because I'm going to assume that you've read Never Night and God's Grave I can't be that non-spoiler it's a third book in a series. Dark Dawn picks up exactly where God's Grave left off which is fine which is great because the way God's Grave ends makes leaves you gasping for more which is why also it's as an incomplete series if I just had Never Night and God's Grave and pretended Dark Dawn doesn't exist that's impossible because the way God's Grave ends you need resolution you need dark dawn and it's bad. While I would say that Never Night is very much focusing on the school setting the red church and that's kind of the vibe and the tone and the type of story that it is and then God's Grave is very much a gladiator story and that's the kind of book that it is this third book I don't know what it is it doesn't have a cohesive theme or structure or central driving thing around which everything kind of centers it's just kind of wrapping up loose ends constant jokes randomly inserting new characters drama angst some you know R rated content just because and then it ends and it ends in a way that I was not expecting and did not care for so while everything in the first two books seemed to the little stuff and the big stuff the jokes and the serious moments the violence the sex all of it was always very tightly driving towards a very determined conclusion or very it was all tied together in a way that seemed very important so again if she was killing somebody there was a reason for it there was buildup for it the stakes were high and you felt real danger if she was fucking someone it was again it was driving the plot forward it was something very significant for her character development something very significant for the plot it was always a purposeful there was a reason this was happening there was a reason we were being told about it and in this third book we had all of the same elements that the first two books had we had the violence we had the jokes we had the sex but none of it seemed to be for a purpose it was just sort of go through the motions so that we can get to the end and and I got to the end and I was exhausted because it all just was all over the place all the time and I felt nothing the entire time and it made no sense so in the first two books again there were character deaths that even for more minor characters that left me gasping that left me wondering that left me shook there were more character deaths I think in the third book just like body count wise and half the time I was like who is this again and the other half the time I was like oh yes that's sad whatever who cares the first two books there were such a wonderfully crafted mystery element to everything there were questions that we were asking there were clues there were hints there was conspiracy so everything was always giving you slightly more information as you're slowly piecing together this puzzle and dark dawn your questions are largely answered you already in pretty early on they're answered so really the purpose of dark dawn is to just sort of play things out and see who lives and who dies and I frankly didn't care who would live and who would die I had my answers the answers weren't good they were not answers that I found satisfying after all of the interesting questions and then when it boiled down I was like what am I reading this for like halfway through the book I was sitting there asking myself what is it that I'm wondering what is it that I need to still find out all right who lives and who dies that's pretty much it that's all that's left to this book is figuring out who lives and who dies that's not enough of a reason especially when the choices made with the characters made me dislike the characters so I frankly didn't care if they would live or die the first two books felt like they were taking themselves very seriously and I don't mean that in a bad way I mean there was there was constantly humor thrown in and there was stark and and whatever but ultimately the sense was that the author was taking this world and these characters seriously and I as the reader did too especially in God's grave God's grave remains my favorite the stakes seemed so high and realistic in the sense of I really felt the limits of what Mia could do and could not do and her power was incredible but also not limitless and the people around her who were her enemies I felt the hatred that she felt and the the misery that she was in the suffering that she was going through the things she was willing to do to get to her goal it was very well done and I felt all of it and again the character deaths struck home and when she achieved something it really felt earned and when people praised her I was like hell yeah in this third book people are just running around from scene to scene doing stuff killing people fucking each other and I didn't feel anything I didn't feel like the stakes were real I didn't have any questions left I didn't feel like the author was taking it seriously the jokes in it were such absurd self-referential self-indulgent meta breaking the fourth wall type of jokes that even in small quantities would have probably annoyed me there was just so much of that that I was it it really seemed like the twist in dark dawn is that this has all just been a giant joke this whole time and the more fool you for taking this seriously and I I did not like it so I think that's really all I can say without being spoilery so if you have not read dark dawn and you care about spoilers then I recommend you leave so in God's grave I never really I was never really super shipping Ashlyn and Mia but I could understand why Mia would need the comfort of Ashlyn the kind of situation she was in because again the stakes felt genuinely high the fact that she would need that kind of release that she would need to let go in some way and that Ashlyn is the one that's there yeah I can buy that war and dire situations like this you know make strange bed fellows that's literally a saying and they were literally bad fellows so I can buy that that they would be sort of wartime fuck buddies I can I get it even though Ashlyn killed trick and that seems very out of character for Mia to to put aside something because she's clearly the type to hold a grudge to an obscene degree so it seems slightly unbelievable that she would ever ever let go of the grudge against somebody who would kill trick but fine in this dire situation in the fact that you just need that release okay I'll buy it so it didn't bother me in God's grave because that's how it came across to me in dark dawn Mia and Ashlyn being painted as the sort of true love I don't buy that at all for one I don't understand at all why Mia would feel that way about Ashlyn even if Ashlyn hadn't killed trick like that Ashlyn doesn't really have any character development or growth throughout the series she just kind of is so there's no there's no reason that I can identify for Mia to really love Ashlyn and then because there's no reason then the fact that she killed trick is that much worse if she was that incredible it's where I could totally see why Mia would feel conflicted I would still think it was out of character for her to set aside her hatred of somebody who would kill trick but if Ashlyn was that amazing I understand that that conflicting situation that Mia is in there's really nothing between them except a physical relationship and anytime a love story is built on entirely a physical relationship I don't buy it there has to be more that's just lust that's not love that's lust whereas by contrast the person who was demonstrating what I view as actual love was trick trick was the one who yes he's obviously physically attracted to Mia but he was the one willing to set aside his own feelings because he cares about Mia he's the one willing to make sacrifices for Mia he's the one willing to forgive the person who killed him because Mia loves them those are all incredible examples of actual love not just lust and all Ashlyn did was be snarky and rude and cruel and lustful and then this book is constantly driving home how Mia needs Ashlyn to feel hope at the end how she how Ashlyn represents how all of this can end happily that she doesn't have to be a monster that she doesn't have to be a wicked thing at the end of all of this and how on earth does Ashlyn represent any event if anyone represents that kind of redemption and positivity it's trick so if that's what this is going to be then it has to be trick if you're going to tell me that Mia wants to own the fact that she's a selfish cunt then fine she can be with Ashlyn and that can be true love and they deserve each other if you're going to tell me that Mia thinks Ashlyn represents what is all goodness and kindness and wonderful happiness at the end of the day no fuck off trick represents those things so if you love that as an idea then you then you love trick trick got done dirty and I honestly because of the way that I felt about Mia the more trick said that he would do anything for Mia I just wanted to shake the boy I wanted to be like trick you are great you are wonderful I don't know why on earth you would come back from the dead for Mia because you deserve better she does not deserve this level of devotion from you from anyone but not from you trick love is blind but yikes yikes yikes trick deserves so much better I want a book about trick and not this book and then again throughout the story Mia's her revenge quest was really watered down and I didn't really feel the urgency of that anymore and even Mia really didn't because she kept saying well how am I different from him the only thing that I did find interesting and entertaining and worth it was her relationship with her brother I thought that was interesting and I thought it was fairly believably developed the kind of conflicting emotions that Jonan would feel about his whole world being shattered however it was too fast for Jonan to kind of begin to I know he's a child but for him to begin to accept Mia I feel like this needed to have taken a lot longer and like I would believe it it just when it later in the book I kind of thought it because this book was dragging for me I thought it had taken longer and when Jonan was like I've only he's feeling conflicted but thinking to himself that he's actually only known Mia for eight weeks and when he said eight weeks I thought back and couldn't believe it it was only eight weeks this seemed like it should take a lot longer for people to have felt this way achieved everything they did it seemed like they were traveling for forever but apparently all of that since her fight and the end of God's grave had only been eight weeks which is ridiculous to me and then there was just so many characters thrown in from back from her red church days and from all of them all the characters from God's grave that I hadn't it's been a while since I read God's grave I didn't remember who half of them were and there wasn't a lot given us to us to remind us who they were so when they were dying all the time and you could always tell when they were about to die because there was always a scene where we suddenly highlighted that character and I would sit there thinking I kind of maybe remember what they are now at least I kind of at least give more of a shit about them and they're dead okay that's why we were being made to feel something so it didn't work you know it's very obviously trying to manipulate my emotions but it didn't work and then the scenes where Mia was fucking Ashlyn in God's grave this was significant because it was driving the plot forward it was developing the fact that Mia is letting go of her hatred and needing this kind of release and putting her trust in someone and like developing this so and seeing the map on Ashlyn like that's important to the plot like even in God's grave the amount of it was probably unnecessary but it was still significant to the plot here we were just pausing every so often so we could have a scene with them fucking each other why because fans are this it certainly didn't drive the plot forward whereas the one instance where she does kiss trick that is significant to the plot so that should be in there and having a few instances to remind us that Ashlyn and Mia are banging each other okay fine to remind us that this is going on but we didn't need to see all of it it was literally just there for fan service and then the absolute most like aggravating thing of all in this book was this whole plot about how the nevernight chronicle books are in the library in the red church that as a concept is already pushing the limits of what i'm willing to read and accept and think is fine and then not only were those books in the library he was describing the uk covers and the sprayed edges are you fucking joking are you fucking joking am i supposed to take these books seriously because i really feel like you're just laughing in my face now the first two books were great and i invested in them and when you're gonna write like this this seems like the snl version of nevernight like are you kidding me they're going to the library of the red church to find the exact books that you would order from fucking waterstones or golds bro that pulled me out of the story and pissed me off the fact that someone's own story would be written in their time before it's happened as like a tiny y me magic concept it's not my favorite idea but you could do some interesting things with that for sure but you're describing actual books that are on my shelf right now like fuck off and then in addition to that the constant self-referential jokes weaving into the story the kind of criticisms that jay himself gets so people saying who would read a book with footnotes in it and you really do like your prose don't you and it's a bit wordy and all these kind of criticisms that people level at jacristoff put them in the story like that there was an instance of this in a luminae which i thought was interesting and funny and the story itself was kind of more lighthearted and it was just the one instance where some characters said something about how they should write a book about what's happened to them but no one buys sci-fi because someone i think told j&a me that they'd never sell a luminae because sci-fi doesn't sell so like fine that's cute and it's a modern setting and it's kind of more of a quirky funny book anyway so it's fine for never night to do this to this degree no i already didn't like where this was going i already didn't like where the characters were choosing i already thought the plot was everywhere and nowhere at once and then to do this no i'm done and then to promise throughout the books that mia is going to die at the end and even especially in dark dawn with everyone now reading never night in the plot constantly talking about mia's gonna die mia's gonna die and then she didn't even fucking die trick died again no no no no after trick died again i was like okay i guess everyone's gonna die and then ashlyn died i was like yep and when ashlyn died i didn't give a shit but fine ashlyn's dead trick's dead then mia will die too because we have already been promised that she's dead and it's less sad now because i mean everyone she cared about is dead so may as well but nope she comes back from the dead to be with back from the dead version of ashlyn because true love meanwhile trick just gets to die again because i because why i don't know why didn't mia die at the end that would have at least been a satisfying conclusion just i don't even know what these books are anymore everything that i thought they were where they were going dark dawn just shadow all over it so i think i gave the book three stars because like i'd still love the series the at least the first two books and i i love the promise of what it could have been and jay christoff is still witty he does still have moments of brilliance he does still have some amusing jokes his footnotes still have some interesting world building some of his ideas are still clever so i can't bear to give it the kind of rating that i would give a truly awful book that has no plot and no world building and nothing going for it so i mean the rating system of five stars is so painfully inadequate and and flawed so i gave it three but it's more just because i respect the work and craft that went into the series this book really just pissed me off and especially because i genuinely feel like jay christoff could do better and that he would have done better if he wasn't working on so many other things and it wasn't just trying to sell books i just there's such a stark contrast between the style of the writing and the quality of the writing between god's grave and dark dawn that when i ranted and raved in my overriding review saying i could not believe that jay christoff and amy kopp had written that book i feel that way about dark dawn i can't believe this is the same writer i mean obviously it is because he has a very distinct style and that is still present but this book was just a giant joke everything was just a giant fucking joke and um yeah i feel a bit abused by it so let me know in the comments down below how you felt about dark dawn if you're in it if you're at this point in the video i really hope you've read dark dawn or you really don't plan to so you don't care yeah i felt let down i i think other people did like it so i'm very happy for you if you liked it because i wish i liked it i would be a much happier person if i did i will continue to read his writing hopefully we'll get better i'd like to think that maybe his brain is more occupied with his new project uh empire the vampire is up next so perhaps he was just over it when it came to never night and it was ready to move on in which case like still fuck you for like doing a sturdy life back because we still care about your books and you made us care but i'll still read his next book and if it's if it's still bad well then my love of j christoff may need to be revisited let me know your thoughts in the comments down below i post videos on saturdays so like and subscribe i'll see you next saturday bye