SYNOPSIS:
The greatest games in Godsgrave’s history have ended with the most audacious murders in the history of the Itreyan Republic.
Mia Corvere, gladiatii, escaped slave and infamous assassin, is on the run. Pursued by Blades of the Red Church and soldiers of the Luminatii legion, she may never escape the City of Bridges and Bones alive. Her mentor Mercurio is now in the clutches of her enemies. Her own family wishes her dead. And her nemesis, Consul Julius Scaeva, stands but a breath from total dominance over the Republic.
But beneath the city, a dark secret awaits. Together with her lover Ashlinn, brother Jonnen and a mysterious benefactor returned from beyond the veil of death, she must undertake a perilous journey across the Republic, seeking the final answer to the riddle of her life. Truedark approaches. Night is falling on the Republic for perhaps the final time.Can Mia survive in a world where even daylight must die?
***
Genre: Dark Fantasy;
Page count: 484 (Paperback); 528 (Kindle Edition)
Year of publication: 2019
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.45/5)
“This is what you’ve made of us both. Mere pieces in a game of gods.”
Okay, let me tell you what’s the deal with Darkdawn.
Three chapters in and I already got a mindfuck.
I know, I know, I thought that was impossible too, but apparently I was very wrong. It took Jay Kristoff three bloody chapters to convince my brain to stop working.
Listen to me when I say that this man thinks differently than the rest of us, plebeians.
Take that as a warning if you like. I’m just putting it in here.
Don’t get me wrong, there are still a heap of footnotes with little historical explanation and little stories full of sass that crack me up every once in a while, but in this book, things finally, FINALLY start to make some sense.
Those footnotes everyone is crazed by, including the characters in the series?
Those bloody footnotes make so much sense – all the sense – in this exactly last book of the whole trilogy.
Interesting, no?
Just be patient with them, lads. They’re worth the wait, I’d humbly say.
Because each of the three books of the series had its own vibe. Darkdawn was similar and different in equal measurements.
I would love to further explain that to you, but I simply can’t. It’s something about the whole vibe of each of the books that makes them look different and the same. Which I think is one thing writers should aspire to when they are writing more than one book of the same subject and action.
Darkdawn was somehow deeper than Nevernight, but not quite as brutal as Godsgrave. It was still filled with bloody action and jaw-dropping plot twists but at the same time, it was full of a sort of mystical side that made everything seem surreal.
And also, let’s not forget about those answers to the questions all of us who read this series ever asked!! That’s important!!
Okay, moving on.
This book became an insane mess towards the end. And I mean it. I had no idea what the hell was going on, I was ambushed from all sides and my poor dumb little heart couldn’t take so many blows at once.
All I want to say (and mean it from the bottom of my soul) is that Mia Corvere is a supreme, crazy and magnificent bitch that I absolutely adore and she is still one of my all-time favourite characters.
SHE. IS. AMAZING. LIKE. THAT.
“I am a daughter of the dark between the stars.”
But even so, I couldn’t help but not really agree with some of the decisions she had to make in this book.
And this is mainly one of the reasons this finale of the Nevernight Chronicle trilogy wasn’t awarded 5 stars from my part. Because I wasn’t fully satisfied with how things were left at the end. It felt bittersweet and honestly, it did not have to be this way given all of the insane things that us readers were put through.
“I’d tear the stars down from the heavens to fashion you a crown.”
All I want to say is that some characters deserved so much better than they were given, whereas other received thousands of times more than they were worthy of.
I still loved this book very much and I still can’t get over how much it made me hurt because it was that good.
I mean, at more than one time I was screaming WHAT WHAT WHAAAAT just because. Translating directly, that means that I bloody loved this book.
The action is insane, the world-building is still doing its thing, the stories still accurate and an amazing piece of the whole book experience and the characters are also incredible. You will most definitely try not to fall in love with them by this point, but let me whisper you a secret: you won’t be able to resist.
It’s something alluring to their brutal, blunt and gruesome nature. They kind of become loveable without even trying. Beware!
All in all, if you got to this point, then your experience with the Nevernight adventure is coming to an end and honestly, I do believe that you both enjoyed and suffered through all of this.
Just like me 😀
Keep it up!
“Fear is what keeps the dark from devouring you.”
The Dacian She-Wolf 