Darkdawn
Fantasy, High Fantasy
Jay Kristoff
Nevernight, Book # 3
St. Martin's Press
September 3rd 2019
Hardcover
512
English
July 13, 2021 October 3, 2021
Beat the Backlist, Finishing The Series, Mount TBR, The Backlist Reader
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?
About the book
And here I am finally reviewing the third and final book of Nevernight series. In Godsgrave, Mia managed to win the greatest games of Godsgrave and to kill her two enemies. This book starts with Mia running away with her newly found little brother from the Magni, but the Red Church is hot on her heels.
What I think
Did I like the book? Yes the story deserves to be liked. Did I like everything? No. There is a sore point in this story and that’s Ashlinn. Her, but especially the relationship with Mia ruins the book and not because it’s a woman-woman relationship, but because it’s a “I killed your boyfriend and it’s like it never happened for you” relationship. I can’t really understand how the author can justify this. It is true that we are in a world where killers exist and they too must love someone, but to lose her mind like Mia did for the murderer, not only of her boyfriend but above all, of her friend. I do not accept it. And if such people really exist, please stay away from me. In addition, their meetings were made only to lengthen the pages and in addition to not having read them, I found them useless, one above all, I wanted to kill Ashlinn for her stupidity. If it hadn’t been for this detail (and the ending, I wanted to throw up) the book would have been beautiful, because the real story really deserves it.
Style
Unlike others, I have always liked the footnotes, but here they practically disappear for a long time and then return without making any logical sense (I think the author himself forgot about this literary use he used in the first books and then only remembers it at the end and I know that in the book he says this, but he also says that he has not forgotten, but then he forgets it again anyway).
The book is long, it could have been shorter, but as mentioned it has been lengthened by amorous incomprehensible encounters out of place, used only to put a representation that didn’t even have chemistry.
Characters
Can we get rid of Ashlinn altogether? Because it is obvious that we can’t eliminate Mia since she is the protagonist. Without her the book would have had at least 4 stars, 5 if he hadn’t wanted to put two story lines in one.
I loved Jonnen / Lucius and his relationship with Mia. Even if sometimes I wanted to slap him, the things he does make sense and so I can’t blame him when he takes sides with Scaeva, because as Mia says, 9 years of conditioning are hard to erase compared to a few weeks with her. The only thing I find absurd is that Mia often carries a 9/10 year old child in her arms when she is 18.
Another character I liked was Mercury. I loved him more than any other character. His adoptive love for Mia is genuine and is what all adopted children should find.
Conclusion no spoilers
Be that as it may, the book leaves nothing in unexplained, what was not explained in the first two books is explained here, apart from a small fact which I will talk about later. I like Mia (if you don’t count her childhood crush on the killer of her best friend, sorry, but I can’t forgive her for that), but her path is consistent. I like that in the end she prefers to be alone rather than see her “familia” of Gladiatii die for one of her battle.
In conclusion, however, the series deserves to be read, the world is particular and well explained, it gets lost a bit in the last book but otherwise it’s not bad, Despite the constant presence of Ashlinn to ruin my reading, I still devoured the book (I know it does not appear from the start and end dates but I read the first chapter and then abandoned it for various reasons, when I took it back in my hand at the end of September, I devoured it).
Discussion
Read only if you’ve read the book
The “pre-ending” does not make sense or rather it is not well explained. Mia is the chosen one to bring the night back to earth, but how does she do it? She dies and her energy is released and the night comes back? or in some other way? The book is so focused on the battle between Mia and Sceava that it gets lost a bit. Or maybe I got lost because I was literally falling asleep when Ashlinn reappeared for the umpteenth time. Besides, it would have been better for Ashlinm to stay dead and Mia, too, herself.
What made it lose stars in the end is the ending, the last chapter / epilogue that didn’t have to be there, because despite the night returning so randomly, Mia’s death made sense. And it was beautiful like that. I hate it when you bring characters back just for the fun of it (that’s why I don’t watch Beautiful and I hated The Vampire Diaries in the end). This takes away one star, the relationship between Mia and the killer of her best friend takes away the other. Among other things, the epilogue was predictable especially after Ashlinn also returns from the world of the dead. Which immediately made me realise what happened to Mia, because it was obvious that in order for them to be together she had to come up with that plan. And believe me, I hate it when the main character dies at the end and to say I preferred Mia dead and buried is saying a lot since it’s the kind of ending I never want.
