A little rant about Dawn of the North by Demi Winers
After reading the first couple books in The Ashen series, I had higher expectations for this book and they just totally felt flat. For one thing, Silla’s chapters are so boring, a repetition of angry Mykur and hearthfire thoughts over and over again. Rey’s chapters didn’t feel like they added much to the story at all, nor did Jonas’s. Hekla was just being so childish the entire time, Saga’s pov was sort of interesting but I couldn’t get over the fact that Kass started a WHOLE WAR by kidnapping her and they respond by allowing him to marry her. Huh?? If I lived in this kingdom I’d be peeved, regardless of the fact that she randomly shows up on a flying horse and magically saves the day. This man is problematic.
I didn’t understand the point of Jonas’s chapters—why continue to bring back this character unless you’re planning a redemption arc? And Signe’s “evil queen” vibes were a bit tacky IMO.
Overall the book had way too many storylines, and many were just unnecessary. I don’t need a rehashing of events from everyone’s perspective. This author is really bad at active voice; she always starts the chapters going over what happened before the chapter started rather than explain it through the action of the scene itself, and it’s just so lazy. She seems to have made a list of 3-4 traits for every character and just repeat them ENDLESSLY throughout the whole book (Saga’s tapping, “axe eyes” in italics, Jonas’s family mantra, Kass’s beast). It made the characters feel so goddmn shallow and boring.
For some reason, Eyvind is like the only MMC that appeals to me, maybe because we don’t get his pov. Rey feels one-dimensional, and I can’t get over the fact that Kass caused thousands of people to die and doesn’t even seem that guilty about it until they were about to lose the battle.
This book was a slog. Took me upwards of a month to get through it and I feel like it was for nothing. It was less about who the characters are as people and more about pushing “woman power” to the absolute extreme. The male characters are practically useless and only there to serve the women.
Anyone else feel this way?