Tower of Dawn

First of all, I, like everyone else, judge books by their covers and this one has a stunning cover. I love the shade of blue, and the texture is warm and fuzzy.

Second, this book is insanely heavy! It’s nearly 700 pages, but it only looks three hundred. What’s up with that? The pages are pretty thin… Is this book denser than average? It is so heavy! It made it hard to carry. This is a serious issue.

The story was good overall, although it didn’t contain as much action as the other books in our beloved series and it was strange to not see our usual characters. I love Aelin and her swagger, and I was slightly upset that she wasn’t in this book, although I was happy that we got to know Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene better.

Speaking of Chaol and Yrene, it’s like they shoved all the impossible-to-pronounce character names into one book! How did you just pronounce Chaol and Yrene in your head? It was probably very different from how everyone else pronounces it and the pronunciation that was deemed “correct”.

I pronounced Chaol’s name differently in every book until I bothered to look it up. Even after I looked it up, I pronounce it inconsistently.

My pronunciations of Chaol:

• Chale
• Chay-oll
• Kha-all
• Cowl (like scowl, but without the s)

The actual pronunciation of Chaol:

• Kay-all
• Note: Even with this clarification of the pronunciation, I have no idea what it’s supposed to sound like. I now say it as “Kale”, like the vegetable.

 

My pronunciation of Yrene:

• Why-reen

The actual pronunciation of Yrene:

• Yea-ray-nah (like Uranus)
• Note: At least the actual pronunciation for this one is prettier than what I thought it was.

 

I liked that Chaol was developed more in this book. While he was an important character in the beginning of the series his weight dwindled as it continued, so it was nice that he got his own book. All the other characters should get their own books too. Especially Lysandra.

What is this book in relation to the others anyway? It’s not the sixth book, as it happens at the same time as the fifth book. It’s definitely not a novella.

I refer to it as the second fifth book, because this confuses people and that pleases me.

WARNING. SPOILERS BELOW.

For basically the entirety of the book, I wanted to scream at the characters because I knew who Yrene’s mysterious benefactor was and who Falkan’s niece was and who Falkan’s assassin was and I just wanted to tell them. It was ripping my mind apart. And that one point where Falkan mentioned that he “knew an interesting assassin”. *Explosions*. ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE MYSTERIOUS ARE AELIN!!!

And then the part where Chaol’s spine shattered again. Another screaming moment.

It was annoying at the beginning how Chaol kept thinking he was worthless because of his disability because obviously, he wasn’t. But they fixed his spine and then it shattered again a few weeks later! That’s like finishing a manuscript for a writing competition, then realizing that you misread the word count, so you have to start over. All that work, lost!

I am glad that Chaol came to accept his wheelchair at the end, but it seemed kind of abrupt, like his entire mentality changed in the space of a few pages.

I was going to talk about another point, but I’ve forgotten.

 

Sudden Ending.