“A beginning often signals an end. That's the thing with dawn... you must first get through the night.”

Such an awesome book in so many ways, bit of a mess in quite a few others.

I truly enjoyed so many parts of this book, at times leaning closer to a 4.5 rating until some of my issues kicked in. Some technical, some possibly subjective, and some... just things that I felt uncomfortable with (such as the bipoc rep and some of the words used/comments made, particularly when portraying communities that the author is not a part of.)

I do wish the characterization would have been more consistent throughout, as it sometimes felt like changes were made to the characters to either generate shock or cover up a plot-hole. There was also the issue with a large cast of characters, giving some more time than others and letting others fall completely to the sidelines - leaving the reader with minimal information.

For example, the character of Theo is talking about like they are both 5 and 15 throughout the book. I spent the majority trying to figure out their age, feeling like every time I was sure I got confirmation, I had been wrong. This leads to a fifteen year old character being infantilized. If there had been a plot that the character was disabled, I might have understood where this was coming from. As it is, the character simply is treated like a toddler and an adult at the same time.

Also... I included a trigger warning for transphobia but I wanted to add a paragraph within the review to say that for some of this, we are in the head of the transphobic character as they are thinking and saying these things. This could be extremely triggering for some people, so I hope that you go in feeling empowered and aware.

Overall, this was such a fun read! I had a great time with it, except for in the moments when I didn't. I will be carrying on with the series, even if just for the cliffhanger. I knew that was where we were going and I'm curious to see how it will be handled.