Brilliant concept, poorly executed. I like a confusing and ambiguous book (Catherine House, Wilder Girls) but only when that's intentional and adds to the atmosphere. In Dawnhounds, the world building is thin, I still don't understand how most aspects of this world (including the magic) are supposed to work, and characters that are obviously meant to be really important (Sibbi) are given hardly any development. It also seemed that in every major sequence, I'd be halfway through at least before I had any idea of what was going on, and I rarely ever found out why it was happening. There are a lot of questions I want answered and usually I'd be willing to consider the fact that this is meant to be a series so perhaps more explanation will be forthcoming in future installments, but it was also just poorly written and edited, with more mistakes than you'd usually see in even self-published works, which this isn't. I hear it's being/been re-edited for American release, so I hope that at least is fixed, but I am left very confused as to how this book could have beaten the incredible Lord of Stariel for best novel in the Sir Julius Vogel awards in 2020.