Catherine's Reviews > Spin the Dawn

People who follow my reviews might have read the one not long ago where I said this book reminded me why I love and still read a lot of YA fantasy after so many disappointments with this genre. Well, this book is the one that reminded me why after a while, I became a little tired of YA fantasy. I hope my next read will remind me again why I love YA fantasy and how it can be great.

To be fair, it's far from being one of the worst novels I've ever read. The writing isn't bad, the idea isn't bad either and every flaw I can find in this book is present in so many other books as well. I've read far worse YA fantasy, but with this one I was just too tired of all those things that always annoy me. I mentioned that I read a book that reminded me why I read and love YA fantasy: it wasn't original, it was even predictable, but it was done in a way that made me love the story, the characters, the relationships. For you, that book might be Spin the Dawn and if that's the case, it will be great!

Now, why this book didn't work at all for me:

1) The world-building is... actually, I didn't find it. I know I said I would go to the ophthalmologist, but it's just because I haven't been since a few years so I'm doing a check-up. It's not because I can't see anymore, even if that book would have been making me doubt that this appointment was actually an emergency. So, if someone sees the world-building, please point me in the right direction. I only know it's Asian, so i takes place somewhere in Asia.

2) No, the writing wasn't bad, but it's really more for the younger YA audience, maybe even MG. There's nothing wrong with this of course, it's just not for me most of the time. It's also present in the story: very MG instead of YA. For example, Maia getting into trouble and each time, we know it's gonna work out just fine.

3) The heroine and the romance (unfortunately, I can't really separate those two, which is a problem): Maia can sew, which can be useful. Don't laugh, I'm trying to find something positive to say. I can't sew and she can, which I guess is a quality. Otherwise, the strong female character compared to Mulan (my Mulan, my favorite Disney movie) isn't her. I don't know where she is, once again I looked but didn't find. Once she had a love interest, we went from the boring part of the book (the tailor part) to the annoying part of the book (the romance). So, Maia and Edan are in love and kissing all the time, they're gonna get married, they're gonna have babies and... wait, I don't care. Maia isn't a strong female MC at all, she's actually pretty dumb most of the time.

4) The love interest: Edan himself wasn't more interesting than Maia. He's basically the cliché of the arrogant guy who fall in love and becomes all sweet with his girlfriend - and planning their wedding and their babies while kissing all the time. I saw the trope so often that at one point, I can't even separate those male characters since they're basically all alike.

Basically, this book failed to make me care about the main character, the romance and what was happening. I just finished it because I don't like to DNF a book.