September 2021 Bookclub Recap: Unravel The Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
BY SOPHIA
After reading Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim last month for our book club pick (and LOVING it) we both knew that we had to finish out the duology and read Unravel the Dusk (The Blood of Stars Book II) for our September book club pick.
In this month’s podcast episode, we spend some time talking about how we celebrated my 36th birthday and our favorite ways to relax before jumping into book club talk – the girl chat portion of this episode is super fun so make sure to give the episode a listen! On to the book itself though …
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
what we liked
- The happy ending was satisfactory .. both Jensine & I appreciate a good happy ending and we’re glad to see that Maia and Edan end up together, living the life that they want.
- The ending was a little reminiscent of how the Shadow & Bone trilogy ended and y’all know how we feel about THAT SERIES (hint: we love)
- Jensine liked that this book didn’t feel as rushed and boom, boom, boom in terms of plot development
what we disliked
- Maia’s internal character struggle was confusing as a reader … what motivates her? What’s her end goal? Is it to save her love? Is it to save her country? It’s obvious that she herself doesn’t know and is struggling to figure that out herself but it was equally confusing as the reader. The longer her inner debate raged on, the more bored I got.
- I don’t feel like the author did enough to make me, the reader, CARE about Maia and her struggles in this book. In book 1, we were given very clear reasons to root for her and care about her but those didn’t translate well into book 2 for me.
in conclusion
Eh, you win some and you lose some, right? Considering the pretty awesome roster of books we’ve read this year, we’re not that disappointed that this month’s book fell flat. It’s not that we hated the book but … we definitely aren’t going to be saving room on our permanent bookshelf for it either.
And ICYMI! We’re reading the entire Caraval Trilogy by Stephanie Garber for our October book club pick. This one has a lot of hype on the internet so I for one am SUPER PUMPED to read it … make sure to read along with us for next month’s book club!