/lit/ - Literature

This book was fucking beautiful, actual art. I loved reading it and I'd have surely shed tears were I not a crusty cold-hearted lump who never cries. I feel like maybe, just possibly, I should feel some shame at admitting that an ostensibly middle-grade book has crushed me. I don't, though, because if you've read this book you understand. And if you haven't, you probably should go do that because it's better then whatever it is you're reading right now.

If The story of Anakin's love affair with Padme was actually good and everyone were y'know..Dragons, It would have largely be this book. None of the other WoFstories quite held onto me like Darkstalker has left me with fluttery feelings inside straight away. The emotional scope and impact of this thing something I was not at all expecting. You know the story is doomed to end at least somewhat badly from the start, but the emotions involved roll in thick and fast from page one. Sutherland manages to juggle a thousand emotions at once with three different dragons’ separate perspectives, and they all weave together to form a tapestry of absolute heartbreak. I could feel Clearsight's pain when she could feel her and Darkstalker's dragonets dropping out of all the futures. I liked when I could see Fathom and Indigo's dragonets.

The dread doesn’t come in giant waves of evilness, either. It’s a slow downward spiral that once it begins, drags you along until you’re flipping back through the pages wondering when it got so DARK. One moment he’s innocently creating the Dreamvisitors, the next he’s ruminating on genocide. And then, like Clearsight, you realise that nothing Darkstalker did was ever truly innocent, and he duped you just like he duped her. It’s the most retched shit I’ve read in a long time.. Everything he does has you second-guessing by the end, even knowing what the final outcome is He’s a beautiful mixture of a thousand bad things at once, a perfect storm for a dragon destined for darkness. He’s a terrifying mix of natural charm, bigotry a broken background, and a disregard for other. such a well-written and non-cliche villain.

Talking dragons shouldn’t make one feel this much or rumiate on questions of perdestination or good/evil like this. Sutherland seriously outdid herself on this thing, and now I need to go read something happy, like Lord of the Flies or Wuthering Heights. It's nothing like the main series in the best way possible.The main books are all friendship junk, this shit is a personal drama of the best kind and it is so much better.

Plot is good. Solid. Tons of twists and moments. Characters develop in natural ways and god. Read the book. Even if you're not interested in WoF, at least read this thing, it is well worth your time.

5/5, 10/10. 99/100 This might have actually been the best piece of fiction I've read in multiple years. Last book to hit me this hard was maybe the Way of Kings. It's THAT fucking good. Holy shit.