Review: Black Dawn

Black Dawn by Mallory McCartney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First thoughts as I was reading this were, “Okay. This has an interesting concept. Good, good.” Followed by, “Okay? Wait. What’s going on?”

Yeah. I think those two thoughts pretty much summed up all my thoughts about this book. And I’m not even kidding.

Honestly, this book has an interesting story. It has a very great concept too. It just fell short on the narrating and some other part. Here’s how a summary of the whole book, I’ll try to make this as spoiler free as I can. Though there’s nothing in this book worth spoiling in my opinion.

Emory Fae is the name of the main character. She is a princess, the daughter of Nei and Roque who founded the Academy –a school for those children who got special abilities and powers to harness and develop. Until one day, the son of the closest family of the Faes, Adair Straton, suddenly decided that he wants more power. So he killed Emory’s parents and because of it, Emory got scared so she asked Memphis and Brokk for help. And they did by sending her to another world, Earth, and wipe her memories about her past life. However, after six years of hiding, Memphis and Brokk decided that they now need Emory’s help to win this war. Emory is their main key in defeating Adair and ending this war. So they took her back from Earth and restore her memories only to have her mind in a storm between what she thought were her normal memories and those that are her real ones.


For someone who just got abducted from what she thought was her home and then got her memories restored, Emory sure gave me a weird feeling towards her character. Here’s the thing, I understand that all her life she thought that she was just a normal being living in Earth only to be kidnapped and sent to another world and have the people there say that you are their long lost princess. Kind of cliché, yes, even Emory felt this when she arrived in Keiko. But she’s got some weird feelings and decisions and even actions that didn’t quite add up no matter how fantasy the genre of this book is.

Bes, Emory doesn’t have any memory on how she used her powers but when she’s in training, it feels like she’s handling her powers all too well, like she’s already done it a hundred times before. And she isn’t a killer but her first kill feels like she’s also done it a hundred times before. Her first kill was smooth. There are parts that she doesn’t seem like a first timer at any of the things a soldier does at all.

And bes, they are in the middle of a war but she still has time to adore Memphis. Like, how are you able to even think about attraction when you’re in the middle of a war? It’s not literal but the way the book described it, it feels like they are in a crisis. Not to mention when she found out that Memphis somehow influenced her dreams so she’ll hate Brokk, she just seem to shrug it off. Like dude! One of your best friends just messed up your dreams to make you hate your other best friend and you didn’t even get mad? How? I don’t think having no recollection about them at all is an excuse. If you have no memory of them, when you find out someone did something to mess those memories up you find them and demand explanations! Wtf!

My issued towards Emory isn’t the only issue I have. There’s the narration.

The book has multiple point-of-views all narrated in third person. You bessies know that I have no problems towards third person point of view and even multiple ones. What my problem is the abrupt jump of time and places the story has without the right amount of describing in the narration part. One minute you’re reading and the characters are talking and then the next the character is somewhere else. It so fast and abrupt you won’t notice the change of scenes.

Bes don’t get me wrong, this book has a good story and concept, really. But I still didn’t enjoy it. I think this is one of those rare moments where the story is good but it’s not enough to make me enjoy it.

Hey, if you still want to give this one a try, go ahead please. Don’t let my review influence your interest in this book. I’m just saying what I thought about the book. But if you want to read it, go! I always say this before; don’t let my review affect your want to read the book.

To wrap this up, this book is good. Really it is. It just fell short for me. There are parts that I actually like but there are more parts that I dislike. I would still recommend this book to you bessies. You might have a different look on this than me.

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