bookfairy95
Daughter of Dreams and Dread by Clare Kae is a story I didn’t expect to love as much as I did in the end. Putting my thought into words and writing this review was difficult, but let me say this for a start: This book, this story is excellent!! When I started reading this book the first thing that caught my attention was the easy writing style and the sarcastic and sometimes dry humour, which is something I really love in books. The beginning of the story is intense and mysterious and it already shows these fantastical hints of magic that will accompany you throughout the story. A story that is incredibly versatile. It has magic, yes, but it also has animal companions that you just have to love - I’m talking Abraxos style -, it has deep characters that you grow to love really quickly even though they may seem a little wicked or odd in the beginning. It also has side characters that might surprise you in the further course of the story - for better and for worse. DoDaD has friendship, it has romance and banter, it has diverse characters, it has scenes that will warm your heart, because they are just so humane. It has action and fighting and a badass female lead - a female lead that changes and develops so so much throughout the story and this change doesn’t feel forced - it feels natural and it just makes sense. But DoDaD also gets really really dark. This book has a darkness I didn’t expect in this way and especially not at a scale as grand as this. It knocked me off my feet and destroyed me completely. There is pain and cruelty and heartbreak and betrayal and horrible twists and honestly some of these scenes were really heavy, so definitely prepare for some emotional turmoil and prepare to have your heart ripped to pieces… Estelle lands in this foreign world without any recollection of how she got there in the first place and she has to adapt to circumstances that are completely foreign to her, but she manages. She grows strong, because it is what she has to do. She goes through highs and lows and you ultimately do not know what to expect of her, because the things she goes through are devastating to say the least, but I won’t tell you anything about this, because that is something you need to experience for yourself and honestly the heartbreak that this story put me through is one of the reasons I ended up loving this book so much. Is this masochistic? I don’t know, but let’s be honest. These stories that leave us completely dumbfounded and these books that hurt us so much we would like to throw them against the wall… these are the best kinds of stories, because they stay with us the longest, right? Daughter of Dreams and Dread definitely is such a story for me. I know I will think of this book for a long time and I also know that I will reread it eventually. There is one character in particular, that has my heart torn in half, a character that is so cruel that I should hate him, but that’s also so broken inside that I cannot help to feel a kind of fondness for him. I will not say that character’s name, but if you end up reading this book (and I beg you, please do!) you will know who I mean. I think writing such a complex character that you hate to love and love to hate is so difficult and Clare, I applaud you for this brilliancy! There is only one minor thing that I would criticise, which is the confession and the kiss somewhere in the middle of the book. Given the circumstances and given what happened before that I found it a bit rushed. It makes sense that it needed to happen right then and there (because of what happened after), but overall I wished for a little more slowburn. Though thinking about the ending and the current situation and where the book ends, I believe that I could maybe get this in the sequel. That is why I will give an overall rating of 4.5 stars, but this is still an absolutely amazing debut novel that everyone that likes fantasy and darker books should check out!!!
