Night of the Dragon

Book Title: Night of the Dragon

Author: Julie Kagawa

Series: Shadow of the Fox #3

Date Started: April 17th 2020

Date Completed: April 19th 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Historical

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Look, the Shadow of the Fox trilogy has been fun. I've made a lot of arguments pointing out my issues with it, but I have also tried to make it clear I found a lot of entertainment in it as well. I got what I was expecting, ups and downs, the whole way through and that counts for a lot.

I've had the same pet peeves about the writing style throughout the series; flippant narration, abundant cliches, overly-direct plot clues, confusing perspectives etc. What felt more prominent in Night of the Dragon was that a lot of things are said to sound cool rather than to make sense. When a character says two contradicting sentences mere lines apart it pulls you out of the narrative as a reader because you question yourself and the author - which is fine in a first draft but at this point, it contributes to making everything feel messy.

For this last instalment, we basically have a massive battle from very early on - or rather four or five battles because the baddies and 'rules' keep (predictably) changing. With all the illusions and confusing perspectives, it's not the easiest to keep track of, but it is definitely entertaining. The rest is as expected: melodrama, romantic angst, monster fighting. Kudos to Kagawa for not totally copping out at the end, which she definitely had the opportunity to do. I'm sure a lot of people will be really satisfied even if the might see it coming.

Really, the only thing that really disappointed me was the fact that Tatsumi's transformation had zero impact (there are quite a few events in this that you could cut out of the book and the actual plot wouldn't be affected but this was the only one I was genuinely frustrated by). Other than that, you get to see all the characters doing their thing, Yumeko has a cool arc and finale, and the monsters are demons are at the top of their game.

In a nutshell: exciting, engaging, eye-rolling, but enjoyable. This trilogy has given me some much-needed respite over the week I read all three in. It's a worthy addition to the catalogue of YA, not least for its freshness and authentic exploration of Japanese mythology; but it's probably tedious for those outside of the direct YA audience.