Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim is the sequel to spin the dawn and is the final book of this duology. To avoid spoilers, I’d recommend checking out my review of the first book!

And yes, lately all I have been posting is reviews, but I promise once I catch up I’ll have some fun posts planned!

This E-arc was sent to me for an honest review.

Introduction To Unravel The Dusk

Maia’s journey on sewing three dresses made out of the sun, moon and stars may have come to an end. However, she has returned back to a kingdom on the brink of war which isn’t as bad as her inner conflict. She was touched by the demon Bandur, and has been losing control of her magic and herself. With Edan gone and the need to protect her family, Maia finds herself on a conflicting journey.

Plot Of Unravel The Dusk

For the first half of the book, Edan doesn’t make an appearance. Although this didn’t bother me that much, it was still weird going from book one where he was a main part of the book. This book felt like it was focusing on Maia as a person. I felt that I was getting the same inner conflict for the first half of the book. It even felt too tense (don’t get me wrong, I love it when YA books include dark themes). But at times I felt that it would have benefited with some light moments. Elizabeth Lim has such beautiful writing, that I did binge this within two days. It’s just a shame that I felt overwhelmed with the pacing and many plotlines. Plus, I never truly understood the limitations of the magic system.

Characters

What I adore about this series, is the girl power and female empowerment. The change of direction in this book is something I didn’t mind as I felt like readers got to see the development of Maia.

She did at times keep people at arms length. So I think this is why it felt tense, because character interactions were deep discussions on wanting to help out Maia but her feeling afraid to let them.

Although Edan appeared in the second half, he hadn’t changed much! He is still whipped as ever for Maia and has that sass we all love, but I missed the chemistry they both had in the first book.

Lady Sarnai is a character I actually came to empathise and admire! I love the feminist vibes I got from this book in general. Lady Sarnai definitely contributed to that with her being a strong leader.

And as for the demon, well he’s still a little shit like he was in the first book 😉

I won’t talk much about other characters but just know that secondary ones from the first book made an appearance which I loved!

Conclusion

Although I’m a little disappointed that this book didn’t live up to my expectations, I did enjoy it! Specifically within the second half, filled with emotional battle scenes. But I appreciate the Asian inspired elements and mythology, it’s what makes this book stand out from other YA fantasy. As much as I want to rate this higher, Unravel the Dusk is a three star for me.

If you’ve read this book or Spin the Dawn, I’d love to know your thoughts! And I’m always looking for more recommendations, so if you have any that are diverse, I’d appreciate it!