Book Review: The Daughter of the Night (The Girl in Between Book 4) by Laekan Zea Kemp

 
 
The Dreamers' bodies have finally been found, including Bryn's, but their problems are far from over. Now that Bryn has turned 18, cracks have formed in the universe, loosing all sorts of nightmares on the world and starting an apocalypse. But amidst fighting off nightmares in the real world and finding all the Dreamers and Rogues in order to save the world, Bryn and Roman are both battling their own personal darkness.

Book Review: The Daughter of the Night (The Girl in Between Book 4) by Laekan Zea Kemp | reading, books, book reviews, fantasy, urban fantasy, young adult
Title: The Daughter of the Night
Author:
Book Number: Book 4
Pages: 532
My Rating: 2 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
 

Review:

If you’re considering starting this series, you might want to check out my review of Book 1 since it covers certain things that I’m not going to repeat in this review.

I was kind of torn about this book because the writing itself was good, the characters had depth and seemed to act realistically given their crazy paranormal, apocalyptic, death- and horror-filled situation, and I was invested enough that I wanted to know what was going to happen, but…

– The paranormal stuff continued to get more inconsistent and confusing. I didn’t even know what was happening sometimes.

– I had a lot of issues with the POVs. The previous books were just Roman and Bryn’s POVs, but this time there was also Dani’s, Felix’s, Cole’s, Adham’s, a bunch of the random Dreamers’ they found, some of the Rogues’, and probably more I’m forgetting. Almost all of them were unnecessary, and many only showed up once and lasted a few pages. They did nothing but further confuse me because I didn’t even know who half the people were and some of them were in the past whereas some were in the present, but none of this was ever explained; you just had to figure it out as you were reading. The constant POV jumping also made it hard for me to keep track of things and remember what was happening in each part of the story. Also, the POVs almost all sounded the same.

– The plot got repetitive. So much of it was just Bryn finding another Dreamer. Bryn finding another Dreamer. Bryn finding another Dreamer.

– Bryn started to aggravate me because she knew time was limited, she knew they were in the midst of an apocalypse, she knew you-know-who was also looking for the Dreamers too, yet she constantly wasted time by trying to find out who their captors were and punish them, by talking to them, by hesitating, etc. which then allowed you-know-who to get to the Dreamers before her.

– As if wasn’t bad enough that Bryn altered her mother’s and uncle’s memories in Book 3, she did it in an even more extreme way this time. *SPOILER* First of all, even the first time, when she just had Cole erase the memory of her illness and make them believe she was away at college, her aunt still would’ve had the memories of her illness which would’ve created a really confusing situation. This time she erased the memory of her entire existence from her mother’s and uncle’s minds. Yeah, I’m sure that’s not going to cause confusion whenever they talk to anyone else who has ever known Bryn. *END SPOILER*

– Why didn’t Bryn, her grandma, her great aunt, and her father all just TALK??? I feel like so much could’ve been avoided if they had. *MAJOR SPOILER* If it was her fears that made things real, just talking would’ve taken away her fear of her father leaving again and her fear of dying from her illness, thus avoiding both those things. *END SPOILER* And I still don’t understand what her father had to do with anything despite the pseudo-explanation.

– As the series went on, each book got darker, but this one was really kind of depressing and tragic. Ok, I don’t necessarily consider that a negative thing because I like dark, it wouldn’t have been realistic for no one to die and for nothing bad to happen, but I’m just bitter because *MAJOR SPOILER* I’M STILL UPSET ABOUT ADHAM. HE AND COLE WERE FINALLY GOING TO BE TOGETHER :-((( And there totally could’ve been some way for Bryn to live since all the paranormal seemed pretty random anyway. *END SPOILER* Although, maybe it actually wasn’t that tragic? You see, I’m not sure since…

– I didn’t understand the ending. I was prepared to give this book 2.5 stars, which would’ve rounded up to 3, because it wasn’t all bad. There were definitely things I liked about it. But then it ended in a way that left me with no idea as to what actually happened. I think it was meant to be open to interpretation, which is something I don’t particularly like. If not, can anyone who also read this series explain the ending to me? *MAJOR SPOILER* Did she die, and that perfect life really was just a dream and is kind of like the afterlife for the Dreamers? Was the entire series just a dream and that normal life was her real life, but the nightmare about Dreamers and Rogues gave her a new appreciation for it? Was that some sort of alternate universe? Did Bryn alter time/the past and create a world in which all the Rogues and Dreamers just had normal lives and still managed to find each other in a soulmate kind of way and just got to be together without all the craziness? If it’s open to interpretation, I’m going with the last one, despite its logic flaws. But my preferred ending would’ve been them saving the world and finding a way to rebuild (and bringing back Adham because DAMN IT WHY ADHAM???) or maybe Bryn altering time but the Dreamers and Rogues still remembering everything since they underwent so much growth throughout the series. And because, if that all happened but Bryn is the only one who remembers… that’s awful. I couldn’t imagine going through something that traumatizing and terrible and then never being able to talk about it with anyone, plus having a bunch of memories with people that they don’t have with you. *END SPOILER*

So I’m not really sure what to say about this series overall because somehow I still enjoyed it? It’s clear that this author can write. The portrayal of the chronic illness in the first two books was absolutely phenomenal. The character depth and development was also great. I cared about many of the characters. Bryn became hard to connect with, but her changes were purposeful, so I can respect that. I also loved the darkness of these books. There was even a thought-provoking aspect to this final book about how we make our fears real by worrying about them and feeding the negative thoughts rather than the positive ones. And I wouldn’t have read four books if I didn’t enjoy something about them and wasn’t invested enough to want to know how it would end. But, despite all that, the paranormal stuff just got way too out of control, and the ending left me feeling confused and lacking in closure.

Would I still recommend this series? Yes, tentatively. If you’re interested in it, like all the positive things I just mentioned, and like or can be ok with endings that are open to interpretation, I think you might still enjoy the series overall despite the flaws in the last two books, like I did.

 

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Talk to me!

Have you read The Daughter of the Night by Laekan Zea Kemp?
Do you like book endings that are kind of open to interpretation?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

24 thoughts on “Book Review: The Daughter of the Night (The Girl in Between Book 4) by Laekan Zea Kemp

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  1. Greg

    I sometimes like endings like that, open to interpretation, it depends on the book but if it’s TOO open- ended sometimes it bugs me. I like at least some kind of resolution. Like the idea of dreams/ nightmares slipping through, that’s kinda cool. Inconsistency with the p/n stuff sounds like a deal breaker. It has to make sense! The first two spoilers too (lol) would definitely irritate me! Still, sounds like it’s worth the read just too bad the end fizzled a bit.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I generally don’t like them, but I can deal if I have to. Yeah, the dreams/nightmares was kinda cool, but I also get annoyed by changing paranormal stuff. You and the spoilers. Always lol. The memory changing one, I just… how did anyone think that’d be a good idea???

  2. verushka

    Oh dear, the rather large cast of characters AND giving them all POVs gives me pause. I need time to connect to characters properly before you switch povs.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah I thought using so many POVs was a bad decision as they just weren’t necessary and added to the confusion. And I agree that makes it harder to connect, but I was already connected to the main characters from the previous books at least.

  3. Julie @ Happily Ever Chapter

    Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy this one too much. I haven’t gotten a chance to read this series yet. I really love the cover for this one, so it’s a shame that it wasn’t better. Hope you enjoy your next read more!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah it is a weird feeling to do that lol. Like, I just can’t overlook the flaws, but I still enjoyed the series overall and certain things about the book… Idk.

  4. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    I hate endings which are open to interpretation. I want my endings to be final. I can have a few loose threads maybe but if it’s too open I’m just frustrated. It makes me think there should be more pages and I’ve lost them some how. It sounds like this was a frustrating read for you and it does but me off the first book just a little (which is still unread on my kindle) but it does sound good. I often get frustrated with characters wasting time when they know they’ve got stuff to do and it sounds like this happened a little here. And I continually despair at the lack of communication which occurs in books. WHy don’t folks just use their words?

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, I don’t mind open endings in the sense that not everything is perfectly wrapped up—I actually dislike the ones with epilogues years into the future—but I don’t like the SFF open to interpretation kinds where you’re not even sure what exactly happened. So it’s frustrating that this ended like that since it was otherwise a good series in many ways. And agreed—in some cases not communicating makes sense, but in other cases, JUST USE YOUR WORDS.

      1. Dragonfly

        Don’t u know me, beloved better half ?? Look at all my 5-star book 1 of series reviews… I die of love for it and… Doryshily mive to the next shiny object ? Smh I can’t stand that! I made my goal got this fall to wrap up my series! At least the 5-star ones!!!

  5. Jessica

    I hate cliffhanger endings and weird endings. I also hate rushed endings. I read one book a few months ago it was part of the vampire porn book series I’m reading. The first part of it was a mystery that Anita Blake was to solve. The middle of the book was all sex. Then I guess Laurell K Hamilton forgot about the mystery until the end. The books before this one the endings end on a happy note, but this one I read Anita didn’t get the vampire. I don’t know if she (Laurell K Hamilton) brings up the vampire again.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I also don’t like rushed endings or the ones where you’re not even sure what happened. Sorry that one book you read had such a rushed and not-so-great ending :-/

  6. Lola

    I am sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this one as much as the previous books. It does sound very confusing with the many point of views and the paranormal part that didn’t make much sense. I can see why Bryn started to aggravate you a bit in this book. I always feel that messing with someone’s memory is a very bad thing to do. It just seems so wrong. And i don’t like endings like that either were you’re not sure what happened or where things are too open for interpretation. But I am glad you still enjoyed parts of it and the series as a whole.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks. This book def had some frustrating things. I too am always uncomfortable with memory altering. But in this case, it just didn’t even make sense because it would’ve caused so much confusion for the people. And yeah, I don’t like those open to interpretation endings where you’re not even sure what happened. But thanks, at least there were still some things I did like!

  7. Olivia Roach

    Oh no, it sounds like you didn’t enjoy this one at all and that has me disappointed. Especially as I wanted to read this one quite a bit when I saw the cover.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I did enjoy some things about it, and I enjoyed the series overall, it was just a bummer that the ending had so many issues and wasn’t better since it could’ve been great.