Book Review: Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland (Wings of Fire #6)

 

After having taken a look at the first arc of Wings of Fire and giving it an overwhelmingly positive review, it's now time to tackle the second one! So let's meet Moon the NightWing in this book. Spoilers ahead.

After the SandWing princess wars and the dragonets established their school at Jade Mountain, a young NightWing named Moon gets to attend it. She has one major secret, though: she's a mind-reader and future-seer. When dragons start to get killed and Moon starts to hear a mysterious voice in her head, things seem to be going down a dark path.

Okay, so I absolutely loved the first arc. Even if the first and last books weren't my favorites of those, I still genuinely enjoyed them so much that I gave them very positive reviews. However, I simply did not have such positive feelings about Moon Rising.

I think a major player into this is Moon's character. In the first arc, I felt a real attachment to all five of the dragonets. However, I simply do not feel any connection to Moon's character. Yes, she's relatable because of how nervous and shy she is, but that doesn't make her all that likable to me. She doesn't seem to have a whole lot else to her character and this is her central book, so you'd expect it all to appear over here, if ever. Her mind reading and future-sight is interesting enough, but not enough to make me care about her as a character a whole lot. The other characters outside of our protagonist were fine, though. I liked seeing Peril again, as well as meeting new dragons such as Turtle and Winter. Kinkajou is a blast and really not that annoying anymore. And of course the Dragonets of Destiny are still there, which is good. 

I also think that this book just has relatively very low stakes. There doesn't seem to be any real overarching plot until Moon finally has the Jade Mountain prophecy near the ending of the book. Aside from that, it's mostly just Dragon High School with an active killer that happens to kill two dragons. I also thought the reveal that it was Sora in the end was pretty weak. Yeah, it makes sense for her to want revenge, but it just didn't really feel all that engaging for a final resolution to me. She also just vanishes from the plot after that. I've read up to Talons of Power by now, and she is hardly even mentioned anymore after book six.  

The whole concept of the school in general, while an okay idea, just wasn't executed that well. We don't really learn anything new and the next books completely ditch the school concept altogether, so honestly I just don't care that much about what the Dragonets of Destiny have established over here so far. 

So far, this'll have to be the weakest Wings of Fire book I've read. I really don't want to be harsh on this series since I hold it very dear, but this book just didn't really make me want to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. I have kept reading, obviously, but Moon Rising just doesn't keep me properly engaged throughout its entirety. 

Rating: 3/5