Why "Tower of Dawn" by Sarah J. Maas Is So Important

*This post contains major spoilers for Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas*

So I've just finished Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas, and upon finishing it, I was struck by how utterly important this book is. From a disabled main character, to newfound diversity, to messages Sarah J. Maas has never given before, everything about this book was incredible. Maas found a new energy with this book, and wrote with emotional fervor I've never before seen from her.

To begin, I have to talk about Chaol's journey. I was incredibly worried going into this book about how his paralysis would be treated, and what the message would be. In the beginning, I almost stopped reading because I thought Maas' message would be that Chaol's wheelchair is a prison. And the damage that a message like that would have caused is incredible. But the further on we moved, and the amount of care Maas gave to Chaol's healing—the fact that almost his entire arc was him dealing emotionally with the past, as well as spending hours working out or with Yrene getting healed—was so incredible. And to end with him not being fully healed, with the message of Chaol being no less of a man in the chair than out of it. I had tears in my eyes. It is so important that a fantasy novel finally had a main character who was not only disabled, but not necessarily stunted by that.

It is also incredibly important that he had to go through the motions of getting over being ashamed of his injury, and dealing with the ramifications of being paralyzed for the rest of his life, to ultimately end on a positive note. Maas really hit the ball out of the park in that whole journey, and the fact that such a mainstream fantasy novel could feature that is absolutely incredible.

Next, the diversity in this book is so imperative to have out in culture. We all know there is a push for representation, and we have all read those books who seem to try to write every character so that they can market it as a diverse and refreshing read. But in exploring Antica and developing the continent, Maas wove in the diversity readers have been demanding—Asian-resembling characters and culture somewhat similar to certain Asian culture, as well as more dark-skinned characters—seamlessly. She didn't force it, or make too many overt descriptions of the color of someone's skin; she brought in all of these influences so beautifully and it gave so many new readers heroes of their same skin color and of a similar culture to look up to. Again, that is so absolutely important for everyone, and it's about time such a big series included that without pushing it or only including one character who wasn't white.

Another thing Maas did absolutely amazing in this book was give powerful messages of survival, fighting, and perseverance. Through Yrene Towers, Maas tells readers that you can overcome even the darkest and scariest of things; she proves that no matter what has happened to you, there is light at the end of very dark, very lonely tunnels.

While this might not seem particularly important, and while it might seem like a message she's given before, having dealt with raging mental illness myself, Yrene's character was incredibly touching. Maas went beyond saying "You could rattle the stars." She went into the depths of Yrene and Chaol's dark path, and wove the long, painful path to the light. Maas wrote so beautifully exactly what it feels like to have to battle a mental illness that you have no control of. She went beyond what she's every done before, and wrote a beautiful story of love and loss and fighting and hope.

In addition to all these incredibly important things, she wove an intricate plot with a wonderful payoff, some epic scenes, and HUGE information bits that cause ripples in what we've known about the series, such as Maeve being the Valg Queen, or the healers' powers against the Valg, thus their concentration in two places.

This book gave so many incredible messages, did so many important things, and is no doubt Maas' best work. This isn't even my review; it's just me gushing over how impressed I am with the strides taken in Tower of Dawn, and how deeply touched I was.

EDIT 9/13/17: So something I forgot to add in this that was SO important is Maas also wrote explicit consent in Chaol and Yrene's sex scene. He wouldn't act any further than kissing her until she said "Yes." I've yet to read that in a YA fantasy, and the importance of a mainstream novel having that is so huge!