Magical Dressmaking: A Review of Elizabeth Lim’s Spin the Dawn

Spin the Dawn (2019)
Written by: Elizabeth Lim
Series: The Blood of the Stars #1
Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult
Pages: 392 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Why I Chose It: The pitch for this book was “Project Runaway meets Mulan.” Plus, the cover art is so lovely! How could I not read it?

The premise:

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

This review is spoiler free

Discussion: Spin the Dawn is a fantastic young adult book that brought me back to when I was a teenager and first experiencing the novels of Tamora Pierce (who, fittingly, blurbs this book). At the time, Pierce’s work featured determined heroines conquering larger than life challenges by having faith in their own strengths and the alliances they found along the way. Maia Tamarin, the heroine of Spin the Dawn does a wonderful job in fitting this mold. At the beginning of the book, we see her rejecting the expectation that she is destined for nothing more than a barely convenient marriage. Instead, she hopes to follow the family legacy by becoming a highly respected tailor. Then, her ill father is summoned to the capital to work for the Emperor, and Maia sees both an opportunity to follow her dreams and protect her father’s health.

And then things get complicated.

One of the interesting things about Spin the Dawn is the fact that it’s not afraid to defy your expectations. Just when you think you have a pretty good handle on where it’s going, the book will throw a hell of a curveball at you. There are times when those curveballs worked really well. I didn’t think I would get emotionally invested as I did in the love story, for example. Nor did I expect how emotionally satisfying the ending would be.

Admittedly, there were times when these curveballs didn’t work as well for me. For example, the beginning part of the book involves an exciting competition-based story line, involving the creation of beautiful gowns and shoes. I could have probably read an entire book based around Maia’s creations. But then the book ends up going off in a more adventure-based storyline. Ultimately, it’s a direction that worked for me, but that doesn’t change the fact that I was initially disappointed, and it took a few chapters to bring me around.

Spin the Dawn is quite a fast read, with surprisingly deep worldbuilding. At the beginning, it’s just a story about a tailor’s daughter trying to prove her worth (with the occasional help of magic scissors), but the further you get into the novel, the more you learn about world, including its magic, religion, geopolitics, and beyond. Some fascinating reveals near the end of the book impact Maia in big ways. I am quite curious to see how they will change Maia in future books of the series.

In conclusion: If you’re looking for a well-paced young adult fantasy book starring a tough heroine, interesting world building, and plenty of twists and turns, I’d highly recommend picking up Spin the Dawn. The second book in the series, Unravel the Dust, is set to be released in 2020. I know I will be picking it up as soon as I can.