Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Un Palais de flammes d'argent

The plot was weak. Character development was strong. I was frequently annoyed by the weird worldbuilding (calling everyone “male” or “female” which gives misogynistic dude bro vibes but make it more cringe). Some of the new characters were lovable, but a lot of withstanding characters were beyond irritating with their cruddy decisions. The best part was trauma exploration. Everything else was eh.

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nyssbomb's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

tanya_tate's review against another edition

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1.0

Book Stats

Stars: DNFED @ 61%

Start Date: 2/15/21

Ending Date: 6/14/21

Genre: Fairy Porn , Fantasy

Form: Audiobook ,Hardback

Page Count: 800

Publishing Date: February 16th 2021`

Point of View: 3rd person

Setting: can’t remember

A Court of Fairy Porn…

I have ZERO desire to go back to this book.

When you start to really question why you liked this certain author because their writing has been the same since it’s peaked on a certain book which was May 3rd 2016 which was almost 5 years ago…

To the point some people think that certain book was ghostwritten…

I feel this sense of that SJM doesn’t understand how to have certain characters that she said is not going to be the main focus anymore kind of fade into background.

Like be only mention in passing and not hijacking page time because we know since they were main characters and still part of the plot they going to be mentioned.

We had three damn books with Feyre and Rhys “epic” love story and their smut.

They don’t need any more page time. I really don’t want to hear about Feyre and Rhys fucking in this book trying to have a baby..

She doesn’t understand what a spinoff actually is.

When people think of a new series being a spin-off of another series they think of a character or two taken from the previous series and are now the central focal point with building a new cast of characters and sometimes setting around those characters.

From Wikipedia

” Spin-off the term parallels the usage in television; it is usually meant to indicate a substantial change in narrative viewpoint and activity from that (previous) storyline based on the activities of the series’ principal protagonist and so is a shift to that action and overall narrative thread of some other protagonist, which now becomes the central or main thread (storyline) of the new sub-series. The new protagonist generally appears first as a minor or supporting character in the main story line within a given milieu and it is very common for the previous protagonist to have a supporting or cameo role, at the least as a historical mention, in the new sub-series. Spin-offs sometimes generate their own spin-offs, leaving the new show in its own series only vaguely connected to the original series.”

A spin off that comes to mind is the Six of Crows and King of Scars Duologies that are spin offs from Shadow and Bone.

Because they both feature characters they were in the Shadow and Bone trilogy but they are the focal point in their own duologies meanwhile the main character of S&B ( Alina) is only mention in passaging and doesn’t have screen time. ( I think she does in the second King of Scars book but I haven read them yet).

This supposed to be Nesta and Cassian book going in detail about her past traumas.

Not Nesta and Cassian with a full dash of Feyre and Rhys which to me is going to become a problem if she does this in the other two books which supposed to be different characters being the main character..

Especially I feel like the announcement of her pregnancy could have been done in passing instead of talking up page time and we did not need her having Bella Swan moment in which Nesta have to save her. ..

Ok Let’s talk about this pregnancy for a min…

I was really ok with Feyre being like “Ok Lets start trying to have a kid” at the end of ACOFAS because she felt like she didn’t have forever with Rhys. Since that story of the weaver who lost her husband thanks to the “ war” with hyburn shook her.

I was ok with them trying and maybe by the end of this trilogy she would be pregnant and have kid. So it be like the true official tie up to their story and the story in general.

Since Fae’s conceiving a child “supposed” to be rare and take time which as the trilogy goes time can passed.

Like Years!

ACOFAS takes place during Her Birthday/Winter Solstice/ Christmas in which they officially decided to start trying.

So if you want to put this in modern days late December/ Early January per se.
ACOSF takes place a little after the end of the summer party which have to be either late August or Early September.

Also since it’s been mention of fall so this got to be late September at best in which her announcement that she was two months pregnant comes when Nesta is like 2 weeks into her training.

Which means it’s either the end of September, Early October or mid-October.

For Intention purposes I’m going to say Early October meaning she conceived in Early August

You mean to tell me it took them like 8 months to conceived child when it’s been said that Fae conceiving a child supposed to be rare and could take YEARS to actually happen?

Could you made it a little more believable and not make Feyre and Rhys an exception to every world and plot building you do?

Then top that off at the fact Fae only supposed to have their menstrual cycles two times a year which means it only two times that her Fertility window is open for each year to actually convince a child.

Which is also confusing because you don’t know which months that window would be open.
ACOFAS made that confusing because she had first on two months prior to the start of ACOFAS and during ACOFAS since was on her period again.

So even tho it supposed to be two times a year it doesn’t synced up to be like she has one like in the begging of the year and maybe her next one in the middle or at the end.

Then top it off that Rhys is like “ well I’m not going to tell her that her pregnancy is high risk since the we decided to have sky sex in which she was in her wing form so the baby have wings that endanger her and the baby.”

How can SJM being a mom herself sit here and write that Rhys keeps the fact about it maybe complications in the pregnancy from Feyre?

That like if her own husband kept something from her that had her at risk while she was preggo which I know he probably didn’t.

Like you can’t keep that from the damn person who is carrying the damn child. She have to know her pregnancy is high risk and take the cautionary steps.

Rhys: You always have choices because I am a feminist icon.

Also Rhys: You don’t have a choice in the matter because you should bow to me.

Also Rhys: I’m not going to tell my mate that she could die giving birthing to our kid after I promise her in ACMOAF not to keep anything else from her after I kept us being mates from her in which she threw my ass in the damn mud wounded…

So that’s a freaking mess.

This really should be a review of me talking about the plot but I honestly couldn’t find it between Nesta and Cassian going between, eye fucking, mouth fucking, hand fucking and actual fucking…

They wasn’t really no fire between them unlike they was in ACOMAF.

Like with ACOMAF , I was expecting with ACOSF was them trading barbs at each other with of course sexual tension thrown in the mix.

I was expecting some witty ass banner that would have my ass laughing.

I wanted some Elizabeth and Dracy type shit between Nesta and Cassian. Or even damn Bridgton type shit.

I was expecting both them to get closer together by finally letting the wall down and express how hard it was to keep up with people think they are actually are but not. ( Aka Nesta being thee bitch and Cassian just being the brute)

Them sharing their childhood trauma and helping each other to heal.

I was expecting her to be the courtier per se so can finally use everything she was taught by her mom to good use. ( Like really bring Eris to risk it all in his own court and not just as that dance in the court of nightmares. Just like Feyre did in the summer court in ACOMAF.)

I was expecting for her to finally let all the pain go that she was feeling about her father and mother and heal herself from her own trauma and start to try and built a bridge between her, Elain and Feyre.

I was expecting her to get her OWN full set of friends aka family and not just two friends.

I was expecting Cassian to finally be his own person and not just Rhys general .

Nope didn’t get none of that.

I should have known when the scene he was feeling down and thinking he was actual brute instead of her making jokes with him and trying to cheer him up and let him know he’s not a brute but so much more and them having a emotional scene where they can start getting closer together, she gave him a damn blow job.

Why Nesta and Cassian couldn’t have the same type of nuance in their growning realtionship like Feyre and Rhys had in theirs in ACOMAF?

We all knew the sexual tension was there but it was a sense of ” Yes lets be friends and also tell each other certain things to build up a realtionship” which is why Feyre and Rhys was so good in ACMAF and the reason why chapter 54 and 55 is seen as the the best two chapters of SJM books. Because they payoff of seeing Feyre and Rhys steady go closer together and see each other heal the other was so good to read. She built up that level of imiacy that it seem like she couldn’t do for Nesta and Cassian.

It was just straight sex to me which I honestly started to skip their sex scenes.

I think the plot was something like finding the death hallows so whoever have all three them can control death….

opps They was called the The Dread Trove.

This book was so half ass with the plot since was just created to be fanfic smut between Nesta and Cassian..

Just because you can write 800 pages doesn’t mean you have to write 800 pages.

Also the fact Nesta’s intervention felt like it was being forced on her and not in the sense of her realizing she hit rock bottom and need help.

Like either you choose to train and work or you can go back to the humans lands.

It just the fact she ran the tab high on wine and now Rhys and Feyre think their rep is ruined.
Like you think your rep is ruined for Feyre sister running up the tab drinking in a bar and living in a sabby apartment but didn’t think about all rep during the whole course of ACOMAF and ACOWAR?

I mean

Yall was probably in the gossip column of Fae Today for WEEKS dealing with the fact Feyre left the spring court aka her (abusive) Financee and was with you in the Night Court, the whole Court of Nightmares scene in ACOMF probably made the front page, the fact yall are mates ,got married but now of a sudden yall are concerned about yall rep dealing with Nesta?

The whole inner circle is just useless and hypocritical as fuck.

They acted like everything Nesta has done is worst than the shit they have done.

I mean she is a 23 to 25 year old that did some mean shit to her sister.

They are like 500 years old who killed people and other things.

Amren should stayed dead if the only thing she going to do is act like a bitch toward Nesta for no reason since SJM never explained ( unless she did it in the parts I didn’t read) what happen in the summer party to make Amren , the only person in Nesta corner act like Nesta is a ungrateful drunk slut.

Who want to keep her powers being known but want to use what Nesta created with her powers to make Rhys high king.

Amren: Don’t tell Nesta that she created three powerful swords! She will create more to destroy us!

Also Amren: Oh Rhysie!! You can become a high king of all seven courts with these blades! You can rule everything!

Eris and Helion was proably the best thing about this.

Actually it was the house of the wind that had more character development and nuance to them than any other character in the books.

Gwen and Emarie seem cool but they both need more substance. Yeah Yeah they train for three days and all of sudden they can pass the blood rite ( I did read some of the ending a while back )

Everyone is still whiter than copying paper so it’s no point screaming diversity to her.

Like I said with the Crescent City review.

“At this point, we should just forget about her trying to write diversity. If she wants to write a 200,000 word smut fanfic where her two white heterosexual main characters bang everywhere in the damn house just let her do so. I don’t have to buy it but what she can do is help promote other authors who can write diversity.”

The only diversity you are getting from her is her putting Black Lives Matter in her hashtags and posting rainbow flags in her IG post….

Let her write her fairy porn to her deepest content now.

I can’t even remember the villain name since all SJM villain besides Maeve, Amarantha and Ianthe have been bland as hell.

I am tried of her writing this villain that only stay for one damn book and is so damn one de cause she doesn’t give them substance

It took me almost four months to realized I can’t do this anymore.

I can’t do SJM anymore and I think have grew out of her for real this time.

This is the second book I have DNFED of hers so I think it’s time for me to finally let her go for good.

Content Warnings

amandamagdic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ok wow....so sooo many thoughts on this. TO avoid spoilers I'm going to stick with a shorter more vague review. While I never hated Nesta I also wasn't her biggest fan. This book has totally changed my opinion of her. She is still by no means my favorite character but SJM has made me able to sympathize with her and make me root for her success. I LOVE the growth and vulnerability we saw for her in this book. She redeems herself in small pieces as opposed to one big act which was refreshing and more true to life. From the foresight of the needs she saw in the library priestesses, to the care and tenderness she had for them and Emerie, it was nice to see she could care for someone's feelings other than her own. I really enjoyed watching them all train and the idea behind using old Valkyrie principals. And the persona and strength this took on for them.

There were some twists I saw coming though not in the way I expected them. And some that just totally caught you off guard and made you have to put the book down for a minute so you could compose yourself. I loved all the smut in this book giving it just enough heat as it moved out of that slow burn trope.

What I will put out is the multitude of trigger warnings for: sexual content, sexual assault, numbing with sex, numbing with alcohol, alcohol abuse. graphic violence, coarse language, labour complications.

Content Warnings

lisacanteven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Someone said to me, “If you weren’t already a SJM fan, this isn’t going to be the book to change your mind.” Well this book actually Unmade (capital U on purpose) me a SJM stan. I have seen a lot of reviews applauding Sarah J. Maas for how she wrote about the topic of mental illness, and I’m going to have to disagree with this point of view and offer another POV.

As someone with mental illness and a bit of trauma, I hated reading this book. I really felt unheard the entire time and like SJM was doing those with trauma a huge disservice. I am one of the few who has liked Nesta from the beginning, and I saw the trauma she held onto. It made me feel seen. I even felt alienated when I defended her before ACOSF was released, so I was really hoping this would be her swan song, her redemption arc. Some would say she was redeemed, but at what price?

She brought a lot of hurt and disapproval upon herself. I get that, and I guarantee that most people who have trauma do the same. You know what we should do for those who are acting out of trauma and hurt? Create a safe space for them to come to us. Do you know what we shouldn’t do? Ignore it on the grounds of “just letting them get it out of their system” until it gets too bad and inconvenient for us. Then put our foot down and do the most extreme thing ever like locking them away on the mountainside with one person whom they blame for a lot of their problems. We shouldn’t threaten them with complete exile from the only land they have left because of the trauma you brought on them yourself.

Everything that the inner circle did for her was brought on by their own anger and impatience with her. They locked her up there and then continued to meet without her and discuss her in such an ugly and negative way that would have brought her to her knees if she had known. Feyre was allowed a lot more room and grace when she had to transition into being Fae as opposed to human. And if your response to that is, “yeah but she handled it a lot better” I would remind you that everyone processes trauma differently.

The absolute horrendous negative self-talk that Nesta had throughout the whole book was very, VERY triggering with someone who struggles with this on the daily. Her self-talk is a great example of what can spiral when you have a complete shit support system around you, and I don’t believe that self-talk evolved over her transformation. I don’t believe it benefited the story at all but to show how much her toxic relationship with the inner circle negatively affected her perception of herself and her mental health in general. However, I do not think that was Sarah J. Maas’ intention. I think it was supposed to shed some light on mental illness, but it was just so triggering and did nothing but bring up my own trauma and exhaust me mentally. I know this wasn’t everyone else’s experience, but it is important to shed some light on this POV. I don’t think SJM understands or has as much right to write about trauma and healing as most readers give her credit for. I think she caused a lot of damage with this book, and that is what we aren’t recognizing.

Even when Nesta finally gets her moment and proves she is not some damsel in distress that needs the whole privileged inner circle to save her from, she is quickly pulled into Feyre’s moment. And this was unjustly done just by the writing by SJM. She could not give the reader who relates to Nesta a moment to feel her triumph, to feel her joy and power. She could not let us castaways believe that our moments are coming. We too can come away from our trauma and change everything people doubted about us. Then she saves the day again, but SJM makes sure to acknowledge that her work will remain a secret. Sure, she earned her place in the inner circle but somehow I feel like they are all quicker to remember her misdoings than her resurrection.

Mentally this book destroyed me, and I feel like it didn’t have to. It did not have to bring up my trauma, my self-doubt, and my negative self-talk. It did not have to be this miserable reading experience. I have said it once during this review, and I will say it again: Sarah was irresponsible with this one. She was disrespectful with how she wrote about a character with obvious trauma and mental illness, and you will not convince me otherwise. In fact I hope this review served to show another POV. I do not want to ruin anyone else’s experience with this book; in fact I hope no one else has the experience I had with this book. I don’t think that will be the case though, so if you felt any of this while reading you are not alone.

I also thought SJM was careless with the topic of sexual assault, and I want to make sure I acknowledge how triggering this book is if you are triggered by sexual assault or rape. There are several times when it is written graphically, and I didn’t find that necessary. There is also a lot of graphic sexual content with consent that I just felt could be triggering as well. @graciouslyrooted talks about this a lot in her review. Thank you, Brooke, for your transparency with this. If you have any sexual trauma in your past, even the consensual sex scenes could be triggering.

I am a huge Cassian fan, but SJM did him dirty in this book. I felt like he took advantage of Nesta during a time when she was most vulnerable and should have been recovering. But then she centered Cassian as the one who was being hurt by Nesta. Their sexual relationship had me rolling my eyes with disapproval the whole time. It was like the fandom said, “More steam! More smut!” And Sarah was like okay I’ll put it everywhere even when it completely disrupts the healing that Nesta should be experiencing, even when it completely takes away from the actual plot. It was exhausting. And also can we get Sarah J. Maas a thesaurus? Every sexual encounter used the same few words and terms; there was nothing new!

After this experience, I think it is safe to say that I:

Do NOT regret quitting the Throne of Glass series after two books.
Will NOT be continuing with this series.
Am seriously questioning whether I was correct in loving House of Earth and Blood so much or if the rest of the Crescent City series is going to let me down as much as this book did.

If you think that sentencing someone to isolation while angrily discussing their well being and toting that as “taking care of them” is acceptable, you may have read this book. But let me just clarify that if you have experienced trauma in your life, you deserve better than this. You deserve a support system that wants your healing for your sake and not because they are exasperated with you. You are seen, and you are appreciated no matter where you may be in your healing. Please consider this review when recommending this book to others. If you know they have experienced trauma, severe depression, and/or sexual assault in their lives please give a content warning or just don’t recommend it. This is not a book to be sweepingly recommending to all audiences.

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emilyrainsford's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

So. It took me two dang weeks but I finally finished this massive tome of a book. And I have some thoughts.

Oooh boy, do I have some thoughts.

This book is not good, folks. It’s not good. I’ve read almost every SJM book (except CC and Catwoman) and this was hands down the worst.

In short, the pacing is way off, the plot is absolutely RIDDLED with holes, the sex is transactional and empty, the vast majority of it makes NO sense, and SJM’s toxic masculinity problem seems to be in overdrive in this one.

In long.

Maas books have always had problematic elements - in this series it seems to be more pronounced than in Throne of Glass, to me. But usually they’re such a fun, addictive read that I kind of just let that stuff fly for the sake of a bit of escapism. But never have I read a book of hers that was just SO poorly plotted. The Maas magic was just missing in this one.

The first 200 pages, I was pretty into it. Sure, it was slow and character focused, but I was enjoying being back in the world and seeing where things would go with Nesta. Granted, the entire premise on which this book hinges - Nesta being sent to the House of Wind - is incredibly stupid and makes no sense. Okay, she’s depressed and traumatised and (most important apparently, even though Rhys and Feyre are absolutely crapping money) costing them money (how rude of her to need to like, exist, in this place she never bloody asked to be in the first place) - so is their solution is to isolate her in what is essentially a prison and force her to do physical labour. ON WHAT PLANET is this an acceptable way of dealing with someone with PTSD and trauma?? By taking away all sense of her own agency?? I literally CANNOT with this entire thing, and given that’s the whole premise of the book, I probably should have known it wouldn’t go well, but hey, I guess I’m a sucker for punishment.

Okay, but then we spend like 600 - YES, SIX HUN.DRED. - pages in the House of Wind, training and going to the library and being rutted like a damn animal by Cassian. Six hundred pages people, in which VERY little actually happens. And yes, I know the stans are all like “it’s characterrrr developmentttttt” - firstly.. not really. Secondly, it’s BORING. The entire middle 50%, I was struggling to make myself pick the thing up, and just wanted to push through the dang thing so that I could have a fully rounded opinion on it.

Lets talk about the sex. I grant you that I personally do not like sex scenes in books in general. Just not my thing. But it’s not necessarily in and of itself going to make me think badly of a book. I’m more than capable of skim reading for my own comfort, I accept that other people enjoy it and that’s fine. But the vast majority of the sexual content in this book was very transactional and devoid of any kind of connection or emotion. I guess some people like that but it was very much not to my taste at all. People are really out here swooning over a guy who has never heard of the most basic of aftercare. There’s a quote I saw on IG, that said “when you’ve spent your life in the basement, it’s easy to mistake the first floor for the penthouse. Raise your vision.” Cassian isn’t the penthouse people. He’s like the first step out of the basement. (The basement being Rhys ohhhhh yes I said it). You can have a “just sex” type arrangement with someone and still give a modicum of care for their wellbeing afterwards. I HATED how it was all like “oh Nesta never asked him to stay”, as if that was her bad. It kind of reminds me of when you’re like “I”m sick of cleaning your pee off the toilet seat” and dude’s like “oh, you should have asked me.” No no, I shouldn’t need to ASK you to clean up your own damn urine. You should know to do that because you’re a grown ass adult. That’s how I feel about Cassian pissing off the moment he’s spilled his “seed” (gag) every time. “She never asked him” to stay or even just give her a hug or a gentle word after… okay, she shouldn’t have to ask. Can we normalise aftercare please??

I have to also add that I decided to really give one of these sex scenes a decent read to see if I could get into it like others do.... and I just ended up laughing and rolling my eyes. Multiple times a day I have that “silken balls” bit come into my mind and I crack up laughing. His “silken balls” whacked into her and that made her come lmaooooooo omg I just can’t. Don’t get me started on “her drenched entrance” GAG. Or the fact that Cassian’s “cock” is mentioned about a million times, but for her we get “her sex” or “her pleasure”. IT’S A CLITORIS SARAH, YOU CAN SAY IT. We do get the C word one time - so we can call it such a crass word, but not just like… vagina?

Okay, next let’s talk about the fact that darling beloved Rhys is a grade A abuser. Rhys showed us exactly who he is in the first book, where he’s absolutely awful. Then, when he’s winning the girl in the next two books, he softens his edges, and both the fans and Feyre fall for it hook, line and sinker. Now he’s got the girl, he lets go and becomes his true, toxic self again - this is CLASSIC abuser 101 tactics right here. This is what they do. Sure we see Feyre standing up for herself against him, but he still spends the entire book being moody, possessive, aggressive, NOT INFORMING FEYRE ABOUT HER OWN HEALTH what the ACTUAL fork, I cannot with how mad I am about that bit. He keeps her in a protective magical forcefield to the extent that she can only hug or kiss her friends when he deigns to let it down. COME ON PEOPLE. I would GENUINELY like the next book to be about how Feyre escapes from yet another abusive relationship. I was mad with her in the beginning for the whole “punish Nesta” plan, but by the end all I could see was a woman under the thumb of an abusive man. I actually like Feyre more now, and I want better for her.

Now I need to get to the plot holes. Even though SJM’s other books have always had problems, they’ve always had a pretty zippy, addictive plot to see you through. I am genuinely shocked at how much of this book makes absolutely NO sense. I repeatedly felt like the author wanted characters to be in a certain situation, and therefore had to manipulate the plot to make it happen, even though it actually made zero sense and the reasonings given were flimsy. As mentioned before, sending Nesta to the prison/House was a pretty abysmal premise to begin with. The thing with

Feyre’s baby having wings is NONSENSICAL, I cannot deal with how much it does not make sense and is clearly just there to add drama. Rhys doesn’t have real wings and Feyre is Fae, and somehow she manages to conceive an Illyrian baby. The explanation given is that she shapeshifted into Illyrian form while they were having sex, but somehow a) she can’t just shift back to have the baby because *reasons*, and most importantly b) RHYS DIDN’T THINK TO MAYBE MENTION that maybe they shouldn’t have unprotected sex while she’s Illyrian because an Illyrian baby would KILL HER??

This entire plot point is STUPID.

Then when Nesta is the ONLY dang one who tells Feyre the truth about

HER OWN BODY AND LIFE, she gets punished by being forced to hike in the wilderness for days on end under a heavy pack. WHAT THE FORK???

And somehow this physical torture ends up being some kind of healing process for Nesta, which is just so weird and stupid. If I were her, I would have told all these dickheads to go get f**ked, honestly.

I feel like this entire book is that person who hears about your mental health problems and says “have you tried yoga??” The whole way through the book, I kept thinking - really, these 500 year old beings haven’t invented psychotherapy? AND THEN the absolute KICKER…. right at the end, we find out that

THERE WAS A THERAPIST AT THE HOUSE THE WHOLE TIME omggggggggg what the actual fork people, I cannot dealllllll??? Gwyn says that she did talk therapy with a priestess therapist. NO ONE THOUGHT TO MAYBE SEND THE GIRL WITH MAJOR PTSD AND DEPRESSION TO THE THERAPIST???? No no, we’ll just make you fight and run up and down a staircase. What the FORKKKKKKKK????

Now, in the last 200 pages, the plot picked up, and was actually page turning and exciting. BUT it still made no sense and was littered with problems.

The three girls being thrown into the Blood Rite was obviously contrived because it would make for a fun plot, but it made no sense at all. Secondly, the Blood Rite itself makes no sense at all. All of their best warriors are literally being slaughtered by each other, how in the world does that make sense?? It’s kind of addressed at one point but not satisfactorily. Thirdly, hugely powerful and wonderful Rhys is so dang powerful but he can’t get the girls out of the Rite because *reasons*. Because it’s a “rule” that if they’re rescued, they and their rescuer will be killed. A rule by WHOM?? Big powerful High Lord Rhys can’t overcome this random rule by *gestures vaguely* someone?? That makes no sense.

Fourthly, and very importantly - Cassian is Illyrian. Azriel is Illyrian. Clearly, not all Illyrian males are complete trash. And yet, I’m somehow supposed to feel awesome and empowered about Nesta absolutely slaughtering swathes of them in a blood bath?? Yay, go you, you can kill innocent people thrust into the same situation as you… girl power?

I’ve probably ranted enough now, so I won’t get into how much I hate the entire “mates” concept. Or how it makes no sense that

this magical “mates” decider, whatever it is, would pick a Fae and an Illyrian to be mates, given that they wouldn’t be able to have babies without killing the woman wtf??? I could also get into how these female fantasy writers seem to struggle so much with letting a woman not just be powerful, but KEEP her power. Aelin loses her power in the end. Alina in the Grishaverse loses her power so that she can live her quiet little life without making darling Mal uncomfortable. And Nesta gives up her power too. HEAVEN FORBID a woman be powerful, keep her power, and learn to live alongside it - and screw anyone else’s discomfort with it!

Phew. Okay. I think I’m done now. I have always felt a little uneasy with this series but this book has really tipped the balance. I literally want to get rid of the whole series so I don’t have to look at it on my shelf.

Content Warnings

waffles's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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