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ladypalutena's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Celaena would do anything for her friends - even if that means killing dozens of people for the king and not even thinking twice.
Except she's not killing them. Just like in the book of novellas, she's letting them go - without a thought as to whether or not they could come back to haunt her some day. She just assumes that these people are going to be able to get away from Rifthold, set up entirely new lives, and never breathe a word of their past to anyone, and she'll stay safe. And I assume that this has worked for her so far. We know that Celaena can kill - we saw it when she went in to avenge Sam.
It seems like a whole lot of nothing happened throughout this book, while Celaena tries to follow Elena's directive to find the evil and get rid of it. As with the rest of Maas's novels, nothing really happens until the final hundred pages, and then it does not stop until the book ends.
Throughout the book, there are hints about a figure named Aelin - the lost daughter of the King of Terrasen, and that she could possibly be gathering an army to rebel against the king. However, the clues are not subtle - even before Chaol figures it out, I knew that Aelin and Celaena were one and the same. When Celaena turns into fae in the portal in the end, it was all but laid out there. Chaol just took a hot minute to figure out what was going on with the girl he loved.
It's a very, very long book, and while some things happen, not a lot of things happen until those final hundred pages, as I mentioned before. It would be nice to have seen some of the filler cut out, but then you'd miss something small that most likely connects to a larger overarching storyline.
Except she's not killing them. Just like in the book of novellas, she's letting them go - without a thought as to whether or not they could come back to haunt her some day. She just assumes that these people are going to be able to get away from Rifthold, set up entirely new lives, and never breathe a word of their past to anyone, and she'll stay safe. And I assume that this has worked for her so far. We know that Celaena can kill - we saw it when she went in to avenge Sam.
It seems like a whole lot of nothing happened throughout this book, while Celaena tries to follow Elena's directive to find the evil and get rid of it. As with the rest of Maas's novels, nothing really happens until the final hundred pages, and then it does not stop until the book ends.
It's a very, very long book, and while some things happen, not a lot of things happen until those final hundred pages, as I mentioned before. It would be nice to have seen some of the filler cut out, but then you'd miss something small that most likely connects to a larger overarching storyline.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Grief, and Blood
mangofraiche's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Confinement, and Colonisation
hollymileham's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
big slay from me such a good plot and i loved celaenas character arc
this series is really giving bbc merlin and that was my whole personality at age 9 so some things never change
this series is really giving bbc merlin and that was my whole personality at age 9 so some things never change
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Grief and Torture
Minor: Vomit and Sexual assault
scarlett_f's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Genocide, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, and Murder
cayliehausman's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
the start of this series has been a bit slow, developing the norms to break them in this book. While the start was slow, and contained some sweet moments, the escalation from the 35ish chapter is intense and fast-paced. It was so worth every minute of world building to get to this ending, I’m fucking pumped to read Assassin’s Blade and learn her true back story now that we know more about our main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Slavery, Physical abuse, Grief, and Gore
Minor: Animal cruelty
jelkebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
originally read in 2019
I'm going to be completely honest here, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. I can't really explain it, because I do still agree with my original review. Barely anything happened in this book. It was extremely slow moving, and the love triangle is the most uneccecary part in a book I've ever seen. However, I really like Chaol and Dorian (I still hate Celeana, sorry not sorry), and quite enjoyed that we got more from their perspective within this book. I also really like the friendships between the three of our main characters. Honestly, easily the best part of this book, especially when Sarah J Maas forgot she was writing a love triangle and they just got to be besties.
Like I said before there is barely any plot in this book, it's so incredibly slow moving, and makes for quite a boring read. The only reason I still enjoyed my time with this book, is because of the above mentioned character dynamics. The little plot that was there was extremely predictable, and so full of basic YA fantasy tropes, and not even done in an interesting way. I've read many books with common and predictable YA fantasy tropes, but they still make for an engaging and entertaining story by the way they're put together, that wasn't the case for this book.
I do think this series is going in an interesting direction though. Magic gets introduced quite a bit more in this book, but it's all still one big question mark. On top of that we get a glimpse in what the bigger story of this series is going to be, and I'm extremely interested to see that all play out, I just hope it will get done in a more entertaining way, and Celeana will become more likeable. Let's hope for the best!
I'm going to be completely honest here, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. I can't really explain it, because I do still agree with my original review. Barely anything happened in this book. It was extremely slow moving, and the love triangle is the most uneccecary part in a book I've ever seen. However, I really like Chaol and Dorian (I still hate Celeana, sorry not sorry), and quite enjoyed that we got more from their perspective within this book. I also really like the friendships between the three of our main characters. Honestly, easily the best part of this book, especially when Sarah J Maas forgot she was writing a love triangle and they just got to be besties.
Like I said before there is barely any plot in this book, it's so incredibly slow moving, and makes for quite a boring read. The only reason I still enjoyed my time with this book, is because of the above mentioned character dynamics. The little plot that was there was extremely predictable, and so full of basic YA fantasy tropes, and not even done in an interesting way. I've read many books with common and predictable YA fantasy tropes, but they still make for an engaging and entertaining story by the way they're put together, that wasn't the case for this book.
I do think this series is going in an interesting direction though. Magic gets introduced quite a bit more in this book, but it's all still one big question mark. On top of that we get a glimpse in what the bigger story of this series is going to be, and I'm extremely interested to see that all play out, I just hope it will get done in a more entertaining way, and Celeana will become more likeable. Let's hope for the best!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Slavery
ejreadz's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Slavery, War, Confinement, Genocide, Suicide, Grief, and Stalking
Minor: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Excrement, Self harm, Vomit, Death of parent, and Child death
noetical's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Murder, Violence, Death, Grief, Blood, and Gore
merrow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A good sequel that expands upon the characters and situations. It does have the common struggle with direction I feel many second books have where it has to turn an initial closed premise into a big expansive story line but it handles it well. The monsters are effectively creepy and the king successfully and compellingly evil, but the ending twist does feel slightly contradictory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Alcohol, Torture, Colonisation, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Slavery
amandafitz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Blood, Animal cruelty, Violence, Genocide, War, Vomit, Classism, Sexual assault, Body horror, Death, Murder, and Confinement