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taylorambl18's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Physical abuse, Death, Violence, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Vomit
atlantiareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I haven’t found books that have left me sad that the world is not real, in such a long time. But good lord these books!!! I keep telling myself I’ll take a break from the series after the end of the book….. but then I can’t help but come back to these characters and loose myself in the world once again.
I have officially become a ACOTAR fan. And I don’t think anything will be changing that.
Graphic: Violence, Death, War, Vomit, Gore, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Blood
graceskate's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Violence, Gore, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Death, Murder, War, Sexual content, Grief, Xenophobia, Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual violence, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Death, Misogyny, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Torture, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Animal death, Sexism, Trafficking, Child abuse, and Medical content
Minor: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Vomit, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Infidelity, Genocide, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Child abuse, Cursing, Alcohol, and Cannibalism
waterwolves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, War, and Death
Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Blood, Gore, and Grief
Minor: Vomit
kay_w's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, and War
Moderate: Vomit, Alcohol, Child death, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, and Torture
Minor: Slavery
hey_al's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and War
ten_telegrams's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, War, Blood, Murder, Violence, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Grief, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Sexism
shayna_hadassah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
It felt like the plot was too big for the author's skill level. There were a lot of moving parts that weren't integrated as seamlessly as they should have been for a plot that felt like it could have been fast and interesting, but ended up puttering around.
There were a lot of twists that the audience had no clue about. One, maybe two, would be fine. There's supposed to be a war going on, I get it, characters don't have a lot of intel. But it seemed like every time our protagonists maybe had an edge, surprise!, the bad guy actually has a way to counter that. Again, doing this minimally would have been fine, but it just felt uncharitable. Like, the villain was so overpowered. He had numbers, he had magic, he had strength. Literally they had no way to win until what was essentially a deus ex machina at the end. Were there clues to how they would win? One or two. But it didn't feel like there was any effort made to clue the audience in to what the solution was.
And then the girls' father shows up to help??? The man did nothing. For so many years. And what, it was too dangerous to send a message?? Give me a break. You find a way to finally help your daughters and you don't send them a message like, heads up, I'll be gone for a while. Maybe you should go visit relatives in [insert place here]. No coded message, no hints that something bad might be coming? If Nesta and Elain hadn't already been taken and changed, or if Feyre and the others hadn't figured out where Hybern was going and moved them out of the way, they'd literally be dead by the time he got there.
Amren changing to an avenging angel to win for them felt cheap only because there were no clues to what she actually wanted to do. More lies about who was needed and what the spell was going to do. Amren felt like a background character for most of the book, uninvolved in the main plot and not consulted near as much as she was in the previous book. No question of hey, what spells have you found, if not the one we're looking for. Also they never let the Book speak?? This is a magic book that apparently will talk sometimes. And we never got to know what it said. I would like to hear it. Make the Book a character. We already got new monster characters that were trotted out when convenient and then not really mentioned otherwise, there's no reason not to treat the Book the same way.
And then what about Elain's powers? She had a few visions they didn't interpret in time, and then found the Suriel, and then nothing. Sure, she couldn't see Hybern, but there was almost no other mention of what she could do. She couldn't see Miryam and Drakon? Or the human armies? Lucien? She couldn't see the last queen again? It was like woah cool powers! and then nothing.
Lots of secret deals going on that the audience doesn't have a chance or even a hope to piece together, which leads me back to my point of the plot was too big for the author's skill level. This could have been fun and suspenseful, but using a red herring well doesn't feel like something this author has really practiced with. The whole thing feels like all the other movies/shows/books that are more concerned with surprising the audience than letting them be an active participant in trying to figure out how the story progresses.
Other than the plot my main gripe is apparently no one understanding that Seraphim is a plural word. The singular is Seraph. It's a Hebrew word, and grammatically masculine, so the -im suffix is what makes it plural. Saying "she was a Seraphim" is the same as saying "she was a dogs." It's wrong. Relatively minor as far as these things go, but every time I read it I was immediately thrown out of the story.
Other than that I didn't mind the mentions of mates as much as I've seen it bother other people. I think constantly referring to Rhys as "my mate" was annoying in scenes with a lot of people when using his name would be just as easy. Mostly that was just clunky though. I feel like using a title like that would be better saved for when the gravity of the connection was necessary to the scene in some way. Suffice to say, just use characters' names when you have a conversation between so many of them. Or if you're worried, find a smoother way of distinguishing. Or better yet, don't introduce five or six brand new characters in a scene where all of them are going to be having a conversation with a cast of characters ranging from "I've already read more than a thousand pages involving them" to "This is only the second time I've even seen this character mentioned." I kept them straight for the most part, but that makes it difficult and clunky for anyone.
That said, using male/female instead of man/woman was not my thing. I understand that it's supposed to be that the Fae aren't people, and so don't use those words, but unfortunately, the only people I know of in real life who use male/female instead of man/woman are the most insufferable people on the planet. I get that the idea is to make the Fae seem more primal in some ways than humans and using male/female is simpler with the different kinds of faeries that exist in this universe, but having male/female in dialogue between characters was uncomfortable. I'm willing to let it slide since I understand this could just be a me problem.
There was some swearing but it felt weird and out of place, which feels awkward to say considering there are literal sex scenes in the book. Just with the way the characters usually spoke, swearing felt almost like it was shoe-horned in there. If they're going to swear, it should feel like something they'd actually say. And if one or two characters only swore to make a point or to be intentionally vulgar, that's one thing, but they all do it. Which feels related to the characters not all feeling entirely distinct. Our main cast for the most part feel like themselves, but some of the others get murky and hard to tall apart without dialogue tags.
Then there's the whole issue of Tamlin.
There felt like a lot of telling and not a lot of showing in the book. Feyre said like eight times "it was about choice" when talking about Rhys and how he helped people. (She did this once or twice in the last book too.) Listen, exposition or reinforcement like that can be good! Use it when it's important. In the last book, Feyre said it when it was a realization, like hey, this dude has been painted as a bad guy but he's actually been letting me make my own choices this whole time. Excellent! It was used in making an important decision, so saying it in words is good! But saying it so many times when you could just as easily just. let us see him do that (which we did! These words followed an example of him doing that!). There was a lot of repetition of description which just got old. Not everything needs a description if I already know what it looks like.
The spicy scenes were written pretty awkwardly I thought. Like the curtain drops weren't terrible, if a little corny. The actual explicit scenes (fewer than in the last book, I think?) felt like they couldn't strike a balance between what was going on and the emotional weight of the scene, so they were just weird. It felt like the author couldn't figure out a good way to get the scene from her head and on the page.
I do enjoy the duality of the courts in these books. I think the duality of Tamlin when Spring is usually thought of as a peaceful time of growth and then having him actually be more closely represented by the sometimes extreme changes that come in the in-between of winter and summer is super interesting. Likewise the Night Court having both Dreams and Nightmares, and Rhys being thought of as the monster that goes bump in the night but once you get a good look there's nothing to be afraid of.
I debated giving this book more stars since I did finish it, I did overall enjoy it, and there were a few moments that felt like they really had heart. Ultimately it stays at two for the whiplash between having twists with no warning, and then almost holding the reader's hand through other scenes. The series would do well to trust its audience and throw them a bone every once in a while.
Graphic: Vomit, Gore, War, Violence, Sexual content, Blood, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity, Cursing, Domestic abuse, and Sexual assault
anewton's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Homophobia, and Sexual content
siravalondulac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Blood, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Alcohol, and Vomit
Minor: Slavery, Colonisation, Medical content, and Classism