Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Queen of Shadows

WE ARE HOME, BABY! HELL YEAH TESSAREN!

Wowee that was quite the epic tale!

Felt a smidge slow at the start but the last 200 pages were crazy af in usual SJM manner.

Here are my thoughts on the characters for this book:

I’m so flipping HAPPY that Dorian got freed, poor sweet summer child, he didn’t deserve to be possessed for so long! BUT ALSO! Every single person just frickin left him to run a country on his own???? After he was tortured for months?!??! Like Aelin and her court all left to go North, and Chaol and Nesryn are going south! Who’s going to watch our battered and bruised lil king?!?! I don’t trust any of these Adarlan jerks to treat him right! But something I’m hopeful for is that I feel like Manon and him may become a thing????? That’d be quite the dynamic! Can’t wait!

Manon you’re sick af and a rockstar queen. Keep rocking, girlie! Hope Elide doesn’t get lost in the woods or break her other leg after you just left her there.

Also Lorcan was a fun lil addition, I don’t like him but I think he’s fun! Saucy lil guy!

I hope Lysandra and Aedion get together, they’d be really cute especially since she can scare the shit outta him. Good for her. She’s becoming one of my favs.

Aelin, I love you and Rowan together but I really wish it wasn’t established that you are blood relatives. I don’t care how distantly related you are, the fact that you can say “let’s go visit our aunt” is WEIRD. But long live the QUEEN!

Chaol, buddy, you really were pissing me off this book. Sorry about your lil leggies and I hope you get them back but you need to drink your “respect women” juice and treat Nesryn right pls cause I am getting real sick of your antics.

Now, ONTO THE TANDEM READ! LETS GOOOOOOOO

Content Warnings

anguawolf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

3.75

Continues the strong character development and worldbuilding that Maas delivered in Heir of Fire, with some satisfying plot twists and emotional breakthroughs for various characters.

This is also the first book that starts to get properly horny.

Many of the descriptions are starting to become repetitive - there are only so many times that I can read that someone was "covered in black blood" or had "eyes lined with silver" (just say they're filled with tears jfc). Also the way that Maas describes territorial Fae males is already exhausting, and the lack of nuance between familial vs romantic territorialism makes a big middle chunk of the book seem uncomfortably incest-y.

Overall this is stronger than the first two entries in the series and makes me excited to continue reading, but imo, a small step down in quality from Heir of Fire.

Content Warnings

sreilly1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Lot of plot happenings, setting up for some good romance 😋 but I can definitely see myself forgetting what happens in this book later on

Content Warnings

caelfind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Oh I loved this book. There was so much emotion, so much growth and so much heart.

So many characters developed. I love all of them. They all have loveable qualities and witty banter. (Chaol is eh. He was pissing me off in the beginning). The women in this story are absolutely amazing. Aelin is so smart and cunning. Kaltain’s story was so sad and beautiful. Lysandra really surprised me and I love her. Manon is an absolute icon. Asterin made me want to cry.

I can’t wait to see these characters win this war.

Content Warnings

rafacolog's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

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