Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - A Court of Wings and Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

21 reviews

chocolatebooksthunderstorms's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

I loved ACOTAR. I loved ACOMAF. But as soon as I cracked open A Court of Wings & Ruin after ACOMAF’s nasty cliffhanger, I was bored.

(ACOMAF spoilers ahead.)

One of the things I adore about this series is its discussion of trauma. Our cast has trauma and that is something the story actively deals with: the sleepless nights, the physical effects, the mental struggles. But, from the first page of A Court of Wings & Ruin, our heroine’s trauma and relevant flaws are stripped away. Forgotten. Coming to terms with trauma is what drew Feyre and Rhys together. I don’t expect them to cling to their trauma by any means (no one should ever have to experience that). But, for survivors, trauma is not just about overcoming. It’s about dealing with the memories/feelings/effects every single day. It’s about showing up, even after healing. As much as ACOMAF discussed overcoming trauma, A Court of Wings & Ruin forgot about it.

Then, there’s the matter of the ACOMAF cliffhanger, and where it left our heroine. A Court of Wings & Ruin begins a short time after ACOMAF. But this book is not about Feyre. It’s about Vengeful Feyre, Warrior Feyre, Sister Feyre, Ruler Feyre. Every unique and miniscule facet of Feyre is stripped away in the name of a boring, overly powerful faerie queen in pursuit of revenge. And this book is LONG.

It sounds like I’m hating on ACOTAR now, but I promise, I still love the series. A Court of Wings & Ruin gave me a newfound appreciation for Cassian, Elain, and all the monsters locked in cages. For me, this was a 3.5-star read. And A Court of Wings & Ruin isn’t where the story ends.

TW: graphic war, violence; moderate sexual assault, sexual content, murder; minor biphobia

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booksandteatime's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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arys_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Amazing! Second favorite in the series now, mist and fury being first. It is more plot and war based than character based which I didn’t think I would love as much as I did. I’m not one for battle scenes, reading them can be tough to get through, but I loved these. They were so descriptive and made me feel like I was watching it through a screen. Didn’t think war would be one of my favorite things about the book but the writing was just perfect. And the character building; even with less character building focus, it was amazing. It was found family mixed with actual blood family and it was beautiful. Amazing

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egurgens's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

I felt so many emotions when I read this. The book begins with Feyre being the fox among chickens, where she schemes and plots and tears apart the Spring Court, after both Tamlin and Ianthe betrayed her. When Feyre is satisfied, she returns to the Night Court, where they have to deal with the after effects of the misadventure on Hybern. What follows is lots of war prep, alliances, feelings, and WAR.

This was so good, I greatly enjoyed this story. I’m looking forward to more.

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urreadtome's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

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offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

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thesaltiestlibrarian's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

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

2.0

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bookishmegs_'s review against another edition

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adventurous 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? No

3.0

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radipede's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

2.75

550 pages of nearly decent writing and the last 100 pages were a terrible, horrible bombshell. this could've been a 3.5 star, maybe *genuinely* a 4 star book, but... it was so bad.

feyre was actually tolerable in this book? this surprised me so much. in the first two books, i found her insufferable and a horrible protagonist, but she seems to have calmed down/mellowed out which honestly does not seem super in line with her character. oh, and in the last 100 pages--ill save that for later. i really enjoyed her scheming at the spring court! that was surprisingly captivating, i loved it. it was far and away a horrible political move, but it was entertaining. begrudgingly i can admit that she grew in this book and there were some genuinely badass feyre moments (can't believe i'm saying this).

ianthe....

seemed so cartoonishly evil this time around? there was an attempt at depth but i think it failed, she's so flat. not much to say here, what a boring villain

lucien:

what a bounceback! not super great, but i feel like his character recovered somewhat of the massacre that happened to it in ACOMAF. i also like while he clearly is pining for elain and is sadboi about it, he's not pressuring her/repeatedly putting her in situations where they're alone together, etc. not mad about his character in this book at all.

tamlin:

you poor unfortunate faerie. he was Way worse in this book; why is he so hateful, maas? i suppose it's more or less in line/worse than ACOMAF, but ACOMAF in itself flipped tamlin's character 180 degrees to the bad side, so idk. it's not great.

the reunion of the sisters after

feyre and azriel save elain from hybern

was super touching and sweet! i loved it, i actually think the relationship between them throughout the trilogy has been pretty okay and even well portrayed at some points (as someone with three siblings). i like that both nesta and elain are changed by what happened in ACOMAF, but still are their core selves. i think nesta received some good development (

her being more confident, her trusting cassian more, the reunion where she actually hugs feyre and physically shows her that she cares

) and elain... was also there.

mor casually makes a remark (you need't make us sound like *heathens*) that references christianity, which was extremely immersion breaking. the theology isn't really there, but even the humans weren't christian; it makes no sense whatsoever that she would say this. even if there *was* christianity in this world, the fae would be far from it??? *they* would be the heathens in this exercise????????? also not really sure how i feel about the fae theology/general theology items being real (i.e. the damn cauldron); don't quite have the words to fully articulate my thoughts on it, but i don't love it.

there is SO much vomit in this book, and for no reason!!! "

i was so relieved i thought i'd puke right onto the table

" doesn't even make sense as something anyone would feel!!!!!

WHY is the go-to insult/gotcha to call someone a whore/expose their sexual thoughts or actions/tease them about relationships? it just feels so awkward and uncomfortable, it's not even an own? specifically

every time someone wants to hurt rhysand they call him a whore/reference the actions he did for amarantha

the meeting with the high lords where tamlin talks about how he too had sex with feyre and somewhat implies rhysand fucks all his enemies

, and perhaps most annoying and heinous,

when mor is (justifiably!!) upset with feyre that she ran off and deliberately deceived her and she's trying to have a conversation about it and feyre comes up with (direct quote) "you want to talk about lying? how about the fact that you lie to yourself and all of us every single day? [...] why haven’t you ever made a move for azriel, mor?" this is SO not comparable to feyre lying about her intentions it isn't even funny.

speaking of: diversity! it really feels like maas saw her fans' wishes for a more diverse world and *tried* to deliver; i can't quite believe she did this on her own, given she has a full series apart from ACOTAR (that i have not read! but heard its own lack of diversity). there's a notable amount of more brown characters in this book, which is nice but they seem.. not entirely integrated. in ACOMAF i did notice it with the summer court, but it was... only in the summer court. two explicitly bisexual characters (one is a high lord) + a mention of two wlw (i couldn't believe it when i read "her wife", i had to go back to make sure i got it correctly) and a high lord having a (male) lover in his personal guard. the narrative is still extremely heterosexual (especially considering ACOMAF and the mating bond explanation in the cabin), but an effort was made.

about the bisexual characters:

helion (the high lord of the day court) is hypersexual to the extreme; practically every mention of him includes some reference to it. he is one of the handful of named "dark" characters, and feyre exoticizes him. while a brown hypersexual bi character isn't inherently a bad character, he's one of TWO bi characters and one of FOUR *named* "dark" characters (that i am aware of).

and

mor, who comes out for SIX. PAGES. "you were right about me," she says, in reference to the above comment i quoted feyre on (about mor lying to herself about her relationships). absolutely despise how this was handled. it feels like that for her entire life mor has been suffering and struggling with this deep down and that she will *continue* to suffer and struggle with it. she says that she's "attracted to females" but "finds pleasure [in sex] in them both". mor says "if i were to marry where my heart desired, there would be no offspring." which to me EXPLICITLY states that women are all she's interested in and there's no possibility for her to see herself with a male partner. she takes them to not arouse suspicion (of her wlw-ness) and to, idk, hurt azriel more overtime rather than ripping off that bandage and just telling him she's not interested??? she says that she enjoys sex with men, which makes her ~bisexual~, but this just feels so fake to me, like maas just didn't want a lesbian character. this is also just my opinion as a bisexual; every bisexual has different preferences and desires, but mor... doesn't feel that way to me.

the ending. the fucking ending. i don't even want to talk about it; twist after goddamn twist that were out of the blue and made no sense at all, the barest amount of sense to be kind to some.

it's my father! amren lied to me! elain killed hybern! the cauldron broke! rhysand died!

seriously? *seriously?* they're at-most a chapter apart! this isn't just shocking, it's unbelievable and unbelievably tiring. the huge, larger than life battle was just.. ugh. these 100 pages *ruined* the book for me, more than the ending ruined ACOMAF, more than, well, the entirety of ACOTAR. i was actually coming around to this story, believe it or not! most of the characters consistent (from ACOMAF...), interesting politics (mostly...), *tolerable* feyre (nearly)!?!? this handful of pages, this final act, destroyed all of that. this ending infuriates me to no end.

AND amren came back?????????????????? let her die!!!!!!!!! let death be permanent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was an EXCELLENT and SATISFYING death, RIPPED THE FUCK OUT OF OUR HANDS. and for what reason, you don't want to kill one of the main cast? pathetic.

not to mention hybern is nearly as bad as amarantha. is hybern the king's name? the army? the island? the kingdom? i don't get it. i hate it. i hate everything about this.

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mollyrose's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

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