Reviews

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

thea04's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-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

5.0

evay912's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.5

sort of hard for me to get through

lexischoon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.25

toriibrooke33's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

tgomez's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.75

electrozap101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative sad tense fast-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

4.75

This series has truly been a whirlwind. Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows and Empire of Storms were absolutely 5-star+ books, my faves in the series and truly a difficult act to follow. Overall I’d probably give KOA 4.75 stars, just based on a few plot points that I wish I had more closure on. 

My biggest issue (that’s definitely a “me” problem) is that I wish I could have read this series before TikTok, because it’s just so impossible to avoid all of the fanart/spoilers online. In spite of the spoilers—which did reduce the impact of some of the more intense plot points—I still found myself surprised, and emotionally impacted by all of the twists and turns.I think that anyone who goes into this series blind will be shocked and love all of the twists and turns. I’d recommend reading the TOG series before anything else from SJM or it makes things a bit predictable. 

I loved this book and all of the characters so much. Aelin blew me out of the water especially, and is officially my favourite female main character, I look forward to the day that another character can steal the title, because I’ll know that I’m in for an incredible story. 

While this is a 5 star series, the ending of this book (KOA) specially, left me wanting more. I think there was a decent amount of closure, but after a long series like this, it stings a bit to not see where certain characters end up. I felt like we missed out on some really important milestones for a few characters, I hope that “open-endedness” results in a novella or something one day…and knowing SJM we probably will see some of these characters again one day. 

While so love SJMs writing, I do find it chaotic how things drag out and so much time is spent weaving an intricate story, only for absolute chaos to ensue for the final 100 pages, I wish there was more time spent in the wrap-up. Anyways, I digress…

But…before I go…I must say…the males of the Cadre + Dorian will forever haunt my dreams, and set my standards for men unreasonably higher 😭

haleyweaver2's review against another edition

5.0

The best series/book I have ever read. I will never recover or be the same. The tears were flowing

holly42069's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The disassociation was real after this one, a day later and still somewhat in shock after this series
Absolute masterpiece!

nephilimprodigy's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 maybe? I don't know. This was...the end. This was so long and I don't think it needed to be but at least we made it through.

chlofairyx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5