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_readobituaries'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? It's complicated
4.0
1st we will address the cross over.... It was nothing but fan service.
2nd.... Bryce was a cunt during this.
Lidia was AMAZING in this. Honestly, carried the entire story. I
Ithan and Therion were..... there... Therion made every stupid decision he could and Ithan swiftly followed in his footsteps.
Overall, I loved the book and the characters. Just.... disappointed. This book had SO MUCH potential. and honestly, I don't see why she'd write a fourth book.. She's defeated the big bad- why create so many lose, mediocre plot lines to leave unraveled for a 4th book when she could have easily just tied everything up nicely and finished book 3. It's like she's milking it because there really is no reason to keep the story going....
Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Genocide, Murder, War, Classism, Confinement, Hate crime, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Gun violence
winterwoodbooks'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 harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Violence, Cannibalism, Genocide, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Blood, Classism, Murder, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Child death, Dysphoria, Medical content, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Body horror, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cursing, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Torture, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, and War
naes's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Domestic abuse
groskrmc's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Legit plot holes and inconsistencies and no scenes of character growth. The character growth or interesting plot lines that did exist were yeeted into the sun. Everything happened too tight chronologically for any significant character growth or exploration. It is 800 pages of mess.
Apparently Sarah doesn’t take notes and I think we need to point to the Pete Davidson monologue from snl where he tells Kanye to take his meds. And she needs better editors. There were TYPOS. And bad layout! I might give up on her after this book.
Bryce was a dick, tharion and ithan were idiots, ruhn and Lidia were devoid of any growth together, juniper and fury just accepted Bryce and got over being angry, no one questioned Bryce’s story about Micah. The sprites just. Found the queen? All of the asteri were easy to kill and hyjack, even pollox was easy.
Lidia and rhun carried the plot but even those two were bad!!! No healthy relationship! Ruhn clearly respects that she has trauma from Pollux but still decides to shoot her to save her kids. Also, the whole “this characters actions are excuses because uhhhh babies” is disappointing!!! It’s like feyre!!!
Ithan is a disaster and the bird from lion king says it the best “if this is where the monarchy is heading count me out” (he and hypoxia are fendry bendrys). Tharion was a fool who couldn’t think beyond himself for the next 30 seconds. Fury and juniper were side notes, Jesiba just happens to grow a heart (although the whole Apollyon curse and librarian thing was a nice touch).
Bryce was diet aelin and said the ends justify the means but they definitely did not. How does she have any friends left? And she should have died. Or hunt should have died. Someone needed to die!!! She abused hunt and manipulated him and he followed her blindly. Unless that is the whole point (and it’s meant to be “see even these two can have bad dynamics”) which I DOUBT IT WAS, it’s bad!!! And hunt just happening to be a son of hel created for Bryce??? No. I wanted his dad to be no one important, not for him to LEGIT BE JESUS BUT SPERM FROM HEL.
Where was erawan? The sacrifice of the 13? The tamlin trapping feyre and her having to decide to leave? Lucien had more development than any of the side characters in CC.
And like. It’s clear that nesta has gone through some shit. But the bonus chapter where she just accepts Rhys yelling at her? And says her mate was even more upset??
What happened to all the character growth??? Nesta is smart! She might not be aelin but I don’t believe she didn’t have tricks up her sleeves. She’s a Valkyrie. She didn’t just say “you can’t have the mask but I have the mask and I’ll go with you”. I feel like Rhys has been acting out of character since he died in acosf. Did he sustain brin damage when he died? I don’t understand.
Graphic: Torture and Toxic relationship
hrpower2'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
5.0
Graphic: Violence and Torture
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
readwithde's review
- 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
4.25
This book read like the end of a trilogy, despite the fact that there are four houses (and supposedly a fourth book coming). Most of the main characters had their story arcs conclude, and there are only a few loose ends.
Bryce and Hunt became less vital and important to me; the background characters became much more important. I love that the story focused on so many different paths and choices, all culminating in the final conflict of the book.
All that to say, it was good. I liked it. But I wanted more, and I'm not sure when or if that will happen.
Graphic: Blood, War, Sexual content, Torture, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Death, Violence, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, and Kidnapping
Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Confinement, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
spicycronereads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
That said, it was a satisfying installment in the series - I laughed out loud, I cried, I … well, it was less spicey than the last one. Maybe 🌶️🌶️?
I thought the second book had some pacing issues but this one worked really well. The multi POV chapters flowed really seamlessly.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 🌶️🌶️
Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, and War
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Abandonment
zanazy's review
- 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? It's complicated
2.5
The book is told through many perspectives and the scene breaks are very abrupt. There were quite a few times where the POV changed mid page that made me do a double take to make sure I was following along. A LOT happens to everyone and we see it all. We see into the dungeon Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are in, as well as get Ithan’s POV from his journey, Tharion also has his own bits throughout the story. The main POV is of course Bryce, but Lydia is another featured POV that adds a lot, and she has one of the better character developments in this book.
This book ends Bryce and Hunt’s storyline, giving them
As far as the impact to ACOTAR characters, I think that
CC in general has not been my favorite story, and this book did nothing to change that. I think this story made me hate Bryce as a character, and there were plenty of times I wanted to chuck my book at the wall. Bryce’s actions throughout the book show she is selfish, conceited, and only concerned about what she wants, regardless of the cost or impact to others. I will admit I was not a big fan of hers, but I ended the book disliking her even more. All the other characters talk about how selfless she is, how special, kind, good, insert other nice things throughout the scenes and story, which makes things worse. There should be no need for other characters to rave about her, the fact they do, tells you enough that her actions do not reflect what other characters think she is like. Lydia, Ruhn, Tharion, and Ithan save this story from being completely unreadable.
Unfortunately, this is my least favorite of all the Maas universe books, and I am truly hoping this was the end of Bryce’s story, because I do not care to read more about her.
Graphic: Torture, War, Death, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, and Cursing
Minor: Sexual content, Rape, Sexual harassment, Medical content, and Toxic relationship
hanlkg's review
- 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? Yes
4.0
Whew. That book was relentless from start to finish. Haven’t had so much fun reading in a minute. That said, it’s not a five to me:
Things I liked:
1. Ruhn and Lidia - this pair might be SJMs best yet. Every time I turned the page I was looking for their names.
2. Lidia- deserves her own note becuase her story is just that good and the final nod to Brannon is stunning.
3. The way the 3 worlds we know were tied together. I still have plenty of questions but I’m left feeling really satisfied which surprises me. I think endings of this magnitude can read as lackluster after so much build up and leave the audience disappointed. It was a blast to read all the pieces click into place. The crossover was well done too. although I was disappointed to not see more of nesta, Azriel, and the rest, With more ACOTAR books coming, I’m glad the story focused primarily on Midgard.
Things I didn’t like:
1. Like I said, this book is FAST. Like staring into the sun. The first part could have been extended into a standalone and been sufficient. Because of that, I don’t think time was given to the character development and relationship building that Maas is adored for, and certain plot points are so abrupt that they feel glossed over (see the deaths of the autumn king and morven). Nothing wrong with a few more pages if we really get to feel the intensity of certain moments in a deeper way.
2. Bryce is at her worst as a cringey millennial in this installment. She’s so quippy and immature at times that I just couldn’t fully get behind her as a leader.
3. The POV switching. Good lord. I think that contributes to the feeling of whiplash throughout reading. Switching to multiple POVs within a single chapter of characters on different continents was just too much and detracted from the story.
All in all I’m rating this one fairly high because I do think it accomplished its most important goal of fleshing out a history and magic system that make sense to tie 3 separate worlds together. That is no small feat. Despite my grievances, I had a blast reading and would still recommend this series and author widely.
Graphic: War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Torture, and Sexual violence
sarahtaymo's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Physical abuse, Racism, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Murder, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Slavery, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment