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brittaneenash's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book really knew where to hit to get all of my feelings all at once. There are so many lovely scenes, and an equal amount of (okay, maybe slightly more) heartbreaking scenes, and plenty of scenes that leave adrenaline coursing through your veins.
- I know a lot of people don't like Chaol, probably particularly after this book, but I still adore him. Despite this, I do find him immensely frustrating at times, but I think that's just a massive testament to Sarah J. Maas' ability to write characters realistically. I still stand by the fact that he's a little autism-coded babe, and I would protect him with my whole heart. I think that he needs a hug.
- I was devastated by the deaths of some of the characters in this book. Absolutely, genuinely heartbroken.
- There were a lot of predictable things throughout the book, though I found there was probably an equal amount of things that took me by surprise!
Archer, in particular, was someone I had my eye on as vaguely suspicious after he ferried out that handful of people from his organisation, but I never would have suspected his character arc to play out in the way that it did. I would, additionally, like to point out that I knew Celaena was Aelin around 50 pages into the first book. I know we don't hear about Aelin until the start of Crown of Midnight, but I'd heard about Aelin-Rowan ships on TikTok. It was so infuriating to me that nobody seemed to be able to put the pieces together, and even when Chaol did, he still thought that she just knew where the 'lost princess' was. - The ending of this book, once again, fell a little bit flat for me. I think that this is because I'd already guessed one of the major plot points of this novel about a book and a half prior to it occurring.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Incest
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