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micaelamariem's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.0
Two years after reading Throne of Glass, I finally read the sequel, Crown of Midnight.
If you somehow haven't heard of the author, Sarah J Maas, she also wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Crescent City series.
Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series, was published by Bloomsbury YA. Throne of Glass is a YA fantasy series targeted to older teenagers (though adults can still enjoy them!)
Crown of Midnight continues with Celaena's story after she becomes the King's Champion as to be his personal assassin. Meanwhile, she is trying to figure out what all the secret passageways and riddles she finds in the castle means, and would they have any answers to stopping the king's thirst for power as he continues to dominate other countries.
I really enjoyed this book--even more than the first one. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 on the rating scale system because I did enjoy reading it, but there were a few hiccups with the book.
Part of me loved seeing the intricacies of Chaol's, Dorian's, and Celaena's friendship. I loved the character development that happens--particularly with Dorian, though Celaena grew the most as the main character. I didn't like the jealousy trope being played with both Chaol and Dorian. It just seemed a bit childish and annoying.
I also enjoyed the plot and there were many twists and turns, even if I did ultimately guess the big twist at the end. There were a lot of other reveals I didn't see coming. The plot also included a lot of fight scenes, so I was never left too wanting for action. That being said, the first half of the book did move a lot more slowly. I wish the romance in the book didn't come and go so quickly, too.
If you somehow haven't heard of the author, Sarah J Maas, she also wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Crescent City series.
Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series, was published by Bloomsbury YA. Throne of Glass is a YA fantasy series targeted to older teenagers (though adults can still enjoy them!)
Crown of Midnight continues with Celaena's story after she becomes the King's Champion as to be his personal assassin. Meanwhile, she is trying to figure out what all the secret passageways and riddles she finds in the castle means, and would they have any answers to stopping the king's thirst for power as he continues to dominate other countries.
I really enjoyed this book--even more than the first one. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 on the rating scale system because I did enjoy reading it, but there were a few hiccups with the book.
Part of me loved seeing the intricacies of Chaol's, Dorian's, and Celaena's friendship. I loved the character development that happens--particularly with Dorian, though Celaena grew the most as the main character. I didn't like the jealousy trope being played with both Chaol and Dorian. It just seemed a bit childish and annoying.
I also enjoyed the plot and there were many twists and turns, even if I did ultimately guess the big twist at the end. There were a lot of other reveals I didn't see coming. The plot also included a lot of fight scenes, so I was never left too wanting for action. That being said, the first half of the book did move a lot more slowly. I wish the romance in the book didn't come and go so quickly, too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Stalking, and Vomit
graciejlc'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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I loved the imagery in this story. The grittiness of Rifthold was well described, and I could easily picture the scenes whilst reading them. I would love to see this get picked up as a tv series. It's a good mix of action & fantasy that kept me engaged in the story
The character development is getting better, and world building is enjoyable. There is more information on the lore of the realm too, which I was hoping for more of in the previous book.
There were multiple occasions i had to set the book down to process what just happened due to a couple of twists I didnt expect, however, there were a couple of revelations that seemed glaringly obvious to anyone but the characters involved.
The character development is getting better, and world building is enjoyable. There is more information on the lore of the realm too, which I was hoping for more of in the previous book.
There were multiple occasions i had to set the book down to process what just happened due to a couple of twists I didnt expect, however, there were a couple of revelations that seemed glaringly obvious to anyone but the characters involved.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Slavery, Death of parent, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail
mangofraiche's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Confinement, and Colonisation
jessversteeg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
It’s still as good the second time around!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death, Murder, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Slavery
cayliehausman's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
the start of this series has been a bit slow, developing the norms to break them in this book. While the start was slow, and contained some sweet moments, the escalation from the 35ish chapter is intense and fast-paced. It was so worth every minute of world building to get to this ending, I’m fucking pumped to read Assassin’s Blade and learn her true back story now that we know more about our main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Slavery, Physical abuse, Grief, and Gore
Minor: Animal cruelty
jelkebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
originally read in 2019
I'm going to be completely honest here, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. I can't really explain it, because I do still agree with my original review. Barely anything happened in this book. It was extremely slow moving, and the love triangle is the most uneccecary part in a book I've ever seen. However, I really like Chaol and Dorian (I still hate Celeana, sorry not sorry), and quite enjoyed that we got more from their perspective within this book. I also really like the friendships between the three of our main characters. Honestly, easily the best part of this book, especially when Sarah J Maas forgot she was writing a love triangle and they just got to be besties.
Like I said before there is barely any plot in this book, it's so incredibly slow moving, and makes for quite a boring read. The only reason I still enjoyed my time with this book, is because of the above mentioned character dynamics. The little plot that was there was extremely predictable, and so full of basic YA fantasy tropes, and not even done in an interesting way. I've read many books with common and predictable YA fantasy tropes, but they still make for an engaging and entertaining story by the way they're put together, that wasn't the case for this book.
I do think this series is going in an interesting direction though. Magic gets introduced quite a bit more in this book, but it's all still one big question mark. On top of that we get a glimpse in what the bigger story of this series is going to be, and I'm extremely interested to see that all play out, I just hope it will get done in a more entertaining way, and Celeana will become more likeable. Let's hope for the best!
I'm going to be completely honest here, I enjoyed this much more than I expected. I can't really explain it, because I do still agree with my original review. Barely anything happened in this book. It was extremely slow moving, and the love triangle is the most uneccecary part in a book I've ever seen. However, I really like Chaol and Dorian (I still hate Celeana, sorry not sorry), and quite enjoyed that we got more from their perspective within this book. I also really like the friendships between the three of our main characters. Honestly, easily the best part of this book, especially when Sarah J Maas forgot she was writing a love triangle and they just got to be besties.
Like I said before there is barely any plot in this book, it's so incredibly slow moving, and makes for quite a boring read. The only reason I still enjoyed my time with this book, is because of the above mentioned character dynamics. The little plot that was there was extremely predictable, and so full of basic YA fantasy tropes, and not even done in an interesting way. I've read many books with common and predictable YA fantasy tropes, but they still make for an engaging and entertaining story by the way they're put together, that wasn't the case for this book.
I do think this series is going in an interesting direction though. Magic gets introduced quite a bit more in this book, but it's all still one big question mark. On top of that we get a glimpse in what the bigger story of this series is going to be, and I'm extremely interested to see that all play out, I just hope it will get done in a more entertaining way, and Celeana will become more likeable. Let's hope for the best!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Slavery
ejreadz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gore, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Slavery, War, Confinement, Genocide, Suicide, Grief, and Stalking
Minor: Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Excrement, Self harm, Vomit, Death of parent, and Child death
stephhaigreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-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
Look the only reason I’m rating this 4.5 instead of 5 is because it should have been longer. It felt like so much was happening and it got almost confusing, especially because it had been a while since I read the first one.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW
also Nehemia’s death took me hardcore by surprise, I was NOT expecting a George RR Martin main character kill off so early in the series.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, and Body horror
Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Slavery
Minor: Sexual content
merrow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
4.0
A good sequel that expands upon the characters and situations. It does have the common struggle with direction I feel many second books have where it has to turn an initial closed premise into a big expansive story line but it handles it well. The monsters are effectively creepy and the king successfully and compellingly evil, but the ending twist does feel slightly contradictory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Alcohol, Torture, Colonisation, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Sexual content, and Slavery
chapters_and_pages'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
And this book is exactly why I gave Throne of Glass just 3⭐️!
This series is just brilliant and it continues to improve with each book. Even though this was my third time reading this book, I just could not put it down!
Celaena is just absolutely precious and deserves the whole world, and the fact that she can kill someone in more than a thousand different ways honestly just adds to her charm in my opinion.
This book has made me even more excited to continue rereading the series and I can’t wait to get to Heir of Fire and read about Rowan and Manon once again!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Death, and Torture
Minor: Sexual content