Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

96 reviews

cait's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • 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

4.0


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baolade's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25


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allydoessomereading's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-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

4.25

So much fun! Such an adventurous series and I'm so excited to see how the story unfolds. The plot and world is getting much bigger and the state  are getting higher, can't wait to read more. This one was a little slower then the first but when the plot unfolded, it happened fast and explosively. 

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bigmak207's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • 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? Yes

4.25


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mrsalexisrjones's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

The kings champions mission is to defeat those that attempt to rise against the king. The problem, she herself hates the king. In her search for the kings hidden power source, Caelena finds herself connecting to  her past and the future freedom that she seeks.

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ivegotyourpaperback's review

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3.5

Sadly I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first. 

I found certain plot points and to be predictable (the purpose of Nehemiah’s with Elena and the big reveal at the end) and some character actions to be cringy (ditching guard duty to dance? Good god 🙄). And some of the names in this series are the stupidest I’ve ever heard (‘Baba Yellowlegs - seriously?).

And don’t even get me started on Celaena’s level of incompetency at times 😤. The most egregious example being this: “Did you kill Davis because you were snooping in his office, he caught you then cut you with a drugged blade?” 
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Adarlan’s greatest assassin 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

The prose was fine for the most part but every now and then SJM would drop a weird phrase that would have me thinking “what does that even mean?” (Example: “His face radiated a sense of maleness” 🧐)

In spite of all that, the story was enjoyable enough and I loved the introduction of new characters Mort and Archer Finn (Archer gave me Finnick Odair vibes, which i was totally here for).

There’s one thing that’s still bugging me: there was a POV from a random slave girl in Calaculla, and I’m trying to figure out if this is relevant to the plot at all or just a red herring. 🤔 I guess I’ll find out.

On to book 3……..

Further content warnings:
⚠️implied grooming
⚠️forced prostitution 

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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book blew me away. I feel like the story continuously amped up throughout which was really fun pacing. I also had no idea where the story was going so I was hooked. And that ending!! That twist!! I didn’t see it coming at all, though I knew something magical was going on. My only critique is the Chaol- Celaena drama with keeping secrets, etc. It was overly dramatic for barely any reason. But other than that this was the perfect setup for the rest of the series!

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micaelamariem's review against another edition

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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.

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graciejlc'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? 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.

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hollymileham's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • 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

4.25

big slay from me such a good plot and i loved celaenas character arc 
this series is really giving bbc merlin and that was my whole personality at age 9 so some things never change

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