Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Queen of Shadows

i personally would’ve preferred if this book wasn’t always focused in the same two cities (Rifthold and Morath) because i always love when books explore more territories and i find this world very interesting. but everything else was great! the actions scenes and the newly introduced characters were amazing.

Content Warnings

ninaevan's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

My favorite so far! Maas is great at developing these really endearing found family dynamics that are so easy to root for. While the plot progression remains very expected, I still felt engaged and excited. This one wrapped things up so nicely that, for the first time in the series, I don't feel the need to pick the next one up immediately, I might take a break and come back to it cause I'm just so satisfied with how things were left.

My scoring:
5 | =everyone in the world must read this book
4.75 | =between 4.5 and 5
4.5 | =dessert island book
4.25 | =between 4 and 4.5
4 | =great, solid, reccomendable book
3.75 | =may not be a 4, but I had a good time
3.5 | = rough patches but not bad
3.25 | =between 3 and 3.5
3 | =meh
2 | =not good
1 | =bad

Content Warnings

julia87's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

This books was amazing. All I wanted to do for the past few days is read. For hours on end.

For starters, it was super fast past and kept me super engaged. The plot was great, the only criticism I have is that the first 100 or so pages were a tad boring <sort of spoiler> things got infinitely better when Rowan came back in.

This was hands down the best book I’m the Throne of Glass Series so far. I will 100% be continuing on this book was absolutely amazing. I would highly suggest it!

Content Warnings

bethy_joy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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

5.0

Content Warnings

veeronald's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

I honestly would have preferred if the book was only about Manon.

Aelin reaches an all-time goody two shoes standard of Mary Sueness and awkward dialogue in this novel where so much of the action happens after the fact and the characters can't stop farting out awful, cringe-worthy one-liners.

It's honestly insulting how much the book is absorbed with how *amazing* Aelin is, and gives the bare minimum psychological processing to enslavement and war and the fallout of living through it all. I get it, Maas doesn't want to talk about it because she just wants to show how powerful and generous Aelin is, and how attractive (?) Rowan is. But it's a book about war. Make it about war, please. Anything else is insulting.

And should I even get into (again) how hypocritical this book is? Aelin (and the tone of the book) makes a big statement about who can be forgiven for being enslaved, and then goes ahead and blames someone for being enslaved because she never liked them. Yet again, the book presents a certain argument about inclusion or forgiveness or hope, but then only offers that to a select group of Maas' choosing. (I'm being vague for spoilers). Don't promote one thing and the in the very fabric of your book fail to do that very thing that the characters become so high and mighty about. The same thing happened in ACOTAR.

I'm tired of these half-assed books.

Content Warnings

tiredtori's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-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

4.5

Content Warnings

More...