Reviews with content warning for Gore - A Court of Wings and Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

207 reviews

that_1_readergurl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Final Say: 4.5 stars
So first things first: I ALMOST liked this book more than I liked A Court of Mist and Fury. ALMOST. But since my original review, I have since removed .5 stars from my rating, due to things I will get to later. Also: at this point, if you don't know that most of my reviews contain spoilers, this is your warning: THIS ENTIRE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS IT IS A SPOILER REVIEW SO TREAD WITH CAUTION!!!

Let's Go Prologues, Let's Go!
I want to start by re-stating something I said in my updates while reading this book: I knew from the prologue that this was a political war book. Listening to Song of Achilles while reading that prologue was an experience, one that I wish I could have again. It was SO awesome.

Feyre's the Badass We All Secretly Want to Be
Alr moving on: can we talk about the fact that Feyre was spying on the Spring Court, the thingy with the Hybern commanders happened, and then she pretty much single-handedly brought down the court. Tamlin's sentries left him, half his court no longer believes in him, and the other half is on the brink. Feyre is SO cool, and when she's in the Winter Court with Lucien and fighting on the ice--when Cassian and Azriel arrive to help...well, let's just say she doesn't let ANYONE forget it.

F.E.Y.S.A.N.D. R.E.U.N.I.O.N
Then we get the REUNION SCENE and OMG I cried it made me so happy it was the best.

The First Meeting
So honestly I'm tired and I'm gonna skip like a bunch of pages but lets just say Tamlin is a piece ofshit person and I hated him but omG I love love LOVE Helion he's the best and if he's unclaimed well i'll take that one please. No more Tarquin I want Helion.

Flashback to ACOMAF
Back to the Bone Carver and Feyre realizes its their child, something some of us realized way back in ACOMAF.

Sarah J Maas is Queen
I also forgot to mention that first battle they fought. I love the way Sarah J Maas writes war and battle scenes. I think people just focus on her romance writing skills and don't give her enough credit for being amazingly able to write battle scenes. She's very good at it and when reading about Cassian and Azriel fighting I was just pure amazed.

Screaming Crying Throwing Up
THEN THE SURIEL DIED I WANTED TO DIE SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP DEATH TO IANTHE. Oh wait I forgot THEY DID KILL HER GOOD JOB FEYRE AND STRYGA!!!

-0.5
I'm gonna skip a bunch of shit because this book does kind of drag which is part of the reason I ranked it down a little bit. The other reason is the way Sarah J Maas outed Mor. It felt half-assed and uninformed, and as a bisexual person myself I was very offended and put out by this.

A Battle for the Ages
But now we got the battle and this is going to take up the majority of the review. AZRIEL GAVE ELAIN TRUTH TELLER OMG I CRIED. But right before the battle there's THIS quote, and it is the best thing EVER:

He said down the bond, I would have waited five hundred more years for you. A thousand years. And if this is all the time we're allowed to have...the wait was worth it.
He wiped away the tears sliding down my face. "I believe that everything happened, exactly the way it had to...so I could find you."

AND OMG OMG OMG I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I'LL BE DAMNED IF I SAID I DIDN'T CRY OK I CRIED SO HARD I WAS SO SCARED SOMEONE WAS GOING TO DIE (but I'll get to that later) I WAS SOBBING IN THE MIDDLE OF MY MATH CLASS I'M SO FOR REAL RIGHT NOW.

Alr so here we go it hath begun and OMG I always forget how good Sarah J Maas is at this she is amazing at it and lets never let ourselves forget it. Feyre and Rhys managed to bring in The Bone Carver, Bryaxis, and Stryga (the Weaver) to fight for them. And so the battle begins..

The fighters at the beginning:
Illyrian Soldiers
Keir's Darkbringers
Tarquin's army
Thesan's army
Helion's army
Kallias' army
The Bone Carver
Bryaxis
Stryga (The Weaver)
And then we hear the sound of war horns. And in comes Beron's army (+ his sons, here to burn some faebane), Tamlins army (as rough as it is), and Jurian and the human army, fighting under Lord Graysen's command. And it just got 10x better.

So now our Made girlies are heading for the cauldron but before they can Nesta is taken out of commission by our dear Cauldron, who is being roused to kill full Illyrian legions. And through all that pain, Nesta roars Cassian's name to get him out of there. And even though she knows the guilt will hurt she will not--cannot let him die.

Also now the Bone Carver is dead which ain't good but we gotta keep moving.

So now we see the rest of Hybern's army, which also isn't good. In fact, it's really, REALLY bad. But. BUT.

OMG OMG OMG I LOST MY MIND ITS THE SERAPHIM AND CRETEA'S LEGIONS ITS DRAKON AND MIRYAM I REPEAT ITS DRAKON AND MIRYAM. THIS IS REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD. AND FEYRE'S FATHER BROUGHT SHIPS LETS GO. AND HE NAMED THEM AFTER HIS DAUGHTERS LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO. AND HE FOUND VASSA YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY.

Soooo now they going to find the Cauldron and this is where my memory gets a little fuzzy so I pulled out the book and I forgot that feyre wasn't actually in the forest with them but at the cauldron. And i started crying when Nesta put her body of Cassians. And we get THIS:

Cassian grunted in pain, but lifted his bloodied hands--to cup her face. "I have no regrets in my life, but this." His voice shook with every word. "That we did not have time. That I did not have time with you, Nesta."
She didn't stop him as he leaned up and kissed her--lightly. As much as he could manage.
Cassian said softly, brushing away the tear that streaked down her face, "I will find you again in the next world--the next life. And we will have that time. I promise."

I cried SO hard. And I mean, like, I was SOBBING at like 2 am trying to finish this goddamn book.

But oml his poor wings thats the second time something absolutely awful has happened to bros wings. aaaanyways so basically Elain--Elain--puts truth teller through the king of hybern's throat and says this:

"Don't you touch my sister.

And it was so bad ass and then nesta twists it and twists it until the guy's head comes off and omg unpopular opinon but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Nesta she's one of my favorite characters sarah j maas has ever written I just love her so much.

Ok so I know I'm rambling but that's because I love this book so much.

Now skipping ahead I just want to say that Amren has been one of my favorites since the moment we met her and honestly just like shes so cool and awesome and can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get more amren action in A Court of Silver Flames. I understand why she can NEVER be allowed back into flame bird thingy again but that was cool as FUCK.

AND THEN HERES WHERE I LOST MY MIND FOR REAL:

RHYS IS DEAD RHYS IS DEAD RHYS IS DEAD OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO POOR FEYRE AND AHHH I JUST CRIED SO FUCKING HARD AND FEYRE BASICALLY FORCES THE HIGH LORDS TO BRING HIM BACK.and heres what got me: feyre said she would give tamlin anything for him to help bring him back, knowing full well he could request for her to come back to the spring court, to marry him, literally anything, and she would give it to him. So that Rhys could live, she would give Tamlin whatever he wanted. And all he asked for was her happiness. So i cried some more.

And then we talk to Miryam, who I IMMEDIATELY loved, and then back to Velaris. And all is semi-right with the world.

Then I was flying. Soaring.
Rhys fell into flight beside me, and when he smiled at me again as we sailed through the stars and lights and the sea-kissed breeze, when he showed me all the wonders of Velaris, the glittering Rainbow a living river of color beneath us...When he brushed his wing against mine, just because he could, because he wanted to and we'd have an eternity of nights to do this, to see everything together...
A gift.
All of it.

now I have to go read A Court of Frost and Starlight.

OG Review - Directly After Reading
100% five stars. I have much more to say but I’ll get to that after I finish my ACOMAF review (whenever the hell that happens lol).

Content Warnings

lizard800's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Each book in the series keeps improving (which doesn't mean a lot really because this isn't a great series overall). The writing in this one is better, even though there are still overused phrases ('I could have sworn that...' being one that came up a lot). Maas backed away from overuse of ellipses and em dashes, so that was nice. Still some incomplete sentences, but again not as bad as previous books.

Writing aside, the story in this book is pretty good honestly. Lots of twists and turns that you don't see coming, which I enjoyed. I do think the book could have been a LOT shorter (a theme with this series) and still told the same story.

One thing that i still don't understand is how the Carver got out of prison? I thought the mirror was just to get him to agree, but I wasn't clear on how he actually removed himself?

I also thought that the father returning at the end was kind of stupid. Rolled my eyes at that.

Content Warnings

lakinglaze's review against another edition

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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? N/A

5.0

This book — this book has my heart. I have never cried so much and so often with a story before — and not all those tears were sad — most of them, in fact, were of joy and love. That love, the compassion, the sacrifice — I won’t be able to let these characters go — not ever. It was all a gift. 🖤

Content Warnings

mkilla's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

5.0

An incredible read that kept me wrapped up in that universe from the first sentence. The last quarter of the book was so captivating that I never wanted put it down. Usually when I say that I loved the last bits of a story, that means the beginning or middle really dragged…that is not the case with this book. Every bit of this book was exciting. There was love: friendship, family, and romantic. There was conflict: inner, interpersonal, and on a global scale. This book had me excited over the politics and battles in a way I haven’t experienced since I was in high school over a decade ago. There was action and humor and heartbreaking sadness and tear jerking joy. This book tied up loose ends and made me feel grateful for everything and everyone I have. I have no notes. Well done, SJM, well done.

Content Warnings

treblemakeranna's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.5

Content Warnings

pretzelocity's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

A satisfying albeit lengthy end to the trilogy. I ended up really loving some of the monster characters at the end as well. Other characters remained frustratingly flat.

Content Warnings

knoats1121's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

amberjackonski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

druzyquartz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

jacqh23's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Although I’m still not a huge fan of this author’s writing style I must admire the world building and ideas she comes up with. Like I really separate the story from the quality of writing here because the story does actually keep getting better and the writing along with it compared to the prequels. There’s more symbolism and foreshadowing which I enjoy though some parts are still predictable. I used to rate many things like movies, shows, and books highly if it evoked some emotion from me but the writing style is too big a hindrance to ignore. I’m not even sure how I feel rating it 4/5. I didn’t expect to feel so attached to the characters, I was tense and stressed during tumultuous plot arcs and even cried towards the end unexpectedly. I’m excited to see where this story leads to though and I really enjoy the characters of Feyre and Rhys, I think because the author is married she has insight into that type of bond or connection, the way they’re written always comes back to their peace of mind and connection which really solidifies the story. I think it makes them and the whole story along with the rest of the characters, much more real, more human (pun intended). Although the plot dragged at times it was more fast paced than not. Especially since the whole book

leads up to war you can feel the tension rising and the fear/urgency/anticipation culminating.

I wouldn’t say the character development is strong but it’s definitely there, between the lines of the plot. Like

Feyre learning to fly or Elain not being as depressed, even Nesta a bit too with her magic and trusting Amren but also developing the sister bond between them three. Even Tamlin we see a bit of personal growth like he saved Feyre when she escaped the Hybern camp and saved Rhys when he died and he said be happy Feyre which was nice.

I’d give this a 3.9 out of 5, not quite breaching the 4.0 threshold but definitely better than it’s prequels in writing, world building, and character development/introductions. Sadly can’t rate higher than a 3.75 on here. The writing style and lack of details or descriptions hinders the plot several times especially with a fantasy book and world building. Like many plot holes could be pointed out and I felt like certain things were only clarified because the fans critiqued the author for it.

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