Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - Kingdom of Ash

Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

13 reviews

kelread's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is a commentary/rating on the series itself, not just this book (which is roughly 500 pages too damn long): I don't get the hype. There are so many threads, so many arcs, character development is borderline contrived, some romantic relationships between characters baffling, and there are just. so. many. plotlines. and too. many. words. And good lord does Maas love to write a torture scene which is 100% not my jam.

TBH, I finished it out of spite.

Diehard SJM fans will (and do love this).

Fans of ACOTAR...it's a 50/50 chance and it's worth noting that there's not much spice (or, really, spark).

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aksmith92's review

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adventurous 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? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Oh my....the war kept going and going and going and going annnddd.....

The setup (note: maybe some slight spoilers since this is the final book in the Throne of Glass series; I tried to make it as least spoiler-y as possible): Aelin is MIA and going through it; she's captured by the villain Maeve who I'm still so confused about, but regardless is quite ruthless alongside her weird "pet" named Cairn. Fenrys is there with Aelin, too, and they play an awful blinking game to ensure they know the other is ok [spoiler, they are not!].

The gang is all separated - Rowan, likely bawling every second, is with Lorcan, Gavriel, and Elide, who are all on the hunt to find Aelin. Dorian is traveling with some witches, including Manon, who pretends not to like Dorian at all, which is most certainly a lie. Chaol is still traveling from the southern continent with his new wife, Yrene, whom he married in 2.5 seconds flat; they are on their way to aid Terrasen with warriors. Aedion, Lysandra, and a bunch of others are fighting non-stop in Terrasen, constantly being told by some old dude named Darrow that they are ding dongs.

The connection? Fighting the infamous Vlag, "demons" from another world accidentally left in Erilea because of one of Aelin's ancestors. Oops! There are about 200 (ok, maybe not, but it seemed like it) other sub-plots that somehow connect, which is bananas. Anyway, this nearly 1,000-page novel is about the final battle (um, "final" 100 battles, maybe) between those in Erilea and the Vlag.

Buckle up! I have a lot to say about this novel. Notoriously, I've been relatively pessimistic about SJM's works. Almost everything I've read has been 3 or 3.5 stars (including the books in her ACOTAR series!), and this is the first book I've given below three stars, and it is my LEAST favorite novel I've read by SJM. It's important to me to describe why because this woman gets one million accolades about her work when this, to me, seems like cheap writing. Listen, I speed-read through her books. My brain goes *poof, off*, and if I don't think too hard, they can be somewhat entertaining. That is why none of her works are 1-star reviews for me. Buuuuuuuuut, I must shout to the world that these are not works of art, AND at times can be problematic. Let's jump riiiiiight in.

What I Liked: Hm, it was readable. I was invested this far. I wanted to know how SJM wrapped some things up and how she tied bows around specific plot points. I liked some characters in the previous books, including Lysandra, Elide, Lorcan, Manon, and Dorian; I was ready to see what became of them. I'll share more below, but I was disappointed in the character development. I still enjoyed Manon and Lysandra (outside of the men), and there were not too many blatant plot holes (if you don't think too hard).

What I Didn't Like: My main frustration was that almost every character is the same. Here it goes: has confidence that is closer to arrogance; is always ready to fight in whatever "profession" they've deemed appropriate: warrior, healer, rider, etc.; is always ready to go with absolutely zero hours of sleep; shares some funny sayings once in a while; is beautiful in every possible way; likely has a "thing" that prevents them from being their best selves and holds them back, but not too far back, they're still perfect; is strong; and is somehow touched by a god, destined to be INCREDIBLE, is a descendent from a royal line, or is a queen/king. Who did I describe? Literally every single character. In previous books, I liked Manon and Lorcan because they veered on morally grey. I enjoyed Yrene and Elide because they were more passive in some ways. However, this book's characters seemed to lose their uniqueness in every way, and it bothered me to no end.

On a similar note, SJM seemed to have a stakes problem. I'm not saying I need main characters to die - I think sometimes that works and other times it doesn't! - but every single character was just the BEST! They might have hit some obstacles, but I knew that those obstacles wouldn't be meaningful in any way, and they would overcome them in one second or pull some magic out of their butt (that happened regularly). I wasn't worried about any of the main characters (i.e., those with a POV, AKA like 14 characters, lol) at any point, even when those obstacles surfaced. Honestly, this led to me not caring much about them.

Lastly, this book should have been shorter. There were so many overdone battle scenes and moments or some POVs we didn't need (I'm looking at you, Evangeline!). I was so over it that my capacity for the final-final battle scene was so low.

On a random note, I still think that Arobynn Hamel should have been the main villain throughout this whole series. He was layered and interesting, and you truly loved to hate him. The other villains in here seemed distant and I couldn't really understand them. I know it's a personal problem - people will choose how they feel about villains, but I generally need to understand them a bit.

Below, I bullet out some specific "what the f" moments within this book that contributed to my low rating. Spoilers ahead!

-There were like 6-8 heterosexual couples existing at once, and we had to hear about them all being mates all the time.
-Dorian managed to shapeshift in less than two days, and while he "practiced," it all seemed pretty unbelievable.
-SJM loved to romanticize war - "just under 500 deaths." "Good! Not as bad as it could have been." ~onwards to another battle, and not one single cares about the deaths~.
-Fenrys could suddenly break the blood oath, yes, with some consequence, but he did it ~magically~. [The blood oath is confusing anyway.]
-Yrene was supposed to be the Healer on High and the best healer in the world with 18 million tonics, even though her magic mostly does the healing (??). Also, she had all those tonics, and not one prevented a pregnancy during a literal war. There were lots of pro-life statements peppered in this narrative, too.
-The Vlag were apparently afraid of fire, hence why they were petrified of Aelin. Somehow, in the military and war strategy, everyone seemed to forget this fact and didn't plan on bringing any fire to the table. It changed a little bit near the middle/end, but they still made it seem like this revolutionary thing when they never tried.....fire....
-Manon begging for Dorian - that whole scene about marriage and Dorian being like "nah" because he "just knew" that Manon wouldn't want that without actually talking about it - was no bueno. Also, the Manon I've read about would do NONE of that—character regression at its finest.
-In Tower of Dawn, the Kaghanate knew everything because they had spies everywhere. Now, in this book, they knew NOTHING! Their interesting territory world-building fell through the cracks. And, instead, we got the random dude named Nox from Book 1 to be the messenger. Weak.
-I have to admit, I find it funny that the Ironteeth witches were all like, "The Crochans are pretty much wiped out since we've butchered and killed them all - ha ha!" Then, there were over 5,000 fighting in battle. Ok! Also, Terrasen's ancient Fae showing up at the end for funsies was ridiculous.
-Death and sacrifice were important themes, which I hate because yikes. In this book, Aedion was a JERK to Lysandra, and guess what? Lysandra gave him a chance once their lives were in danger. Lorcan and Elide said some pretty yucky things to each other and wanted nothing to do with each other until *ding, ding, ding* death stood in the way. This theme also impacted Gavriel and Aedion's relationship, and the list goes on.
-Thank goodness, after all that, Aelin still had access to tons of coins to live her lavish lifestyle. Phew, I was worried!

As you can see, I had some sh*t to say! Officially, I am done reading SJM; I don't think I can head into the next series of Crescent City. I need a long break, if not a final departure from SJM.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

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dalek_caan's review against another edition

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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

5.0

Wow. What an ending. This is a series I would happily start over from book one having just put down the final book. I cried several times. Great writing.

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annamary54's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

alright I’m gonna start with the reasons it’s not 5 stars for me: I did take FOREVER to finish this book. I don’t necessarily blame the book for this, it could’ve been me falling into a fantasy reading slump after reading so much. BUT I will say that this book was extremely repetitive, a lot of SJM is, but especially the beginning of this one was really tough. I loved that we dove into a large world of characters, but I think in developing so many characters in the two books before this it created a messy ending. It felt like the final chapters were kinda just slapping everything together

like yes it is fantasy, but the they all lived happily ever after of it all was frustrating. Not that I needed more sorrow, I just wanted to know more about these characters I began/fell in love with. Continuing with that idea, Nox?? He showed up and was never seen again, I guess he died in war??? I was waiting all book for his reunion with Aelin that never came. Maybe I missed something, idk. Also Fleetfoot getting her own deus ex machina at the end of the book, like ope and Fleetfoot was also well taken care of. It kinda all came together like the ending of a Shakespeare comedy. Something I really hated was Murtaughs death. It was just like “see yall, ima fight” then the next chapter Ren mourning for two pages and sudden make out sesh between Aedion and Lysanndra. Idk the timing of that was weird.

The smut in general was not timed right. Not enough early on and when it came, I was too stressed to be horny, so idk how the characters were. All this complaining aside, I had a wonderful time. I contemplated a lower rating, but i had too much damn fun reading this to do that. These books are entertaining, I can’t deny that. They’re also so heartwarming, I find myself crying more at the declarations of love and friendship than the deaths. I also have these books to thank for my fitness journey. I wanna be able to run like these strong ass women in SJM books, but specifically the training Aelin does in these books made me wanna start running. And whenever I’m tired I think of her and Rowan running through the forest, lungs burning. SJM you are my marvel. I’m obsessed with SJMLU (Sarah J. Maas literary universe).

Loved the little nod to Rhys and Feyre while traveling worlds. Can’t wait to start Crescent City soon, cause I know those go further into the world crossing.

It’s been two days, I changed my rating from 4.75 to 4. I remembered more that frustrated me.

This goes along with the too many characters thing, but I remembered Falkin had this whole story and helped fight in Tower of Dawn, turned young in Kingdom of Ash and never was seen in battle. I would’ve liked a little more development there. Same with the wild mountain men, I’m not as frustrated there, but I would’ve liked to have seen how they fight at least. Just on second thought, the last two books, and the first half of this one built up all these characters and tied them together really quick in like the last 5 chapters.

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

What a great finale. I don’t have much to say. I cried. I laughed. I was STRESSED it was emotional and inspiring. I loved the characters, their growth throughout, and the way they tackle their problems. I love the thirteen. Yrene is amazing and all of the women throughout this story are badass.

I did feel like there were a few moments where the story dragged but not enough to take away from the general impact of the story. So many amazing moments

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jesserae17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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 was a great conclusion to a wonderfully epic series. My only complaint is the battle scenes started drag a bit towards the end.

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ladydeathnesta's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I love this series. I feel like the end of the plot was a bit rushed and the characters got stagnant towards the end, but that’s not the most terrible thing! It was very intense and enjoyable!

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