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A review by wafer
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Oh, I have so many thoughts. Too many. Hey, it’s a huge improvement from the first book!
Clearly, Maas is doing something right. I like a lot of what’s going on here. I think the politics are fun and the ending hook promising. There’s a handful of characters here that I enjoy, particularly Mor and Lucien. Nesta as well! What a glow-up!
But the writing is just so, so blah. As repetitious in its diction (how many dogs does Feyre have in those bones of hers?) as well as its blocking. Maas has a really bad habit of having her side characters trauma dump and Feyre have some sort of physical reaction to it. And that’s a shame! Because there are parts that I think are written well. She just needs a tighter editor to reign it all in and cut a good couple hundo pages from the manuscript.
I also feel the need to point out, and I don’t think she did this on purpose, but Maas absolutely took the concept of the dying stars and the house of mist from the first and third books of the Howl’s Moving Castle series. If I wanted to be a little catty, I’d extend that to the dreamlike castle in the sky imagery as well.
Eh, the gender essentialism is ever-present. I guess Maas is just allergic to the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ but what can you do, really? I found myself getting used to it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. It’s omegaverse lite, is what it is. I won’t even go into the ham-fisted milady feminism by way of Rhysand - many others will and have probably done a better job of that than me.
I had fun though, you know? And that’s the point at the end of the day. Having fun. A good, light time. Escapism?
Clearly, Maas is doing something right. I like a lot of what’s going on here. I think the politics are fun and the ending hook promising. There’s a handful of characters here that I enjoy, particularly Mor and Lucien. Nesta as well! What a glow-up!
But the writing is just so, so blah. As repetitious in its diction (how many dogs does Feyre have in those bones of hers?) as well as its blocking. Maas has a really bad habit of having her side characters trauma dump and Feyre have some sort of physical reaction to it. And that’s a shame! Because there are parts that I think are written well. She just needs a tighter editor to reign it all in and cut a good couple hundo pages from the manuscript.
I also feel the need to point out, and I don’t think she did this on purpose, but Maas absolutely took the concept of the dying stars and the house of mist from the first and third books of the Howl’s Moving Castle series. If I wanted to be a little catty, I’d extend that to the dreamlike castle in the sky imagery as well.
Eh, the gender essentialism is ever-present. I guess Maas is just allergic to the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ but what can you do, really? I found myself getting used to it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. It’s omegaverse lite, is what it is. I won’t even go into the ham-fisted milady feminism by way of Rhysand - many others will and have probably done a better job of that than me.
I had fun though, you know? And that’s the point at the end of the day. Having fun. A good, light time. Escapism?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny