A review by radipede
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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

2.75

550 pages of nearly decent writing and the last 100 pages were a terrible, horrible bombshell. this could've been a 3.5 star, maybe *genuinely* a 4 star book, but... it was so bad.

feyre was actually tolerable in this book? this surprised me so much. in the first two books, i found her insufferable and a horrible protagonist, but she seems to have calmed down/mellowed out which honestly does not seem super in line with her character. oh, and in the last 100 pages--ill save that for later. i really enjoyed her scheming at the spring court! that was surprisingly captivating, i loved it. it was far and away a horrible political move, but it was entertaining. begrudgingly i can admit that she grew in this book and there were some genuinely badass feyre moments (can't believe i'm saying this). 

ianthe....
seemed so cartoonishly evil this time around? there was an attempt at depth but i think it failed, she's so flat. not much to say here, what a boring villain


lucien:
what a bounceback! not super great, but i feel like his character recovered somewhat of the massacre that happened to it in ACOMAF. i also like while he clearly is pining for elain and is sadboi about it, he's not pressuring her/repeatedly putting her in situations where they're alone together, etc. not mad about his character in this book at all.


tamlin:
you poor unfortunate faerie. he was Way worse in this book; why is he so hateful, maas? i suppose it's more or less in line/worse than ACOMAF, but ACOMAF in itself flipped tamlin's character 180 degrees to the bad side, so idk. it's not great.


the reunion of the sisters after
feyre and azriel save elain from hybern
was super touching and sweet! i loved it, i actually think the relationship between them throughout the trilogy has been pretty okay and even well portrayed at some points (as someone with three siblings). i like that both nesta and elain are changed by what happened in ACOMAF, but still are their core selves. i think nesta received some good development (
her being more confident, her trusting cassian more, the reunion where she actually hugs feyre and physically shows her that she cares
) and elain... was also there.

mor casually makes a remark (you need't make us sound like *heathens*) that references christianity, which was extremely immersion breaking. the theology isn't really there, but even the humans weren't christian; it makes no sense whatsoever that she would say this. even if there *was* christianity in this world, the fae would be far from it??? *they* would be the heathens in this exercise????????? also not really sure how i feel about the fae theology/general theology items being real (i.e. the damn cauldron); don't quite have the words to fully articulate my thoughts on it, but i don't love it.

there is SO much vomit in this book, and for no reason!!! "
i was so relieved i thought i'd puke right onto the table
" doesn't even make sense as something anyone would feel!!!!!

WHY is the go-to insult/gotcha to call someone a whore/expose their sexual thoughts or actions/tease them about relationships? it just feels so awkward and uncomfortable, it's not even an own? specifically
every time someone wants to hurt rhysand they call him a whore/reference the actions he did for amarantha
,
the meeting with the high lords where tamlin talks about how he too had sex with feyre and somewhat implies rhysand fucks all his enemies
, and perhaps most annoying and heinous,
when mor is (justifiably!!) upset with feyre that she ran off and deliberately deceived her and she's trying to have a conversation about it and feyre comes up with (direct quote) "you want to talk about lying? how about the fact that you lie to yourself and all of us every single day? [...] why haven’t you ever made a move for azriel, mor?" this is SO not comparable to feyre lying about her intentions it isn't even funny.


speaking of: diversity! it really feels like maas saw her fans' wishes for a more diverse world and *tried* to deliver; i can't quite believe she did this on her own, given she has a full series apart from ACOTAR (that i have not read! but heard its own lack of diversity). there's a notable amount of more brown characters in this book, which is nice but they seem.. not entirely integrated. in ACOMAF i did notice it with the summer court, but it was... only in the summer court. two explicitly bisexual characters (one is a high lord) + a mention of two wlw (i couldn't believe it when i read "her wife", i had to go back to make sure i got it correctly) and a high lord having a (male) lover in his personal guard. the narrative is still extremely heterosexual (especially considering ACOMAF and the mating bond explanation in the cabin), but an effort was made.

about the bisexual characters:
helion (the high lord of the day court) is hypersexual to the extreme; practically every mention of him includes some reference to it. he is one of the handful of named "dark" characters, and feyre exoticizes him. while a brown hypersexual bi character isn't inherently a bad character, he's one of TWO bi characters and one of FOUR *named* "dark" characters (that i am aware of).
and
mor, who comes out for SIX. PAGES. "you were right about me," she says, in reference to the above comment i quoted feyre on (about mor lying to herself about her relationships). absolutely despise how this was handled. it feels like that for her entire life mor has been suffering and struggling with this deep down and that she will *continue* to suffer and struggle with it. she says that she's "attracted to females" but "finds pleasure [in sex] in them both". mor says "if i were to marry where my heart desired, there would be no offspring." which to me EXPLICITLY states that women are all she's interested in and there's no possibility for her to see herself with a male partner. she takes them to not arouse suspicion (of her wlw-ness) and to, idk, hurt azriel more overtime rather than ripping off that bandage and just telling him she's not interested??? she says that she enjoys sex with men, which makes her ~bisexual~, but this just feels so fake to me, like maas just didn't want a lesbian character. this is also just my opinion as a bisexual; every bisexual has different preferences and desires, but mor... doesn't feel that way to me.


the ending. the fucking ending. i don't even want to talk about it; twist after goddamn twist that were out of the blue and made no sense at all, the barest amount of sense to be kind to some.
it's my father! amren lied to me! elain killed hybern! the cauldron broke! rhysand died!
seriously?  *seriously?* they're at-most a chapter apart! this isn't just shocking, it's unbelievable and unbelievably tiring. the huge, larger than life battle was just.. ugh. these 100 pages *ruined* the book for me, more than the ending ruined ACOMAF, more than, well, the entirety of ACOTAR. i was actually coming around to this story, believe it or not! most of the characters consistent (from ACOMAF...), interesting politics (mostly...), *tolerable* feyre (nearly)!?!? this handful of pages, this final act, destroyed all of that. this ending infuriates me to no end.
AND amren came back?????????????????? let her die!!!!!!!!! let death be permanent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was an EXCELLENT and SATISFYING death, RIPPED THE FUCK OUT OF OUR HANDS. and for what reason, you don't want to kill one of the main cast? pathetic.
 

not to mention hybern is nearly as bad as amarantha. is hybern the king's name? the army? the island? the kingdom? i don't get it. i hate it. i hate everything about this. 
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