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A review by sophiesometimesreads
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I have a lot of thoughts on this book so buckle up for a wild ride. I was told this book was better then the first and I guess they were right in some ways. But was it good? No. And here's why...
1) Writing
The writing was not good. I don't enjoy how it's written conversationally and how there are so many instances in which sentences and thoughts aren't finished. The writing is also very repetitive, and the same phrases are used over and over. This was an issue I also had with the first book and I see that it was not resolved here. SJM loves to explain things as "barking", so much so that it was used twice in two different contexts within five pages... and it's not even a good adjective to use. There's so many other ways to explain sore muscles. This time, she also latched on to the phrases "vulgar gesture" and "loosed a breath", and overused them. Everyone also growled like an animal all the time and there was so much talk of everyone's scent that I felt like I was back in Twilight. Oh, and one more thing, explaining men to look at the women with "predatory intent" was not sexy and very uncomfortable, yet this phrase was used multiple times in the book.
I also really wanted more atmospheric description, but it fell short for me. I think the book could've been way better if it had been written in third person not first as I didn't particularly like Feyre as a character (more on that later) and I felt we lost a lot of the story because we only get her singular perspective. There was a lot of info dumping in big chunks of dialogue as a result of it being in first person, and even when she did swap to dual POV towards the end, Rhysand's voice sounded very similar to Feyre's.
2) Pacing
The pacing was all over the place. The book was definitely better than the first in this respect, though that's not a very high bar to jump over. The plot was moving throughout the whole book and things were happening, but I think the focus was on the wrong events. The last 80 or so pages were the best, just like the last novel, and I think these events should have been much longer and drawn out in this book, but they seemed rushed. The pacing through the middle was slow and I honestly got bored halfway through, such that I had to pick up the audiobook to get me through it. The book could've been a lot shorter with no loss of actual substance, in my opinion.
3) Characters
Firstly, can I just say that literally every single character in this book needs to take anger management classes. And get therapy, I hope they offer that in Prythian too.
Some people say SJM writes amazing characters but I just can't say I resonated with or cared about most of them at all. Rhysand and his gang were more interesting than those in the Spring Court, but I just didn't feel like we got enough depth to them to really feel for them and understand their perspectives. I also felt like we had a really quick turn around in characters where their personalities just changed, particularly Rhysand and Tamlin. It was explained off as "acting a part" but it felt like a cheap explanation as there was little to no foreshadowing to this in the first book. I also didn't like Feyre as a character. She never listens to anyone then wonders why she gets herself into bad positions. I understand characters can be frustrating, morally grey and unlikeable for the sake of the story, but the writing made me feel like some of her thoughts and actions weren't even justified for the sake of the plot. I also just cannot get past the fact MULTIPLE hundred-year-old men are attracted to a literal teenager who definitely acts her age...
4) Plot
There was so much potential with the plot, and I do really like the premise of the books; however, I just don't feel like the execution was there. It's a mix of the writing and pacing that took away from the plot, which was actually the strongest part of this book. I also didn't care for the romance plot, mostly because I didn't care about the characters, and I think the book would've been better without it, or at least with less focus on it. Or maybe I just don't like the fated mates trope, it is basically instalove for fantasy and I am not a fan of instalove... Additionally, for a book people claim to be super spicy, there was fairly little spice in this book, with only three scenes in two chapters. Not complaint, though, as I'm not a spice lover when it comes to books, it was just surprising.
I could go on and on about this book but hopefully that sums it up enough to justify my rating of this beloved series. Take what you want from this review. Once I came down from the high of the last 15% of the book, I realised that I will, in fact, be DNFing this series and not continuing. It's not worth my time for 100 pages of semi interesting content out of 600+ pages.
1) Writing
The writing was not good. I don't enjoy how it's written conversationally and how there are so many instances in which sentences and thoughts aren't finished. The writing is also very repetitive, and the same phrases are used over and over. This was an issue I also had with the first book and I see that it was not resolved here. SJM loves to explain things as "barking", so much so that it was used twice in two different contexts within five pages... and it's not even a good adjective to use. There's so many other ways to explain sore muscles. This time, she also latched on to the phrases "vulgar gesture" and "loosed a breath", and overused them. Everyone also growled like an animal all the time and there was so much talk of everyone's scent that I felt like I was back in Twilight. Oh, and one more thing, explaining men to look at the women with "predatory intent" was not sexy and very uncomfortable, yet this phrase was used multiple times in the book.
I also really wanted more atmospheric description, but it fell short for me. I think the book could've been way better if it had been written in third person not first as I didn't particularly like Feyre as a character (more on that later) and I felt we lost a lot of the story because we only get her singular perspective. There was a lot of info dumping in big chunks of dialogue as a result of it being in first person, and even when she did swap to dual POV towards the end, Rhysand's voice sounded very similar to Feyre's.
2) Pacing
The pacing was all over the place. The book was definitely better than the first in this respect, though that's not a very high bar to jump over. The plot was moving throughout the whole book and things were happening, but I think the focus was on the wrong events. The last 80 or so pages were the best, just like the last novel, and I think these events should have been much longer and drawn out in this book, but they seemed rushed. The pacing through the middle was slow and I honestly got bored halfway through, such that I had to pick up the audiobook to get me through it. The book could've been a lot shorter with no loss of actual substance, in my opinion.
3) Characters
Firstly, can I just say that literally every single character in this book needs to take anger management classes. And get therapy, I hope they offer that in Prythian too.
Some people say SJM writes amazing characters but I just can't say I resonated with or cared about most of them at all. Rhysand and his gang were more interesting than those in the Spring Court, but I just didn't feel like we got enough depth to them to really feel for them and understand their perspectives. I also felt like we had a really quick turn around in characters where their personalities just changed, particularly Rhysand and Tamlin. It was explained off as "acting a part" but it felt like a cheap explanation as there was little to no foreshadowing to this in the first book. I also didn't like Feyre as a character. She never listens to anyone then wonders why she gets herself into bad positions. I understand characters can be frustrating, morally grey and unlikeable for the sake of the story, but the writing made me feel like some of her thoughts and actions weren't even justified for the sake of the plot. I also just cannot get past the fact MULTIPLE hundred-year-old men are attracted to a literal teenager who definitely acts her age...
4) Plot
There was so much potential with the plot, and I do really like the premise of the books; however, I just don't feel like the execution was there. It's a mix of the writing and pacing that took away from the plot, which was actually the strongest part of this book. I also didn't care for the romance plot, mostly because I didn't care about the characters, and I think the book would've been better without it, or at least with less focus on it. Or maybe I just don't like the fated mates trope, it is basically instalove for fantasy and I am not a fan of instalove... Additionally, for a book people claim to be super spicy, there was fairly little spice in this book, with only three scenes in two chapters. Not complaint, though, as I'm not a spice lover when it comes to books, it was just surprising.
I could go on and on about this book but hopefully that sums it up enough to justify my rating of this beloved series. Take what you want from this review. Once I came down from the high of the last 15% of the book, I realised that I will, in fact, be DNFing this series and not continuing. It's not worth my time for 100 pages of semi interesting content out of 600+ pages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Sexual content
Moderate: Blood, Sexism, and Toxic relationship