A review by sakusha
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

In the first book, Feyre risked her life to save the life of her love, Tamlin. In this book, which takes place three months later, she’s suffocated by him and bored of him already. She gets involved with the next tough guy (Rhys) who is, predictably, even hotter and stronger than Tamlin (59, 149), and just as super concerned about her, despite having a gorgeous woman already in his home (59), who he unrealistically has no interest in (Mor). In the spring court, Ianthe seemed like a nice, helpful woman who gave Feyre advice. But Feyre saw her as domineering. The night court equivalent, Mor, is so much better in Feyre’s opinion because Mor lets Feyre do and wear whatever she wants without trying to change her mind (178, 237). Feyre wants to know why Rhys dislikes Ianthe, but the only explanation given seems to be that she’s a slut (232), which makes no sense given the sexual freedom all women in this book have.

Rhys gives Feyre the freedom and independence she craves (74). She wants to have her cake and eat it too. Rhys lets her have and do whatever she wants (136, 208). And unlike Tamlin’s home which is stuffy and his kingdom which is in ruins, Rhys’ home is open to the sky and air, and his kingdom is safe, happy, and untouched by destruction. A paradise even more perfect than the never-ending spring of Tamlin’s court (66). Unrealistic. I wondered— Why would Rhys have even joined up with Amarantha in the first place if he had a safe haven to hide in the whole time? But it gets explained later. Tamlin’s formality and demanding tithe from the poor peasants is contrasted with Rhys who keeps things casual and flexible and is loved by all his people who he knows by name (146, 280, 282). There are disgusting, scary creatures mentioned in this book just like in the last one, but the author gives no background information about them like why they are so similar to humans/fae and why they live like they do. Their purpose in the story seems just to horrify and give Feyre challenges to overcome. And of course none of them are present in Rhys’ paradise. There is a creature called the Weaver, and it seems to be the only one on the face of the planet, which is unrealistic. It basically looks like a human corpse (223). 

Feyre meets another nearly perfect man in the story—another high lord. He’s idealistic, kind, and considerate (324). But he is flawed in that he can’t understand from first hand experience how it felt to be poor and broken (325). Rhys has that dark past that Feyre can identify with.

Rhys is so perfect, he even pulls Feyre’s hair back as she vomits just like in that contemporary romance novel I read (186). Feyre gets to be depressed and angry and mean and rude to men as much as she wants (494) while the men in the story are all super kind and patient with her, always giving her what she wants, except for Tamlin who made the unforgivable mistake of being overprotective. Rhys is perfect in bed too. Never pressures her for sex. Only gives it when she wants it (472). Has “considerable length.” Makes her orgasm before he gets any pleasure himself. And whether they get married or have babies is up to her; he is fine with it either way (536). He had plenty of sexual experience, being Amarantha’s whore, but conveniently for Feyre, Rhys doesn’t have any post traumatic stress from that. Feyre gets to be traumatized with guilt for months about killing a couple of strangers while Rhys went through years of torture and abuse from Amarantha and hardly bats an eye about it. He wouldn’t be the perfect dream boat for Feyre if he had any issues of his own which interfered with what she wanted from him. The perfect man seems to have no needs of his own; he lives only to serve his woman.

This book seems to place a greater emphasis on feminism. Feyre was already strong as a human in the first book, but in this one she’s even stronger and more demanding of independence and freedom. I don’t recall the first book saying things like “Mother save me,” replacing “God/Lord,” but this book does (153). The first book rather said things like “Cauldron boil me” or “by the Cauldron.” 

Some complaints:

The story was exciting but long. And the way the author writes gets annoying. A lot of sentences she doesn’t end with a period; instead she’ll just break off with two dashes. She uses the word “hissed” too often to describe the way people talk, or even the sound of fingers on a surface (186). Rhys is said to “purr” a lot. Are the fae like cats? A lot of things get exaggerated or told in a melodramatic way, so that when something actually big happens, you can’t tell that it actually happened and wasn’t just a metaphor. An example: “I shut out the memory, the bath water suddenly cold” (235). It’s not really cold; it’s just that Feyre’s mood has changed, so now the water is no longer pleasant. Another example: Such and such makes her blood run cold. She stops breathing. 
I don’t like these exaggerations, because Feyre has magical powers, so she IS able to create ice and fire, among other things, and when the author writes that way, I don’t know whether it is really happening with the magic or if its just another one of the author’s melodramatic exaggerations.

I find it unrealistic how Feyre is so protective over her human family and the human land in general (69) when they treated her horribly. If the author wanted her protectiveness to be more believable, she should have made them more likable. Perhaps her family could have been unable to help hunt because of disabilities, and perhaps the other humans she knew could have been poor but kind.

Another unrealistic thing is how Feyre so quickly learns how to harness the magical powers and fighting skill that probably took the other fae many years to learn.

Some things seem out of place, like the slang phrase “she would own it” (not sure if that one is from this book or the first one) and Feyre dumping some cold soup into a pan and lighting the burner (517). Canned food and burners? Seem like modern things accidentally inserted into this non-modern world.

I can buy telekinetic magic, but what I don’t buy is magic that makes real food poof out of nowhere, and messes to be immediately cleaned up. And how is that Rhys has so much fancy clothing and jewelry, like Feyre’s dress made out of jewels, if he is such a benevolent lord who doesnt tithe his people?
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