A review by mollydollydoodah
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

I’m pretty satisfied with that ending.
To be honest, less people died than I thought they would! I thought either Lysandra or Aedion were goners for sure, along with either Borte, Nesryn, or Dorian himself. I feel like it was a little too much of a happy ending despite all the loss, because there weren’t really a lot of deaths I could connect to. The rest of the Thirteen dying was sad, and I cried for Asterin, but I didn’t really know any of the others other than Vesta and Sorrel. I feel like a little more loss would have been effective (in making me sob), but I am of course happy that it did not end that way. I would get annoyed with how often the pov’s switched, because I’d get so invested in what was taking place in one storyline that I’d get frustrated at having to leave it behind. But that frustration would soon be forgotten as I was sucked into the new perspective, so I wasn’t too upset. I thought that the storyline progressed well, even if it stressed me out to no end that nobody was aiding Aedion and the Bane and how badly I wanted to slaughter the old Terrasen Lords. Aelin’s time being tortured and her recovery were some of my most-anticipated things to read about in this book, and they were written very well. It was very sad and heartbreaking, especially the parts with Fenrys, but it was powerful. I’m so glad that they had each other both through it and afterwards, and I thought that their unspoken language was so powerful as well. I really enjoyed all the action and adventure in this book, but I was definitely frustrated with certain points. I thought it was BS how Aedion was treating Lysandra, and how she just ended up forgiving him. And I agree that it was important to have those effective final battle scenes with Maeve and Erawan, but I thought it was BS that the gods just didn’t follow through with their bargain and even more BS that Aelin tried to save Elena, who’d had a thousand years already, like wtf? I’m very disappointed that she and Dorian lost most of her powers but oh well. I loved Dorian in this book, especially how he slayed and played Maeve at Morath, even if I thought he was being an idiot in how he was frolicking about in his different forms and in letting Maeve free when he left. My favorite parts of these books have been badass Aelin kicking ass and taking names and looking amazing while doing it, wielding schemes and plans and powers like no other. It was disappointing that we didn’t get a lot of those this book, but it made sense with the whole tortured deal. I still have a few questions about things, such as whatever happened to Dorian’s mom and Hollin? Also, who is that other member of the cadre that was ever so briefly mentioned, and how will he come up again in the future SJM universe?? Oh yeah, and Aelin totally saw Rhys and Feyre when she was falling through worlds, so that was pretty cool. All in all, I think it was almost too happy of an ending, but I’m glad there was no pregnancy trope with Aelin.
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