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sreddous 's review for:
Queen of Shadows
by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A scary, tense, well-developed fantasy world!
It's very cool how so many characters from previous books had genuinely important roles, so the fact that everyone teamed up the way they did is satisfying. All the many different threads/plotlines came together in a satisfying way and were well-built-up.
The suspense was REAL good in this one too. Fantastic fun fight scenes, really scary monsters. I gasped out loud once or twice because some of those end-of-chapter cliffhangers I did NOT see coming (but also, absolutely made sense and were well-built-up-to).
The romances are really nice too! I love me a good slow-burn and this one feels respectful, flirty, mature, passionate. There aren't really any "hard" intimate scenes but we don't need them, the pacing and buildup is great!
I've said before that I think Throne of Glass stories need to be really, really, really long. In that sense: honestly, this book's pacing is just fine! It's very long, but there are a lot of threads that have complicated things happening, so this book didn't feel its length in a good way.
My main issue isn't with the pacing, it's that there are parts in the beginning and middle that feel annoyingly repetitive. I think I counted some version of the phrase "it was lucky she didn't have her magic now, or else she would have blown everything up" at least three times in the first 1/3 of the book.
I also feel like we're told way too many important character and plot items just via expositional dialogue. Sometimes the expositional dialogue is fine and even necessary (I think a dialogue-dump was an effective way to communicated Asterin's backstory as an example) but I got really annoyed when that the way we learned about Lysandra's backstory and skills as an example. It kind of happened constantly and made the dialogue and character chemistry feel stilted sometimes. I definitely thought more than a few times, "There's GOTTA be a more-interesting way to let the audience know this info".
A good "midpoint" book in a complex series! Eager to read the next one!
It's very cool how so many characters from previous books had genuinely important roles, so the fact that everyone teamed up the way they did is satisfying. All the many different threads/plotlines came together in a satisfying way and were well-built-up.
The suspense was REAL good in this one too. Fantastic fun fight scenes, really scary monsters. I gasped out loud once or twice because some of those end-of-chapter cliffhangers I did NOT see coming (but also, absolutely made sense and were well-built-up-to).
The romances are really nice too! I love me a good slow-burn and this one feels respectful, flirty, mature, passionate. There aren't really any "hard" intimate scenes but we don't need them, the pacing and buildup is great!
I've said before that I think Throne of Glass stories need to be really, really, really long. In that sense: honestly, this book's pacing is just fine! It's very long, but there are a lot of threads that have complicated things happening, so this book didn't feel its length in a good way.
My main issue isn't with the pacing, it's that there are parts in the beginning and middle that feel annoyingly repetitive. I think I counted some version of the phrase "it was lucky she didn't have her magic now, or else she would have blown everything up" at least three times in the first 1/3 of the book.
I also feel like we're told way too many important character and plot items just via expositional dialogue. Sometimes the expositional dialogue is fine and even necessary (I think a dialogue-dump was an effective way to communicated Asterin's backstory as an example) but I got really annoyed when that the way we learned about Lysandra's backstory and skills as an example. It kind of happened constantly and made the dialogue and character chemistry feel stilted sometimes. I definitely thought more than a few times, "There's GOTTA be a more-interesting way to let the audience know this info".
A good "midpoint" book in a complex series! Eager to read the next one!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault