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A review by aksmith92
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Can you IMAGINE being the best assassin at 16? Lmaooooooooooooo.
Listen. I've stopped rating/reviewing fantasy books by how old the main female character is at this point. I truly just pretend that everyone is freaking older. It makes my reading experience a lot better - I did that in both Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. But that's hard to do when the apparent Erilea's/the world's best assassin is immature af.
I think I understood one of SJM's points in this book - we have an arrogant, self-absorbed, materialistic assassin GIRL (literally) who truly thinks she's the best in the world, with an undoubtedly complicated, toxic, and abusive relationship with Arobynn, the man who "saved" her while also completely and utterly destroying her because he's obsessed with power. Honestly, the part of this book about that complicated relationship made the most sense to me (as much as I hate that), and because of it, Celaena faces the worst possible consequences. I read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight FIRST before this book, so I knew the ending. How Sam could love someone like Celaena (i.e., rude, abrasive, condescending, and annoying) for years is beyond me ("dOn'T uSe mY SOAP SAM"), but I don't think that's the point. She sees this in herself at the end of this novel.
I'm glad I read this after Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. In those books, I still found Celaena a bit immature and annoying, but nothing like this. Then, instead of what I NORMALLY do, I had to remind myself that Celaena is supposed to be 16 in this book, and she's in the process of dealing with growing out of her arrogant and idiotic tendencies because she's really dealing with some harsh consequences. I could only rate this book a 3/5 because of how annoying and frustrating I found Celaena, even though I tried so hard to see through the lens of those points. Choice after choice, Celaena only made through arrogance, and I simply couldn't get passed it, even if she helped good causes. Honestly, I'm so perplexed that their plan to flee didn't involve the Mute Master, who literally gave her gold and treated his assassins decently. Maybe that wouldn't have worked out, but it was a plot hole I thought about regularly. The three full stars go to the truly delightful Sam (loved him and his character, ugh) and the action-packed scenes that I really enjoyed reading about. This WAS action-packed, and I was fully immersed when reading about the plot. I enjoyed it. While a little long and this somewhat dragged for me at times, I still enjoyed the plot and fight scenes.
Listen. I've stopped rating/reviewing fantasy books by how old the main female character is at this point. I truly just pretend that everyone is freaking older. It makes my reading experience a lot better - I did that in both Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. But that's hard to do when the apparent Erilea's/the world's best assassin is immature af.
I think I understood one of SJM's points in this book - we have an arrogant, self-absorbed, materialistic assassin GIRL (literally) who truly thinks she's the best in the world, with an undoubtedly complicated, toxic, and abusive relationship with Arobynn, the man who "saved" her while also completely and utterly destroying her because he's obsessed with power. Honestly, the part of this book about that complicated relationship made the most sense to me (as much as I hate that), and because of it, Celaena faces the worst possible consequences. I read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight FIRST before this book, so I knew the ending. How Sam could love someone like Celaena (i.e., rude, abrasive, condescending, and annoying) for years is beyond me ("dOn'T uSe mY SOAP SAM"), but I don't think that's the point. She sees this in herself at the end of this novel.
I'm glad I read this after Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. In those books, I still found Celaena a bit immature and annoying, but nothing like this. Then, instead of what I NORMALLY do, I had to remind myself that Celaena is supposed to be 16 in this book, and she's in the process of dealing with growing out of her arrogant and idiotic tendencies because she's really dealing with some harsh consequences. I could only rate this book a 3/5 because of how annoying and frustrating I found Celaena, even though I tried so hard to see through the lens of those points. Choice after choice, Celaena only made through arrogance, and I simply couldn't get passed it, even if she helped good causes. Honestly, I'm so perplexed that their plan to flee didn't involve the Mute Master, who literally gave her gold and treated his assassins decently. Maybe that wouldn't have worked out, but it was a plot hole I thought about regularly. The three full stars go to the truly delightful Sam (loved him and his character, ugh) and the action-packed scenes that I really enjoyed reading about. This WAS action-packed, and I was fully immersed when reading about the plot. I enjoyed it. While a little long and this somewhat dragged for me at times, I still enjoyed the plot and fight scenes.