A review by trinityb2021
Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

3.5

 

3.5 ⭐️ 

This book was honestly pretty good! It’s hard for me to point exactly to what makes this book better than the other ones but I’ll try. 

1. Established characters: By this point every character (for the most part) has been set up, we know them, we know how they relate to the plot, and we understand how they related to Aelin. We aren’t wasting time with exposition which is imo one of SJM’s weakest parts of all her books. I even, here me out, started to like Aelin. I’m not sure if I’m just used to her or if the writing was genuinely better but I liked that Aelin was a little more flawed and complex in this book. Her Celaena personality is insufferable but the actual REAL Aelin has more going on. I liked the dynamic with Arobynn. At first I criticized it for not being fleshed out enough but with some extra dialogue about it and with it being a YA book I think it was handled pretty well. I liked that every single character had their world view upended since the first book. Comparing Chaol from book 1 to this book is like two completely different characters, Dorian too. Both of them are probably the best written characters in these books. It’s too bad we don’t get more time with them but there was a good amount of interesting Chaol exploration in this. Rowan was a treat to read about and there was a really good romance subplot. I just pretend that he isn’t 300 years older and distantly her cousin. I honestly care about the main cast of characters now which is an impressive feat for this book.
2. Clear plot objective: This book has a clearer objective than the others. The first book also had one I guess which is why I liked it better than 0.5 or 2. But Crown of Midnight especially has literally nothing going on. There wasn’t any motivation for me to care about what the characters were doing. This book has a clear plot: rescue Dorian. There are a few side quests that the cast gets swept up with but they were honestly also interesting. Because they dealt with already established characters. There was also a decent mystery about where the word keys came from and exploring secret crypts and translating ancient texts. Tropes that are super fun and were executed well. I love a good “gang explores secret area and discovers ancient stories” trope and this has it.
3. Subverting expectations: There were a good handful of twists that caught me buy surprise. They aren’t the most original twists but I didn’t see them coming so I’ll give SJM congratulations where it’s due. Lysandra in particular was a big UNO reverse card that I didn’t see coming. I liked her a lot! Wish it was her POV in the b-plot not whatever the fuck is going on with the witches (I just pretend those chapters don’t exist). The ending had a good twist I didn’t expect.
4. Consequences: It’s still YA so there isn’t anything too dark and gritty but there WERE SOME consequences to the choices that the main cast made and I love that. It makes the world feel lived in and real. There was some attempt at this in the earlier books but I don’t think it worked until this one.

TLDR: No wasted time with character backstory, a clear goal that doesn’t get too lost in the sauce, and twists that took me by surprise and elevated the story.
 
I liked this a lot and am actually looking forward to finishing the series. Chaol’s book in particular.