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A review by staring_at_words
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
5.0
I was debating for a while should I write separate reviews or not but I decided to write one for ACOTAR and ACOMAF because in a way they felt as a single book. For me ACOTAR was a setup, an introduction, to everything that happens later. One cannot just read ACOTAR and be done and satisfied with the outcome, and while it does not, in my opinion, have a strait forward cliffhanger it leaves characters in an interesting emotional situation.
For everyone who is still debating should they read these books or not, I strongly suggest YES!
ACOTAR starts a bit slowly and has a classic romance novel feeling, but don't, under any circumstances, get discouraged by that, after a while pace increases and later, especially in ACOMAF everything makes sense and you'll see why everything is exactly as it should have been at the beginning. For me ACOTAR was great, 4 stars I would say, but ACOMAF, OMG! That one was AMAZING. The most incredible part is that it is 700 pages long and you can barely retell the plot, it is heavily character based and you'll enjoy every single line in the book.
At first ACOTAR felt a bit underwhelmed, I did not realize the hype, and because of the hype I was sceptic to start with. Story was interesting, settings also, Feyra I liked a lot but Tamlin was mah ... Lucian was, and still is, much more interesting than Tamlin. Before Rhys, I hoped Feyra would end up with Lucian, and I'm so glad he gets more screen time later on. The "Under the mountain" sequence is really interesting, I loved the trials, each one is exciting and different, every one ties nicely with some aspect of Feyra’s life, choices feel real and have real consequences as is seen in ACOMAF. I loved the suspense in Middengard Wyrm challenge, the panic Feyra felt with levers and heart breaking outcome of the third one. Her trauma was real and it is interesting to see how she deals with it later on and how she changes because of it. As Feyra herself said in multiple occasions “The girl you knew died under the mountain, and that gives a fresh perspective in ACOMAF. If her relationship with Tamlin felt forced and fake same as the entire Spring court that's because it should felt that way. I think the real value is in the contrast between Spring court and Night/Dream court. Her relationship with Rheys get so much more value when observed through the lens of her previous relationship with Tamlin, but also with his subjects. While Spring court feels restrained and cold in a way, Night court feels homey and inviting, feels true, and it's people living and breathing. There Feyra learns what home, and friends and family truly means, but she also learns who she is or rather how to be who she is with others, because she was always strong, resourceful, determined, a survivor, but people, Tamlin, wanted to subdue her, while Rhys encouraged her to grow, to embrace herself and her powers. Watching her master her magic was a delight, the scene where she finally grew wings was so empowering, I mean #goals. Ok, now a few words about Rhysand- he is perfect and their relationship cannot be described in a sentence or two. He is amazingly portrayed, I love how we get to know about his history to see what he is going through. Both him and Fyra having PTSD from what happened to them makes everything more real, and the way they help each other is beautiful. Their bantering and flirtations is hilarious, I enjoyed every moment of it.
There is so much more I could talk about, I don't have a single complaint about ACOMAF (and Tamlin is treacherous, selfish, bastard who should perish - I haven’t yet finished ACOWAR so I don't know if he redeems himself but either way)
At the end I want to say that these books made me laugh, and smile, and grin and swoon and have inspired me in the way a book hasn't in a long time and I'm grateful for it.
For everyone who is still debating should they read these books or not, I strongly suggest YES!
ACOTAR starts a bit slowly and has a classic romance novel feeling, but don't, under any circumstances, get discouraged by that, after a while pace increases and later, especially in ACOMAF everything makes sense and you'll see why everything is exactly as it should have been at the beginning. For me ACOTAR was great, 4 stars I would say, but ACOMAF, OMG! That one was AMAZING. The most incredible part is that it is 700 pages long and you can barely retell the plot, it is heavily character based and you'll enjoy every single line in the book.
At first ACOTAR felt a bit underwhelmed, I did not realize the hype, and because of the hype I was sceptic to start with. Story was interesting, settings also, Feyra I liked a lot but Tamlin was mah ... Lucian was, and still is, much more interesting than Tamlin. Before Rhys, I hoped Feyra would end up with Lucian, and I'm so glad he gets more screen time later on. The "Under the mountain" sequence is really interesting, I loved the trials, each one is exciting and different, every one ties nicely with some aspect of Feyra’s life, choices feel real and have real consequences as is seen in ACOMAF. I loved the suspense in Middengard Wyrm challenge, the panic Feyra felt with levers and heart breaking outcome of the third one. Her trauma was real and it is interesting to see how she deals with it later on and how she changes because of it. As Feyra herself said in multiple occasions “The girl you knew died under the mountain, and that gives a fresh perspective in ACOMAF. If her relationship with Tamlin felt forced and fake same as the entire Spring court that's because it should felt that way. I think the real value is in the contrast between Spring court and Night/Dream court. Her relationship with Rheys get so much more value when observed through the lens of her previous relationship with Tamlin, but also with his subjects. While Spring court feels restrained and cold in a way, Night court feels homey and inviting, feels true, and it's people living and breathing. There Feyra learns what home, and friends and family truly means, but she also learns who she is or rather how to be who she is with others, because she was always strong, resourceful, determined, a survivor, but people, Tamlin, wanted to subdue her, while Rhys encouraged her to grow, to embrace herself and her powers. Watching her master her magic was a delight, the scene where she finally grew wings was so empowering, I mean #goals. Ok, now a few words about Rhysand- he is perfect and their relationship cannot be described in a sentence or two. He is amazingly portrayed, I love how we get to know about his history to see what he is going through. Both him and Fyra having PTSD from what happened to them makes everything more real, and the way they help each other is beautiful. Their bantering and flirtations is hilarious, I enjoyed every moment of it.
There is so much more I could talk about, I don't have a single complaint about ACOMAF (and Tamlin is treacherous, selfish, bastard who should perish - I haven’t yet finished ACOWAR so I don't know if he redeems himself but either way)
At the end I want to say that these books made me laugh, and smile, and grin and swoon and have inspired me in the way a book hasn't in a long time and I'm grateful for it.