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A review by laurbergo
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
medium-paced
3.0
Alright, so my ACOTAR journey is still landing at a solidly 3-star experience. I think I gave book 1 a lot of wiggle room because I heard there was a stark improvement once we arrived at ACOMAF. I assumed we were laying groundwork for a huge launch off into the sun, but ultimately it stayed about the same for me enjoyment-wise.
I think pacing is part of the issue. I don’t find the writing, plot or character elements to be complex enough to keep my interest for the amount of meandering the story does. If we’re going (somewhat) surface level I just want wham-bam action and high stakes for the majority of the experience.
The characters here are all morally gray across the board (a good thing!) - but it frequently feels like SJM is forcing my head in a specific direction and screaming “THIS IS HOW TO FEEL!!!” in regards to what conclusions I should be coming to about each character.
Which then kind of defeats the purpose of having morally gray characters. It comes back around to feeling black and white in the sea of gray. Which might be even more frustrating than just keeping it black and white to begin with.
I go back and forth between “Well this is all just Feyre’s POV” vs. my instinct that, no - SJM and the narrative very much so ALSO want me to come to the same conclusion.
It makes me feel like I’m on a tightly boxed in emotional track and asking questions or contemplating outside of it will only earn me a slap on the wrist. I’m open to the idea that this is NOT what SJM is going for and maybe that will be more evident in future, but it’s been 900+ pages so far of that feeling.
I’m still having a lot of fun reading and discussing w my friends - and I enjoy knowing what’s going on out in book world so I’ll likely continue. (Also I am really curious about the Nesta POV book?)
I need a little bit of a break from SJM for a few months. I suspect after some time has passed, I’ll feel the desire to sneak back in! 🖤✨
I think pacing is part of the issue. I don’t find the writing, plot or character elements to be complex enough to keep my interest for the amount of meandering the story does. If we’re going (somewhat) surface level I just want wham-bam action and high stakes for the majority of the experience.
The characters here are all morally gray across the board (a good thing!) - but it frequently feels like SJM is forcing my head in a specific direction and screaming “THIS IS HOW TO FEEL!!!” in regards to what conclusions I should be coming to about each character.
Which then kind of defeats the purpose of having morally gray characters. It comes back around to feeling black and white in the sea of gray. Which might be even more frustrating than just keeping it black and white to begin with.
I go back and forth between “Well this is all just Feyre’s POV” vs. my instinct that, no - SJM and the narrative very much so ALSO want me to come to the same conclusion.
It makes me feel like I’m on a tightly boxed in emotional track and asking questions or contemplating outside of it will only earn me a slap on the wrist. I’m open to the idea that this is NOT what SJM is going for and maybe that will be more evident in future, but it’s been 900+ pages so far of that feeling.
I’m still having a lot of fun reading and discussing w my friends - and I enjoy knowing what’s going on out in book world so I’ll likely continue. (Also I am really curious about the Nesta POV book?)
I need a little bit of a break from SJM for a few months. I suspect after some time has passed, I’ll feel the desire to sneak back in! 🖤✨