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173 reviews
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
2.0
The best out of the three, but still not amazing. At least some stuff happens, so that’s an improvement on the majority of the content of the first two books. I full on expected both Alina and Mal to die and I’m honestly kind of disappointed that they didn’t. Mal coming back felt a bit like a cop-out... and literally nobody important died in the big battle which seems unrealistic. Like yeah Ruby and maybe others too died, but nobody who has a personality died (I can it could be argued that even the main characters don’t have that much of a personality though ahahaha). Genya and Nikolai are still nice so I guess there’s that at least
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
2.0
Edit: I have finished this book maybe two weeks ago now annnnnd ummm yeah this is book is way too frustrating to be 3 stars sooo i changed it
Actual review: I changed my mind about this book so many times while reading it. On one page I’d find myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, and then on the next I’d be super mad at the author for ruining it.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they don’t like this book because it’s slow. Here’s the thing. I like slow-paced, character focused books, I like slow burns. This is different; it’s not that’s it slow-paced, it’s that the main character doesn’t have a goal for half of the story. For the first 20% ish of the story, Feyre’s goal is to escape, to return to her family. Which is a bit annoying, but understandable. Then, for the last 35% ish, her goal is to save Tamlin, to get him back. The only purpose of the middle section is to develop the world building and especially the romance, and it feels really weird for the main character of a book to not have any goal, which I think is why people complain that nothing happens and that it’s slow. Personally, it wasn’t a deal breaker, but it was a bit disorienting, and I found myself wondering what the point of the book was, in some parts of this middle section.
Now, the writing. It’s not for everyone. Most of the time, I didn’t mind it. I think the author writes action scenes very well and she managed to make me feel the stakes of the situations. But every now and then, I’d find lines in the books that were so over-the-top or tried to be flowery and metaphorical but made absolutely no sense.
Shoutout to:
“I became aware of every pore in my body as his tongue entered my mouth”
“The music flittered through my memories, binding them together, making them into a quilt that wrapped around me, that warmed my bones”
“Our tongues danced – not a waltz or minuet, but a war dance, a death dance of bone drums and screaming fiddles”
Etc.
The use of the words “groaned” and “barked” in reference to feeling pain throughout her bones is also excessive. It’s not that big of a deal, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it. Same goes for the word “purr”, which is used many times to describe the way a person talks, and I think it’s supposed to be hot, but it just came across as weird. Rhysand’s voice is also described not once but twice as “an erotic caress” which was two times too many.
I was also a bit uncomfortable with how she uses the world male and female instead of men and women. I think it’s because she wants to get across the “animalistic” side of the faeries, but I still didn’t like it. We’re not in a biology lesson, and the use of these words is often in a context where it’s linked with trans and non-binary erasure, so I don’t love the excessive use of them. I definitely don’t think Sarah J. Maas had bad intentions with this, I just think she didn’t think about the implications.
Now, let’s talk about the last 30-35% of the book, the end portion where some stuff actually happens. And let’s talk about why it was both the part I loved and hated the most. Basically, it starts with Feyre deciding to go back to Prythian because she doesn’t want to give up on Tamlin, and then when she arrives the house is empty and bloody. The only person she finds is Alis and we get a huge info-dump through a super long monologue from Alis, because conveniently, the curse is basically over so she can speak about it except for one part. Sure. During this super long monologue, we learn about Amarantha, then Feyre decides to try to go save Tamlin and we get into this three trials + a riddle business. Now hear me out: Amarantha is a really bad villain and here’s why.
In the first place, Amarantha is a stereotypical “extremely evil for no reason” villain. She hates humans (partly because of what happened to her sister, but let’s be real she already hated them before, this just didn’t help), wants to conquer their land, and wants to rule on Prythian and make the High Lords her slaves. Why? Because she’s evil. That’s pretty much it. (Already, this isn’t my favorite type of villain, but I can accept it.) Except she doesn’t even do it right! She’s painted as this extremely evil and cruel and ruthless enemy that’s impossible to defeat, but then she always gives her enemies a way out. The main characters didn’t defeat her because they were stronger or better, they defeated her because she made stupid choices that didn’t really make sense.
When she decided she wanted to take over Prythian, she made the High Lords drink a potion that allowed her to take away most of their power. Alright, that makes sense. Then we discover, through Alis’ monologue, that Amarantha hates Tamlin even more than the other High Lords. So, what does she do? Give him and even worse punishment than the other High Lords? Naaahh. Instead, she gives him the exact same punishment, except she also gives him a way out of it, with the curse. The stakes of this curse make no sense, because if he succeeds, he gets out of her punishment but if he doesn’t, then he gets the exact same punishment than the other High Lords. Then she does this again with Feyre. She could have easily tortured and killed her when she caught her sneaking in. But instead she sets up the three trials, which if we’re stretching it, I can understand, because she clearly never intended to give Feyre what she wanted even if Feyre succeeded, so the trials could be considered as torture before killing her, which Amarantha clearly loves to do. But what I can’t get behind is the riddle. Feyre tries to negotiate with her and asks for Tamlin’s freedom too if she wins, and then Amarantha is like “alright I accept… but I’m also adding conditions to this game” and then she gives Feyre another way out! Why? Just why? I’m also really bad at riddles and I figured out this one after reading it twice, so I can’t get behind the fact that Feyre, who had three months, never solved it.
When I understood where the story was going (three trials and all of that), I was really disappointed, but even though I didn’t like the concept, I liked the execution. The actual scenes were pretty engaging, and I definitely felt the angst, which I enjoyed.
OH, and then she just becomes a faerie at the end !? Hear me out: I don’t mind this kind of “plot twist” or unexpected event or whatever, as long as it makes sense when you look back on the rest of the story. But here, it just came out of nowhere. It has never been established that this is possible, and now that it’s convenient to the plot, it is. Ugh.
Then, the characters.
I found Feyre really annoying in the beginning of the book, and I really thought she was going to develop into a stereotypical protagonist who’s shy but headstrong, thinks she’s ugly but is actually gorgeous, etc. The kind of protagonist I like to describe as “I’m not like other girls, I have brown hair and I’m skinny” aka Alina Starkov from the Grisha trilogy. But it actually didn’t completely turn out that way. Feyre continued to be a bit annoying, but at least she fought for what she believed in and was strong from the start. She wasn’t a particularly original main character, but I didn’t hate her.
I know the next book is supposed to make us hate Tamlin, but I haven’t read it yet. So far, he’s a nice guy, he’s alright, I don’t mind him. Only scene I really disliked was when he said
“So, if Feyre can’t be bothered to listen to orders, then I can’t be held accountable for the consequences.”, when he was talking about him biting her neck. Which… nope. You’re still in the wrong for doing something to her without her consent (I understand he was high on magic or whatever, but this is the next morning so he could at least own up to his actions). And I hate it especially since it’s implied that if Lucien hadn’t found out outside and gotten her back home, there’s a risk that Tamlin could’ve raped her, which increases the implications of this line so much. Yes, she was stupid for going outside, but no, it doesn’t mean it’s her fault if someone does something to her. It’s that person’s fault.
But honestly, I don’t really believe that the Tamlin that’s been presented to us in this book would actually believe that, so I blame it on the author more than the character.
Now, Rhysand. I think he’s a really interesting character and I want to learn more about him. Again, I know that the next book is supposed to make us like him, but in this book even though he helps Feyre, he’s also extremely predatory towards her and I don’t think I can forgive him for that, so I have trouble seeing how I could like their relationship… but we’ll see. He basically makes Feyre dress in super revealing clothing without her consent, then drugs her and makes her dance and all of that. Which isn’t great. And then he even implies that he would’ve raped her had it not been for the fact that he doesn’t want to be killed by Tamlin.
“Feyre, for Cauldron’s sake. I drug you, but don’t you wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms” (First, touching her waist and her arms without her consent is not fine)
“Believe me, I would have liked nothing more than to enjoy you – but there are bigger things at stake than taking a human woman to my bed” (So he’s actually admitting to wanting to rape her… great.)
Shoutout to a couple other small things that I didn’t like or that didn’t make sense
- Faeries can only be killed by ash weapons. That’s what has been established. Yet Feyre kills a naga with a normal arrow.
- Shapeshifting into a wolf isn’t a common power among faeries. Tamlin just has a special ability. So why does Feyre immediately suspect that it’s a faerie when she sees some random wolf?
- FIRE NIGHT. Sex regenerating the earth is a bit over-the-top, cheesy, etc. in the first place, but also the fact that a bunch of women just wait there to be picked so that men can have sex with them… let’s just say I didn’t love it.
Anyways, I gave this three stars because while there is so much that I didn’t like, it was still very quick and easy to read and I somehow enjoyed it a little despite everything I just talked about.
Actual review: I changed my mind about this book so many times while reading it. On one page I’d find myself enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would, and then on the next I’d be super mad at the author for ruining it.
I’ve heard a lot of people saying that they don’t like this book because it’s slow. Here’s the thing. I like slow-paced, character focused books, I like slow burns. This is different; it’s not that’s it slow-paced, it’s that the main character doesn’t have a goal for half of the story. For the first 20% ish of the story, Feyre’s goal is to escape, to return to her family. Which is a bit annoying, but understandable. Then, for the last 35% ish, her goal is to save Tamlin, to get him back. The only purpose of the middle section is to develop the world building and especially the romance, and it feels really weird for the main character of a book to not have any goal, which I think is why people complain that nothing happens and that it’s slow. Personally, it wasn’t a deal breaker, but it was a bit disorienting, and I found myself wondering what the point of the book was, in some parts of this middle section.
Now, the writing. It’s not for everyone. Most of the time, I didn’t mind it. I think the author writes action scenes very well and she managed to make me feel the stakes of the situations. But every now and then, I’d find lines in the books that were so over-the-top or tried to be flowery and metaphorical but made absolutely no sense.
Shoutout to:
“I became aware of every pore in my body as his tongue entered my mouth”
“The music flittered through my memories, binding them together, making them into a quilt that wrapped around me, that warmed my bones”
“Our tongues danced – not a waltz or minuet, but a war dance, a death dance of bone drums and screaming fiddles”
Etc.
The use of the words “groaned” and “barked” in reference to feeling pain throughout her bones is also excessive. It’s not that big of a deal, but once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it. Same goes for the word “purr”, which is used many times to describe the way a person talks, and I think it’s supposed to be hot, but it just came across as weird. Rhysand’s voice is also described not once but twice as “an erotic caress” which was two times too many.
I was also a bit uncomfortable with how she uses the world male and female instead of men and women. I think it’s because she wants to get across the “animalistic” side of the faeries, but I still didn’t like it. We’re not in a biology lesson, and the use of these words is often in a context where it’s linked with trans and non-binary erasure, so I don’t love the excessive use of them. I definitely don’t think Sarah J. Maas had bad intentions with this, I just think she didn’t think about the implications.
Now, let’s talk about the last 30-35% of the book, the end portion where some stuff actually happens. And let’s talk about why it was both the part I loved and hated the most. Basically, it starts with Feyre deciding to go back to Prythian because she doesn’t want to give up on Tamlin, and then when she arrives the house is empty and bloody. The only person she finds is Alis and we get a huge info-dump through a super long monologue from Alis, because conveniently, the curse is basically over so she can speak about it except for one part. Sure. During this super long monologue, we learn about Amarantha, then Feyre decides to try to go save Tamlin and we get into this three trials + a riddle business. Now hear me out: Amarantha is a really bad villain and here’s why.
In the first place, Amarantha is a stereotypical “extremely evil for no reason” villain. She hates humans (partly because of what happened to her sister, but let’s be real she already hated them before, this just didn’t help), wants to conquer their land, and wants to rule on Prythian and make the High Lords her slaves. Why? Because she’s evil. That’s pretty much it. (Already, this isn’t my favorite type of villain, but I can accept it.) Except she doesn’t even do it right! She’s painted as this extremely evil and cruel and ruthless enemy that’s impossible to defeat, but then she always gives her enemies a way out. The main characters didn’t defeat her because they were stronger or better, they defeated her because she made stupid choices that didn’t really make sense.
When she decided she wanted to take over Prythian, she made the High Lords drink a potion that allowed her to take away most of their power. Alright, that makes sense. Then we discover, through Alis’ monologue, that Amarantha hates Tamlin even more than the other High Lords. So, what does she do? Give him and even worse punishment than the other High Lords? Naaahh. Instead, she gives him the exact same punishment, except she also gives him a way out of it, with the curse. The stakes of this curse make no sense, because if he succeeds, he gets out of her punishment but if he doesn’t, then he gets the exact same punishment than the other High Lords. Then she does this again with Feyre. She could have easily tortured and killed her when she caught her sneaking in. But instead she sets up the three trials, which if we’re stretching it, I can understand, because she clearly never intended to give Feyre what she wanted even if Feyre succeeded, so the trials could be considered as torture before killing her, which Amarantha clearly loves to do. But what I can’t get behind is the riddle. Feyre tries to negotiate with her and asks for Tamlin’s freedom too if she wins, and then Amarantha is like “alright I accept… but I’m also adding conditions to this game” and then she gives Feyre another way out! Why? Just why? I’m also really bad at riddles and I figured out this one after reading it twice, so I can’t get behind the fact that Feyre, who had three months, never solved it.
When I understood where the story was going (three trials and all of that), I was really disappointed, but even though I didn’t like the concept, I liked the execution. The actual scenes were pretty engaging, and I definitely felt the angst, which I enjoyed.
OH, and then she just becomes a faerie at the end !? Hear me out: I don’t mind this kind of “plot twist” or unexpected event or whatever, as long as it makes sense when you look back on the rest of the story. But here, it just came out of nowhere. It has never been established that this is possible, and now that it’s convenient to the plot, it is. Ugh.
Then, the characters.
I found Feyre really annoying in the beginning of the book, and I really thought she was going to develop into a stereotypical protagonist who’s shy but headstrong, thinks she’s ugly but is actually gorgeous, etc. The kind of protagonist I like to describe as “I’m not like other girls, I have brown hair and I’m skinny” aka Alina Starkov from the Grisha trilogy. But it actually didn’t completely turn out that way. Feyre continued to be a bit annoying, but at least she fought for what she believed in and was strong from the start. She wasn’t a particularly original main character, but I didn’t hate her.
I know the next book is supposed to make us hate Tamlin, but I haven’t read it yet. So far, he’s a nice guy, he’s alright, I don’t mind him. Only scene I really disliked was when he said
“So, if Feyre can’t be bothered to listen to orders, then I can’t be held accountable for the consequences.”, when he was talking about him biting her neck. Which… nope. You’re still in the wrong for doing something to her without her consent (I understand he was high on magic or whatever, but this is the next morning so he could at least own up to his actions). And I hate it especially since it’s implied that if Lucien hadn’t found out outside and gotten her back home, there’s a risk that Tamlin could’ve raped her, which increases the implications of this line so much. Yes, she was stupid for going outside, but no, it doesn’t mean it’s her fault if someone does something to her. It’s that person’s fault.
But honestly, I don’t really believe that the Tamlin that’s been presented to us in this book would actually believe that, so I blame it on the author more than the character.
Now, Rhysand. I think he’s a really interesting character and I want to learn more about him. Again, I know that the next book is supposed to make us like him, but in this book even though he helps Feyre, he’s also extremely predatory towards her and I don’t think I can forgive him for that, so I have trouble seeing how I could like their relationship… but we’ll see. He basically makes Feyre dress in super revealing clothing without her consent, then drugs her and makes her dance and all of that. Which isn’t great. And then he even implies that he would’ve raped her had it not been for the fact that he doesn’t want to be killed by Tamlin.
“Feyre, for Cauldron’s sake. I drug you, but don’t you wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms” (First, touching her waist and her arms without her consent is not fine)
“Believe me, I would have liked nothing more than to enjoy you – but there are bigger things at stake than taking a human woman to my bed” (So he’s actually admitting to wanting to rape her… great.)
Shoutout to a couple other small things that I didn’t like or that didn’t make sense
- Faeries can only be killed by ash weapons. That’s what has been established. Yet Feyre kills a naga with a normal arrow.
- Shapeshifting into a wolf isn’t a common power among faeries. Tamlin just has a special ability. So why does Feyre immediately suspect that it’s a faerie when she sees some random wolf?
- FIRE NIGHT. Sex regenerating the earth is a bit over-the-top, cheesy, etc. in the first place, but also the fact that a bunch of women just wait there to be picked so that men can have sex with them… let’s just say I didn’t love it.
Anyways, I gave this three stars because while there is so much that I didn’t like, it was still very quick and easy to read and I somehow enjoyed it a little despite everything I just talked about.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
4.0
3.5 stars
I read about 30% of the Cruel Prince and I had to put it down to read something else because I wasn’t in the right mood (to be fair, I had just finished ACOTAR and there is a maximum to the amount of hot faeries I can put up with at any point in time). But once I continued it, I found myself enjoying it a lot more. So, I’m not sure if the beginning of the book is truly just not as interesting or if it was just me. Maybe a bit of both. Overall:
- I really liked the world, the politics and the modern setting;
- The writing is enjoyable and makes for a fun quick read;
- I expected the plot to be more predictable and more focused on the romance and it really wasn’t, which made me like the book A LOT more;
- I thought the author was going in a very specific and pretty stereotypical direction with some of the characters and she didn’t follow that direction, which made the characters much more interesting and complex;
- This book was darker than I expected, and I was here for it;
- I did not like the romance. At all.
The rest of this review will a more in-depth discussion of why I think those things and will have spoilers.
CHARACTERS
Jude
Jude is sometimes annoying or makes stupid decisions, yes, but I think it was a deliberate choice from the author and it is actually supposed to be a part of her character. Whereas with some other main characters, I think the author maybe didn’t intend for them to be annoying and that just came as a result of the author not successfully creating the effect she intended to. (*coughs* Alina from the Grisha trilogy. *coughs* Feyre from ACOTAR). I also like that there are consequences for her reckless actions, she doesn’t just do stupid things without thinking and then it all works out in her favor. For example, when she decided to save a random servant, that servant died while Jude was trying to get her to the mortal world, or when she killed Valerian and then was confronted with the fact that this could get her in so much trouble and she had to deal with the body, etc.
I also liked how dark she turned. You can really tell that she’s willing to do a lot to get what she wants. And I like how she reflects on it, and wonders if the way she was brought up caused her to be this way, but also accepts that she is this way and takes advantage of it (if that made any sense).
Taryn
Taryn wasn’t a very developed character in this book in my opinion and I hope she gets more of a personality later on, because I didn’t really understand her motivations. Basically, she desperately wants to fit in, so she wants to find a nice faerie husband so that she has a place in the King’s Court, so then when Locke takes interest in her she’s like “perfect I’ve got one of them, I wanna keep it that way”, so then she just ignores all the red flags and the fact that this guy is also dating her sister…Okay, sure. I guess it kind of makes sense (emphasis on “kind of”), but also there really was nothing more to her personality, when she could have been a very interesting character if she had been more developed and given more than one personality trait.
Vivi
I really love Vivi and I want her to live happily ever after with her girlfriend while raising Oak!! She’s this very headstrong girl whose life was completely turned around when her father murdered her mother and stepdad and brought her to Faerie. That day, she vowed that she would always hate him, and since then she basically does everything, he doesn’t want her to do so she can annoy and frustrate him. She doesn’t feel like she belongs in Faerie and doesn’t want to belong either, so she constantly sneaks back to the human world where she’s made a human girlfriend who isn’t aware (in the beginning at least) of the fact that she’s half faerie. In conclusion, Vivi would have been an amazing main character and I hope that she plays a bigger part in the next two books.
Madoc
I don’t really have that many thoughts about Madoc himself, but I have some feelings about his relationship with Jude. In the first part of the book, I hated it. I didn’t understand why he would just murder Jude’s parents in the first place (and I still don’t honestly) and I hated how Taryn and Jude had just accepted that and had started thinking of him as a father figure. I do still have some issues with those parts of their relationship, but I really loved how that relationship was explored in the second part of the book. In particular, I like that we really see how being raised by Madoc, her parents’ murderer, has influenced Jude.
Oriana
In the beginning, Oriana felt like a very stereotypical evil stepmother character, and I like how that was turned around and we found out that she has a really interesting backstory. She has some very clear motivations and she isn’t just mean because she likes to be mean, or because Jude and Taryn are human. While this doesn’t necessarily make the way she treats them okay, it makes us understand her character a lot more and I liked that addition to the story. I’m very curious to see how her relationship with Jude will change in The Wicked King, after she understands that Jude plans to make Oak the High King eventually. If she will accept it because he will be older at that point or if she will still be completely against it, and if so, how far she’ll be willing to go to stop it.
Locke
Um… why? Yeah, I don’t understand Locke at all. He just woke up one day and was like “I’m gonna date two twin sisters at the same time” and that is his entire character motivations? Huh? I am confusion. Was this really necessary to the story? No. No, it wasn’t, and I didn’t like it. He was an interesting character for like two seconds in the beginning where he was the only one in his little group of friends who seemed to be not chill with doing really bad things to other people. But then that’s completely undermined by the fact that he was just acting that way to get Taryn and Jude.
Cardan
Cardan is probably the most stereotypical character out of all of them. He is the bad boy who’s mean because he has a bad home life. Some of it was a little interesting, I kind of liked how he’s such a mess of a person, but there was nothing very original to his character, in my opinion.
WORLD
The world was solid. The atmosphere was excellent, the world of Faerie was very well-established, and the modern setting was original and refreshing. I also really liked that the politics were a big part of the story.
PLOT
I have to admit, after having just read ACOTAR, I thought this would be similar, so I expected the romance to play a bigger part and the rest of the plot to be basically non-existent (which I would not have liked). AND IT WASN’T LIKE THAT AT ALL. Yes!!
The coronation scene where literally the entire royal family except Balekin and Cardan either is murdered or dies of suicide, is really the scene that made me go “okay this is going in a very different direction than what I thought, and I love it”. From there, I really started to like the book a lot more. The plot surprised me multiple times and kept me very interested, and while maybe that was due to my very low expectations, I really loved it.
ROMANCE
I think the only thing I enjoyed about the romance is how little of a part it played in the plot. Let’s get into why, in two parts: 1) Locke and 2) Cardan.
1) As I said when discussing Locke… why? I didn’t understand why Locke would choose to try to date the two twins at the same time in the first place, and I didn’t like that his character was basically used to create conflict between the two sisters. Jude and Taryn have very different interests and motivations and there would have definitely been better ways to create conflict between them than just them fighting over a guy. I really hated that it was a part of the book.
2) I’m generally not that interested in romances featuring characters similar to these two, but I think that if it had been done differently, I could have at least liked it more than this. (Also, keep in mind I haven’t read the other books yet, so it could be salvaged in those and I wouldn’t know). Keeping in mind that this is a trilogy, and this was only the first book, I don’t think we even needed a romance between the two of them in this book. Granted, there wasn’t really a romance, but what I’m trying to say is THAT KISS SCENE WAS UNNECESSARY AND MADE NO SENSE. Listen to me: in that scene, Cardan admits to Jude that he hates her because he’s jealous of her. He’s jealous of the fact that, despite him being “superior” in the hierarchy of Faerie, despite the fact that Jude is the bastard child of an unfaithful wife and he’s a prince, she is still appreciated by her family and he really isn’t. That’s interesting, it gives a bit of perspective. The scene could have stopped there, and it would have been way better. That was enough of an explanation of Cardan’s hate for Jude, the author didn’t need to add on this “ummm… I hate you because I have crush on you”. Cardan, what are you, a third grader picking on the girl he likes in the playground? And THEN, Jude, who has not been established to have any sort of attraction for Cardan, just decides to kiss him, which really didn’t make any sense to me. I think the romance would have been a lot more enjoyable if it was more a slow burn built across the trilogy. Cardan and Jude could’ve slowly gone from hate to love while they have work together to rule the kingdom. It was totally unnecessary to have Cardan secretly like her and hate her because of it, I think it would’ve been way better if he just hated her because he was jealous and then slowly developed feelings. There was also zero build-up on Jude’s part, so it didn’t really make any sense why she kissed him.
I read about 30% of the Cruel Prince and I had to put it down to read something else because I wasn’t in the right mood (to be fair, I had just finished ACOTAR and there is a maximum to the amount of hot faeries I can put up with at any point in time). But once I continued it, I found myself enjoying it a lot more. So, I’m not sure if the beginning of the book is truly just not as interesting or if it was just me. Maybe a bit of both. Overall:
- I really liked the world, the politics and the modern setting;
- The writing is enjoyable and makes for a fun quick read;
- I expected the plot to be more predictable and more focused on the romance and it really wasn’t, which made me like the book A LOT more;
- I thought the author was going in a very specific and pretty stereotypical direction with some of the characters and she didn’t follow that direction, which made the characters much more interesting and complex;
- This book was darker than I expected, and I was here for it;
- I did not like the romance. At all.
The rest of this review will a more in-depth discussion of why I think those things and will have spoilers.
CHARACTERS
Jude
Jude is sometimes annoying or makes stupid decisions, yes, but I think it was a deliberate choice from the author and it is actually supposed to be a part of her character. Whereas with some other main characters, I think the author maybe didn’t intend for them to be annoying and that just came as a result of the author not successfully creating the effect she intended to. (*coughs* Alina from the Grisha trilogy. *coughs* Feyre from ACOTAR). I also like that there are consequences for her reckless actions, she doesn’t just do stupid things without thinking and then it all works out in her favor. For example, when she decided to save a random servant, that servant died while Jude was trying to get her to the mortal world, or when she killed Valerian and then was confronted with the fact that this could get her in so much trouble and she had to deal with the body, etc.
I also liked how dark she turned. You can really tell that she’s willing to do a lot to get what she wants. And I like how she reflects on it, and wonders if the way she was brought up caused her to be this way, but also accepts that she is this way and takes advantage of it (if that made any sense).
Taryn
Taryn wasn’t a very developed character in this book in my opinion and I hope she gets more of a personality later on, because I didn’t really understand her motivations. Basically, she desperately wants to fit in, so she wants to find a nice faerie husband so that she has a place in the King’s Court, so then when Locke takes interest in her she’s like “perfect I’ve got one of them, I wanna keep it that way”, so then she just ignores all the red flags and the fact that this guy is also dating her sister…Okay, sure. I guess it kind of makes sense (emphasis on “kind of”), but also there really was nothing more to her personality, when she could have been a very interesting character if she had been more developed and given more than one personality trait.
Vivi
I really love Vivi and I want her to live happily ever after with her girlfriend while raising Oak!! She’s this very headstrong girl whose life was completely turned around when her father murdered her mother and stepdad and brought her to Faerie. That day, she vowed that she would always hate him, and since then she basically does everything, he doesn’t want her to do so she can annoy and frustrate him. She doesn’t feel like she belongs in Faerie and doesn’t want to belong either, so she constantly sneaks back to the human world where she’s made a human girlfriend who isn’t aware (in the beginning at least) of the fact that she’s half faerie. In conclusion, Vivi would have been an amazing main character and I hope that she plays a bigger part in the next two books.
Madoc
I don’t really have that many thoughts about Madoc himself, but I have some feelings about his relationship with Jude. In the first part of the book, I hated it. I didn’t understand why he would just murder Jude’s parents in the first place (and I still don’t honestly) and I hated how Taryn and Jude had just accepted that and had started thinking of him as a father figure. I do still have some issues with those parts of their relationship, but I really loved how that relationship was explored in the second part of the book. In particular, I like that we really see how being raised by Madoc, her parents’ murderer, has influenced Jude.
Oriana
In the beginning, Oriana felt like a very stereotypical evil stepmother character, and I like how that was turned around and we found out that she has a really interesting backstory. She has some very clear motivations and she isn’t just mean because she likes to be mean, or because Jude and Taryn are human. While this doesn’t necessarily make the way she treats them okay, it makes us understand her character a lot more and I liked that addition to the story. I’m very curious to see how her relationship with Jude will change in The Wicked King, after she understands that Jude plans to make Oak the High King eventually. If she will accept it because he will be older at that point or if she will still be completely against it, and if so, how far she’ll be willing to go to stop it.
Locke
Um… why? Yeah, I don’t understand Locke at all. He just woke up one day and was like “I’m gonna date two twin sisters at the same time” and that is his entire character motivations? Huh? I am confusion. Was this really necessary to the story? No. No, it wasn’t, and I didn’t like it. He was an interesting character for like two seconds in the beginning where he was the only one in his little group of friends who seemed to be not chill with doing really bad things to other people. But then that’s completely undermined by the fact that he was just acting that way to get Taryn and Jude.
Cardan
Cardan is probably the most stereotypical character out of all of them. He is the bad boy who’s mean because he has a bad home life. Some of it was a little interesting, I kind of liked how he’s such a mess of a person, but there was nothing very original to his character, in my opinion.
WORLD
The world was solid. The atmosphere was excellent, the world of Faerie was very well-established, and the modern setting was original and refreshing. I also really liked that the politics were a big part of the story.
PLOT
I have to admit, after having just read ACOTAR, I thought this would be similar, so I expected the romance to play a bigger part and the rest of the plot to be basically non-existent (which I would not have liked). AND IT WASN’T LIKE THAT AT ALL. Yes!!
The coronation scene where literally the entire royal family except Balekin and Cardan either is murdered or dies of suicide, is really the scene that made me go “okay this is going in a very different direction than what I thought, and I love it”. From there, I really started to like the book a lot more. The plot surprised me multiple times and kept me very interested, and while maybe that was due to my very low expectations, I really loved it.
ROMANCE
I think the only thing I enjoyed about the romance is how little of a part it played in the plot. Let’s get into why, in two parts: 1) Locke and 2) Cardan.
1) As I said when discussing Locke… why? I didn’t understand why Locke would choose to try to date the two twins at the same time in the first place, and I didn’t like that his character was basically used to create conflict between the two sisters. Jude and Taryn have very different interests and motivations and there would have definitely been better ways to create conflict between them than just them fighting over a guy. I really hated that it was a part of the book.
2) I’m generally not that interested in romances featuring characters similar to these two, but I think that if it had been done differently, I could have at least liked it more than this. (Also, keep in mind I haven’t read the other books yet, so it could be salvaged in those and I wouldn’t know). Keeping in mind that this is a trilogy, and this was only the first book, I don’t think we even needed a romance between the two of them in this book. Granted, there wasn’t really a romance, but what I’m trying to say is THAT KISS SCENE WAS UNNECESSARY AND MADE NO SENSE. Listen to me: in that scene, Cardan admits to Jude that he hates her because he’s jealous of her. He’s jealous of the fact that, despite him being “superior” in the hierarchy of Faerie, despite the fact that Jude is the bastard child of an unfaithful wife and he’s a prince, she is still appreciated by her family and he really isn’t. That’s interesting, it gives a bit of perspective. The scene could have stopped there, and it would have been way better. That was enough of an explanation of Cardan’s hate for Jude, the author didn’t need to add on this “ummm… I hate you because I have crush on you”. Cardan, what are you, a third grader picking on the girl he likes in the playground? And THEN, Jude, who has not been established to have any sort of attraction for Cardan, just decides to kiss him, which really didn’t make any sense to me. I think the romance would have been a lot more enjoyable if it was more a slow burn built across the trilogy. Cardan and Jude could’ve slowly gone from hate to love while they have work together to rule the kingdom. It was totally unnecessary to have Cardan secretly like her and hate her because of it, I think it would’ve been way better if he just hated her because he was jealous and then slowly developed feelings. There was also zero build-up on Jude’s part, so it didn’t really make any sense why she kissed him.