Back of the book
Consumed by guilt and rage, Celaena can't bring herself to spill blood for the King of Adarlan. She must fight back...
The Immortal Queen will help her destroy the king – for a price. But as Celaena battles with her darkest memories and her heart breaks for a love that could never last, can she fulfil the bargain and head the almighty court of Terrasen? And who will stand with her?
My thoughts
I love the introduction of the witches and Manon as a character, and quickly became invested in that storyline. Abraxos is everything Fleetfoot tried and failed to be; a meaningful pet/animal character that truly has purpose and personality. Abraxos beating Titus was an incredibly powerful moment. I have no bad words to say about the ruthless witches or the flower sniffing wyvern.
What I didn't like were the switches between who the story followed. We would get to a reveal or crux with Celaena and then have to drag through what Chaol was up to, a bit of excitement with Manon, then finally back to the story I really wanted to follow. The switches frustrated me and I couldn't see a purpose beyond making me wait. It felt like Maas wrote three separate stories on one timeline then spliced them together in an attempt to add tension to each one. Only right at the end was relevant information divulged in each separate character situation that connected the three and it made a bit more sense for the order of things.
Sorscha's character is very flat and only serves one purpose: to upset Dorian with her death and send him over the edge. We are later told that Sorscha was an inside informant for the rebel cause, but that information felt very last minute and I wish there had been a few more breadcrumbs about that to make her purpose seem more rounded. Sarah J Maas can do foreshadowing and breadcrumb hints well, but Sorscha's character was executed terribly (all puns intended) and her lack of substance made me angry.
Logically I'm not quite sure why I love Rowan so much other than the fact we are supposed to. He starts off as super mean, treats Celaena awfully and has zero friendly bones in his body. Once we are past that blip though Rowan is a wonderful companion. I will mention the age thing though. Just from a personal point of view, I feel a vastly different person to who I was just five years ago. I expect this growth and transformation to continue throughout my years, as I gain life experiences. Rowan is supposedly a few hundred years old and he doesn't act with the maturity I'd expect from that. The argument can be made that I've also never met someone who's a few hundred years old, so there is some creative licence there but... I mostly ignore that he's supposedly centuries old.
The middle of this book is a bit of a slog. Even Celaena said herself, she's been through the whole training under a master shebang before, so get to the point. She also completely gives in to her past traumas and hopelessness, and makes you question the direction the book is going when the main character is so lost. Personally I loved reading the darkness, angst and suffering. I thoroughly enjoyed the progression through Celaena's darkest moments and finding a way to come through them, to believe in herself again, to take her birth name and finally begin to use it.
One final thing I'll mention about the writing, was the various names, and 'name epiphanies'. What I am labelling a name epiphany is: "it wasn't Dorian speaking, but the King." That's a neat little trick to show character maturity and progression, that got old really quick as it was used again and again for both Dorian and Aelin (and again in future books!). I'm really not sure the purpose of the main character having so many names. Two makes sense, her false identity that kept her safe then her real, Queen identity. However Nehemia gives her the name Elentiya, in the first book another alias Lillian is used occasionally, and sometimes referred to as Adarlan's Assassin or Queen Who Was Promised. Other than the two names Celaena and Aelin, I don't see the function for further aliases other than to confuse or frustrate the reader.
Overall, this book sometimes felt like a long slog with Aelin losing her hope and the Dorian/Chaol chapters being boring. Aelin mastering her new power and Manon's storyline made it worthwhile though. The most tedious part was probably identifying the themes and tropes within Sarah J Maas writing beginning to repeat themselves, however I will save those comments until the end of the series. On to the next!
TL:DR
Skip the Dorian/Chaol chapters for a shorter read, only with all the good bits. Manon is the best character ever.
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Spoilery Book Reviews
Non-FictionBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
