385bookreviews

[385bookreviews]

2.113 It Was Just Another Day in America by Ryan David Ginsberg

SPOILERS

Pages: 162

Time Read: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Overall Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★☆☆☆ Characters: ★★★☆ ☆

Genre: Short Stories and Poems

TWs for the book: A Million Times Over Again: Death of a grandparent Amber's Son: Child death, war, violence, military A Baby is Born: Pregnancy, birth, medical content, abandonment, debt, classism, ableism Tommy Longhorn, Planet Explorer: Death, blood, child death, mass shooting, death of a parent The Termination Bureau: Graphic abortion, baby death, gun violence, mentions of CSA and incest, pregnancy, abandonment, police brutality, ableism Dinner and a Show: Cannibilism, elitism, classism, war, death, bombs It Was Just Another Day in America: School shooting, child death, police and military, guns, blood, bullying A Portrait of the Artist in 2022: N/A Poems: Su*c*de, existentialism, depression, anxiety, Tr*mp, politics, school/mass shootings

POV: Various

Time Period/Location: America in different alternate dystopian timelines

First Line: For ten years I have walked circles around this village, looking in on villagers who have never once looked out at me.

The book opens with a poem entitled Mr. Gatekeeper, a metaphor for the author being allowed to share his stories and poems with others.

This is followed by two different introduction notes where the author introduces himself before the short stories segment of his book.

A Million Times Over Again is about girl named Hannah recounting how as a child she used to ask everyone where they thought we came from. Everyone had varying answers, until she asked her Nana. While she knits, Nana recounts the tale of how the Universe and Souls came to be, how Souls had Soul-mates, and then how they were torn apart by an evil force that invaded the Universe. She goes on to tell how the Souls would take over humans in order to search for their Soul-mates, over and over again for forever. At the end, Nana tells her that they are each others Soul-mates, and years later, when she dies, Hannah knows that she will find her again.

Amber's Son is set in an America where children of any age can go to war. The characters in this story have no names, and are only referred to as the son or daughter of their mother. Amber's son signs up for the military at 12 years old, fed lies about glory and fun and whiskey and patriotism. His mother has no choice but to sign off on it, and six days later he is sent to a far off desert to fight in a squad of other children, the youngest being only 8, and the oldest only 17. They invade a village of other young children and Amber's son kills eight of them before being shot and killed himself. This story changes your view from soldiers being sent off to war, to someone's son or daughter being sent to kill someone else's son or daughter in a meaningless conflict demanded by an uncaring government.

A Baby is Born paints a picture of the ultimate capitalist hellscape where corporations literally own you. Maybelline is at the hospital alone, without her husband as he can't take time off of work to be there for the birth of their baby. She is consistently harassed by "Recruiters" who try to get her to sign away her and her baby's lives to various corporations in order to fund her birth. She had to sign herself to three additional companies in order to cover just the cost of seeing a doctor, which is $25,000. Before she is allowed to see the doctor, while she is in active labor, she has to sit through hours of pitches from Recruiters and even the doctor before she is seen or treated. She has no choice but to have her baby born in one of these birthing centers, or her baby will not be considered an American citizen. Additionally, her and the baby have to be signed away to enough corporations to cover the cost of the birth itself, which is $2 million. Amber has already lost two babies by not having enough money, because if you can’t pay, your baby is taken and sold. After signing up her baby to 48 corporations, she is finally allowed to give birth, but she isn't allowed to hold her baby until examinations are done to determine that the child will even be a functioning member of society. When they finally give her the child back, they inform her that their name will be chosen by the company that purchased the right to do so.

Tommy Longhorn, Planet Explorer tells the story of an alien who travels the universes and lives among whatever newly discovered species has been found to determine whether or not they can join the Confederation of the Cosmos. He comes to Earth, leaving his wife and four children behind, and lives disguised among the humans for a decade. The day he is supposed to leave, he goes to the mall to get souvenirs and Christmas presents for his wife and children, but is gunned down by a mass shooter.

The Termination Bureau takes the crown for the most uncomfortable and disturbing story in this collection. In the state of Florida in a dystopian America, people are allowed to either sell their babies to the state before they're born for whichever reason they wish. If the babies have intelligence potential, they are sent to special academies. If they have strength potential, they are sent to become laborers. If they have loyalty potential, they are sold to corporations. Babies that don't have any of those things are put on podiums in an all white room, and shot in the head by a police officer. A 13 year old girl, impregnated by her father, comes in to request to sell her unborn child to the state. She is denied, as she doesn't have her father's permission to sell it. The Moral Advisor reads her the law which states that children are a man's property, and women are only incubators who have no right to sell a man's property, regardless or r*pe or incest. She has to give birth to the baby, keep it, and raise it for the next 18 years, or she must spend her life in prison. The girl leaves, and proceeds to go into the alley around back and perform a coat-hanger abortion on herself. The Moral Advisor calls the police, and they brutally handcuff her and throw her into the back of a police car.

Dinner and a Show is set in another alternate reality, with nine of the richest, most elite men in the world, having dinner in Malibu where they praise the virtues of capitalism while every country in the world is at war with each other. Tom Edison, the first ever trillionaire, eats the dismembered arm of one of his factory workers who died of heat stroke. Jean Dirt, the most famous and charismatic actor, eats roasted eyeballs. George Adams, an influential and dangerous investor, eats some of the most expensive food you could think of. Yukio Sing, the spoiled nepo baby inheritor of the Kingdom of Diamonds, eats lion meat and human bone broth mixed with blood. Norm Wolff, the number one news anchor in the country who does nothing but lie for money, eats nothing but fried foods covered in sugar. Ashley Morrison, former CEO of the biggest oil company, eats the meat and eggs of endangered animals. Tomas Marquez, a real estate investor, eats food with ingredients taken from all over the world. Scott Anderson, the former President of the United States that started the Great War to End All Wars, eats food made to look like an American flag. Finally, our narrator, prolific author Theodore Doerr III, eats a human brain. They finally go out on a balcony that overviews a battlefield while they mindlessly discuss the ever changing political affiliations of the countries fighting in the war. Two armies go out on the battlefield to meet each other, one side American and the other side either Tanzanian or Japanese, the men no longer know who they're even fighting. A massive bomb is dropped on the battlefield and when the smoke clears, both armies are completely dead. The men cheer regardless.

It Was Just Another Day in America shows little Jasper going off to school in his bulletproof vest. He is bullied by the other kids relentlessly, and has only one friend, Bryan. The pair are sat away from the rest of the class as the teacher has no other way to stop the bullying. The children have their things and themselves scanned and searched before they can enter the school, and when they go out to play, they are surrounded by police, military, helicopters, and guard towers, all holding guns. In the middle of class, an alarm goes off, and the children run to get into their individual bunkers, the teacher wielding a gun and not allowed to go into her own bunker until all the students are in theirs. Several students forget their passwords, but the teacher isn't allowed to know the codes because some other teacher used them to slaughter her entire class. Jasper gets into his bunker. When he is let out two hours later, the bodies are gone but the blood is still there. His teacher and several of his classmates were killed, including Bryan. Class continues for the day with a substitute teacher.

A Portrait of the Artist in 2022 tells a simple and short story of an Unknown Writer who goes to Hollywood Boulevard to try and become famous for his book. At stall 43,222 he does dramatic readings of his story. Everyone passes him by and no one takes copies of his book. He packs up his things, and prepares to do it all again the next day.

Ginsberg's Poems explore themes in his own life, such as existentialism, depression, anxiety, su*c*de, and his relationship with his wife; as well as political topics he covered in his short stories.

Stories: I really enjoyed Ginsberg's stories, even though some of them were deeply unsettling. The metaphors and dystopias he uses to convey his political points and thoughts on the current state of our country are a bit on the nose, but they definitely put things into perspective. It Was Just Another Day in America, The Termination Bureau, A Baby is Born, and Dinner and a Show seem extreme, but it also makes you wonder, if things continue as they are, will it get to that eventually? I really would like to see some of these short stories expanded upon more, as they gave off a Ray Bradbury vibe.

Poems: I did not care for Ginsberg's poems nearly as much as I enjoyed his stories. I enjoyed I Keep Slipping, Our Youth, Sacrilegious, and Mr. America, but the rest felt a little bit like unstable ramblings, especially with the author openly contemplating su*c*de in several of them. He refers to his wife with varying degrees of unhealthy reverence and sees her as too good for him. His political poems are a simpler rehashing of the concepts he wrote about in his stories. This ultimately dropped the book down to three stars for me.

Summary: This was a quick and easy read that I definitely don't regret, but I did have a little bit of higher hopes for. While I can understand the concept as an author to be seen and recognized for your work, the constant rehashing of feeling miserable with life and his writing going no where (not just in his poems but also in A Portrait of the Artist in 2022) felt repetitive, hopeless, and almost whiny. I don't feel as though I was the target audience here, as I'm sure a cishet man might relate better to the concepts and emotions he was trying to convey. I did greatly enjoy the stories however, and if he fleshed one of those out into a novel, I would definitely read it. This book also had a few typos. While most books seem to nowadays, between that, overall structure, and the content of his poetry, I feel as though an editor would have greatly benefit him.

[385bookreviews]

2.279 Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

SPOILERS

Pages: 368

Time Read: 4 hours and 43 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Thriller

TWs for the book: Violence, gun violence, gore, injury IN DETAIL, murder, blood, transphobia, outing, deadnaming, F slur, police brutality, death, fire/fire injury, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, classism, hate crimes, medical content, addiction, drug withdrawal, child death, grief, vomit, car accident, death of a parent, bullying, homophobia, torture, physical abuse, cursing, toxic relationship, toxic friendships, alcohol, mental illness, ableism, panic attacks, dysphoria, child abuse, emotional abuse, gaslighting and manipulation, s*xual harassment, chronic illness, misogyny, body shaming, kidnapping, p*d*philia

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: Twist Creek County, West Virginia in 2017.

First Line: When the sheriff of Twist Creek County--and all those other sons of bitches, the Baldwin-Felts agents and bloodthirsty strikebreakers--finally caught my great-great-grandfather and dragged his ass up from the mine to make a spectacle of his execution, they killed him by hammering a railroad spike through his mouth.

Transgender socialist Miles Abernathy lives in Twist Creek County, West Virginia. His great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, led a strike against the coal mine companies and tortured the sheriff's son for leverage. When he was caught, the sheriff executed him by driving a railroad spike through his mouth. This started a blood feud between the Davies family and the Abernathy family. Having just completed his junior year of high school, Miles sneaks out to go to the graduating party in the woods. But he hates social events, and he isn't going to celebrate. He meets up with his childhood friend Cooper O'Brien. Miles stole pictures that his dad took the night of the accident that killed Mrs. O'Brien that incriminate Sheriff Davies as being the one that ran them off the road. Cooper takes them and agrees to show his dad to maybe finally bring the Sheriff to justice. While they are talking, Noah Davies, the sheriff's son, and his two friends Eddie and Paul come to interrogate them about what they're doing. They lie, and Miles starts to walk home through the woods. Noah, Eddie, and Paul catch up with him though, and take a video of them beating and torturing Miles almost to death. Cooper finds Miles and brings him to the hospital. When he wakes up in the hospital, he sees the ghost of a coal miner shaking him awake. He has extensive injuries and experienced massive internal bleeding that caused him to need surgery.

Before he had departed for the party, Miles had sent an email to both of his parents coming out as trans. He brings it up to his mom, but she doesn't take it very well and doesn't want to discuss it. Sheriff Davies comes in while Miles' mom is out of the room, and threatens Miles into staying quiet about Noah and his friends beating him up. Miles tells him that with his head injury, he doesn't remember what happened. Miles eventually goes home and begins his recovery, periodically still seeing the mute ghost of the coal miner. Cooper checks up on him and their friendship begins to return, Miles even coming out to him as trans. Miles does get stir crazy and refuses to let the attack haunt him, so he goes to pick up his check from the restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. His boss tells him that he has the whole summer off and gives him extra money, saying she has temporarily hired someone to take his place, but just for the summer. Miles walks out the back door, and contemplates going back in to return the extra money, when Eddie walks out the door and reveals himself to be Miles' replacement for the summer. They get in an altercation, Miles breaking Eddie's nose and trying to threaten him to delete the video of his attack. Eddie is afraid at first, but realizes he has the upper hand with his connection to Noah and Sheriff Davies. This angers Miles further, and he tries to reach for Eddie to hit him, but Eddie backs away, slips on the gravel, and hits his head, which kills him instantly. Miles is mortified, but knows what Sheriff Davies will do to him and his family if the accident is discovered, so he drags Eddie's bodies behind the dumpsters and calls Cooper. Cooper comes immediately and helps Miles clean up the scene and they take the body. They dump Eddie's body down the old mineshaft where no one will ever go looking because of the structural instability. They then go back to Cooper's house where Miles takes a shower and Cooper helps him shave his head so his hair is more even after the head wound stitches. Cooper and Miles share a somewhat tender moment, and when Cooper leans in to kiss him, he reciprocates, logically deducing he must have a crush on Cooper because that's what he's supposed to do. After they kiss, Cooper says, "We've already killed one of them. What's a few more?" Miles is disgusted and angered by this notion and they fight before Miles leaves and goes home.

Soon after, Miles realizes that he has become reliant upon the opioids he was prescribed in the hospital, just like Mr. O'Brien is and like his father used to be. He quits cold turkey and spends time going through withdrawals. During which he finally is able to go out and see the ghost without him disappearing. After looking through old pictures he realizes that the ghost is Saint Abernathy, and he can't speak because of the railroad spike down his throat. Saint reveals to Miles that he was also trans, and leads him and his dog Lady to the burned down movie theatre where he was executed, and hands Miles a railroad spike. Miles then takes this as a sign to fight for his family and get his revenge, and texts Cooper that he's willing to move forward with the murders. He goes home, but his dad is awake. His dad begins to make an effort to use his new name and pronouns, and Miles is forced to confess his opioid withdrawal. The next morning, his mother is enraged that Miles didn't say anything about the drugs, and demands he has to start going to therapy. Miles refuses, and they argue until Sheriff Davies shows up to inquire about Eddie. They tell him they know nothing, and then Sheriff Davies asks where Miles is going to go to therapy once he sees the brochures. Miles chooses one at random, and once the sheriff leaves, his mom tells him that he is going.

The next day, his mom drops him off at a church for group therapy. He leaves halfway through out of anxiety and goes into the alley next door. A person comes out of the door to a restaurant, and Miles doesn't recognize them, but the person, Dallas, does. Dallas is their old friend from before the accident. When Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, Miles' father, and Dallas were run off the road by Sheriff Davies, Dallas sustained a lot of burns and injuries, and Dallas' parents blamed Miles' father and family. They moved away and had no contact, but Dallas is back, living with their brother and his wife Amber, who is autistic. Dallas' brother and Amber have their own restaurant/bar that is entirely socialist and run by the workers, right under Sheriff Davies nose. Miles is glad to see his friend again, and also talk to another trans person, but is scared to be seen in the bar. Dallas says that on the Fourth of July, the biggest holiday in town, they would be throwing a "Fuck the Fourth" party to counteract it and call out Sheriff Davies. Miles rejects the invitation, but him and Dallas swap phone numbers, and he gives them Cooper's number.

Miles and Cooper meet up to plan the murders, deciding to use Miles' father's gun to shoot Paul on the Fourth of July when his parents are out of town. While they are talking in Cooper's convenience store, Paul and Noah turn up to harass them, further settling their decision. Miles spends the night with Cooper and they get drunk and make out. Miles then decides to also make a difference in another way, and goes back to the bar to speak with Amber. Amber tells him they are going to be handing out pamphlets with evidence of Sheriff Davies' and the police departments' corruption. Miles gives them copies of the pictures he gave to Cooper.

The night before the Fourth of July party that the Davies plan and throw every year, Cooper and Miles took the gun and drove up to Paul's house. The plan is for Cooper to shoot him, and then they would clean up and dump his body in the mineshaft like they did with Eddie. They arrive, and find Paul in his father's processing plant in the garage, skinning a dear. He says he knew that they had killed Eddie the whole time but that Noah didn't believe him, and he tells them to get it over with. Cooper chickens out and lowers the gun. Miles and Paul talk, and Paul talks about how he really doesn't have it any better than the Abernathy's. Sheriff Davies bought out his parents' land and makes them pay rent to him, and takes most of their wages, and Noah had threatened to kill Paul because Paul said he wanted to leave town. Miles feels for Paul, and agrees to spare his life and just make it look like they killed him if Paul leaves town that night. Paul agrees, looking relieved, and asks to grab some stuff, when Cooper regains his nerve and shoots Paul in the jaw, removing the entire lower half of his face. Miles is appalled, and Cooper insists that they leave Paul to bleed out on the floor. They run, but on the drive back Miles makes Cooper pull over so he can throw up. They fight about Cooper shooting Paul like that, and Miles trying to let Paul leave. Cooper becomes more and more deranged, shaking Miles and deadnaming him. Miles tells him to leave him there as he was going to have Dallas pick him up. Cooper leaves and Dallas and Amber race to come pick him up, not knowing what's wrong. Miles goes nonverbal and begins having a meltdown. When he gets to their house, he wants to shower but dreads the prospect of the sensory experience. Amber gives him some things to help and tells him he might be autistic like her. He spends the night in Dallas' bed with them, but Cooper keeps blowing up his phone, demanding to speak with him and leave Dallas' house so he can come get him, worried that Miles will snitch.

In the morning, Amber and Dallas take Miles home, and he returns the gun to the safe. Later in the day his family comes to the house to prepare to go to the Fourth of July party together. Cooper comes in, saying he is Miles' boyfriend, and quietly threatens Miles to keep his mouth shut. They walk to the party, where Dallas and Amber are handing out pamphlets with evidence of Sheriff Davies' crimes and advertising the Fuck the Fourth gathering. Cooper sees the pictures on the pamphlet and is enraged, and Miles' dog Lady has to come between them. He leaves, and Noah and Sheriff Davies get up on stage and announce Paul's death. Then they announce that they'll be giving out a citizen award to Miles, since he bravely recovered from a hate crime and for being a pillar to the transgender community. This outs Miles to the entire town and also to his grandparents, aunt, and uncle. They all quickly leave the party after telling Dallas to go home now. Once they arrive back home, their aunt and uncle are enraged and leave. Miles' grandparents, however, accept him and are enraged on his behalf. They discuss what they should do, and they decide that it's time to fight back, and go to the Fuck the Fourth gathering. They do the next day, and while his mother and father discuss what to do with Amber and her husband, Dallas and Miles enjoy the punk band performing, talk about trans issues and about Miles potentially being autistic and aromantic, and marvel at the fact that so many of the towns people showed up. A girl who's father was imprisoned by Sheriff Davies and a mother who's son was killed by him share their stories, and Miles decides to be brave and stand up on stage, showing off his still disfigured face and head and tells everyone finally that Noah Davies and his friends did this to him and that the sheriff threatened him and his family in order to cover it up. At that exact moment, Sheriff Davies walks in and starts demanding that people leave. Amber refuses and demands he leave, and Miles' mother and father start ushering him and Dallas towards the back door. Finally, Amber throws water in his face, and he pulls out his gun and shoots her. The crowd turns into a riot, and Miles' mother shoves him and Dallas into the kitchen and locks the door. They contemplate what happened to Amber and how to get back in, but then Noah enters, covered in blood, and lights a Molotov cocktail, setting the place ablaze. Miles and Dallas run outside, where people have finally started to come out, including his mother and father, Amber's husband, and Amber, who was shot in the shoulder. They drive back to their house separately. When Dallas, Miles, and his father arrive back at their house, they find Cooper's body, cracked open and gutted on their porch. The rest of them arrive, they call Miles' grandparents, and Mr. O'Brien to see the body of his son. Miles' mom takes care of Amber's shoulder, and Miles fesses up to him and Cooper killing Eddie and Paul. No one is really surprised, as the Davies and Abernathy's had been killing each other for years. They decide that enough is enough, and when Noah texts Miles to end this permanently by meeting him alone, they decide for them to meet in the abandoned mineshaft. They plan for Miles to trap Noah, and then use him as a negotiation tool to convince Sheriff Davies to leave town.

Miles goes down into the mineshaft with the gun. Noah meets him there and taunts him, saying that they'll leave his family alone forever if he agrees to go with him and his dad. He also tells Miles about how he tortured Cooper, gutted him like a deer while he was still alive, and Cooper confessed everything. Miles lets off a warning shot, and Noah attacks him. They fight, and Noah gets the gun, but Miles pulls a knife out and kills him with a stab to the neck. He leaves the mineshaft and tries desperately to call his family, but is then shot in the head by Sheriff Davies, taking out his eye. The Sheriff kidnaps him, and takes him to the abandoned movie theatre to hammer a railroad spike into his mouth, just like his ancestor did to Saint. Saint manifests in front of Sheriff Davies to distract him, just as Miles' family shows up, and Lady attacks the sheriff, ripping chunks out of him. By the time they recall Lady, the sheriff is dying, so Miles' grandpa shoots him in the head. The rest of the town witnesses it, but they all grab shovels and tarps to help them bury the body and hide the evidence.

Time skips forwards a bit to the town holding a meeting to decide what to do to ensure the corruption of the town ends. Miles is missing an eye now, and him and Dallas are in a queer platonic relationship. A state trooper shows up, but everyone at the meeting clams up and refuses to give any answers about Sheriff Davies.

Miles Abernathy (Sadie Abernathy): I love Andrew Joseph White's protagonists because they always feel so real. I, of course, connected with Miles due to his autism, but also due to his humanness in general. He's no where near perfect, making mistakes and even plotting murder, but he's also just a kid, doing his best in a near impossible situation. I also appreciate him showing different presentations of autism with his characters, between Nick in Hell Followed With Us, Silas and the gardener in The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Miles and Amber in Compound Fracture, you get different perspectives of people that live with the same thing, and for me as an autistic person, I am able to see different aspects of myself represented in each character. This also applies with Benji from Hell Followed With Us, Silas and Daphne from The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, and Miles and Dallas from Compound Fracture in how they all view their trans-ness differently and have different journeys with it.

Cooper O'Brien: I really wasn't expecting at first for Cooper's character to become so twisted, but you watched him spiral into a sort of madness in real time with Miles. He became wildly unpredictable, and anticipating his actions was a source of anxiety while reading (in a good, thriller kind of way). You almost became just as scared of Cooper as you did of Noah and the sheriff by the end.

Storyline: I finished this book in one sitting, staying up WAY past my bedtime because I just needed to know what happened. The plot kept you on your toes the entire time, even in the calm moments, because you had no clue when some kind of chaos or calamity was about to descend. The plot twists were genuinely brutal, especially with the vivid descriptions of the gore these teenagers were inflicting upon each other. The sheriff was written to be especially enraging and evil, a well done villain. You feel the characters' rage alongside them as the story progresses.

Representation: Miles is autistic, aromantic, and transgender (FtM), and ends up in a queer platonic relationship with Dallas at the end. He is also left disfigured in the face and head after the attack, and later on completely blinded in one eye when he is shot by the sheriff. Dallas is a burn survivor, and is disfigured because of it. They also are plus sized, have ADHD, and are queer and nonbinary. It is undetermined if Cooper is queer, or if he just sees Miles as a girl despite him coming out. Amber has autism. Miles' boss is described as visibly queer, but nothing is specified or confirmed. Miles' great-great-grandfather Saint Abernathy is trans and gay. Miles describes there being several queer people at his school, including a he/they lesbian, a queer girl, and a gay boy. One of the musicians in the punk band is a trans woman. Miles, his father, and Mr. O'Brien all struggle with opioid addiction.

Summary: Once again, Andrew Joseph White has written a masterpiece. His books have the incredible ability to suck you right into the story, making you feel like you're there and experiencing these events with the characters, and, for fellow trans and autistic people, at times it can even feel like you're the protagonist yourself. No characters are overlooked, and it feels like everyone in the story grows and develops, not just the protagonist.

Quotes: "...parents seem obsessed with performing their grief about a child's transition."-Miles Abernathy (p.66) "We've already killed one of them. What's a few more?"-Cooper O'Brien (p.102) "It's like everyone knows there's something off about me, and they don't like it, and they don't quite know what to do about it."-Miles Abernathy (p.149) "I wish Cooper had gotten to know the version of me that's going to exist one day."-Miles Abernathy (p.333)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.3 Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 477

Time Read: 11 hours and 16 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Violence, murder, death, addiction, incest, body horror, mental illness, war, su*c*de, drug use, possession, psychosis, colonization, self harm, sexism, drug abuse, torture, kidnapping, grief, religion/religious bigotry, adult/minor relationship

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Nine years after the events of Dune Messiah; On Arrakis and Salusa Secundus.

First Line: A spot of light appeared on the deep red rug which covered the raw rock of the cave floor.

Nine years after Paul Muad'Dib walked off into the desert, Stilgar guards Leto II and Ghanima, Paul's young twins. He contemplates how things in the Imperium got to this point, and if he should kill Leto and Ghanima to put an end to House Atreides and the pre-born. He ultimately decides against it.

Leto and Ghanima prepare to meet their grandmother, Lady Jessica for the first time. Alia, the current Regent of the Imperium, says she will meet her and Arrakeen and bring her back to Sietch Tabr to meet the twins. Leto and Ghanima discuss amongst themselves that Alia has become an Abomination, possessed by one of her past lives. Alia flies to Arrakeen and muses over why her mother has come to see her, suspecting ulterior motives. Jessica returns, and in a grand entrance to the people of the city, has her men, Gurney Halleck, and Stilgar capture people in the crowd to interrogate them. Alia is enraged she acted without her permission, but Jessica ignores her and talks to two of Alia's priests. One of them, a man named Javid, gives her pause. She notes that he hates the Atreides, and that Alia is involved with him, despite being married to Duncan Idaho. Jessica desires to go to Sietch Tabr immediately to meet her grandchildren, but is delayed by the pomp and ceremony of Alia's priests.

On Salusa Secundus, Irulan's sister, Wensicia of House Corrino, plots to have two Laza tigers kill the Atreides twins by gifting them specific robes the tigers will track. Her Bashar, Tyekanik, is opposed to the idea, but she commands him to obey, and to convert to the religion of Muad'Dib in order to persuade her son Farad'n to willingly become Emperor when her schemes fall into place.

Leto struggles with prescient dreams about an abandoned sietch called Jacurutu, and him and Ghanima both intensely fear becoming Abomination like Alia.

A mysterious blind figure known as the Preacher begins to appear in the city, preaching heresy against Alia and the Golden Elixir. Everyone begins to speculate that this man is actually Paul Muad'Dib, and that he didn't die when he wandered into the desert nine years before.

Alia recalls her possession. She cut off her ancestors' memories and pushed them down and away, not communicating with them or viewing them like the twins did. This left her susceptible to all of them overpowering her. To prevent this from happening, she allowed the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen to have partial possession of her. He commanded her to use the Bene Gesserit ways to stay eternally young, something highly forbidden, and he also commanded her to sleep with Javid.

Leto and Ghanima allow themselves temporary possession by the memories of Paul and Chani, and they seek advice from them. They conclude that they must follow Paul's Golden Path, the one he saw in his visions and ran off into the desert to escape.

The Preacher visits Farad'n on Arrakis to interpret his dreams. He refuses to tell Farad'n his interpretation, but reveals that Tyekanik bargained with the Preacher, who wanted to hear Farad'n's dreams in exchange for him commanding Duncan Idaho to come to their side.

Alia plots to abduct Lady Jessica and make it seem as though House Corrino was responsible, and Leto warns Jessica of this, and also tells her to cooperate with the abduction. Leto also warns Stilgar not to trust Alia, and that he sees three paths in his visions: that he will die outside of Sietch Tabr, that he will marry Ghanima, and that he will kill Jessica. Stilgar is highly disturbed by this conversation and tries to ignore it. Alia tells Duncan to kidnap Jessica, and he sees for the first time that she is possessed. He agrees anyways, and leaves.

Alia requests for Jessica to sit in the morning council to hear the supplicants. Alia says for Jessica to take the first petitioner, who is a musician who is in Arrakeen on a pilgrimage. He was jumped and had his money stolen and he appeals to be given money to return home. Jessica asks where he intends to go, and he says he intends to go to House Corrino. Jessica knows this is somehow a trap from Alia, and asks him to play music so she can decide what to do with him. He improvises a song and Alia becomes offended when he compares her to a death-spirit. Jessica allows him to go to House Corrino. Then a Fremen Naib, a former member of Paul's Fedaykin, appeals to them about how the terraforming of Dune is killing the sandworms and the spice trade. A priest runs forward insisting he be removed for wanting to appear under false pretenses. Alia silently commands the priest and he tries to shoot and kill Jessica under the guise of trying to kill the Fedaykin. Jessica and the man, Ghadhean, duck out of the way, and Ghadhean delivers a deadly blow to the priest. Jessica commands two servants to save the priests life so he can be questioned, but another member of Alia's court kills the priest before that can happen. Jessica accuses Alia of attempting to kill her, and calls her out for being possessed by the Baron. She then escapes with the help of Ghadhean and some other Fedaykin in the room. They hide her in an abandoned sietch, and Duncan Idaho comes to take her to safety, but actually abducts her and takes her to Salusa Secundus and House Corrino, defying both Alia and Lady Jessica in favor of the orders of the Preacher.

Leto and Ghanima know that House Corrino has sent animals to hunt and kill them. They sneak out into the desert at night and plot to make it seem as though Leto was killed so he might go find Jacurutu and lead humanity down the Golden Path. The Laza tigers find them, and they hide in a crevice in the rocks. They use the poisoned tips of their crysknives to kill the tigers by swiping their paws with them, but Ghanima is injured by their claws. Leto leaves on a sandworm and heads south, while Ghanima hypnotizes herself into believing that Leto is truly dead, and she won't believe anything else until he sees her again and says the words "Golden Path" in one of the ancient languages they both speak. She makes her way back to Sietch Tabr and sees a Fremen man and woman talking in the secret exit. The man has a control panel for the Laza tigers. Ghanima kills him with a poisoned needle, and takes the woman hostage.

Duncan and Jessica arrive on Salusa Secundus. Farad'n is displeased by the scheming of his mother, which Jessica and Duncan take advantage of. They make a deal that Jessica will teach Farad'n in the way of the Bene Gesserit, and she will also announce that she is there of her own free will so Alia cannot make it seem as though she were kidnapped. Farad'n banishes Wensicia, and then they begin to plot a marriage between Farad'n and Ghanima. Duncan tries to kill himself for some reason, and then disavows himself from the service of the Atreides.

Leto arrives at Jacurutu, but is caught by a Fremen named Namri, father of Javid, and Gurney Halleck. Gurney Halleck is under orders by Lady Jessica to make Leto undergo the spice trance, and to kill him if he shows signs of becoming Abomination.

Alia has Ghanima in her possession and tells her that she is going to marry Farad'n. Ghanima adamantly refuses, saying she will kill him for the death of Leto. Alia and Irulan try desperately to convince her, but she continues to refuse, until Alia agrees to let Ghanima kill Farad'n when they are betrothed. Irulan is appalled and tries to talk both of them out of it, but it is the only way in which Ghanima agrees.

Namri's niece Sabiha is assigned to guard Leto during his trances. Leto hypnotizes her and she falls asleep, allowing him to escape the sietch and hide out under the sand in the midst of a storm. Jacurutu was the old abandoned sietch of the Cast Out, a group of Fremen that stole others' water, but the Cast Out were still alive and weren't living there, so he travels further south.

Duncan returns to Alia, who is disappointed in him, but commands him to go back to Sietch Tabr to help guard Ghanima, who has returned there with Stilgar and Irulan. Duncan goes, but dodges the escort of one of Alia's guards, as he deduces that Alia was meaning for him to die on the trip there.

Leto encounters the Cast Out harvesting spice, and demands he be taken to their sietch, Shuloch, which is nothing more than a ramshackle village. There he discovers Sabiha, who was sent there as punishment by Namri for letting Leto escape. He goes out at night and covers his skin with sandtrouts, the first form of the sandworms. They engulf him and becoming a living stillsuit that make him much more powerful and more fast. He escapes Shuloch and makes a mission of destroying the qanats of the sietches to try and set back the terraforming by generations. Back in Jacurutu, Namri reveals to Gurney that him and his son Javid have been working for House Corrino. Gurney kills him and flees Jacurutu.

Months later, Leto, who has gained the power to control the sandworms and become nonhuman due to his bond with the sandtrouts, confronts the Preacher and his child guide. He kills the guide, and forces the Preacher to reveal his true identity as Paul Muad'Dib. Paul tries to talk Leto out of following the Golden Path, but Leto refuses.

Duncan tries to convince Stilgar to put Alia to a Trial of Possession. Stilgar insists upon him and his sietch remaining neutral. Javid walks in and Duncan kills him, forcing Stilgar to kill Duncan. He then remembers some of Leto's words to him about not trusting Alia and protecting Ghanima, and he takes his sietch and flees into the desert. Alia enlists one of Stilgar's former sietch members to hunt him down.

Leto and Paul find Gurney Halleck hiding out at a different sietch and bring him back to Shuloch with them. Gurney is stunned to see Leto's transformations and Paul alive. Stilgar tries to meet with the man assigned to hunt him down to work out a treaty between him and Alia, but Alia's other soldiers kidnap Ghanima and Stilgar kills the other Fremen.

Alia plans for Jessica and Farad'n's arrival for Ghanima's betrothal. She gazes out of her window, and sees the Preacher approaching. He gathers the crowd and she sends her priests down to grab him and bring him to her, and plans to have him enter at the same time as Ghanima, because she has figured out that he is Paul. Farad'n and Jessica arrive and come to watch the Preacher, but a mob breaks out in the street below. The priests try to grab Paul, but he is stabbed to death. Alia is enraged, and reveals to Jessica and Farad'n that that was Paul. The doors burst open and Leto comes in dragging Ghanima behind him. He says the words and Ghanima breaks from her hypnosis and asks him if their plan worked. Alia demands to know about the plan, and her and Leto fight, him throwing her around like a doll with his new super strength. He gives her two options: Trial of Possession, or she can throw herself out the window. She becomes fully possessed by all of the lives within her, mainly by the Baron, but she is able to fight them off long enough to throw herself out of the window.

Leto is crowned Emperor, and he makes Farad'n his Scribe. The Naibs swear fealty to him and worship him as the embodiment of Shai-Hulud. He speaks with Farad'n privately with Ghanima, asking him for his Sardaukar forces. Farad'n doesn't want to give them up, but Leto says that he will. He also says Farad'n will not be marrying Ghanima, but that he will marry her, and that Farad'n will secretly father the Atreides line going forward as Leto is no longer able to reproduce. Farad'n tries to argue, but Leto insists this will happen, and that he will rule for 4000 years and create a Golden Age, but all of his subjects will be weak and subservient. He renames Farad'n as Harq al-Ada, the historian that has been writing most of the passages throughout the book.

Leto II Atreides (Desert Demon/Ari/Batigh): Leto was definitely an unsettling part of the book. He says a lot of odd things before he starts taking spice, but afterwards, his chapters kind of drag on and on with a lot of his musings and movements through the world. Like with Paul, you think that he is trying to do the good and right thing, but after he takes the spice, he is sucked onto this Golden Path, and, because he is young and pre-born, he doesn't have the power to resist like Paul did.

Ghanima Atreides: She is my favorite character in the book and I really enjoyed all of her scenes.

Duncan Idaho (Hayt): Once again I am confused about a lot of Duncan's motive and actions in the ending of the book, if anyone has any clarification about this feel free to message me!

Stilgar: I really like how we got more of Stilgar's perspective in this book, seeing him question his loyalty and make certain connections. The twins, particularly Leto, really manipulated him, and it was interesting to see how in the first chapter he questioned killing the twins and in the last chapter he questioned if he should have done it when he had the chance.

Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife/Coan-Teen/Abomination/Womb of Heaven): Alia's descent into madness was really interesting to watch. I feel like we never got to see Alia's true personality, which makes sense because she never had one. She tried to create her own sense of self to the point of her own detriment.

Storyline: I really enjoyed this book the most out of the first three. The second half of the book was quite a bit slower because a lot of it was Leto high on spice in the desert, but I liked the short chapters and the switching of the perspectives. It does get a little confusing with the weeks and months that pass with only vague mention, but it wasn't too much of an issue.

Quotes: -"Government and religion united, and breaking a law became sin. A smell of blasphemy arose like smoke around any questioning of governmental edicts. The guilt of rebellion invoked hellfire and self-righteous judgements. Yet it was men who created these governmental edicts."-Stilgar (p.6)

-"The joy of living, its beauty is all bound up in the fact that life can surprise you."-Leto II (p.83)

-"Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself--a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred."-The Apocrypha of Muad'Dib (p.117)

-"The past may show the right way to behave if you live in the past, Stil, but circumstances change."-Leto II (p.133)

-"What other function did the priesthood serve than to deny individual will?"-Stilgar (p.139)

-"It's beautiful, but it's not art. Humans create art by their own violence, by their own volition."-Duncan (p.143)

-"To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror; to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror."-Jessica (p.154)

-"Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders."-The Spacing Guild Manual (p.171)

-"Our civilization could well die of indifference within it before succumbing to external attack."-Jessica (p.172)

-"If you put away those who report accurately, you'll keep only those who know what you want to hear... I can think of nothing more poisonous than to rot in the stink of your own reflections."-Jessica (p.181)

-"Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interest of the ruling class--whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy."-Bene Gesserit Training Manual (p.221)

-"But one learns from books and reels only certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things."-Farad'n/Harq al-Ada (p.245)

-"Is your religion real when it costs you nothing and carries no risk? Is your religion real when you commit atrocities in its name? Whence comes your downward degeneration from the original revelation?"-The Preacher/Paul Muad'Dib (p.262)

-"To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."-Leto II (p.314)

-"But the evil was known after the event!"-The Preacher/Paul Muad'Dib "Which is the way of many great evils."-Leto II (p.406)

-"The child who refuses to travel in the father's harness, this is the symbol of man's most unique capability. 'I do not have to be what my father was. I do not have to obey my father's rules or even believe everything he believed. It is my strength as a human that I can make my own choices of what to believe and what not to believe, of what to be and what not to be."-Leto II (p.449)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.2 Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 282

Time Read: 5 hours and 52 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Death, war, violence, pregnancy, drug use, murder, injury, infertility, death of a parent, addiction, drug abuse, grief, colonization, genocide, adult/minor relationship, su*c*de, ableism, body horror, fire, incest, child death, psychosis, abortion, miscarriage, racism, slavery, cursing, cultural appropriation, classism, confinement, execution, religious fanaticism, religious bigotry

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: 12 years after the events of Dune; On Arrakis/Dune

First Line: What led you to take your particular approach to a history of Muad'Dib?

The book begins 12 years after the events of Dune with a historian named Bronso of Ix being interrogated by a member of the Qizarate, Paul Atreides' religious order. Bronso is to be executed for committing blasphemy, while he argues that Paul committed religious sham in order to bring the Empire under his control.

Princess Irulan, Paul's wife, conspires on Wallach IX with Edric, a mutated Steersman of the Spacing Guild, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and a Tleilaxu Face Dancer called Scytale. They plot to remove Paul as Emperor. The Bene Tleilax play a grand part in their plan, as they took the body of Duncan Idaho and made him into a ghola, a remade being that has the body of the deceased person but none of the memories. Irulan reveals that Chani hasn't been able to get pregnant because she has been putting contraceptives in her food.

When Irulan returns back from Wallach IX, she demands Paul give her a child. Paul refuses, but Chani tries to make a case for it.

Scytale shapeshifts into Duncan Idaho to go and see a former Fedaykin warrior who is part of the conspiracy against Paul. Him and his son have kidnapped the daughter of another Fedaykin at Scytale's request. Scytale kills them both and takes the girl.

Paul welcomes Edric into his household, and he brings with him the ghola of Duncan Idaho, who has been turned into a Mentat/Zensunni philosopher with metal eyes called Hayt by the Tleilaxu. Paul and Alia, now 15 years old and a priestess to the people, are shocked by his arrival. Edric insists Paul take Hayt as a gift. Hayt discloses to Paul that Edric intends him to destroy Paul, but he doesn't know how. While he shows mannerisms of Duncan Idaho, he refuses to hold any of his memories or be the man that they once knew. Paul permits him to stay. The Reverend Mother was found aboard the ship that carried Edric, Hayt, and Scytale (disguised as a servant). Paul had banished her from Arrakis so she is placed under immediate arrest. Irulan visits her in her cell, and she reveals that Chani has changed her diet so she can't be drugged with contraceptive anymore, and that Paul has repeatedly denied Irulan's requests to have a child. The Reverend Mother says that Paul and Alia must have a child then to preserve the Atreides bloodline, and that if Chani becomes pregnant Irulan must find a way to abort the baby or kill Chani. Irulan protests and almost refuses, but the Reverend Mother gives her no choice.

The body of the girl that Scytale took from the Fedaykin is found in the desert. Alia and Hayt investigate, but find no clues as to who she is. They head home, and Alia tries to figure out if any of Duncan Idaho remains in Hayt. When they land back in Arrakeen, Hayt kisses her.

Paul is haunted by his visions as he searches for a way to end the Jihad. The only path he sees is for him to disengage, but he can't figure out how to. He meets with the Reverend Mother and makes her an offer: they can have his genes, and he will allow Irulan to be artificially inseminated by him (which is an atrocity to the Bene Gesserit), in exchange for Chani and his children's safety, as she is pregnant. The Reverend Mother insists she must discuss this with the Bene Gesserit before she accepts.

Scytale shapeshifts once again and becomes Lichna, daughter of Otheym, the Feydakin's daughter he killed and left out in the desert. Paul immediately knows that "Lichna" is a Face Dancer, but he feels he must act out exactly what has happened in his visions, as it is fate. Scytale (as Lichna) tells Paul he must go to Otheym's house, as he has a list of names who are involved in a Fremen conspiracy against him. She insists that Chani go with him, but he refuses. He has her confined and put under guard, and then goes to Alia's temple to be met by his guide. A Fremen leads him to Otheym's house, and he is greeted at the door by a dwarf, which goes against his vision. Otheym is immensely sick, and him and his wife are now poor due to the cost of medics. Otheym explains that the dwarf, Bijaz, is a Tleilaxu creation that has imbedded in his memory the names and locations of the scheme against Paul. They urge him to take the clearly prescient dwarf, and Paul leaves, knowing what is about to happen. An atomic hits Otheym's house, and burns out Paul's eyes along with all of his soldier's and guard's eyes. Paul, however, uses his prescience to "see", and he is further deified by his followers.

Korba, a member of Paul's Qizarate, is brought before the other Fremen Naibs and Alia, and is accused of treachery against Paul. He denies it, but Paul appears and reveals that the conspirators stole the atomic weapon from him, which was illegal for him to possess. He is sent back to his cell, and Alia was able to determine which of the Naibs were on Korba's side, further weeding out conspirators.

Hayt goes to interrogate Bijaz, and Bijaz traps him using vocal cues. He reveals that him and Hayt were made by the Tleilaxu together, and puts a command in him that when Paul tells Hayt the words, "She is gone," Hayt is to attempt to kill him. He also reveals that this is intended to see if Duncan Idaho's memories return to him, which if they do, then it will be the first successful attempt to return former memories to a ghola, and they can then use this to try and bribe Paul by offering to bring Chani back to life if he gave up everything and lived in exile. Bijaz then forces Hayt to forget the conversation.

Alia overdoses on spice in an attempt to look into Paul's future but is unsuccessful and is saved by Hayt.

Chani, Paul, Bijaz, Hayt, Stilgar, Alia, Irulan, "Lichna", the Reverend Mother, Edric, and the rest of the court go to Sietch Tabr for Chani's birth. Paul knows what is about to happen, but he stands outside. Hayt discovers that Bijaz has put a command phrase in him and he goes to tell Paul. While they talk, a Fremen comes to tell Paul that Chani is dead but his twin children are alive. He is shocked by the fact that there are twins, even though Chani told him about them, as he only saw his daughter in his future visions. He tells Hayt, "She is gone," and Hayt begins to fight the urge to kill Paul. He tells him to run, but Paul refuses, knowing he will resist. Hayt then remembers everything and becomes Duncan Idaho once more. They go to see the babies and Chani's body, but Paul's prescience begins to fail and he starts to go truly blind. Alia, distraught, brings in "Lichna", who has now revealed herself to be Scytale. Scytale holds a knife to the babies as a threat to Paul, saying the Tleilaxu will restore Chani and he will let the babies live, but only if he gives up his throne and CHOAM holdings and lives in exile. Paul then is able to use the eyes of his infant son, who is fully conscious, to see Scytale, and he kills him with a throw of his knife. Paul tells them to take Chani's body away, and names his son Leto II (not to be confused with his eldest son that died in Dune who was also named Leto II). He names his daughter Ghanima, which Stilgar's wife Harah insists is a bad omen. He then goes to his room, where Bijaz confronts him and Duncan and makes Scytale's offer again. Paul tells Duncan to kill Bijaz before he succumbs, and he does. After this, Paul is fully blind and unable to use his abilities anymore. As is Fremen custom, he banishes himself to the desert. Stilgar executes Edric and the Reverend Mother, and Irulan renounces the Bene Gesserit and vows to raise Paul's children. Alia mourns the loss of Chani and her brother, and begs Duncan to love her, which he says he does.

Paul Muad'Dib Atreides (Mahdi, Lisan al-Gaib, Emperor of the Imperium, Usul, Kwisatz Haderach): I loved Dune Messiah because it used all of the foreshadowing of Paul's fate from Dune. Paul's story is not heroic, but tragic, and while his internal battle could be a struggle to understand at times, it still all came together in a beautiful, heart-wrenching ending.

Chani (Sayyadina, Sihaya): While her death was awful, I loved what Frank Herbert did with Chani in this book and with her relationship with Paul. While everyone says that Chani in Dune is madly in love and blindly follows Paul, I think this book definitely gave her more of her own personality. She is practical and headstrong, and, especially when she is described from Paul's perspective, you can see how much he truly loves and respects her and her opinion.

Duncan Idaho (Hayt): Duncan/Hayt was such a strange part of the book for me, especially as everyone including himself was confused on his identity. He spouted a lot of mysterious vague dialogue throughout, and his relationship with Alia definitely raises some eyebrows.

Alia Atreides (St. Alia of the Knife, Abomination, virgin-harlot): Alia was also an odd character for me, as she is supposed to be an adult in a child's body and yet she acted like a child a lot of the time. I feel like the way she was described and the way she actually was were very conflicting, although I am sure that is part of the whole point.

Storyline: This book was largely dialogue, which could be tedious but I definitely did still enjoy it. While I wish we had gotten to see Paul's Jihad, getting a feel for how it went and how their worlds are now 12 years after the fact is almost like a puzzle. I definitely wish some things had been left out, like Paul and Stilgar walking in on Alia naked, the plotting of incest by Irulan and the Reverend Mother, and Duncan and Alia's adult/minor relationship.

Representation: Scytale is asked if he is a man or a woman, and he says that all Face Dancers are "Jadacha hermaphrodites", meaning that they can be whatever sex they wish to be. The term hermaphrodite is definitely outdated, but I was surprised that there was a gender fluid character who used he, she, and they pronouns throughout a book written in the 1960s.

Summary: I think that this book was essential in driving home Frank Herbert's intention with the original story of Paul Atreides. Dune and Dune Messiah were both broad critiques of capitalism, imperialism, climate change, genocide, colonialism, and, most obviously, religion as a means to control the masses.

Quotes: -"Have you considered what it meant for Alia to be born into this universe, fully cognitive, possessed of all her mother's memories and knowledge? No rape could be more terrifying."-Bronso of Ix (p.3)

-"You think Muad'Dib is yours because he mated with Chani, because he adopted Fremen customs. But he was an Atreides first and he was trained by a Bene Gesserit adept. He possessed disciplines totally unknown to you. You thought he brought you new organization a new mission. He promised to transform your desert planet into a water-rich paradise. And while he dazzled you with such visions, he took your virginity."-Bronso of Ix (p.4)

-"Muad'Dib's Qizarate missionaries carried their religious war across space in a Jihad whose major impetus endured only twelve standard years, but in that time, religious colonialism brought all but a fraction of the human universe under one rule."-Bronso of Ix (p.8)

-"A creature who has spent his life creating one particular representation of his selfdom will die rather than become the antithesis of that representation."-Scytale (p.22)

-"The Fremen are civil, educated, and ignorant... They're not mad. They're trained to believe, not to know. Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous."-Scytale (p.25)

-"Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of a weapon is religion when it becomes the government?"-Edric (p.110)

-"...to endure oneself may be the hardest task in the universe."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.130)

-"I think what a joy it is to be alive, and I wonder if I'll ever leap inward to the root of this flesh and know myself as I once was. The root is there. Whether any act of mine can find it, that remains tangled in the future. But all things a man can do are mine. Any act of mine may do it."-Hayt/Duncan Idaho (p.133)

-"If you need something to worship, then worship life--all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!"-Paul Atreides (p.255)

[385bookreviews]

1.36.1 Dune by Frank Herbert

SPOILERS

Pages: 617

Time Read: 14 hours and 42 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★☆☆

Genre: Adult Science Fiction

TWs for the book: Violence, death, death of a parent, war, murder, colonization, fatphobia, drug use, p*dophilia, child death, grief, misogyny, sexism, addiction, slavery, blood, genocide, classism, pregnancy, torture, homophobia, drug abuse, xenophobia, cultural appropriation, racism, religious bigotry, injury, arranged marriage, r*pe, injury, kidnapping, gore, s*xual assault, su*c*de, body horror, child abuse, alcohol, gun violence, psychosis, animal cruelty/death, confinement

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The planets Caladan, Arrakis, and Giedi Prime; 20,000 years into humanity's future.

First Line: In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.

Paul Atreides is the son of Leto Atreides, the Duke of the planet Caladan, and Lady Jessica, Leto's concubine and a woman of the secretive Bene Gesserit. Leto is appointed Duke of Arrakis, the desert planet that produces spice. Spice is the most valuable product in the universe, allowing members of the Spacing Guild to see into the future in order to navigate through space, as computers and such technology are banned. The infamous Harkonnens formerly controlled the planet, but the Emperor stripped them of the privilege and gave it to Leto in order to pit the two houses against each other further and prompt Baron Vladimir Harkonnen into destroying House Atreides. The book begins when the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam of the Bene Gesserit visits Jessica and Paul amidst the moving chaos. She tells Paul to put his hand in a box where he is to feel immense pain, and she holds a poison dart at his neck to keep him from retracting it. This was a test, as she says, to see if Paul was truly human. She scolds Jessica for producing a male, saying she was supposed to bear a female to keep the breeding plan in place. By birthing a male, Jessica tried to create the Kwisatz Haderach, the male savior of the universe that the Bene Gesserit have been trying to produce for centuries through their breeding program. Paul tells the Reverend Mother of his prophetic dreams, and the Reverend Mother cautions Jessica about the future.

They travel to Arrakis and have a somewhat rough transition. Paul is almost killed by an assassin, Lady Jessica finds a mysterious warning from another Bene Gesserit, and Leto struggles to undo the damage of the Harkonnens on the populace, harvest spice with damaged equipment and the threat of sandworms, and gain the trust of the Fremen, the mysterious natives who live out in the open desert. Information is planted, and Hawat, the Atreides Mentat assassin, begins to suspect Lady Jessica of treason, just as the Harkonnens have planned. The real traitor is Doctor Yueh, but he is never suspected as he is supposed to have Imperial conditioning making him unable to kill another person. Leto sends Duncan Idaho, one of his top soldiers, to make a connection with the Fremen, and progress is being made, until Doctor Yueh drugs him and allows the Harkonnens to invade. He hates the Baron for killing and torturing his wife, however, and gives Leto a poison gas tooth so he can kill the Baron. Yueh is ultimately killed by the Baron, Leto kills the Harkonnen Mentat but the Baron escapes, Duncan Idaho, Gurney Halleck, and Hawat flee, and Paul and Jessica are captured, tied up, and dumped in the desert. On the way out, the Harkonnen soldiers attempt to r*pe Jessica, but Paul and Jessica use the Voice on them, a form of mind control, and manage to escape. Upon exposure to the spice out in the desert, Paul's Bene Gesserit and Mentat training come together and he can see the past, present, and future. He foresees himself becoming a religious icon to the Fremen called the Lisan al-Gaib and leading a holy war (jihad) across the galaxy. The Bene Gesserit planted legends and religious myths among the Fremen to protect any member of the Bene Gesserit who gets stranded among them. He decides to do his best to make sure the jihad doesn't happen. Duncan Idaho finds them the next day, along with some Fremen and Liet Kynes, a planetologist beholden to the Emperor and part of the scheme to destroy House Atreides. He, however, sees Arrakis as his home world and is deeply connected to the Fremen, and believes Paul to be the Lisan al-Gaib. He helps them escape when the Harkonnen catch up. Duncan Idaho is killed, and Kynes is captured. Jessica and Paul fly into a sandstorm and are presumed dead. Hawat is also captured by the Harkonnens. The Baron uses poison to manipulate Hawat into joining his side, and he kills Liet Kynes by dropping him into the desert. Gurney Halleck joins up with spice smugglers. Paul and Jessica go into the deep desert to find the Fremen, running from sandworms and fighting sand slides and dehydration. They are finally found by the leader of a sietch named Stilgar, who met with Leto and had befriended Duncan. They try to take Paul and kill Jessica but she bests Stilgar in combat. They agree to take them both in, and Paul then meets Chani, the Fremen girl he had been having dreams about and the daughter of Liet Kynes.

They travel to another cave the Fremen use, and Jessica and Paul begin to try to prove to the Fremen that Paul is the Lisan al-Gaib. Jamis, one of the warriors Paul had previously fought off, challenges Paul to a duel to the death. Paul kills him, and learns he must now take care of Jamis' wife and children. When they arrive at the sietch, Jessica agrees to become the new Reverend Mother. The Reverend Mothers hold the consciousness of all who came before them, but they can only access the women. Jessica, who is pregnant with a daughter, drinks the Waters of Life, a poison that opens her mind. The baby however, Alia, is also made conscious in the womb, and is later born fully conscious as well. Chani and Paul get together.

There is a time jump, and the Baron's nephew Beast Rabban, has been ruling Arrakis with an iron fist, part of the Baron's plan to then quell the dissention when his other nephew Feyd-Rautha arrives and is a better ruler. Feyd is sneaky and violent, and attempts to have the Baron killed, partly due to Hawat's scheming. Lady Fenring, a member of the Bene Gesserit who's husband is close with the Emperor, sleeps with Feyd in order to become pregnant with his child and continue the Harkonnen line. The Emperor begins to grow discontent with the Harkonnens.

On Arrakis, Paul becomes an official Fremen by riding a sandworm. His sister Alia has been born, and Chani has given birth to her and Paul's son, Leto II. Stilgar says that Paul must kill him and replace him as leader. Paul refuses, and reconnects with Gurney Halleck. He further proves himself to be the Lisan al-Gaib, especially after he drank the Water of Life and survived, something that is meant to kill any man who drinks it. He also claims his title as Duke of Arrakis. The Emperor, displeased with how the Baron has not managed to quell the Fremen rebellion, comes to Arrakis himself, and Leto II is killed and Alia is captured. Paul and the Fremen plot to wage war against the Harkonnens, the Emperor, and the rest of the great houses if need be. Alia and the Baron are brought before the Emperor, where Alia reveals that she is the Baron's granddaughter, as Jessica is his daughter. She then (at four years old) assassinates the Baron and escapes. The Emperor and his people are forced to retreat as their base is attacked. Paul reclaims the city of Arrakeen, and calls a meeting with the Emperor. Feyd-Rautha attempts to kill Paul in a duel by cheating, but Paul kills him. Then Paul offers to the Emperor that he will marry his oldest daughter Irulan and become Emperor himself. The Emperor is left with no choice but to concede.

Paul Muad'Dib Atreides (Lisan al-Gaib, Mahdi, Duke of Arrakis, Usul, Kwisatz Haderach): While Paul is the main character, he is not the hero of the story. He starts off fairly innocent, merely a 15 year old confused by his abilities but studiously honing them under Jessica and Hawat's training. When he gains access to the spice and sees the jihad, he swears he will do everything to avoid it. But ultimately he doesn't. He uses the legend of the Lisan al-Gaib in order to gain support and acceptance by the Fremen, at first under his mother's direction. But throughout the story, his desire to know the future and avenge his father takes over and he succumbs. He expresses regret and loneliness at the end as he realizes all of his friends are now his followers, but ultimately, he made all of the choices to get there. Paul would like to think this fate was simply unavoidable, but there were times where it wasn't. He could have chosen not to drink the Water of Life or try and take the throne from the Emperor.

Stilgar: I think Stilgar is a particularly interesting character because he is the exact representation of why what Paul is doing is not good. He is a strong, determined leader, but by the end becomes a fanatic worshipper of Paul, and, as Paul even notices, he become less of a person when he does so, losing his agency and cultural identity by blindly following this boy due to a fake prophecy created by the very people he fights against.

Duke Leto Atreides: Leto definitely tries his best to make the best of a bad situation by trying to ally himself with the native Fremen and protect his family from the Harkonnens as best he can. While Paul is said to be more like his grandfather, he definitely is what Leto might have turned into (without the religious fanaticism) if he had survived and continued to rule over Arrakis.

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: Full disclosure, I did see the movies first, so I was hoping to get a more similar Baron to Stellan Skarsgård's portrayal. The book version was definitely not nearly as imposing or terrifying. Especially once we get to see his POV, he is just a slimy, greedy old creep. On the up side, this makes him very easy to hate.

Storyline: While a bit tedious in certain parts, I really enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for good world building and immense detail to flesh out a story to make it feel real and Frank Herbert definitely succeeds in this. That said, the dialogue could be a bit strange at time, as well as Gurney's random songs, and the switching of POVs mid paragraph. Despite that, it was a unique and powerful story. There is a lot of social commentary here, addressing white saviorism, colonialism, imperialism, religious fanaticism, and a critique specifically of America taking oil from the Middle East. I especially loved all of the foreshadowing that went into this. While people say that the movies were meant to be looked into and nothing was spelled out for you, you definitely had to be paying even closer attention in the book, lest you miss out on the themes and parallels.

Quotes: -"Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."-Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam (p.14) -"But let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them."-Duke Leto Atreides (p.111) -"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man--with human flesh."-Paul Atreides (p.131) -"That honorable banner could come to mean many evil things."-Duke Leto Atreides (p.134) -"There is no escape--we pay for the violence of our ancestors."-Paul Atreides (p.186) -"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."-Paul Atreides (p.291) -"Arrakis is a one-crop planet... It supports a ruling class that lives as ruling classes have lived in all times while, beneath them, a semihuman mass of semislaves exists on the leavings. It's the masses and the leavings that occupy our attention. There are far more valuable than has ever been suspected."-Pardot Kynes (hallucination) (p.349) -"We must depend not so much on the bravery of individuals, you see, as upon the bravery of a whole population."-Pardot Kynes (hallucination) (p.350) -"No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero."-Pardot Kynes (hallucination) (p.351) -"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."-Paul Atreides (p.471) -"When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an individual."-Princess Irulan (p.516) -"I swear this to you by the love I hold for you, a love I will still hold even after I leave you dead on this floor."-Paul Atreides (p.546) -"One of the most terrible moments in a boy's life... Is when he discovers his father and mother are human beings who share a love that he can never quite taste."-Paul Atreides (p.546) -"...they have something to die for. They've discovered they're a people. They're awakening."-Paul Atreides (p.570) -"...Paul saw how Stilgar had been transformed from the Fremen naib to a creature of the Lisan al-Gaib, a receptacle for awe and obedience. It was a lessening of the man, and Paul felt the ghost-wind of the jihad on it." (p.592) -"I have seen a friend become a worshipper."-Paul Atreides (p.592)

[385bookreviews]

2.252 The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

SPOILERS

Disclaimer: This review is my personal opinion. I did not like this book, but it is not my intention to hate on anyone who did like this book. I encourage you to read things on your own and have your own feelings about them.

Pages: 410

Time Read: 8 hours and 25 minutes

Overall Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Storyline: ★☆☆☆☆ Dialogue: ★★☆☆☆ Characters: ★☆☆☆☆

Genre: Adult Gothic Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, gore, blood, body horror, self harm, mutilation, religious bigotry, antisemitism, death, animal death, injury, murder, xenophobia, animal cruelty, torture, physical abuse, war, racism, death of a parent, bullying, hate crimes, colonization, child abuse, genocide, grief, emotional abuse, s*xual content, kidnapping, fire, confinement, vomit, classism, abandonment, racial slurs, misogyny, child death, sexism, trafficking, body shaming, toxic relationship, cultural appropriation, toxic friendship

POV: First person

Time Period/Location: The fictional country of Régország; including the village Keszi, the forest of Ezer Szem, the Black Lake, the Little Plain, Kaleva, Lake Taivas, and the capital city of Kirláy Szek.

First Line: The trees have to be tied down by sunset.

Évike has spent her entire life in the pagan village of Keszi, hidden away by the forest of Ezer Szem. Girls in this village are gifted with powers, the ability to forge metal by singing, the ability to make fire, the ability to heal, or, the rarest, the ability to have visions of the future. They wear wolf pelts as cloaks, giving them the title of wolf-girls. Every few years, the Woodsman, loyal servants of King János Bárány of Régország, come and take a wolf-girl to the capital, Kirláy Szek, where they are never heard from again. When Évike was 10, her mother was taken. She was born with no powers, and her father was Yehuli, a race of people that serve as tax collectors for the king. She has spent her entire life with one friend, Boróka, and was raised by the táltos (seer and village leader), Virág. The story begins with her helping the village prepare for the Woodsmans' arrival, and is taunted and teased by a seer girl Katalin and her friends. When they go to see Virág that evening, she has a vision, seeing that the Woodsman are coming to take Katalin. Because she is the only other seer in the village, and she is to replace Virág when she dies, she dyes Évike's hair and makes her pretend to be Katalin. The Woodsman take her and drag her off into the woods. On the way there, one of the Woodsman, Peti, tries to kill her in a religious fervor. The leader of the four Woodsman, one-eyed Gáspár, chops off Peti's arm as punishment. He later dies from infection and blood loss. They make it out of the forest and camp near the Black Lake, where the other two Woodsman are eaten by shapeshifting monsters disguised as black chickens. Gáspár and Évike fight them off, and he reveals that he is the legitimate son and heir of János Bárány. He says that his bastard brother Nándor wants to mess up the line of succession and overthrow their father. He follows the Patrifaith, like most of Régország, but is fervently religious and wants to exile the Yehuli and kill all of the pagans. Régország is also at war with Merzan, a country to the south, and where Gáspár's mother came from. King János wanted a seer so he could use her power to win the war. Gáspár wants to give his father a seer before Saint István's Day to stop Nándor from taking over, but in the fight Évike's hair dye came off and she was revealed for what she was. They make a bargain, that if Évike helps him find the turul, a magic bird that can see past, present, and future, he will let her return to her village.

They begin their journey north to Kaleva, where they believe the turul is. They stop in a village which claims to be plagued by a monster killing people. Gáspár agrees to help them hunt the monster, much to Évike's annoyance. They spend a couple days there and eventually find the remnants of the missing people in the tent of the village leader. Gáspár kills him, and they go on their way again. Gáspár and Évike grow closer the farther they travel north, and eventually reach Lake Taivas and the forest they believe hides the turul. In the Patrifaith, the Woodsman cut off limbs and body parts or cut themselves in order to wield magic. Gáspár's missing eye marks him as a Woodsman, and he cuts himself to light fires. Évike begins to wonder if she could do something similar. The wolf-girls get their magic from Isten, the pagan father god, but she wonders if she perhaps should have been praying to Ördög, the god of the Under-World, this whole time. She cuts off one of her pinky fingers and then sticks her whole hand into the fire and it goes out. They are chased from the forest onto the frozen lake by walking trees, and Évike falls through the ice. Gáspár jumps in to save her, and they both become unconscious on the ice. They wake up in a tree house with a pagan woman named Tuula, and her pet bear Bierdna. They later meet her partner, Szabín, who is a former Patrician. She tells the story of how Nándor grew up with her and he fell through the ice on a lake and froze to death. The Érsek, the archbishop, prayed over him and he came back to life, so he was given sainthood.

Gáspár and Évike try to continue their hunt for the turul, but Tuula and Szabín warn them not to. They realize they don't have enough time, and begin the journey back. Gáspár tries to convince Évike to go back to Keszi, but she refuses, saying she wants to find her father. They encounter several monsters on the way to Kirláy Szek, including a monster disguised as a naked young girl. When the monster dies, an spell makes Gáspár and Évike drawn to each other and they make out in the woods, but when the spell breaks, Gáspár rejects Évike, which hurts her feelings. They arrive in Kirláy Szek on Saint István's Day and Évike tries to find her father Zsigmond. Someone on Yehuli street finally tells her that he is being punished by Nándor for working on a holy day. It is against the Yehuli's religion to touch pig, so they find Nándor making Zsigmond kneel on a dead pig. Évike tries to defend him but is taken to the dungeon. She is then presented before the king, who wears a crown of fingernails all coming from the dead wolf-girls the Woodsman have taken. He is able to wield all of their powers. He tries to get her to demonstrate any of the four abilities but she isn't able to, so he tries to execute her. She brings up her hand to touch his sword and it disintegrates. She makes a deal with the king that she will use her magic to protect him if he promises to leave Keszi and the pagans alone and free her father Zsigmond. He agrees, and she spends a week playing bodyguard for the king while reconnecting with her father and learning how to write and about her Yehuli heritage.

Then Katalin is brought into the capital by Woodsman, and Nándor tries to kill Évike. She escapes, and her, Gáspár, and Katalin flee north to Kavala, using Katalin's seeing ability to find the turul once and for all. When they arrive back at Lake Taivas, they are confronted by Tuula, Szabín, and Bierdna. They all fight, and Évike jumps into the frozen lake once again. She finds herself transported to the top of the turul's tree, and she uses her magic to kill it. When she reaches the bottom, the Woodsman have caught up to them and capture them all. They are taken back to the capital, and the king eats the eyes of the turul, but the power is too strong and he starts to go mad. Nándor kills him then and there, and captures Évike, Gáspár, and Katalin. He kills the Érsek, and says that Katalin and Évike will be executed the next day, and Gáspár will crown him as king. Afterwards he will stab out Gáspár's other eye and exile him. The next day comes, and right before the coronation, Katalin has a vision and says that the pagans have come to attack the city. The Woodsman fight the pagans but lose, and Évike and Gáspár kill Nándor.

Évike goes back to Keszi and agrees to be the ambassador between Keszi and Kirláy Szek.

Évike: This book was nearly impossible to get through due to Évike being the most unbearable main character I've ever had the displeasure of reading about. She is unbelievably horny for Gáspár the entire book with pretty much no basis. She goes from hating him to wanting to have sex with him in no time, and there is really no chemistry or connection between them at all. Évike is a brat, reading as no more than a moody teenager, while in actuality being 25 years old. She is hateful for no reason a lot of the times, and while she definitely has reasons to be angry, she's mostly just a bully. The entire plot revolves around her saving her abusers to prove that they weren't right about her, and then she goes back to them in the end. Pointed out by a reviewer called Nasi on GoodReads, she does not at all act like someone who has been bullied and abused for more than half her life. She doesn't try to avoid situations in which she could be hurt, or have much of any empathy for Gáspár. She finally feels at home and welcomed like she never has before with her father and the Yehuli, and yet she still goes back to Keszi to be with her abusers and that makes literally zero sense to me. Everyone she meets reminds her of either Katalin or Virág to the point of annoyance.

Gáspár Bárány: He had so much potential that was completely wasted throughout this book. He honestly should have been the main character and had everything coming through his POV. He had to go through a lot of complex emotions: betraying his faith, fighting his brother, trying to protect his father even though he hurt him, falling in love with Évike despite the fact that she was completely unlikable, becoming the ruler of a nation overnight. He goes through a lot of growth throughout the book that we don't get to see at all.

Virág and Katalin: Virág whipped Évike almost daily and was cruel to her, and Katalin regularly burned her and called her racial slurs, and yet, with no apology for said behavior, and some half ass excuses from both of them, they get a redemption arc where Évike completely justifies their behavior in her mind and goes back to them, and they start being nicer to her just because she saved them all. Katalin's reason for tormenting her was she was jealous that Virág was nice to her sometimes (even though Virág was nice to Katalin ALL the time and never beat her). Virág's reason for saving Évike from being thrown into the woods after her mother was taken by the Woodsman and tolerating her for 15 years was that she had a vision and knew that Évike would save her life in the battle.

Storyline: The storyline was boring and unpredictable (but not in a good way). The first 50% of the book is Évike and Gáspár wandering around and being bitchy with each other, and while this would have been the perfect opportunity to have the romance build up, it doesn't. If anything it proves how little of a connection is between them besides the fact that Évike is horny and finds him hot. The next half of the book had me wondering the entire time how the book was going to end because I didn't see a way for a good, plausible ending (there wasn't). The real magic of the book was the magic of convenience. Nándor brutally kills the Érsek with magic previously unseen before by the reader, and yet Évike and Gáspár take him out fairly easily in comparison to how powerful this character has been made out to be. We also never get an explanation as to why Nándor IS so powerful. Évike spends half the book wondering about it, and yet the only explanation we get is that it must have been the time he died in the ice. But how did he come back to life? Why did he come back to life? Why did that give him greater powers? What magic was he really using? Ava Reid set up a pretty cool magic system and then gave us nothing with it. We only see Évike's magic a handful of times before she loses it by killing the turul. The Yehuli are shown to have a really cool magic using words that is also barely demonstrated. Tuula's magic, seeming to be a control over animals that the pagans in Kavala, the Juuvi, possess, is underused as well. The happily ever after ending we get where suddenly the Merzani, the Yehuli, the pagans, and the Patricians are suddenly cool with each other despite years and years of hate, violence, and genocide is completely implausible.

Representation: The language and culture were supposed to be based on Hungarian culture, but after reading the comments of a Hungarian reviewer named Brigi on GoodReads, among others, I've learned that the "Hungarian representation" is more like loose cultural and linguistic appropriation at best. The Yehuli were based off the Jewish people. Gáspár is mixed as he is half Merzani and he faces racism from his own people due to this fact. He also is missing an eye. Évike is missing a pinky finger, and the rest of the Woodsman also have missing pieces of their face/body, but all of that is self inflicted. Tuula and Szabín are gay, and it is hinted that Katalin and Boróka might have feelings for each other.

Summary: This book did have the potential. The magic system was unique and intriguing. There was a lot of good commentary on religion and culture. Gáspár could have been a really intriguing character. The gothic horror folklore vibe definitely was there and could have been there better. But all of it was wasted on a horrible attempt at enemies to lovers and nicely wrapped up ending where everyone is happy, the end. Ava Reid definitely knows how to write, and a lot of her prose is beautiful, but it felt like she tried to use her prose to make up for the fact that her story was simply not good. There was an abundance of metaphors and similes, so dense in parts that I had trouble differentiating the descriptive language from what was actually happening. Some of the word usage didn't even make sense. I love the unique names, however, from what I've heard, the pronunciation and spellings weren't even done correctly, and going back and forth from the story to the pronunciation guide constantly was exhausting. There was an overabundance of repeated words, phrases, and information that made everything seem incredibly shallow, and the fact that this was happening in first person narration reflected on Évike and made her even more unlikable and stupid. Also with it being first person, a lot of the flowerly language didn't make sense for who Évike is, especially when you learn 60% of the way into the book that she is illiterate. I really don't know if I'll be picking up anymore books by Ava Reid, and I sadly do not understand the hype here as this was definitely one of the worst books I've read.

Quotes: "I can't even light a match myself, of course, but if the price of Woodsman power is being honor-bound to some morose, pitiless god who demands purity and perfection, I'm not sure it's worth the cost."-Évike (p. 65) "All that talk of quiet obedience is for their benefit, not yours. They don't have to go to the effort of striking you down if you're already on your knees."-Évike (p. 97)

[385bookreviews]

2.195 Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

SPOILERS

Pages: 280

Time Read: 3 hours

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: Middle Grade/YA Fiction

TWs for the book: Death of a parent, death of a grandparent, stillbirth, hysterectomy, medical trauma, grief, car accident, abandonment, death of a grandparent, racial slur, brief discussion of the psych ward, paranoia, blood, ableism, pregnancy; very mild discussion of hanging, murder, kidnapping, and torture

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: The time period is not clear but it takes place mostly in Bybanks, Kentucky; Euclid, Ohio; and then a road trip from Euclid to Lewiston, Idaho

First Line: Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true.

Salamanca, a 13 year old girl and our main character, lived on a farm with her mother and father in Bybanks, Kentucky. After the stillbirth of her sister and a subsequent hysterectomy due to bleeding, Sal's mother leaves to take a bus trip to Lewiston, Idaho to visit her cousin, see the sights, and to ultimately find herself. Sal and her father learn not long later that her mother was involved in a crash and died. Shortly after, Sal's father rented out their farm and moved them to Euclid, Ohio to be closer to her father's friend Mrs. Margaret Cadaver. While there, Sal befriends an anxious girl named Phoebe Winterbottom.

Sal didn't get to see her mother's grave whenever she died, so her Gram and Gramps, her father's parents, take her on a week long road trip to retrace Sugar's last steps and to arrive at her grave in Lewiston on her birthday. While on the drive, she entertains her grandparents with stories about Phoebe and her family. She notices that Phoebe has a lot of wild notions about things and naturally assumes the worst of people. Sal spends a lot of time at her house and notices that Phoebe, her older sister Prudence, and father Mr. Winterbottom, tend to take Mrs. Winterbottom for granted and ignore all of the effort she puts in to her cooking. Sal also learns where Phoebe gets all of her wild ideas from, as her mother is also exceedingly anxious and worried about robbers and "lunatics". One day, while Phoebe and Sal are home alone at Phoebe's house, a nervous young man knocks on the door and asks to see Mrs. Winterbottom. Phoebe says she isn't there. After he leaves, Phoebe starts imagining the young man as some kind of lunatic looking to harm them. The paranoia increases when mysterious blank envelopes begin appearing at their front door step, all with mysterious sayings such as, "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins" and "In the course of a lifetime, what does it matter?".

Phoebe and Sal befriend Mary Lou and her cousin Ben, who lives with her. Ben flirts with Sal, much to her confusion. Phoebe shares with Sal her wild conspiracies about Mrs. Cadaver, and they only grow whenever they see their English teacher Mr. Burbanks at her house helping her to replant a bush. Phoebe tells Sal that Mrs. Cadaver used to be married, but she probably chopped up her husband and buried him under that bush, and Mr. Burbanks helped. Not long later, Mrs. Winterbottom leaves a note that she will be gone for awhile. Sal then has to watch Phoebe go through exactly what she did when her mother left. Phoebe assumes that her mother has been kidnapped, tortured, or murdered by "the lunatic" (the young man that knocked on the door) or Mrs. Cadaver. She puts tape around mysterious spots in the house and collects random hairs as evidence. Her father and sister and Sal all try to explain that her mother wrote notes and left them frozen meals for dinner so surely she wasn't kidnapped, but Phoebe isn't convinced. She goes to the police station, but they laugh at her and don't take her seriously. Her and Sal then break into Mrs. Cadaver's house, and Phoebe tries again to take evidence to the police, but is once again shut down. While there, Sal manages to see that "the lunatic" is the police sergeants' son. At school, Mr. Burbanks causes some drama amongst the students after reading their summer journals aloud to the class. He reads in Phoebe's that she suspects Mrs. Cadaver to be a murderer, so he stops by her house to speak to her and Sal and explain that Mrs. Cadaver is his twin sister, and that her husband died in a drunk driving accident that also blinded their mother, Mrs. Partridge. Sal continues to see herself in Phoebe as the mystery continues, and through some minor sleuthing, they find out where Mike, "the lunatic", lives. They travel by bus to his college, running into Ben on the way to the hospital. They are about to go up to Mike's room, but change their minds, only to see Phoebe's mother sitting with closely with him and giving him a peck on the cheek. Phoebe is angry, and Sal gets scared and runs, assuming Phoebe will follow but she doesn't. She goes to the hospital to find Ben and discovers he is visiting his mother in the psychiatric ward. They kiss for the first time. Phoebe is immensely angry at her mother, and refuses to tell her father what she saw. When they arrive back at her house though, her father informs her that her mother will be coming home and bringing someone to meet them. They prepare, and Mrs. Winterbottom comes home with Mike, and explains that he is her son that she had put up for adoption before she married Mr. Winterbottom. Mr. Winterbottom is distraught she kept this from him but is determined to be civil and make it work. Phoebe is still angry and leaves with Sal, and they find that the mysterious letters have been being left by Mrs. Partridge. Sal finally decides to speak to Mrs. Cadaver about how her and her father met, something Sal had been avoiding. She discovers that Mrs. Cadaver was on the bus sitting next to her mother for the whole trip when it crashed, and she was the only survivor. Her father had met her in Idaho when he was making burial arrangements, and moved him and Sal closer to her so he could have some connection to the last person who saw his wife alive.

During this whole story, Sal is in the car traveling with her Gram and Gramps to Idaho. They stop and see a lot of national monuments and sights. At one point though, while swimming in the river, her Gram is bit by a water moccasin. A boy who had been telling them to leave because it was private property helps to suck the venom out, and they take her to the hospital. She is weak afterwards, and has a cough. By the time they arrive in Idaho at midnight on Sal's mom's birthday, Gram is unconscious and they rush her to the hospital. They say she had a stroke. Gramps gives Sal the keys so she can drive herself to see her mother's grave. The four hour drive is on a dangerous and windy road, and Sal stops for a few breaks. At one of the stops along the side, a passing driver who is also stopped tells her that the bus her mother died in is down in the woods. She goes down and tries to get in it, but can't find a way in. When she comes back up, the police sheriff is there, wondering what she is doing. She explains everything that happened, and they take her and Gramps' car down to where her mother is buried. She is finally able to say goodbye properly and fully accept that her mother isn't coming back. The sheriff then drives her back to the hospital, where she finds a note saying that her Gram has died and that Gramps is back at the motel. They head back to Euclid. In the end, Sal and her father move back to their farm in Bybanks, and Gramps moves in with them. Gram is buried in the field and Mrs. Cadaver, Mrs. Partridge, Ben, and Phoebe all plan to visit them.

Storyline: This middle grade book has been sitting on my shelf since elementary school without me having picked it up. I finally did, and was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful, heart-wrenching narrative. Obviously the dialogue and characters are what you would expect of a middle grade book, but this story about grief and loss and the processing of those feelings was really well done.

Representation: Salamanca and her mother Sugar are described as being "American Indian". They also meet another "American Indian" man along their trip. I put that in quotes because there are multiple passages in the book criticizing the use of the term Native American. There is also the use of the a slur for Native Americans. Sharon Creech, the author, is not Native American herself, and has admitted to romanticizing Indigenous culture. The quote and article below was written by Dr. Debbie Reese, as I am not knowledgable enough or in the position to speak on this subject myself: "[Sharon Creech is] an outsider to Native culture, trying to write a story as if she's an insider. But her story is based on outsider's writings, and outsider's understandings, and it doesn't work... the Indian content doesn't really matter. It is simply a device, or, a decoration on a story about a young girl coming to terms with life and death." https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/02/thoughts-on-sharon-creechs-walk-two.html

[385bookreviews]

2.62 A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck

SPOILERS

Pages: 102

Time Read: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★★�� Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: Theological Existential Horror

TWs for the book: Death, violence, su*c*de, murder, torture, injury, body horror, self harm, physical abuse, grief, gore, discussions of SA, blood, religious bigotry/themes, cancer, confinement, kidnapping, alcohol, nondescriptive s*xual content, slavery

POV: First Person

Time Period/Location: In the fictional Hell of the Zoroastrian religion.

First Line: Although I have loved many, there has been only one genuine love in my near-eternally stretched life--Rachel who fell to the bottom of the library without me.

The story begins with the ramblings of Soren, the main character of the book. He speculates on his billion year old life living in a near infinite library, while he searches for the book that tells the complete story of his life. He is able to tell of only a few books that have coherent writing, and implies that the book we are reading is one of them. He goes on to tell the story of how he got there. He was a 45 year old Mormon man with a wife and kids who died of a brain tumor and arrived in the office of a demon with two other men and two women. The demon says that this is Hell, and when a Christian man tries to argue that he was saved and believed in the one true religion, the demon informs them that the one true religion was actually Zoroastrianism, and that they will not be tortured physically or remain in Hell forever. He then sends them to their individual punishments. Soren arrives in a seemingly endless hall in a library. The top and bottom floors are so high up they are invisible, and when looking down the hall to the right or left, he can't see the end either. He discovers a room with beds and a bathroom, and a kiosk that will dispense whatever food or drink is desired. The instructions are simple: find the book that contains your life story, with no errors, grammatical or otherwise, and place it into the kiosk slot, and you will be taken to heaven. There is a clock on the wall noting the time and how many days its been.

Soren quickly makes friends and they shuffle through the books, realizing quickly that most of them are entirely gibberish, with hardly even a complete word being found in a single book. Soren struggles to come to terms with his Mormon faith being disproved, and has his first cup of coffee. When the others start drinking alcohol though, he runs away, and tries to get to the end of one of the hallways. He runs for around three weeks before turning and going back. He also realizes that all of the characters and symbols of the books are in English, and that there are only white people from America who died between the mid 1900s and 2043. He ends up getting with a woman named Betty for two years before moving on.

100 years later, he is with a girl named Sandra. They are part of a "university" dedicated to finding the books. Every year they have a ceremony where they read the best text found so far, which that year is simply one sentence in a book that reads, "The bat housed again four leaves of it." They also pray to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda. After the ceremony, Soren speaks with Rachel, the one who read the text, and they have a deep conversation speculating about their situation. She then tells him of the expedition that she went on in year 58 to discover the ends of the library. A group went up, down, right, and left. She was a part of the left group, and they found nothing but more books, and they stopped seeing any other people after a year. After five years, they turned around and went back. The up group traveled for 23 years before turning back, and one member of their group stayed behind to continue climbing upward. Soren dumped Sandra for Rachel, and they are together for a 1000 years.

In their 1145th year in Hell, an extremist named Dire Dan claimed to have a vision from Ahura Mazda saying that he needed to punish people. He formed a cult that ran around the library, killing, torturing, and r*ping people, as he thought it would bring them out of the library sooner. The peace falls apart, and Rachel and Soren run away. They are caught by the cult members, called the Direites, but before they can grab Rachel she throws herself over the railing into the infinite pit in the center of the library. Soren tries to run as well, but is captured and knocked unconscious. For 36 days, he is held captive and killed six seconds after waking every day. He finally manages to roll away from the blow one morning, and they take him to a meeting. They say he can either be a tortured slave or he can take up torturing himself. Soren sees Dire Dan and shoves him over the railing, jumping with him. They both fall for days, Soren eventually losing sight of Dire Dan and dying of thirst. He wakes up and eventually learns to control his falling and swerve onto a floor, breaking his arms, legs, and neck in the process. A man comes by and offers to kill him, which Soren accepts. He wakes up the next day alone, and stays there for awhile before the man comes back. He has found a book with several complete senses, although they don't make much sense. Soren then continues upwards, and finds a man who had been crying. He doesn't engage with Soren at all, so he continues upwards and finds a group of people also crying. They tell him to continue up 17 levels and he'll find Took, and get the answer. Soren finds Took, and he explains that he did the math to calculate how many books are in the library: 95^1,312,000. When Soren asks if that's a lot, Took explains that there are only 10^78 electrons in the universe.

Soren wanders, distraught and empty for days. He falls for weeks and years as well. One day, while wandering on one of the floors, he sees someone fall past him. He jumps and grabs her, tying them together so they fall together. When she wakes up, she tells him her name is Wand, and they are intimate with each other. They figure out a way to swing Wand onto a floor, and then three days later, after repeated deaths, Soren manages to stop falling. He runs up the stairs, but never finds her. The book ends with Soren billions of years old, still searching for his book, utterly numb and broken.

Storyline: This was a very unique take on the afterlife and religion overall. It was a nice, quick, entertaining read. I went into this expecting more of a point to be made about humanity or religion, or for their to be some divine clarity or revelation at the end, but that's not what this book was. It was definitely more of a horror for me. The existential dread of it all was what really made it compelling. I wish there had been more elaboration on some things, but I do think the point of it was to not have that kind of clarification, so that might just bug me personally.

Quotes: "Strange, how a moment of existence can cut so deeply into our being that while ages pass unnoticed, a brief love can structure and define the very topology of our consciousness ever after."-Soren (p.1) "No. Sorry. The true religion is Zoroastrianism, I'm afraid. Bit of bad luck there. Christianity certainly borrowed a great deal from the one true religion, but not enough, unfortunately. Not nearly enough."-Xandern (p.7) "What kind of God would leave you burning forever?"-Xandern (p.8)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.8 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 980

Time Read: 16 hours and 44 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Torture, war, death, violence, blood, injury, grief, confinement, murder, gore, fire, death of a parent, s*xual content, kidnapping, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy, su*c*de/su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, gaslighting, animal death, body horror, panic attacks, slavery, cursing, vomit, medical content, mental illness, abandonment, genocide, self harm, SA, colonization, classism, ableism

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: 2 months after the events of Empire of Storms/Tower of Dawn in Terrasen, Adarlan, and Wendlyn.

First Line: The snows had come early.

Aedion and Lysandra have gone north to Terrasen with their allies. Lysandra is still pretending to be Aelin and Aedion is still refusing to speak with her.

Rowan has been searching for Aelin for months with Gavriel, Elide, and Lorcan. They go through Wendlyn, occasionally interrogating some of Maeve's higher officials. Aelin is being held prisoner in an iron coffin by Maeve and is being tortured by her and Cairn to force her to take the blood oath and tell Maeve the location of the Wyrdkeys. Fenrys is forced to remain in wolf form and watch Aelin suffer.

Dorian, Manon, and the Thirteen are on the hunt for the third Wyrdkey, but give up when it proves fruitless to start hunting down the Crochan witches. Dorian summons Gavin's ghost, and makes plans to leave the group in order to infiltrate Morath. Right when the witches and Dorian are about to leave camp, they are attacked by a shapeshifting stygian spider who wants Manon dead for stealing her spidersilk. The spider, who names herself Cyrene, is the same one that took Falkan's youth, and she also took some of his magic as well. Dorian captures her with his magic, and she tells them that if she leaves them alive she will guide them to the location of the Crochans. Dorian agrees despite Manon's hesitation because he wants to learn how to shapeshift.

Aelin is brought to Maeve's throne room, having been being kept in Doranelle this whole time. She makes Aelin kneel on glass with Mab's crown on her head and tries to force her to submit. She then tells Connall to tell Fenrys how he feels. Connall is angry with Fenrys and speaks harshly to him, and then kills himself with a dagger to the heart on Maeve's command.

Chaol and the khaganate's forces sail for Terrasen, but Sartaq reveals that there is a Valg army marching for Anielle, Chaol's home. They decide to send their forces to prepare Anielle for siege and to try and defeat the army.

Rowan, Elide, Lorcan, and Gavriel decide to head east to try and find Aelin, but they feel a surge of her power from the north and head for Doranelle.

Dorian, Manon, and the Thirteen follow Cyrene to the Crochan camp. They meet Glennis, Manon's great-grandmother on her father's side. They are not very welcomed except by Glennis, which makes Manon's task of recruiting them for the war all the more difficult. They are attacked by Yellowlegs witches that Manon lured there, and the Crochans and Thirteen fight against them. Fighting against the other Ironteeth gains them some acceptance, but not much, as some of the Crochans rightly suspect that Manon lured them there. Glennis tells Manon the Crochans only go to war when their queen calls them to war, and she must be accepted first. Dorian tries to learn shapeshifting from Cyrene, and he discovers that the spiders are Valg. He then kills her.

Darrow commands Aedion and Lysandra (as Aelin) to take their forces north to Orynth, but Aedion refuses and has Nox Owen, Darrow's messenger and also the thief Aelin was friends with in Throne of Glass, drug the lords so they can sneak south to defend the border.

Aelin spins illusions and dreams for Aelin to try and trick her into swearing the blood oath and telling her about they keys. She tells Aelin her story of being a Valg queen without saying outright that she is Valg. Aelin refuses to tell her and the illusion breaks. Maeve tells Aelin she will be gone for a few days to retrieve a Wyrdstone collar so she can finally control break her. Cairn moves her to a different location. Rowan and Elide actually spread the rumor of the collars to get Maeve away from Doranelle. After seeing Maeve's army camped outside of the city, Elide decides to go into the city itself asking after Cairn to see if she can find his location. She goes up to a group of soldiers talking with a beautiful Fae lady and begins to ask them about Cairn. They advise her against seeking him out, and reveal to her that Maeve has left Doranelle. The beautiful Fae finds Elide afterwards and says her name is Essar and she is Lorcan's ex girlfriend. She says she knows by her clothes that she is with Rowan and Lorcan and figures out that they are hunting for Aelin. She tells Elide that Cairn is in the eastern camp, and her and her sister give Elide information so that way they can get in. Cairn plans to burn Aelin as his torture method for the day. Aelin begins taunting him, and he unlocks her from the table and holds her over a fire. She fights back, and Cairn is close to killing her, so Fenrys breaks the blood oath and attacks Cairn. Aelin runs through the camp in the direction of Gavriel and Lorcan. They signal to Rowan, who is killing his way through the soldiers, that they found her, but Aelin begs Rowan and Gavriel to go and save Fenrys from Cairn. They find Fenrys and Cairn both unconscious, and Rowan chains Cairn to the table and peels off his skin before killing him. They meet up in the forest with Lorcan, Elide, and Aelin. Aelin has a panic attack when the iron chains, mask, and gauntlets won't come off, but they manage to get them off with Wyrdmarks. She then goes to Fenrys, who is dying from breaking the blood oath with Maeve, and she offers him the blood oath, which saves his life. They all notice that Aelin is now completely without scars, as she was tortured so much in so many places the healers essentially had to give her completely new skin. The Little Folk appear and guide them into a cave for the night, stocked with bedrolls and some food. Aelin lays down next to Fenrys and goes to sleep.

Manon, Dorian, the Thirteen, and the Crochans fly to Eyllwe to help other Crochans that were fighting against Valg. They were too late to help because they were delayed by Manon's arrival and the attack. Manon and the Thirteen hand dig their graves, and they earn some respect from the Crochans for this. Manon then catches Dorian speaking with Kaltain's ghost as he makes his plans for breaking into Morath. They fight over him not telling her.

Aedion and his armies fight are slowly driven back from the border by Morath's forces. They plan to retreat north to Perranth, and his soldiers begin to lose moral from "Aelin" not using her fire magic to help them. Aedion and Lysandra have a vicious argument, and he kicks her out of his tent into the snow, naked.

Aelin wakes up in the cave with her companions. She goes up to Rowan and they go to the underground lake to talk. She goes into the freezing water to let the edge off of her pent up magic and they talk. She doesn't believe that anything is real until the Little Folk told her it was. A boat appears, pulled by creatures under the water, and the Little Folk instruct them to get on the boat and it will take them to the coast because it isn't safe above ground. They also give Aelin Mab's crown. The boat pulls them for several days but they stop at an underground burial sight in order to loot gold to pay for their ship back to the west. Aelin finds wedding rings for her and Rowan. They get back on the boat and make it to the coast, immediately sailing west. Aelin makes Lorcan swear the blood oath to ensure his loyalty.

Dorian shapeshifts into a Valg to sneak into the Ferian Gap for Manon. He finds that the Matrons aren't there, only Petrah Blueblood and her witches. Manon flies in and asks the Petrah and the Ironteeth to rebel against Erawan and the Matrons. She reveals that her grandmother wants to be queen of the Ironteeth, and then she leaves.

Anielle holds against the Morath soldiers' siege. Yrene is revealed to be pregnant. The rest of khaganate's army arrives to fight the Valg.

In Perranth, Aedion is fighting a losing battle. Lysandra feels guilty, and steps onto the battlefield as Aelin. An ilken swipes her with its claws and she goes down. Aedion runs to save her. Just then, a witch tower appears, and a young witch gives her life in a Yielding, a powerful blast of magic that incinerates everything around it, including the witch. She jumps into the tower and 4000 of Aedion's men are wiped out, causing them to retreat.

Nesryn, Sartaq, Yrene, Chaol, and Hasar are still at Anielle and are planning what to do to defeat the rest of the Valg army. Aelin, Rowan, Lorcan, Gavriel, Fenrys, and Elide appear, and Aelin, Chaol, and Yrene have a joyful reunion. Falkan arrives and has been turned young again due to Dorian killing Cyrene, and he also recognizes Aelin as the assassin that he spoke with in Xandria in The Assassin's Blade. They exchange information, and Chaol confirms that Maeve is Valg. Lorcan and Elide fight, and she shames him for having been in love with Maeve, and she says she doesn't care if he dies.

Lysandra awakes three days after the battle to discover that they have been fleeing from Morath. She also shifted back into her human form while she was pretending to be Aelin so they all know that Aelin isn't with them. Aedion tries to apologize for all of the hurtful things he said but Lysandra refuses to accept the apology and tells him to leave. Darrow strips Aedion of his title as general and makes him give back the Sword of Orynth.

At the Crochan camp, the three Matrons arrive to fight Manon. The Yellowlegs Matron is wearing the Crochan crown of stars. Manon singlehandedly takes them on and kills the Yellowlegs Matron and takes the crown. Manon lets the Blueblood Matron go, and then tells Asterin that the Blackbeak Matron is her's to kill. Manon's grandmother decides to run instead. Glennis then crowns Manon as the Queen of Witches.

In Anielle, the battle rages, and Nesryn and Sartaq catch a group of soldiers trying to break the dam. They stop them, but the dam is irreparably damaged and going to break. They win the battle, but are about to lose the whole army to the dam. On the battlefield, Lorcan lays dying. Elide notices he's missing and steals Chaol's horse to go and search for him. She finds him and they try to run back to the walls but are too late. The dam breaks, but Aelin appears in front of the wave, and releases three months worth of built up fire power to evaporate the water.

Manon offers to marry Dorian if it will keep him from going to Morath. He neither accepts or refuses, but he leaves the next morning with the two Wyrdkeys anyways.

Rolfe and the Mycenians arrive and barely manage to save the remaining of Aedion's army and take them to Orynth. Terrasen calls for aid.

Manon receives Terrasen's call for aid and says she will help. The Crochans agree to follow her.

Elide and Lorcan make up. Aelin tells Rowan she sent a letter to Essar and Rowan's cousins' father to try and convince them to oust Maeve as queen because she is Valg and disband her army. The khaganate's armies march for Terrasen.

Dorian sneaks into Morath as a mouse, and he sees Maeve talking to Erawan. She reveals to Erawan that she is his long lost sister-in-law and that she was ousted as Queen of Doranelle. She proposes to Erawan that her kharankui can be the hosts for his remaining six Valg princesses. He agrees, and Maeve goes to her room, with Dorian following. She traps him the second they are alone, and proposes that they work together, as she wants the Wyrdkeys to send Erawan home and keep him or his brothers from ever coming back. Dorian agrees and says he will marry her.

Maeve attempts to seduce Erawan so she can get into his tower. He refuses, wanting to stay loyal to his brother Orcus, her husband. Since that failed, she plans to show Erawan an illusion of his brothers so that way Dorian can sneak into Erawan's tower. He finds a girl with a collar around her throat and the Wyrdkey in her arm, like Kaltain. She begs Dorian to kill her after he removes it, and he refuses, but Maeve appears and kills her for him. Maeve then tries to take control of Dorian's mind, but Dorian was prepared and takes control of her mind instead. He collapses Morath with his magic and leaves, taking all three Wyrdkeys with him and ripping away Maeve's ability to make portals.

100,000 soldiers march on Orynth, and everyone is preparing for their deaths when Manon, the Thirteen, and the Crochans appear to fight for them. Iskra attacks Manon and her wyvern almost kills Abraxos, but she is killed by Petrah who has rebelled against the two remaining Matrons and Erawan, along with her witches. A witch tower is about to bring down the walls of Orynth, but the Thirteen sacrifice themselves by doing the Yielding in order to bring down the witch tower. Their deaths break the curse on the Witch Kingdom.

Dorian finds Aelin and the army as they march north. They argue about who is to forge the Lock and when, and Aelin decides to put it to a vote. The vote goes that Aelin is to forge the Lock the next day, before they go to Terrasen. Aelin and Rowan argue, and Rowan suggests that her and Dorian forge the Lock together. So Dorian, Chaol, Rowan, and Aelin go in the middle of the night to Endovier to forge the Lock. Aelin puts the Wyrdkeys in her arm to become a living gate and they begin, but it starts to rip away both of their magic and take all of their life forces. But Dorian's father appears and offers to take Dorian's place, as his life force can also contribute as he is nameless because Erawan used a spell to wipe his name from the world. Aelin pushes Dorian out, and the Lock takes all of her magic. The gods appear with a captive Elena. Aelin tries to bargain with the gods, saying that she won't require them to take Erawan if they let Elena go. Deanna kills Elena on the spot just for Aelin asking, and refuses to take Erawan anyways. The gods return to their world, but Mala stops and says she remembers, and gives Aelin part of her power so forging the Lock won't take her life completely. She also tells Aelin to follow the marks, and she realizes that Rowan inked Wyrdmarks into her new tattoo as a map to find her way back to Erilea. Aelin then rips a hole into a hell realm in the gods' world and shuts the portal and fully forges the Lock. She begins to fall through worlds, but too fast, and she is worried she is going to miss Erilea, but she then falls into Prythian, and sees Rhysand and Feyre. Rhysand uses his magic to slow her down so she can land back in her body in her world. She is alive, but is left with barely an ember of power. Dorian's magic is also weakened, but he has more than Aelin. Aelin is also fully Fae now, unable to shift back into her human body. Hasar and Sartaq are upset with Aelin for forging the Lock and not sending Erawan back, but they continue to trek northwards anyways. A snow storm hits them, but the Lord of the North and the Little Folk appear and guide them through Oakwald so they can save Orynth. Their forces attack, and Gavriel makes it to Orynth. The western gate breaks and Gavriel reunites with Aedion one last time before going out and fighting the Valg soldiers, dying so Aedion has a chance to close the gate.

More of Erawan's forces arrive from Perranth, along with the 6 kharankui/Valg princesses and Erawan and Maeve themselves. Aelin decides to face Maeve and Erawan alone. She pits them against each other. Yrene signals to Erawan from Orynth, and an ilken takes him to face her, as the healers can kill the Valg. Rowan, Fenrys, and Lorcan come to back Aelin up against Maeve, and she uses her illusions to keep them down. Aelin breaks them from the illusion and uses Wyrdmarks to summon the lost Fae of Terrasen and the Wolf Tribes to fight, Fenrys stabs Maeve with Goldryn, and Aelin puts Athril's ring on her finger. All of this manages to kill her.

Yrene, Dorian, Elide, and Lysandra trap Erawan and Yrene manages to kill him, but not before Dorian makes him tell him his fathers' name. The King of Adarlan's name was Dorian, and he only remembered it again when he held Dorian for the first time, and so gave him that name. Yrene then turns Erawan to ash. The armies all fall unconscious and die without either Erawan or Maeve to control them.

Falkan and Lysandra meet each other for the first time. Rowan, Lorcan, Aelin, Aedion, and Fenrys mourn for Gavriel. Lorcan and Elide plan to be married, and Aelin is welcomed home as a queen by Darrow. Manon takes the witches back home, curse now broken. Rowan's cousin Sellene is made Queen of Doranelle. Aelin is coronated and Aedion finally gets to take the blood oath.

Not long after, the whole of the field of Theralis blooms with Kingsflame flowers.

Storyline: I honestly really loved this book. There were a couple of slow bits but I loved how everything came together. It was a little disappointing to not get a huge blow up battle between Aelin and Erawan/Maeve, but she defeated Maeve by outwitting her, which was Aelin's true power all along. Also Yrene and Aelin meeting in The Assassin's Blade and Aelin's act of kindness leading to Yrene and Aelin killing two of the most powerful Valg and saving the world together was really cool. Dorian really carried this book though, he was such a nuanced character and honestly a total badass. SJM doesn't do a great job of keeping her timelines straight though because Chaol says that he killed Cain less than a year since the battle at Orynth and there is absolutely no way that that much happened in that short amount of time, especially with all the traveling they do. When I first read this book I was really disappointed that Aelin lost her powers as I hate that trope a lot usually, but she still got to keep some of the fire that she loved, and she talks multiple times about how her power being that depthless and uncontrollable was a huge nuisance and struggle to her. So I think in order for her to have the fully happy ending SJM set up for her, it was necessary.

Quotes: "And if she never returned to who she had been before this, he would not love her any less."-Rowan (p.304)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.7 Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 660

Time Read: 11 hours and 58 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, grief, injury, disability/chronic illness, blood, war, murder, medical content, s*xual content, ableism, vomit, death of a parent, gore, medical trauma, animal death, torture, pregnancy, drug use, emotional abuse, su*c*de, body horror, cursing, mental illness, alcohol, physical abuse, child death, fire, abandonment, classism, su*c*dal thoughts, toxic friendship, child abuse, infidelity, stalking, colonization, body shaming

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Taking place during the events of Empire of Storms. On the fictional southern continent, in the city of Antica.

First Line: Chaol Westfall, former Captain of the Royal Guard and now Hand to the newly crowned King of Adarlan, had discovered that he hated one sound above all others.

Chaol and Nesryn arrive on the southern continent in Antica, the god-city, known for its 36 gods and ruled over by the Great Khagan. They go straight to the palace to meet with the Khagan and ask for his aid in the war and a healer to fix Chaol's paralysis. They meet the stern man, and his five heirs, Arguhn, Sartaq, Hasar, Kashin, and Duva. They beg the Khagan for aid but he is insulted that by the gold they try to bring him and that they were unaware of his youngest daughter, Tumelun's, death. He says that they are welcome to stay so Chaol may be healed, but must consider any plans of war while also taking time to grieve. Chaol and Nesryn also learn of Rifthold being sacked and are devastated. Shortly after their meeting with the khagan, Kashin, who has control of the horse warriors of the continent, arrives to speak with Chaol. He tells him he doesn't believe Tumelun committed su*c*de like everyone thinks, and that there might be a threat that has come from the north. Chaol explains briefly about the Valg and promises Kashin to keep a look out for anything amiss.

Yrene, the healer girl that Celaena saved in The Assassin's Blade, has been working to become a healer at the Torre Cesme for two years, and is now a fully fledged healer. Hafiza, the Healer on High, instructs Yrene to heal Chaol. She refuses at first, not wanting to help anyone from Adarlan after Adarlanian soldiers burned her mother alive for practicing magic. Hafiza says this will be her final test before she is to return to Erilea. She tentatively agrees to assess him. The next day she goes to the palace, and it is tense between her and Chaol, and Yrene is very rude, but she agrees to heal him anyways. Nesryn visits her aunt and uncle that live in the city, and they tell her that her father, sister, and nieces and nephews managed to make it out of Rifthold before it fell, but they don't know where they are now. Chaol tries to speak to Arguhn, but he refuses him.

Yrene begins her healing on Chaol, but finds that there is still a remanent of the Valg's dark power wrapped around his spine, and that she can fight against it with her healing gifts, but it will be very painful for Chaol and take a lot of time. Yrene goes to the Torre's library to try and find out more information on the Valg. She finds a scroll with Wyrdmarks, and a book called The Song of Beginning, but it is written in Eyllwe and she can't decipher it. She suddenly feels as though she is being hunted in the library and begins to rush out. On her way out, she trips on the body of a healer, who is now an empty shell sucked of all life. She runs from the library and the Torre is put on high alert. When she tells Chaol of this, he tells her it was a Valg. Sartaq and Nesryn begin to bond, as Sartaq also suspects that the threat growing in the north may be worth fighting against. He takes her on a ride on his ruk named Kadara, a giant, sentient bird that makes up the southern empire's aerial legion.

Yrene has a special saddle made for Chaol so he can ride a horse again. He offers to help her teach a special defense class for the young healers at the Torre. While there, she uses the opportunity to teach her students about Chaol's spinal injury, and they move him off his horse, almost dropping him. He is immensely humiliated and him and Yrene fight. Despite this, they manage to make progress in his healing. Chaol is forced to relive all of the painful, traumatic moments of his past, but Yrene manages to grant him some movement in his toes. Hasar, who is friends with Yrene, summons her to ask her to get information about Aelin's whereabouts from Chaol. At a party a day or so later, Yrene and Chaol pretend to flirt so they can talk privately. Yrene reveals what Hasar has asked of her, and Chaol has genuinely no idea where Aelin is, so he tells her Skull's Bay, as he thinks that that is the last place she will go after her fight with Rolfe as Celaena. Yrene hides the scrolls and books with Wyrdmarks or mentions of the Valg in Chaol's room. Chaol gains movement in his ankles and feet.

Nesryn leaves with Sartaq to go south to the rukhin, the aeries and homes of the warriors who ride the ruk. Sartaq knows that his hearth-mother knows of the Valg and they decide to gather information there. Nesryn leaves Chaol a note saying she holds him to no promises and will not be adhering to any promises of her own. Chaol is angered by this and him and Yrene fight, causing her to leave him before even healing him for the day. She then hears that Nesryn left and deduces that to be the reason for Chaol's attitude. She heads back to the palace to argue with him again, but realizes she is being followed by the Valg. She sprints into Chaol's room and locks the door, but the Valg begins banging on it, trying to get it open. She runs into Chaol's room and blocks off the doors, and they stand united. The Valg knows Yrene's name and says it through the door, banging and pounding, but it eventually goes silent. Kadja, Chaol's servant, sees the damage and runs to get Kashin, who comes to see what happened. Kashin, who is in love with Yrene, offers to walk her back to the Torre, but Yrene refuses and spends the night with Chaol.

Nesryn and Sartaq arrive in the Tavan Mountains. They are greeted by Sartaq's hearth-sister, Borte. She says that the hearth-mother, Houlun, is out on a mission and will be back in a day or two. When she eventually does return, she speaks with Sartaq, Nesryn, and Falkan, a northern merchant who has been traveling the continent for two years. He reveals that he is only 27, even though he appears to be in his 50s, because he sold his youth to the stygian spiders for spidersilk so he could be rich (this is the same merchant Aelin encountered in Xandria in The Assassin's Blade). He is hunting the spiders, in the south known as kharankui, to see if they can be killed and he can get his youth back. Houlun reveals that the kharankui are on the rise, and stealing hatchling ruks from their nests. She says that during the first demon war on the continent, when the three kings battled against Maeve and Brannon, a Wyrdgate opened there and let in the kharankui. Most of the Valg went to Erilea, and some Fae came to teach the ruks to understand language and fight back against the spiders. She tells them that the Fae set up watchtowers around where the spiders now reside, and that most of them are broken down but still have active booby traps. She tells Nesryn and Sartaq to investigate the watchtowers to see if anything useful can be found in them. Sartaq and Nesryn investigate the first watchtower, making sure to throw rocks to set off the traps. They find some Fae weaponry but not much else before a kharankui descends on them. They fight and run, and are then aided in killing it by a gray wolf. Kadara makes the final kill, saving the wolf, who shapeshifts and reveals himself to be Falkan. Borte, Sartaq, Nesryn, and Falkan go to investigate the other three watchtowers but find nothing. Borte's betrothed, Yaren, comes to tell them that hatchlings have been stolen from his aerie as well.

Chaol and Yrene search for more books and scrolls on the Valg and the Wyrdmarks. The librarian tells them to go to Aksara Oasis, but it is owned by the royals. Chaol gains movement up to his knees. Chaol and Yrene then learn from Hasar about Aelin and Dorian's display of power in Skull's Bay. The khagan grows more wary of Aelin. Chaol attempts to have a private meeting with the khagan but it does not go well and he is removed. Yrene comes to heal him but he is raging with anger at the khagan's dismissal. They fight, and Chaol says something hurtful and makes Yrene cry. She turns to leave. Instantly regretting his decision and panicking about her leaving, Chaol stands and walks. When he finally reaches her, they kiss. Yrene convinces Hasar to throw her a birthday party at the Aksara Oasis so her and Chaol can investigate the necropolis in the jungle around it.

Nesryn, Falkan, and Sartaq ride on Kadara to Dagul, the land of the kharankui, to find the hatchlings. They spot one and fly down to save it, but when Kadara tries to fly back up she is caught in a spider web. They all fall, and Sartaq is injured. Nesryn tries to save the hatchling but a spider kills it and eats it before she can. Kadara is also injured but manages to fly off, and Nesryn and Sartaq run. Sartaq gets stuck while they try to squeeze through the rocks. He tells Nesryn to run, and that he loves her, before he is snatched by the spiders. Nesryn and Falkan hatch a plan to save him, and she allows herself to be captured.

Yrene and Chaol go to Aksara with Kashin, Renia, Hasar, Arguhn, and other viziers. While the royals are swimming, Chaol and Yrene slip into the jungle and find the necropolis. They realize it is a Fae burial site, not a human one. Chaol theorizes that healers are descendants of the Fae that are buried there, and that their powers might be able to kill the Valg.

Nesryn awakes wrapped in web, Sartaq near her. Falkan, in the form of a mouse, begins chewing through her bonds. A kharankui comes in though, and Nesryn begs for their story before they kill her. The spider obliges, and tells her that they are the handmaids to a Valg Queen who came here to escape her husband, Orcus, the most powerful Valg King. The spider reveals that Valg Queen is Maeve, and that the kharankui stand guard of the Wyrdgate that is there to pave the way should Maeve decide to go home, or use the gate to conquer more worlds. Falkan shifts into a spider and lures the one speaking to Nesryn out of the save. Her and Sartaq then run, but are once again confronted by the spiders when they can't find Kadara. Falkan tells Nesryn that he has a shapeshifter niece who was thrown out on the streets of Rifthold, and that he has been searching for her for years. He says his fortune is hers and then he lunges into battle against the other spiders. They are fortunately rescued by Borte, who went against her grandmother's wishes and brought her betrothed and some of his warriors to save them.

When they return from Aksara, Yrene and Chaol find his room completely sacked, and all of the books and scrolls stolen, save for one scroll, the one with the Wyrdmarks. Yrene takes the scroll to leave with Hafiza, who has a locked iron cabinet containing a ton of books with Wyrdmarks. She says she will consider letting Yrene take them to Aelin to be translated. Yrene arrives back at the palace to find Chaol in immense pain. She decides to test out his theory and says that she is ending this now. Chaol faces all of his worst memories again, and feels as though he is drowning in them, but slowly, slowly works through them, and realizes that not everything was his fault, and that he is a changed man now who still has a promise to Dorian and Aelin to uphold. When he comes out of the memories, he is fully healed and can walk again.

Nesryn and Sartaq ask the rukhin to fly north with him to fight, as Sartaq plans to do so whether or not the Khagan agrees to it. Nesryn receives Chaol's warning to come home, and asks Falkan to come with them, revealing that she thinks his niece is Lysandra.

Yrene and Chaol go to see Hafiza but find her missing. They go hunting for her in the tunnels beneath the library, and find her bound and captured by the Valg: who is possessing a pregnant Princess Duva. They fight her while also trying not to hurt her or the baby. She reveals that she was possessed because Duke Perrington sent her a box of wedding presents, and Duva claimed the silver ring as her wedding ring. She didn't know that it was actually made of Wyrdstone covered in silver, and the second she was married she was possessed. The Valg in Duva killed Tumelun for questioning her change in behavior, and killed the healer in the library to try and scare Yrene out of healing Chaol. Duva demands Yrene put on the ring. Yrene refuses and Duva lashes out with her power. Chaol jumps in front of her and takes the blow to his back, destroying his spine and organs. Nesryn and Sartaq appear, and Hafiza manages to make Duva unconscious. Yrene tries to heal Chaol, but even with all of the healers of the Torre coming down to try and save him, he is dying anyways. Silba, the healer goddess, speaks through Hafiza, offering a deal and asks Yrene to pay the price. She agrees. When Chaol awakes, he asks Yrene what she did. Hafiza explains Yrene bound her life to Chaol's and that her magic is constantly flowing through him like a brace so he will be able to walk. But when Yrene's magic is drained, so too will the brace, and he will either have to walk with a cane or be in a wheelchair. Also, if one of them is killed, the other one will also die. They then take Duva before the royal family, who is utterly distraught. Yrene purges the Valg from Duva, killing it, but not before it reveals itself to be a Valg Princess, not a Prince. Duva and the baby are fine, and the khagan offers to do anything for Yrene and Chaol for saving her life. She asks him to help save her people, and he agrees. Sartaq, Hasar, and Kashin agree to go to war with them. Sartaq tells Nesryn that he has been chosen as Heir to the throne, and that he loves Nesryn and wants her to be with him. She agrees.

Chaol and Yrene sail north with 1000 ships and 300 healers. They reveal they were married before they left Antica. Yrene shows Chaol the note Celaena/Aelin left for her with the money, and Chaol recognizes her handwriting and begins to cry, promising he will tell her exactly who it was she met that night.

Chaol Westfall (Lord Westfall/Hand of the King of Adarlan): I was never a huge fan of Chaol's character, but I'm glad that he got the character development and redemption arc that he so desperately needed. I like how he didn't instantly get over his trauma, and had to face it and do it on his own (with support from Yrene). There was no magical fix for it, and he had progress and regressions just like anyone else would. I also like that he was not completely fully healed of his paralysis, and it became something that he will still have to deal with. Him being completely healed would have been too easy of a fix, and it puts a lot more nuance into his character, especially since he had to grieve the loss of his body, but then when that full, perfect healing was taken away, he was still grateful for what he did have and no longer viewed the mobility aids as "prisons".

Nesryn Faliq (Captain of the Guard/Wind-Seeker/Neith's Arrow): I really like how Nesryn was so patient with Chaol (even when he was being an ass and didn't deserve it). She realized that he was struggling with his emotions, trauma, and feelings, and she decided to be patient and understanding with him, while simultaneously not being willing to let herself be his second choice.

Storyline: While definitely an integral part of the storyline, and good closure for Chaol, he has never been one of my favorite characters so getting through an entire book just about him after reading Empire of Storms is a little bit difficult (I couldn't brave the tandem read). The storyline is definitely a bit slow at parts, but getting to see SJM expand her worldbuilding on a new continent was interesting, despite the amount of information thrown at you all at once.

Representation: There was thankfully a lot more representation in this book than in any of the other books in the series. Yrene, the royal family, and just about everyone else on the southern continent is POC. Hasar and Renia are lovers, and it is mentioned that Arguhn was being touchy with a male and female servant. Chaol uses a wheelchair and cane, and it is made clear at the end that this will be a chronic illness for him. While paralyzed in the beginning, due to Yrene's magic he is able to be an ambulatory wheelchair user. Shen, one of the guards, has a prosthetic arm.

[385bookreviews]

1.72.6 Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 689

Time Read: 11 hours and 22 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, blood, war, s*xual content, torture, death, murder, injury, gore, fire, grief, physical abuse, confinement, vomit, kidnapping, body horror, slavery, death of a parent, emotional abuse, abandonment, child death, cursing, misogyny/sexism, colonization, genocide, toxic relationship, ableism, animal cruelty, animal death, s*xual assault/r*pe (not on page), discussions of pregnancy, gaslighting, classism, panic attacks, su*c*dal thoughts, su*c*de attempt

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Terrasen, Adarlan, Skull's Bay, and Eyllwe on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: Elide Lochan's breath scorched her throat with every gasping inhale as she limped up the steep forest hill.

Aelin, Aedion, Rowan, Lysandra, Fleetfoot, and Evangeline have finally arrived in Terrasen after a week or two of travel from Adarlan. She arranges a meeting with Lord Darrow, Lord Murtaugh, and Murtaugh's grandson, Ren. They are supposed to meet them in the woods, but the lords demand they come to an inn. When they arrive, Ren and Murtaugh, responsible for Chaol's kidnapping in Crown of Midnight, are shocked to learn that Aelin is Celaena. Lord Darrow is harsh and judgemental, and gives her a decree signed by all of the lords of Terrasen saying she is only a princess and that she is not to be queen unless they see fit. She is discouraged, but as they are leaving the inn, they receive news that the witches are flying to sack Rifthold. She sends Rowan to fly back to rescue Dorian, gives Evangeline and Fleetfoot to Lord Murtaugh to look after, and her, Aedion, and Lysandra make their way to Ilium, a port city in Terrasen that used to be ruled by fierce pirates called the Mycenians.

Meanwhile, Elide travels through the woods on her own to try and get to Terrasen, forging for berries and drinking from streams. She realizes she is being followed. Lorcan senses the Wyrdkey she carries and follows her around, thinking she is Valg. He realizes she is not when she is suddenly hunted down by ilken, terrifying eight foot beasts that were bred by Erawan. Lorcan kills three and Elide evades another, and they manage to make it away. They make a deal to travel together, Lorcan offering protection for Elide's knowledge of Morath. Pretending to be married they join up with a traveling circus to get past the Adarlanian soldiers guarding the river.

At Morath, Erawan reveals his true form, no longer masquerading as Duke Perrington. He orders Manon and the Thirteen, along with Yellowlegs witches led by Iskra, to sack Rifthold. Manon tries to get there before the Yellowlegs, but arrives right as Dorian is about to be attacked by a member of Iskra's coven. Manon kills her, and tells Dorian to flee. Rowan arrives and kills four more witches and tries to kill Manon until Dorian stops him. Rowan and Dorian escape and head for Skull's Bay, and Iskra accuses Manon of being a witch killer. She lies and says that the sentinel attacked her first, but Iskra doesn't believe her and runs back to Morath. When Manon arrives, she is put on trial. The Matrons ultimately decide that while Manon will live, Asterin must be brutally put to death. At the execution, Manon asks for the right to kill her, but she instead swings her sword at her grandmother. The Thirteen flee, and the Matron reveals that Manon is the last Crochan Queen, her father being a Crochan Prince and her mother being an Ironteeth witch, and that her she killed both of them upon discovering the truth. Manon takes a near fatal wound to the stomach, and then drops off the cliff and is caught by Abraxos. She manages to kill the witches that chase her, and then passes out and wakes up in Oakwald Forest. She is attacked by a shapeshifter turned monster by Erawan, calling itself a Bloodhound, and she escapes again and tells Abraxos to take her somewhere safe.

Aelin, Aedion, and Lysandra arrive in Ilium to find it occupied by Adarlanian soldiers, the temple there being used as their barracks. She makes a dramatic appearance, giving some of the soldiers the chance to flee, and then the three of them kill the rest. They go to the temple and Aelin meets with King Brannon's ghost. He tells her to go to the Stone Marshes of Eyllwe to find a Lock that can bind the Wyrdkeys back to the Wyrdgate. The trio are then attacked by Erawan, possessing the body of the Chief Overseer of Endovier that tortured Aelin. She manages to kill him, but not after being taunted by Erawan. They then sail for Skull's Bay.

Dorian and Rowan arrive in Skull's Bay two weeks before the rest of their companions. Upon arriving, they go to meet with Rolfe, who insists upon staying neutral, but also find Gavriel and Fenrys in his company. They say that they were sent by Maeve to hunt and kill Lorcan. Rowan bargains that he will tell them where Lorcan is so long as they help them until then. They hesitate but Rowan tells Gavriel that he has a son, and so they agree. Rowan begins to train Dorian in magic. After two weeks, they go again to meet with Rolfe, and find Aelin, once again acting as Celaena, in his office. She then reveals that she is Aelin, and tries to bargain with Rolfe to get him on her side. He is angry and refuses. After some scheming, Aelin comes up with a plan and sends out a ripple of power that the Valg in the Dead Islands detect. They come with ships and sea-wyverns to attack Skull's Bay. Aelin offers her and her courts' help in exchange for Rolfe's allegiance and him gathering the remaining Mycenians to fight for her. She also says she will make him a lord of Terrasen and give his people back Ilium. He reluctantly agrees. Lysandra turns into a sea dragon and fulfills the Mycenian prophecy that once a sea dragon returns again, so shall the Mycenians. Aelin and Rowan combine their powers to wipe out the Valg ships, but Aelin wears the Wyrdkey, and is possessed by Deanna. Deanna gives them a riddle and tries to destroy Skull's Bay with her silver fire, but Rowan jumps in front of Aelin and she redirects her blow to the ships. She still ends up taking out most of Rolfe's ship, some of his men, and the entire Valg fleet save three boats. Lysandra takes out the two sea-wyverns, but is attacked by three more fully grown ones. She barely is able to kill them, with the help of Dorian and Aedion, and also sinks the remaining three ships. Aedion promises a wounded Lysandra that he is going to marry her one day. After the battle, Aelin then summons Elena, who tells her again that she needs to find the Lock.

Lorcan and Elide continue traveling together, but are attacked again by the ilken. At the next town over, their traveling companions sell them out to the Adarlanian guards, and they are forced to take a boat and flee. Lorcan discovers that Aelin has tricked him and he didn't actually have Wyrdkey this whole time, and he tells Elide that he will be bringing her to Aelin after all, and reveals that Aelin and Celaena are the same person. After a long ways of travel, they stop in another town, and Lorcan leaves Elide alone to buy clothes. Elide is attacked by ilken and her uncle Vernon, and they attempt to take her back to Morath. Thinking that Manon is dead and Lorcan has abandoned her, she attempts to kill herself, but Lorcan knocks her knife out of her hand and attacks. She and Lorcan kill the ilken, but her uncle Vernon escapes. Elide finally reveals what she is carrying with her, and Lorcan explains about the Wyrdkeys. They continue to head south to Eyllwe.

Aelin and her court travel on boats to the Stone Marshes to find the Lock. On the way, they see the coast of Eyllwe burning, and the townspeople blame Aelin for it. Abraxos finds their boat and they fetch an unconscious Manon out of the ocean and begin healing her wound. Once she is conscious, Dorian and Manon grow closer, and Aelin attacks Manon for leaving Elide alone in Oakwald Forest. Aelin makes a connection between something Fenrys said and Baba Yellowlegs' prophecy, and throws up. Rowan wants to know what's wrong but she only talks to Lysandra about it. Dorian advocates for Manon's freedom on the ship, and when they go to release her, they are attacked by a Bloodhound pretending to be Fenrys. She tells Manon that Asterin and her Thirteen are dead, and then Dorian kills her. The ship is attacked by ilken, and they fight them off, Manon assisting. They worry as Erawan now knows their location. They eventually make it to the Stone Marshes. Manon sends Abraxos to lie low and the court makes its way into the marshes. After three days of travel, they find the temple containing a chest that supposedly holds the Lock. Just then they begin to feel a magical warning signal from Lorcan, who, along with Elide, has noticed an army of 500 flying ilken heading straight towards them. They set up a trap, but Aelin obliterates them with her flame, and the others pick off the rest. When Lorcan comes into sight, Fenrys and Gavriel immediately attack him. Elide jumps in front of Lorcan, causing Fenrys to accidentally wound her arm. Gavriel heals her, and then Rowan declares that Lorcan and Elide are under their royal protection, which delays the blood oath command for them to kill him. Elide has a tearful reunion with Aedion, Aelin, and Manon, and she offers Aelin the second Wyrdkey. They then go back to the temple to open the chest, and find not a Lock but a witch mirror. They carry it back through the Marshes to the beach, and encounter a hooded woman with soldiers at her back. Everyone goes on alert, and Lorcan sends out a pulse of power to signal Maeve to come so that way Elide will be saved if there is trouble. Aelin goes down to talk with the stranger, who reveals herself to be Ansel of Briarcliff, Queen of the Western Wastes, Aelin's old friend turned enemy from when she trained with the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert. Ansel owed Aelin a life debt, and she gathered her forces and conquered Melisande, taking it away from Erawan's control, all for Aelin. They ready to leave for Terrasen, but are cornered by Maeve's armada.

They give them a day to decide whether to surrender or fight. That night, Rowan flies to all of the ships in Maeve's armada bearing the Whitethorn crest and begs them to switch sides. A few hours before the dawn of the day of the battle, Dorian solves Deanna's riddle and the mystery of the witch mirror. Aelin and Manon join hands and step into the mirror. Aedion is enraged at Dorian for suggesting such a thing, and Rowan is left to command the fleet against Maeve.

Inside the mirror, Manon and Aelin are shown what really happened when Elena and Gavin fought Erawan all those years ago. Elena stole the Eye of Elena, the true Lock, from her father Brannon and used it to seal Erawan in a tomb. The gods then appear before her, angry at her for using the Lock. Brannon had made a deal with them to use the Lock to send the gods back to their home world, and they would take Erawan with them. But by wasting all of the Lock's power on Erawan's tomb, Elena ruined their chance and doomed her own bloodline. The gods tell her that her bloodline will pay the price she couldn't and ultimately one would have to give their own life to reforge the Lock and seal away the keys, sending the gods and the Valg out of the world. She agrees, and agrees to set clues and hints for that future descendant to help lead them into doing it. They are then shown Nehemia coming to the Stone Marshes, thinking the prophecies and clues were for her. Elena appears before her and tells her that it must either be Dorian or Aelin that does it, and that Nehemia must help by going to Rifthold and preparing one or both of them, but that she will forfeit her own life in doing so. Nehemia agrees. Aelin is enraged at Elena even though she had already figured out that she would have to die to reseal the Wyrdkeys. Elena shows her what really happened the night her parents were killed and she fell in the river. She almost drowned but was pulled out by Elena put in a physical form by the gods. Aelin died from the cold but Elena revived her, and the gods told Elena to take Aelin then, as a child, to reforge the Lock. But Elena wanted Aelin to at least have a chance to live her life before she died and instead compelled Arobynn Hamel to come and find her. The gods were angry with her for this and as her punishment Elena cannot enter the afterlife and she will simply cease to exist the moment the keys are put back.

The battle between the courts' forces and Maeve's wages on. Lysandra is able to take out some boats in sea dragon form, but against Fae warriors they are ultimately losing. But then the Whitethorn ships turn on Maeve's armada and begin assisting them. Abraxos flies back with the Thirteen, ultimately turning the tide of the battle and causing the remaining force to flee.

Manon and Aelin are sucked out of the mirror and teleported to the beach where Elide had been sent by Lorcan for safety. Her guards are all dead, and Maeve has her held prisoner. She cuts Gavriel off from the blood oath, and reveals Lorcan's betrayal, as well as how Aelin walked perfectly into her years long schemes. She also reveals that Rowan is her mate, and that she used her magic to trick him into thinking Lyria was his mate, and then had her killed in order to get him to take the blood oath. She then demands that Aelin surrender or Elide will be tortured. Aelin surrenders, and Cairn whips her brutally. They seal her into an iron box and sail away, right before Rowan, Aedion, Dorian, Lysandra, and the Thirteen arrive. Elide and Manon reveal everything to Rowan and the others, and Rowan reveals that they had a secret marriage, making him the King of Terrasen. Lysandra then reveals that she and Aelin already made a plan for her disappearance/death in which Lysandra would pretend to be Aelin for the rest of her life and Aedion would father her children so Terrasen would have heirs. Lorcan is immensely remorseful, and Elide and Aedion are enraged. Just then Ansel and Rowan's cousin Enda arrive, along with Galan Ashryver, Prince of Wendlyn, and all of his naval forces, and the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert. They realize that Aelin called in every life debt owed to her to raise an army, and Lysandra shifts to become her to maintain the ruse that she is still leading her own forces. Dorian leaves with Manon, Elide, and the Thirteen to find the Crochans, and Rowan, Lorcan, and Gavriel head off to begin the hunt for Aelin.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius (Celaena Sardothien/Aelin of the Wildfire/Fireheart): Aelin has shown a lot of growth in this series, but we still get to see her mistakes. Even though she is learning to trust her court and delegate more, she still takes on a lot of secrets and schemes on her own, which leads to the attack from Maeve in the first place because Lorcan got scared for Elide and summoned her. While she accepts her role as the sacrificial lamb of her bloodline, we still see it scare her, and I'm glad she didn't just stoically accept her death.

Aedion Ashryver (The Wolf of the North): While I am personally not a huge fan of Aedion overall, Aelin and Lysandra's plan to use him to produce heirs was really messed up and he had every right to be angry with them about that. It also doesn't make sense because according to shapeshifter rules (Feyre's pregnancy in A Court of Silver Flames for example) if Lysandra and Rowan made kids while Lysandra was in Aelin's form, the kids would look like a mix of Rowan and Aelin, so Aedion is completely unnecessary. That would have really sucked for Rowan but getting him involved in that way wasn't even needed. The kids wouldn't even look like Lysandra's usual form either because Lysandra's form isn't how she was at birth and she can't go back to her original look because she doesn't remember.

Storyline: I once again loved seeing old characters come back into the fold and watching Aelin's schemes fall into place. Everything feels connected and purposeful and there are reasonable explanations for everything. Nothing is just left up to fate (looking at you House of Flame and Shadow) and things come together either by Maeve, Erawan, Aelin, or the gods' scheming and planning.

Representation: Aedion is bisexual, Rowan's cousin Enda is mentioned as being gay, and Lord Darrow was the former King of Terrasen's consort. Representation for POC is once again lacking. Elide is crippled due to her ankle being deformed from a break that was never healed.

Summary: This is my second favorite book in the Throne of Glass series, right after Queen of Shadow. All of the plot line were entertaining the whole time and everything is intentional and flawlessly comes together.

Quotes: "The world... will be saved and remade by the dreamers..."-Aelin (p.248) "I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you."-Rowan (p.350) "It is not such a hard thing, is it--to die for your friends."-Dorian (p.594)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.5 Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 645

Time Read: 11 hours and 23 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, blood, death, murder, gore, torture, injury, grief, war, confinement, slavery, fire, physical abuse, vomit, miscarriage, emotional abuse, body horror, pregnancy, s*xual abuse, kidnapping, death of a parent, genocide, su*c*de, child death, child abuse, su*c*dal thoughts, trafficking, colonization, mentions of r*pe, s*xual violence, medical trauma, classism, domestic abuse, self harm, gaslighting, s*xual harassment, ableism, cursing, misogyny, panic attacks, stalking, alcohol, execution, xenophobia

POV: Third Person

Time Period/Location: Rifthold, Adarlan; Morath; Oakwald Forest; and Terrasen on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: There was a thing waiting in the darkness.

Aelin lands in Rifthold from Wendlyn and goes straight to The Vaults, the seedy underground tavern/fighting pit/pleasure house in order to find Arobynn Hamel. She is surprised to discover Chaol, with an unknown woman, meeting with Arobynn. He leaves without noticing her, and Aelin confronts Arobynn. He informs her of Aedion's capture by the king, and that he is set to be executed at a grand party for Dorian's birthday. He offers to help her free him, in exchange for her capturing one of the Valg soldiers now infesting the city. Arobynn leaves, and the city guards Aelin had led there break in, and she wrecks the entire place. She then leaves to hunt down Chaol in the sewers, and encounters the woman who was with him. Her name is Nesryn, and she is a member of the city guard now aiding Chaol and the rebels. Chaol sends Nesryn and the rebels and the captives they freed ahead, and explains to Aelin what happened with Dorian, Sorscha, and Aedion. They part angry with each other after Chaol refuses to tell her how to free magic. Aelin goes back to her apartment, and the next day finds Lysandra and a child named Evangeline outside. Lysandra insists she has changed from when they were children, and gives her a letter written by Wesley, Arobynn's former bodyguard, and Lysandra's deceased lover. In the letter Wesley explains everything Arobynn did involving Sam's death and Aelin's capture. Chaol and Aelin argue about whether or not to kill Dorian now that he has a Valg prince possessing him. Aelin swears she won't, and so Chaol tells her how to free magic. Aelin sneaks into the castle with a troupe of dancers set to perform for the King and Dorian at his birthday party. She spills water to wash away Wyrdmarks that would notify the King of her presence. Madame Florine, Celaena's dance teacher for years, aids in the ruse, and gives all of the dancers black glass roses. Aelin sneaks through the crowd, disguising herself as a man to get close to Aedion. When the dancers smash the glass roses, the whole hall goes up in smoke and Aelin uses the distraction to free Aedion. Everyone rushes out, and Aelin and Aedion run through the gardens until they are confronted by Dorian. Aelin uses a Wyrdmark to freeze him in place and tries to kill him, but is stopped by Nesryn. Her and Aedion run, and with the help of Lysandra, manage to make it back to the apartment. Chaol and Aelin fight over her almost killing Dorian, and Lysandra finds out that Aelin is Queen of Terrasen. Aelin discovers that the eight creatures on the clocktower, that she dubs Wyrdhounds, are living in the sewers and that the King uses them to speak to his Valg commanders. She goes out for drinks with Aedion and Nesryn, and on their way home, they are stopped by Rowan. They tell each other of what has occurred when they are back in the apartment. Rowan then reveals to Aedion that his father is Gavriel, and also lets it slip that he took the blood oath to Aelin. Aedion believes it was his right to be the only one to claim the blood oath, and him and Aelin fight and he storms out. Rowan then finally tells Aelin why he came to Adarlan against her orders: Lorcan is hunting her and the third Wyrdkey.

Aelin sneaks out at night to lure Lorcan into the sewers. He is attacked by the Wyrdhound and kills it, and follows Aelin, threatening to kill her. Rowan puts a knife to his throat, and Lorcan warns them that Maeve let them walk out of Doranelle, and that she isn't done with them yet. Rowan meets Lysandra and reveals that she is a shape-shifter. She warns them that Arobynn wants his demon tomorrow, so they go out and capture one and interrogate it themselves. They manage to talk to the man the demon is possessing, Stevan, and tell him a plan. The next day, Rowan, Aelin, and Aedion go to the Assassin's Keep. Arobynn tortures the Stevan for information, and Stevan tells him that the King put him under his control by putting the ring on and licking his blood. Arobynn cuts the ring off Stevan's finger before killing him. The three then have dinner with Arobynn, and he becomes jealous at seeing how close Aelin and Rowan are. He then pulls her aside to talk to her privately, and gives her the Amulet of Orynth containing the third Wyrdkey in exchange for her working for him again to take down the King. She agrees, but he then puts on the Valg ring and licks her blood. She becomes his slave, and he sends her back to the apartment. She is silent until they arrive there, and then she takes off the ring, revealing that Stevan lied about the blood and that Arobynn just revealed his true intentions. That night, Lysandra kills him in his sleep. The next day, acting as Celaena, the trio goes back to the Keep and Celaena demands from the other assassins and Lysandra to know what happened. They determine it wasn't anyone among them, and Arobynn's will is read. All of his fortune, lands, and the Guild are left to Celaena, much to the dismay of the other assassins and Clarisse, the brothel owner that owns Lysandra. Aelin kicks them all out, and tells them to come back with money if they want to buy it from her, which they do. Aedion and Rowan figure out she switched the will so that way they would have money for an army.

Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, and Chaol go into the sewers in search of hellfire, a potent mixture that would blow up the clocktower and free magic. They find the hellfire, but also an old temple built of bones, where wicked people carved their confessions onto them. They go through the temple till they find the confession of Gavin Havilliard. He explains that him and Elena fought the Valg king Erawan and that they could not kill him, so they entombed him in Morath and sealed it using the Eye of Elena. Nesryn finds them and tells them that the King is building a dark army in Morath, and tells them about the witches and wyverns. Aelin storms off and Lorcan pins her, telling her and Rowan the true reason he is here. He isn't on orders from Maeve, and plans to find the Wyrdkeys and destroy them to keep Maeve from becoming a monster. He offers to exchange Athril's ring, which grants protection from the Valg, for the Amulet of Orynth. Then he leaves to let them think it over. When they arrive home, Evangeline breaks in and tells them that as part of Arobynn's will, he had a letter sent to the castle informing the King that Lysandra was a shapeshifter. The guards came and took her and she was being taken into Oakwald forest for the King and Dorian to have a meeting with the witches.

Manon, the Thirteen, and the other Blackbeak covens have been stationed at Morath for months, taking endless orders from Duke Perrington, a collared and lifeless Kaltain at his side. The Duke demands that Manon chose a coven to be implanted with Wyrdstone so that way they can bear witch/Valg offspring. Manon initially refuses, but a Yellowlegs coven volunteers. Elide Lochan, daughter of Marion and Cal Lochan and niece to Vernon Lochan, is chained and crippled, working as a slave in Morath. She is assigned to serve Manon, and when Manon gives her a small cut and tastes her blood, she discovers she has witch lineage. She tells Elide to choose whether she is human, or whether she is a witch. Elide says she is a witch, and so Manon sends her to go and check on the Yellowlegs coven. She discovers that the witches are being bred multiple times, and producing monsters as babies. Manon is angered and writes to her grandmother, to no avail. Asterin, her Second and cousin, grows increasingly angrier with Manon and they fight multiple times, and it ends with her being demoted. but is then summoned by the Duke to meet the King and her grandmother in Oakwald forest.

The Matron shows the King a new weapon, a wagon covered in mirrors on the inside, meant to amplify shadowfire, a dark fire that doesn't physically burn but kills and injures regardless, that is wielded by Kaltain. Manon and Dorian instantly connect, the Valg prince in him immediately fading away and giving Dorian control at the sight of Manon's gold eyes. Dorian tries to goad her into killing him, but she doesn't oblige him. Meanwhile, Aelin, Aedion, Chaol, and Rowan free Lysandra and are about to escape but Chaol disappears to go try and mercy kill Dorian. He runs into the witches instead. Aedion, Aelin, and Rowan run after him. Manon is about to let them go but Aelin doesn't believe her and goads her into a fight by revealing she killed Baba Yellowlegs. They run through a temple and Aelin and Manon fight. The temple begins to collapse and Manon is trapped and going to die, but Aelin decides to save her life and then leaves. While Manon is gone, Elide is captured by Vernon and thrown in a cell. After the fight, Asterin tells Manon they need to talk, and she tells her how she fell in love with a human man, and went back to the witches when she was pregnant. Her baby was stillborn, and Manon's grandmother, the Matron, beat her, branded the word "unclean" across her stomach, and threw her out to die. Asterin never told Manon, and that is why she had been acting out. Manon is angry, and decides that she will not give another coven to the Duke for breeding. She then realizes that Aelin was probably trying to rescue Dorian, and that Chaol was trying to mercy kill him, so she flies to Rifthold with Asterin and paints all around the city a warning that Dorian is still alive despite the demon.

Aelin reveals to Lysandra that she has paid off all of her debts and she is now free from Clarisse and the brothel. Rowan is recovering from the battle with the witches, but smells Lorcan out on the roof and goes to meet him. Lorcan says he killed all the Wyrdhounds and offers the ring again for the amulet. Rowan agrees and they trade. Rowan gave him a fake though.

Aelin sees Manon's message and runs to tell Chaol. Aedion and Rowan sneak through tunnels underground to install the hellfire at the base of the clock tower to blow it up. Aelin pretends to be Celaena again and leads Chaol through the gates as her prisoner. As they are walking through the gates, they see all of Chaol's men, tortured and dead, strung up on the gates. They go to the throne room to meet with the King and Dorian. Aelin pretends as though she has killed the Wendlyn royals and gives the king two fake seal rings to prove it. He then reveals he knows that she is Aelin, and he sends Dorian to attack her. She runs, and Chaol faces off against the King. Lorcan lied about killing the Wyrdhounds, and Aedion and Rowan are attacked by them when they are supposed to be lighting the fuse. Lorcan, after seeing that Aedion is Gavriel's son, saves them. Aelin faces off against Dorian, and puts Athril's ring on his finger to try and get the Valg out. Rowan and Aedion blow up the clocktower, and magic is freed. Rowan and Aedion are targeted by soldiers, and Lorcan flees, but Lysandra appears in the form of a ghost leopard and helps them fight them off. The King appears and taunts that he killed Chaol, and Dorian breaks free from the Valg. Him and Aelin combine magic to kill the King. The King then breaks free from the Valg that was controlling him and reveals that Perrington tricked the King, raised Erawan, let Erawan possess him, and then possessed the King with a Valg prince. He claims that he got rid of magic to help protect Aelin and Dorian so the Valg wouldn't find them, and that he magically attacked Aelin when she was a child in order to provoke her into killing him. Dorian doesn't believe him and uses his magic to kill him and shatter the whole glass castle. Aelin uses her fire to melt the glass into a wall so the city is saved. She proclaims herself as Queen of Terrasen and Dorian as King of Adarlan. Lorcan steals back Athril's ring from Aelin. Chaol is alive, but he is paralyzed from the waist down. Dorian makes Nesryn his Captain of the Guard and Chaol his Hand, but immediately sends the both of them to the Southern Continent so Chaol can be healed at the Torre Cesme. Aelin makes Lysandra a Lady of Terrasen. Aelin, Lysandra, Aedion, and Rowan all leave for Terrasen.

In Morath, Manon arrives to discover Elide missing. She immediately hunts her down in the dungeons, being dragged away to breed with the Valg. Manon slaughters the guards, and they run into Kaltain. She reveals that she had killed the Valg that had been possessing her a long time ago, and takes Elide's clothes to pretend to be her to give her time to escape. She then cuts open her arm and takes out a Wyrdkey and gives it Elide, making her swear to give it to Celaena Sardothien. Manon, Elide, and the rest of the Thirteen run, and Kaltain uses her shadowfire to obliterate a third of Morath. Manon gives Elide supplies and tells her to go north to Terrasen to find Aelin and Celaena.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius (Celaena Sardothien/Lillian Gordaina/Ansel of Briarcliff/Aelin Fireheart/Aelin of the Wildfire): I know a lot of people find Aelin's endless scheming and plots to be annoying, but one of my favorite parts about this series is watching her schemes and subtle plans come together. None of it comes out of nowhere, it was all well thought out and planned (a theme I wish SJM had kept in her Crescent City series).

Storyline: Once again, I love watching the intricate pieces and subtle hints all come together in this series, but especially in this book. She also lays the groundwork for later schemes in this book. The entire story was engaging and entertaining the entire time, and I loved seeing Lysandra, Rowan, Aedion, Aelin, Chaol, Dorian, and Manon all come together. I do wish Dorian hadn't killed the King as quickly as he did, as there was so much more information they could have got from him.

Representation: Ghislaine, one of the Thirteen, is described as being POC. Characters like Rowan, Lorcan, and Dorian are left up for debate as to whether they are POC or just tan.

Quotes: "She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph." (p.142) "'But would you bleed red, or black?' 'I'll bleed whatever color you tell me to.'"-Manon and Dorian (p.463) "You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live."-Aelin (p.527)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.4 Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 569

Time Read: 10 hours and 27 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, blood, murder, grief, death of a parent, gore, war, torture, slavery, fire/burns, injury/injury detail, genocide, physical abuse, su*c*dal thoughts, animal cruelty, emotional abuse, body horror, vomit, mental illness, confinement, bullying, colonization, cursing, panic attacks, toxic relationship, self harm, abandonment, classism, misogyny, racism, child abuse, child death, su*c*de attempt, drug use

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Varese, Doranelle, and Mistward on the fictional continent of Wendlyn; Rifthold, Adarlan, and The Ferian Gap on the fictional continent of Erilea

First Line: Gods, it was boiling in this useless excuse for a kingdom.

Two months after being sent to Varese to kill the King and Prince of Wendlyn, Celaena has made no progress and realizes she doesn't plan on it. Drunk and starving, she is confronted by a Fae named Rowan and taken by him to a fortress outside of the Fae city of Doranelle called Mistward. There she is confronted by her aunt, Queen Maeve, and she demands to know about the Wyrdkeys. Maeve says that because she is demi-Fae, she cannot gain access to Doranelle or the answers she wants until she trains in her magic and proves herself worthy. She instructs Rowan to stay with her in Mistward and train her.

In Adarlan, Aedion Ashryver arrives in Rifthold at the behest of the king. He is Aelin/Celaena's cousin, and since the fall of Terrasen has become one of the king's best generals. Dorian and Chaol dislike him immensely, especially after Aedion starts taking Chaol's guards away to parties. Chaol goes to search for him, but discovers that Aedion doesn't even attend his own parties. Chaol begins to track Aedion all over the city in order to get blackmail so he can tell him to stop stealing his guards. He sees him meeting with a hooded figure, and is then kidnapped. He discovers Aedion has been meeting with two of the rebels who were working with Archer Finn, Ren and his grandfather Murtaugh. Aedion is also a rebel, and Ren and Murtaugh are former nobles from Terrasen. Chaol tells them that Aelin is alive, and privately tells Aedion that she is Celaena Sardothien.

We are introduced to a new character named Manon Blackbeak, an Ironteeth witch, heir to the Blackbeak clan. By order of the King of Adarlan, all three witch clans, the Blackbeaks, Bluebloods, and Yellowlegs, are all required to gather in the Ferian Gap and train to ride wyverns bred by the king so they can be his new aerial cavalry.

Rowan instructs Celaena to work in the kitchens in the morning, where she meets Emrys and Luca, two demi-Fae. Rowan comes to get her to train and commands her to shift into her Fae form but she refuses. Growing frustrated, Rowan tells her to walk through a field full of barrow wights, grave robbing cave creatures, and if she can come out the other side she can go to Doranelle. In the field, she is attacked by a creature who looks human but wears a black stone collar. It makes her relive her worst memories and slowly begins feeding on her essence. She is rescued by Rowan, but he refuses to take her to Doranelle. After several days of not shifting, Rowan bites her, forcing her to shift. She can't do this again, and slowly bodies of demi-Fae begin to appear around the area, withered husks sucked of all life. Rowan and Celaena get into a fight, and she decides to leave Mistward. She treks off on her own and lights a fire, but is very quickly hunted down by skinwalkers. Rowan saves her, and the fear and panic makes her able to shift and use her fire magic, and she burns the skinwalkers alive. After another fight between them, Rowan takes Celaena to a cave under a mountain with a lake, and he freezes it completely with Luca chained in the center. Celaena makes her way across the ice and controls her fire enough to free Luca, but they are then attacked by a lake monster. After leaving Rowan and Celaena fight again, and Rowan promises to never involve anyone else in their training again, and they grow a bit closer.

Dorian is lonely since Celaena left, not trusting Chaol and Chaol keeping his distance so Dorian doesn't discover that Celaena is Aelin. Dorian gradually grows closer to a healer named Sorscha, and it quickly turns romantic. Aedion and Chaol meet in the secret tunnels to discuss everything Chaol knows about Aelin and the king and the Wyrdkeys. Dorian, who was already in the tunnels, hears everything and is angry with Chaol for keeping all of this from him. Ren, Murtaugh, Chaol, and Aedion begin investigating how to bring back magic so Aelin and Dorian can stand a chance against the king.

Manon begins training her covens, and the time comes to pick a wyvern. She has her eye set on the biggest and meanest one, Titus, but when he is put in the pit and set on the bait beast to show off his skills, Iskra, the Yellowlegs heir, shoves Manon into the pit. The bait beast defends her when Titus tries to attack her, and, with her help, he successfully kills Titus. Manon chooses him as her mount and names him Abraxos, much to the anger of her grandmother, as he has never flown. He is able to fly, but not able to pass the test of flying the Crossing, so Manon goes to the Ruhnn mountains and steals spider silk from the Stygian spiders to reinforce his wings. With this, Abraxos is able to make the Crossing and lead the rest of Manon's coven, the Thirteen, in battle.

Rowan and Celaena continue to investigate the murders of demi-Fae, and come across 200 Adarlanian soldiers and three of the creatures with the black collars hiding in caves. They begin to prepare Mistward for attack, even though no aid would be coming from Doranelle or Wendlyn. They set traps, and plan to flee down a secret tunnel if the fortress becomes compromised, but they are betrayed by someone in the fortress, and the soldiers infiltrate through the tunnel while the creatures attempt to break down the magical wards surrounding the fort. Celaena goes out and uses her fire magic to hold off the creatures, and the reveal themselves to be Valg demons that Elena and Brannon fought centuries ago, all being controlled by the king of Adarlan. A fourth Valg appears in the body of General Narrok. Rowan's warrior friends arrive to help defend the fort, but when Rowan tries to run to Celaena, Lorcan and Gavriel stop him. She begins to be consumed by the memories of the days leading up to her family's death, starting with a magical meltdown she had when the king of Adarlan arrived in Terrasen. She realizes he was using his dark magic to make her react like that so they would have to send her away and split up their family, making them easier to assassinate. She also remembered her mother's lady in waiting, Marion, who died to save her, and the fact that her family heirloom necklace that she had been wearing, the Amulet of Orynth, went missing that night. While the demons continue to torture her, she is given a vision of her younger self that tells her to get up, and she does, unlocking the true depth of her power and she begins incinerating the Valg. She slowly begins to lose power, and Rowan finally frees himself and runs to her. They cut their palms open to form a blood tie and combine magic to destroy the rest of them, making them carranam, magical soulmates. After the battle Celaena realizes the third Wyrdkey is in the Amulet of Orynth, and that Arobynn Hamel must have it. She doesn't tell Rowan this though in case Maeve tries to force it out of him using the blood oath.

Manon and her coven participate in the War Games to see who will be crowned Wing Leader. The Blackbeaks are winning, but Iskra commands her wyvern to kill Keelie, the Blueblood heir Petrah's wyvern. Petrah and Keelie begin to fall to their death, and instead of securing her victory right then, Manon saves Petrah's life. They win the War Games anyways, but Manon is beaten by her grandmother for saving the life of her rival. As reward/thinly veiled threat to stay in line, her grandmother orders her to kill a Crochan witch and take her cloak for herself.

Rowan and Celaena travel to Doranelle and Maeve gives Celaena what she wants to know, which isn't much. She tells her what the Wyrdkeys look and felt like and then asks her where the third key is. Celaena refuses to tell her, and Rowan doesn't know, so Maeve begins whipping Rowan. Celaena encircles the whole city in fire and threatens to burn the people in it if Maeve doesn't stop. When they were in the cave with the lake monster, Rowan found a sword named Goldryn and and a golden ring, both that belonged to Athril, Maeve's former lover. Celaena figured out the true story, that Maeve tried to keep the Wyrdkeys for herself, but Brannon and Athril fought her. When Athril died, she was so distraught that Brannon took the Wyrdkeys from her. Celaena bargains the ring for Rowan being freed from the blood oath, and Maeve relents. Rowan immediately kneels and takes the blood oath to Celaena, and they leave Doranelle.

Aedion, Dorian, Chaol, and Sorscha are called before the king. The king threatens to cut off her head if one of them doesn't admit to treason, and Aedion takes the fall and is arrested. The king reveals that Sorscha was actually a rebel spy this whole time, in contact with Ren and Murtaugh and feeding them information. He cuts off her head and Chaol tries to fight the king. He is almost killed with an arrow until Dorian uses his magic to save him and Chaol escapes the castle with Fleetfoot. Dorian is captured by the king and given a Wyrdstone collar.

Celaena, leaving Rowan in Wendlyn, sails home.

Celaena Sardothien (Aelin Ashryver Galathynius/Elentiya): Watching Celaena/Aelin's growth throughout this series makes her one of my favorite characters ever. Especially in contrast to The Assassin's Blade and Throne of Glass, she has matured a lot, and her realizing that her parents' death wasn't her fault, and the memories pulled up by the Valg making her stronger, really shows her strength as a character and made for very believable character development.

Storyline: When I first read this series I didn't care much for Heir of Fire with the bouncing POVs, but after this second read through, this is one of my favorites. The series really starts to pick up and come together at this point, and a lot of growth happens, along with the introduction of Manon and the Ironteeth witches. There were a couple of slow parts, but I honestly didn't mind that much.

Representation: Emrys and Malakai, two the demi-Fae living at Mistward, are gay. I believe some of the demi-Fae are described as being POC, but no one major, and as much as I love this series, I would be remiss to not point out the lack of representation.

Summary: This book, along with Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, and Kingdom of Ash is some of SJM's best work as far as plot and character development.

Quotes: "See what you want, Aelin, and seize it. Don't ask for it; don't wish for it. Take it."-Rowan Whitethorn (p.234) "You cannot pick and choose what parts of her to love."-Dorian Havilliard (p.344)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.3 Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS

Pages: 418

Time Read: 7 hours and 8 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★★ Characters: ★★★★★

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, murder, violence, blood, grief, gore, injury, torture, slavery, kidnapping, death of a parent, assassination, body horror, confinement, war, genocide, colonization, physical abuse, classism, toxic friendship, misogyny/sexism, su*c*dal thoughts/su*c*de attempt, toxic relationship, gaslighting, animal harm, hunting, minor s*xual content, cursing, stalking, abandonment, mentions of r*pe, panic attacks, self harm, mentions of drug abuse

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Rifthold, the capital of Adarlan, in the fictional world of Erilea.

First Line: The shutters swinging in the storm wind were the only sign of her entry.

Celaena Sardothien has been the King's Champion for a couple of months at this point, and has already been on five assassination missions for the King. However, she has faked all of their deaths. The King then gives her a mission in Rifthold to kill Archer Finn, a courtesan she knew from growing up at the Assassin's Keep, as he suspects him to be a part of a rebel plot. Her friendship with Chaol has grown during this time, and she takes him with her to "accidentally" bump into Archer. Chaol is jealous by how closely they bond, and starts to realize his feelings for her. Celaena attempts to go to the library and finds what appears to be a cloaked person standing there, and it growls at her. The Eye of Elena begins to glow, and the creature runs off. She goes down into the tomb to seek answers from Elena, only to discover that the bronze skull knocker on the door can talk, and his name is Mort. He tells her that Elena wants her to find the evil in the castle. Dorian's cousin Roland arrives in the castle, wearing a black ring like Perrington and the King, and Celaena immediately dislikes him, even though he is trying desperately hard to gain Dorian's trust. Celaena and Archer go to dinner, and she tells him that she was sent by the King to assassinate him. Archer pleads for his life, saying he has no involvement in the rebel plots, but that some of his clients do, and that he knows that they want to find Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, the heir to the throne of Terrasen, and use her to overthrow the King of Adarlan. Celaena gives him till the end of the month to get his affairs in order and to give her as much information as possible about the conspirators. He begins by taking her to a ball held by one of his clients, Davis, and she sneaks into his office and discovers a book on Wyrdmarks. In the back, she finds written, "It is only with the eye that one can see rightly." Davis catches her snooping and cuts her with a dagger that was covered in gloriella, a paralytic poison. She manages to kill him and make it back to the castle in time to tell Chaol to give her the antidote. Celaena then involves Nehemia, asking her to teach her to read the Wyrdmarks and help her solve the riddle. They go down to Elena's tomb, and discover that when standing on a constellation of the Stag, a hollowed out eye appeared in the wall. They both looked through it, but discovered nothing. Chaol and Celaena grow closer, and Celaena takes him out for a romantic dinner. She confesses that she hasn't actually been killing her targets, and Chaol is angry but ultimately chooses to be with her, saying he'll leave Rifthold with her one day. They have a lot of s*x over the following week.

Celaena and Nehemia get into a heated argument where Nehemia calls her a coward for refusing to help her plan to overthrow the King. Chaol is then kidnapped, and Celaena is left with a ransom note. She goes to a warehouse and kills 15 men before she is stopped by Archer. He tells her that Nehemia founded their rebel group, and that he had heard that she was going to be interrogated by Chaol and the King that day so they kidnapped him in an attempt to stop it and to show Celaena that Chaol had kept secret the fact that Nehemia's life was threatened. Celaena races back to the castle and finds Nehemia tortured to death. She attacks Chaol, blaming him for her death, and Dorian uses magic to stop her from killing him. Chaol puts her in the dungeons for a few days, where Kaltain tells her that Duke Perrington is taking her to Morath to be his wife, and that Roland will be going with them. When Chaol releases her from the dungeons, she sinks into heavy grief and refuses to speak to anyone. She then deduces that Grave, an assassin from the competition to be Champion, must have killed Nehemia, and she uses the tunnels to sneak out and kill him. She brings his head before the King, accuses the lord that was his sponsor in the competition of hiring him to kill Nehemia, and she gives him a list of the 15 men she killed from Archer's group. She solves the riddle talking about the eye and uses the pommel of King Gavin's sword Damaris to see another riddle written on the inside of the hollowed out eye. It is a map to to finding three powerful objects. She goes to a the carnival being held in honor of Prince Hollin, and speaks to an Ironteeth witch named Baba Yellowlegs. The witch reveals that Dorian came asking her questions about magic, and offers to sell his questions to Celaena but she refuses. She asks her about the riddle and the witch tells her that it speaks of Wyrdkeys, three slivers of rock broken off from the Wyrdgate, the portal between worlds. They are immensely powerful individually, but with all three one can open the Wyrdgate to all sorts of different planets and dimensions. She kills the witch for knowing Dorian's secrets, and her and Dorian grow closer again.

She then investigates catacombs she found beneath the library, using Wyrdmarks to unlock the iron doors. She finds an underground prison, and then the entrance to the giant obsidian clock tower built by the King. She is turning back when she is attacked by the creature from before. Dorian, who had followed her down, runs with her, and he tries to use his magic to seal the door. It doesn't work, so he runs to find the spellbook and they use it to trap and kill the creature. Celaena realizes it has a human heart, and that it must have been human at one point. She believes the King used a Wyrdkey to make it into a monster. She discovers the meaning of the first part of the riddle and discovers the key is gone. Distraught, she grabs the spellbook and uses it to open a portal to contact Nehemia. She succeeds, but Nehemia tells her to never do it again. Just as the portal closes, Archer appears, and reveals that Nehemia showed him the tunnels and he's been spying on her for weeks. Celaena realizes on of the coded notes in Nehemia's room was saying not to trust Archer. She acts like she is on his side and is willing to give him the book and work with him, and he confesses he was the one to order Grave to kill Nehemia. She attacks him once he does, and in their fight they accidentally open a portal to another world. Dorian is warned in a dream by King Gavin that Celaena is in trouble, and he runs to get Chaol and they discover the tunnel. They arrive to see a demon attacking Celaena, Fleetfoot (Celaena's dog) hurt, and Archer chanting out of the spell book. Chaol attacks the demon, Archer flees, and Dorian drags Celaena away. Celaena knocks him out, and sees the demon drag Fleetfoot through the portal and Chaol run after her. Celaena runs into the portal and immediately shifts from a human to a Fae, and attacks the demon with fire magic. They all get to safety and Celaena uses Dorian's magic blood to close the portal. Celaena then hunts down Archer in the tunnels and kills him, bringing his head before the King.

Chaol tells his father he wants to send Celaena away to Wendlyn to assassinate the King and his son, and that if he backs him up he will return to be the Lord of Anielle. His father agrees and they propose the idea to the King. He agrees, and tells Celaena to go to Wendlyn. She is panicked, not knowing how to get out of it, but Elena tells her to go. Before she leaves, she says goodbye to Dorian, and then says goodbye to Chaol at the docks. She tells him about the Wyrdkeys and everything she's learned, and then tells him the date of her parents' death and leaves. He is confused, and researches the date, and realizes that Celaena is actually Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, lost queen of Terrasen, and he just sent her away to the land of her distant Fae relatives.

Storyline: The storyline in this book was a little slow for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Representation: Nehemia is the only POC, and she has herself killed in order to motivate and progress Celaena's character, which is a huge issue I have with this book.

[385bookreviews]

1.72.2 Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS:

Pages: 404

Time Read: 7 hours and 9 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ Storyline: ★★★★☆ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★★☆☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Violence, murder, blood, death, slavery, injury, gore, death of a parent, torture, vomit, body horror, confinement, war, physical abuse, grief, genocide, misogyny/sexism, emotional abuse, su*c*dal thoughts/attempts, racism, discussion of animal death, cursing, drug abuse, kidnapping, abandonment, s*xual harassment, discussions of r*pe, drugging, hallucinations, discussions of infidelity

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: In the country of Adarlan on the fictional continent of Erilea.

First Line: After a year of slavery in the salt mines of Endovier, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point.

Celaena Sardothien, the most infamous assassin on the continent, is brought before the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian Havilliard. At 17, she was sentenced to spend the rest of her days in Endovier, a mining death-camp meant for criminals and rebels. A year later, the prince is now asking her to compete in a contest to be held by the King of Adarlan. She would compete against 23 other mercenaries, assassin's, and murders, all sponsored by one of the nobility, to become the King's Champion. In exchange for four years of service, she would then gain her freedom. Celaena agrees, and they travel back to Rifthold, and into the giant glass castle of the king. Celaena disguises herself as the Lady Lillian Gordaina, a jewel thief from Fenharrow, so that she will not be targeted by the other competitors. Very quickly, Cain, Duke Perrington's champion, stands out as a threat, and he takes to taunting her quickly. She slowly gains the trust of Prince Dorian and the Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall. She also befriends Nehemia, princess of the conquered country of Eyllwe in the south. Not long after, the training for the contest begins, murders of the Champions begin to occur. The bodies are found with the organs and brain removed, the skin of the face peeled off, and the blood drawn into strange symbols called Wyrdmarks around the body. One night, Celaena discovers that there is a hidden door in her room that leads to tunnels under the castle. She discovers a secret hiding spot from which she can spy on the ball, and finds a tunnel leading out of the castle. She doesn't go down the third tunnel, however, she does in her dreams that night. She finds the tomb of the first Queen of Adarlan, half-fae Elena, and her husband Gavin. Elena then appears before her and tells her that she must find the great evil in the castle and win the contest to become champion. They hear a creature approaching, and Elena gives Celaena her amulet called the Eye of Elena and tells her to run. Celaena awakes back in her room, still clutching the necklace. She begins to study the Wyrdmarks, and then stumbles upon Nehemia reading a book in the common tongue when she supposedly cannot read in that language. Nehemia snaps at her and runs off with the book, and Celaena begins to suspect Nehemia might be behind the murders. She sneaks into the Yulemas ball, but she sees nothing suspicious from her, and ends up dancing with Dorian all night and kissing him afterwards.

She ends up discovering that the Wyrdmarks around the bodies are ones to summon demons called ridderaks. Once the ridderak eats the organs of the victim, the person who summoned it gains the strength of that person. Celaena ventures again into the tunnels, and finds Cain summoning the demon. He traps her alone in the room with it, but she escapes, and runs down to Elena and Gavin's tomb, and uses Gavin's sword Damaris to kill it. She is bitten, and by the time she makes it back to her room the poison in the bite slowly starts to kill her. She awakes having been healed by Nehemia. She reveals her true identity to her, and their trust in each other is restored. On the day of the final duel between the remaining four champions, Kaltain, a jealous courtier wanting Celaena out of the way so she can marry Dorian, poisons her wine with bloodbane given to her by Duke Perrington. When Celaena goes to fight Cain, she finds herself weak, confused, and nauseous. He begins to beat her brutally, and the drugs allow her to see the In-Between, the veil between worlds. She is surrounded by demons and the dead, and Cain himself appears to be a demon. Right as he is about to kill her, Elena comes through a portal and clears the poison from her system. She defeats Cain, and as she is comforted by Dorian, Cain attempts to stab her in the back. Chaol kills him, and Nehemia collapses. Duke Perrington frames Kaltain for the poisoning and has her thrown in prison, even though it was his poison and his idea. The next day, Nehemia comes to Celaena to explain that she is a spy for her people in Adarlan, and that her family has passed down the secrets of the Wyrdmarks for generations. Even though magic has completely disappeared in Adarlan, they work outside of that, and Nehemia used them to summon Elena and to heal Celaena of the ridderak's poison. She explains that she has been fighting Cain this entire time, and watching over Celaena. The king makes Celaena his champion, and she breaks off her relationship with Dorian, not wanting to try to force an impossible relationship to work. At the end, it is revealed that the King and Duke Perrington are using dark powers to mentally manipulate Kaltain, and were also the ones guiding Cain in his murders.

Celaena Sardothien (Queen of the Underworld/Lady Lillian Gordaina/Adarlan's Assassin/Elentiya): In ACOTAR, 19 year old Feyre is portrayed as very mature for her age. The same cannot be said for Celaena. Even though she is an accomplished and infamous assassin at 18, and is very intelligent, her childishness can shine through at times. Her thoughts and interactions with Dorian and Chaol can feel very silly at times, and she has trouble deducing some things that are a little obvious (e.g. the evil Elena wants her to defeat being the same thing doing the murders).

Dorian Havilliard (The Crown Prince of Adarlan): Dorian is also portrayed a bit childishly, however, we are seeing actual teenagers instead of the century old Fae we see in other books of SJM's. The chemistry between him and Celaena was definitely not there, so I'm very glad Celaena cut things off between them.

Chaol Westfall (The Captain of the Guard): You can definitely see the difference in how Chaol and Dorian both view Celaena. Even though Chaol has significantly warmed up to her by the end of the book, he still questions her motives and morals.

Storyline: You can definitely tell that this was Sarah J Maas' first book. Things were definitely more predictable in this book and she wasn't quite as adept as she is now in dropping subtle hints about things that have happened in the past. Going back and rereading Throne of Glass after having read the rest of the series, ACOTAR, and Crescent City, it is awesome to see how things have connected the whole time. The contest to become champion felt very stereotypically YA fantasy, and the love triangle a little bit forced, but overall it was still an entertaining read.

Representation: There is definitely not a lot of representation in this book (or in this whole series to be honest) and while I love SJM, this is one of my main complaints about this series overall. This book is the worst for it, as the only person of color is Nehemia Ytger, and she falls into the "Magical Negro" trope that is often used in books and movies, where the singular minority character with magical powers comes to the aid of the white protagonist but is not a protagonist themself. Also, all the slaves and rebels are discussed as being from Eyllwe, and we are left to assume that Eyllwe's population is mostly people of color. Since Elena explains that she wants Celaena to help the people affected by Adarlan's tyrannical rule, this effectively slots Celaena into the role of the "white savior".

Summary: SJM's distinct writing style hadn't clicked into place quite yet in this book, and there were a lot of unnecessary exclamation marks and childish dialogue. Upon reread this is definitely not one of my favorites, but I know that the rest of the series comes together really well, so some things can be forgiven (definitely not the lack of representation though).

Quotes: "I can survive well enough on my own- if given the proper reading material."-Celaena Sardothien (p. 146) "You could do anything... You could rattle the stars, if only you dared."-Elena Galathynius Havilliard (p. 399)

[385bookreviews]

1.72.1 The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS (for The Assassin's Blade and also some minor plot spoilers for the rest of the series)

Pages Total: 435 The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: 75 The Assassin and the Healer: 37 The Assassin and the Desert: 106 The Assassin and the Underworld: 104 The Assassin and the Empire: 98

Time Read: 7 hours and 5 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ Storyline: ★★★★★ Dialogue: ★★★★☆ Characters: ★★★★☆

Genre: YA Fantasy

TWs for the book: Death, violence, murder, torture, blood, slavery, physical abuse, grief, gore, injury, emotional abuse, vomit, confinement, gaslighting, body horror, kidnapping, toxic relationship, child abuse, trafficking, domestic abuse, fire, toxic friendship, stalking, discussion of death of a parent, war, alcohol, s*xual harassment, adult/minor relationship, sexism/misogyny, s*xual content, cursing, colonization, abandonment, classism, alcoholism, discussions or r*pe, prostitution

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: The Capital of Adarlan, Rifthold; The Red Desert, Innish, Skull's Bay, Xandria, Endovier. This book contains five novellas set over a year before Throne of Glass takes place.

First Line: Seated in the council room of the Assassins' Keep, Celaena Sardothien leaned back in her chair.

The book starts out with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. Celaena Sardothien and her rival, Sam Cortland, are sent to see Rolfe, the Pirate Lord of Skull's Bay. Arobynn Hamel, their master and the King of the Assassin's tells them that he wants them to demand payment for Rolfe killing some of his assassin's. When they arrive, however, they discover they are meant to be brokering a slave trade between Rolfe and Arobynn. Celaena and Sam are both appalled and set aside their rivalry in order to take down Rolfe and free 200 slaves. They succeed, and Celaena forces Rolfe to sign a document saying that he will never again participate in the slave trade, or she will hunt him down and kill him.

In the next story, The Assassin and the Healer, Celaena is in the town of Innish, on her way to the Red Desert to train with the Silent Assassins as punishment from Arobynn for having destroyed his deal with Rolfe. He beat her unconscious and then sent her on her way giving her two months to travel to and fro, and a month to be with the Silent Assassins. In Innish, she comes across a girl named Yrene, a former healer who lost her magic and her mother to Adarlan's empire. She had been working at the White Pig Inn for a year, hoping to save up enough money to travel to the southern continent and learn to become a healer at the Torre Cesme. While taking out the trash that night, Yrene is mugged by mercenaries, but Celaena fortunately comes to her rescue and kills the men. After Yrene wraps Celaena's wounds, Celaena teaches her how to defend herself. Just when they're about to be done, more mercenaries attack, and Celaena, with the help of Yrene, are able to fend them off. Celaena leaves Yrene a considerable sum of money and a large ruby to pay for her passage to the southern continent. Yrene leaves for the Torre Cesme immediately, and Celaena leaves for the Red Desert.

The Assassin and the Desert begins with Celaena trudging through the desert to reach the keep of the Silent Assassins. When she arrives, she is tested by the Mute Master by having four of his men attack her, all of which she easily fends off. He then passes her off to Ansel, a swaggering red head in full armor, and they share a room. Celaena is eager to begin training with the Mute Master, since Arobynn will not let her back until she returns with a sealed letter of approval. But she is told she must wait and spends her days running through the desert to the oasis and training with Ansel. The Silent Assassins are regularly antagonized by Lord Berick, the leader of Xandria, the port city to the south. Ansel is sent to Xandria to try and treaty with him after an attack, and Celaena goes with her. The girls become fast friends, especially after Ansel shares the true story of how she was a lady at Briarcliff, in the Flatlands of the abandoned Witch Kingdom, and a greedy lord killed her father and sister and burned her home to the ground. After the meeting with Lord Berick, Ansel and Celaena steal two of his Asterion horses, incredibly fast horses that were bred by the Fae. When they return, the Mute Master makes them take care of the animals every morning as punishment, but he does finally agree to train Celaena. He makes her study snakes, rabbits, bats, and other desert creatures to learn their movements so she can become a better fighter. Five days before Celaena is supposed to leave she and Ansel fight. As an apology, Ansel brings her some wine, but it was poisoned. She wakes up in the middle of the desert with her Asterion horse, a sealed letter of approval from the Mute Master, and a note from Ansel saying that she is doing this to protect her. Celaena begins to head towards Xandria to catch a ship, but sees Lord Berick's forces, marching towards the Keep. She races back, but they are already under attack. She runs to the Mute Master, and finds Ansel's lover dead, the Mute Master's son Ilias wounded, and the Mute Master paralyzed. Ansel stands over him about to behead him, but Celaena attacks. They fight, and Ansel reveals she killed her own lover, and made a deal with Lord Berick: the Mute Master's head and the assassins dead, and he will give her forces to go and reclaim Briarcliff. Celaena defeats her, and even though she is hurt by her betrayal, she gives her 20 minutes to get out of the Keep before she shoots her with an arrow. Celaena ends up giving her 21 minutes and purposefully misses, even though Ansel wasn't out of range. The Mute Master gives Celaena her sealed letter of approval, and also enough gold to free herself of her debt to Arobynn Hamel.

Celaena arrives back in Rifthold in The Assassin and the Underworld, planning to free herself from Arobynn once and for all and move into her own apartment. However, she returns to find Arobynn deeply remorseful of his actions, and he showers her with gifts and assigns her an assassination of an important Melisande man named Doneval. He tells her that Doneval is planning on exposing everyone in the nobility that doesn't support the slave trade, safe houses, and rebels. She says she'll think about it, and runs into Sam. She is relieved to see him in one piece, and begins to have a lot of feelings about him come forward as she remembers he promised to kill Arobynn while he was beating her. Just then, Lysandra, one of the courtesans owned by Arobynn's friend Clarisse, appears and begins flirting with Sam. Celaena agrees to kill Doneval, and attends the theatre, a ball held by his ex wife (the person who hired Celaena to kill him), and spies outside of his house in preparation. She attempts to break into his house to scope out where he will be meeting his contact and exchanging paperwork the day she is going to kill him, but is caught by his guards and tied to a chair in the sewers right before they're flooded. She manages to escape the chair, but almost drowns. Sam rescues her, and the next day he professes his love for her. They manage to assassinate Doneval, but Sam blows up his house and the documents Celaena was supposed to retrieve were lost. She chases after Doneval's contact, but he kills himself and sets the papers on fire before Celaena can retrieve them or interrogate him. From the remains of the papers, Celaena begins to piece together that she might have been lied to. She goes before Arobynn, who is angry at her for not retrieving the documents. He then reveals that Doneval's ex wife actually deals in the slave trade and wanted to be rich, and that is why she wanted her husband assassinated, as he was a rebel and planning on freeing the slaves. Arobynn tells her this was punishment for Skull's Bay, and Celaena pays her debt and Sam's with the gold she was given by the Mute Master and leaves.

In the final novella, The Assassin and the Empire, Sam and Celaena are living in their own apartment across the city. Sam is cage fighting in an underground tavern called the Vaults in order to make ends meet, and they can't find anyone to hire them. Sam and Celaena agree to move away from Rifthold, and they pay Arobynn the parting cost for breaking away from the Assassin's Guild, which takes away all of Celaena's savings. They agree to find one more contract before they go. Sam takes a contract from a mysterious man who wants Ioan Jayne and Roarke Farran, the leader and second of the criminal underworld of Rifthold, dead. Arobynn warns them against this, but Sam insists he takes out Farran on his own and then letting Celaena kill Jayne. Sam goes to kill Farran, and after hours of waiting, Arobynn arrives to tell Celaena that he is dead, his body tortured and ripped apart and left on the door step of the Assassin's Keep. Celaena goes to see his body and falls asleep next to it, and wakes up in her old room. She hears Arobynn and the other assassins conversing outside her door about going to kill Jayne and Farran, and then Arobynn locks her door. She escapes out the window, and breaks into Jayne's house, managing to kill him and several guards before they release poisonous gas. Farran hands her over to the Royal Guard, and she is sentenced to 9 lifetimes in Endovier. In the end, it is revealed that Arobynn was the one who betrayed them.

Celaena Sardothien (Dianna Brackyn, Adarlan's Assassin): Celaena definitely doesn't start off as the most likeable protagonist, both in this book as well as in Throne of Glass. She can be quite childish and selfish, and is easily manipulated. You see her start to grow through the book, however, and I think her character development is shown a lot better in this book than in Throne of Glass.

Sam Cortland: Sam and Celaena's romance felt like it came out of nowhere for me, since it was established multiple times how much they previously hated each other.

Arobynn Hamel (The King of the Assassins): Arobynn is definitely an awesome antagonist. You can get really confused and feel for him, as he seems genuine in his emotions, but deep down he is selfish and it always hurts just as bad every time his true colors and intentions show.

Storyline: All of the novellas are well written, cohesive, and don't drag on for too long, while still not feeling rushed. As you get later into the series you realize that SJM brings back a lot of these characters and connects them to the larger plot (Yrene, Ansel, and Rolfe to name a few). While I did feel like Sam and Celaena's relationship was a little forced, it didn't overtake the plot in any way, and it helped Celaena's character growth.

Representation: There is not a lot of good representation in this book unfortunately, Yrene being the only person of color I can think of.

Summary: While Throne of Glass is a little bit of a rocky start, I think The Assassin's Blade comes in to perfectly tie everything together and give a lot of insight on Celaena's past.

[385bookreviews]

1.73.3 House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J Maas

SPOILERS for all of Crescent City and A Court of Thorns and Roses

Pages: 838

Time Read: 13 hours and 14 minutes

Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆ Storyline: ★★★☆☆ Dialogue: ★★★☆☆ Characters: ★★☆☆☆

Genre: Urban fantasy

TWs for the book: Torture, war, violence, death, s*xual content, gore, blood, murder, injury, confinement, vomit, misogyny/sexism, grief, fire, body horror, colonization, kidnapping, cursing, genocide, child death, gun violence, slavery, physical abuse, s*xual abuse, discussions of r*pe, toxic relationship, drug use, emotional abuse, classism, genocide, excrement, cannibalism, death of a parent, gaslighting, child abuse

POV: Third person

Time Period/Location: Begins immediately after the events of House of Sky and Breath; Crescent City, the Eternal City, Avallen, Nena, the Depth Charger; Prythian in the A Court of Thorns and Roses world; The Court of Nightmares, The Prison

First Line: The Hind knelt before her undying masters and contemplated how it would feel to tear out their throats.

At the end of House of Sky and Breath, Bryce opened a portal in an attempt to go to Hel but ended up in Prythian. Rhysand, Amren, and Azriel take her to a cell in the Court of Nightmares and ask her questions, most of which she refuses to answer and lies about the Horn and how she got there and her powers. When left alone, she winnows down through the grate where monsters are kept. Her starlight clears a path and she goes down a tunnel. Nesta finds her and threatens to bring her back but Bryce runs and the tunnel collapses so they keep going forward. They encounter a Middengard wyrm but keep pushing forward through the tunnels, and Azriel reveals that he was there the whole time. Bryce sets a trap for Nesta and Azriel using the wyrm, but then immediately regrets it and goes back to help. She discovers that Azriel and Nesta were fine and lured her back, and then Nesta uses the Mask from the Dread Trove to kill the wyrm. They continue onwards through the tunnels, and end up passing through a portal that takes them under the Prison. They are greeted by a holographic video of Silene, the second daughter of Queen Theia, and she explains what happened. The Asteri used to rule Prythian as the Daglan, but High King Fionn and Queen Theia, along with her general Pelias and with the help of the Starsword (Gwydion) and Truth-Teller, dispatched them. Fionn and Theia had Helena and Silene, and Theia ruled over the Dusk Court, now known as the Prison. Theia desired to conquer more worlds, but Fionn said no, so Theia and Pelias killed him and used the Mask and the Horn, the fourth part of the Dread Trove, to open a portal to Midgard. The Asteri were in different forms this time, and welcomed them with open arms, along with the fae shifters from another world. Under the guidance of the Asteri, the fae and the rest of the Vanir began to oppress the humans. But then the Asteri put a parasite into the water that would lessen magic and give the Vanir a human lifespan if they didn't make the Drop and give up part of their firstlight to the Asteri. The demons of Hel came to try and aid the Vanir in fighting back, and Aidas and Theia became lovers. Realizing they weren't going to win, Theia gave Silene and Helena each a third of her power, and then sent them with the Harp and the Horn to go back to Prythian. Helena pushed Silene through but stayed behind, and Pelias defeated Theia and forcefully wed Helena. Silene hid the third of her power her mother had given her deep beneath their old palace in the Dusk Court, and collected monsters to imprison there and turned the Prison into what it is. Then she married the High Lord of the Night Court, and keyed her DNA to the prison, and that is why Bryce and Rhysand can access it. Bryce takes the power she stored there, and when Nesta and Azriel try to take her back to the rest of the Court, she fights back and collapses part of the floor, where they discover an imprisoned Asteri named Vesperus. She was imprisoned by Silene, and reveals that the Illyrians were created by the Asteri/Daglan to be their warriors (the precursors for angels). Nesta and Bryce kill Vesperus, and Bryce steals Truth-Teller from Azriel and goes back to Midgard.

Meanwhile, Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are being tortured by Pollux back on Midgard while Lidia ponders on how to free them. Baxian chews off Ruhn's hand in an escape attempt but it fails. Back in Lunathion, Ithan has freed the Fendyr heir, Sigrid, from the Astronomer. Ithan, Sigrid, Flynn, Declan, Marc, and the sprites search the Meat Market for any clues on what happened to Bryce. While there, Sabine and the wolf packs detect their presence. They try to run but end up walking into a trap. Flynn and Declan shoot Sabine in the leg and face to slow her down, and the Viper Queen hides them. They discover Tharion and Ariadne, and fill Tharion in on what has been going on. Lidia then appears and tells them to get on the Ocean Queen's city ship and head to the Eternal City because she is going to free Ruhn, Baxian, and Hunt. They struggle trying to believe her but feel they don't have any other choice. The Viper Queen says she will only allow them to leave if Ithan fights someone of her choosing. He agrees. Tharion convinces Ariadne to not fight him, and the Viper Queen reveals that Ariadne has agreed to go and work for someone else. She demands that Ithan and Sigrid fight to the death, and Ithan kills Sigrid. The three sprites light the Meat Market on fire, and they all escape and head to the city ship. Ithan, however, backs out last minute and runs to the House of Flame and Shadow to talk to Jesiba and convince her to find a necromancer to raise Sigrid from the dead. Jesiba agrees, as long as Ithan does some work for her. She reveals she was a priestess in the library of Parthos 15,000 years ago, and that she was cursed by Apollion to live forever because she wouldn't tell him the magic in the books (there was none). Hypaxia appears and reveals that a coup overthrew her as queen of the Valbarran witches and that she was deciding to swear fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow. Ithan asks her to use her necromancer abilities to raise Sigrid and she agrees. She tries, but when Sigrid comes back, she decides to become a Reaper, and goes off to work with the Under King. Hypaxia says the only way to get Sigrid back would be using a thunderbirds' lightning, so they travel to Avallen in order to get Sofie Renast's body.

Bryce arrives from Prythian in her father's house, and she spends several days as prisoner there. She attempts to get answers from him regarding the Starsword and Truth-Teller, and he says anything of import would be on Avallen. She breaks free from the gorsian shackles and locks her father in his basement and winnows away.

In the Eternal City, Rigelus takes some of Hunt's lightning in order to resurrect the Harpy. Lidia frees Irithys, queen of the fire sprites. The Asteri demand to see Hunt, Baxian, and Ruhn, presumably to execute Ruhn. On the way, Lidia kills the guards and the Hawk, and they make an escape attempt. Irithys blows up part of the Crystal Palace, but the dreadwolves hunt them anyways. They drive towards the sea, and as they hit a dead end, she tells Hunt and Baxian to fly Ruhn to the ship, and she shifts into her deer form and runs. The three make it to the ship, but Ruhn begs Tharion to jump into the water to save Lidia when she reaches the end of the cliff and has to jump. Lidia is shot, but leaps into the water, and Tharion is able to bring her onboard the ship where the medics heal her. When she awakes on the Depth Charger, Lidia immediately runs to a school on board the ship and looks into a classroom with two teenage boys, Brann and Acteon, and claims that they are her sons. Hunt, Baxian, and Ruhn are asked to meet with the Ocean Queen, and the Ocean Queen is furious with Tharion for being there and bringing his friends aboard when the River Queen and the Viper Queen both want him dead. Bryce suddenly appears, and claims herself to be Queen of the Fae and that Tharion serves her. The Ocean Queen backs off, but says Tharion is confined to the ship, and the group reunites. Bryce says they are going to Avallen, to find out more information on the Starsword. When they arrive, Tharion leaps into the boat with them and defies the Ocean Queen. King Morven, the Stag King and Cormac's father, is less than welcoming. He presents Flynn's sister Sathia, saying that her parents sought refuge here and in his lands fae females need to be wed. He plans on marrying her to one of his cruel, telepathic twin sons, but Tharion steps forward and offers to marry Sathia. They get married, and the group splits up to look for clues; Bryce, Hunt, Baxian, Tharion, and Sathia going into the caves, and Ruhn, Lidia, Declan, and Flynn staying behind to search the archives. They travel through the caves, and Ruhn and Lidia grow closer, but don't notice that Flynn and Declan are missing. In the caves, they are confronted by the Stag King, the Autumn King, and the twins, with Flynn and Declan prisoners. Bryce collapses the cave and jumps into an underground river with the rest of them. Bryce and Hunt fight, but they continue onwards and find the crypt of Prince Pelias. Beneath it they find an entire room carved out of obsidian salt, and bowls to drink water laced with it. Bryce and Hunt drink the water and are mentally transported to Hel. Ruhn and Lidia realize Declan and Flynn are missing and go to the caves to search for them. When Hunt and Bryce arrive in Hel, they are greeted by Apollion, Thanatos, and Aidas. They reveal that they have been waiting for Bryce for a long time, and that they created the thunderbirds to be able to power her up if she was unable to find Silene and Helena's powers. The thunderbirds were killed by the Asteri for this, and that is when they decided to create Hunt. Apollion and Thanatos were both part of his creation, and his mother was a willing participant. Hunt's angel father was killed for communing with the demons. They tell Hunt that the halo of thorns tattoo was created to keep the creatures of Hel in check, but it didn't work as Apollion and Hunt's power, the lightning that they called Helfire, was able to break it. When Bryce and Hunt return from their trance, they find the Stag King and the Autumn King holding all of their friends hostage. They plan to kill them all but Bryce and Hunt fight back, and Ruhn and Lidia appear and Ruhn uses the Starsword to kill his father. Bryce then kills the Stag King, and accesses Helena's power that was hidden under there.

Avallen magically flourishes now that it doesn't have to hide Helena's power. Hypaxia and Ithan arrive and are updated on the situation. Bryce tells Hypaxia she needs her to find a cure for the parasite in the water so that way they can be more powerful when they fight the Asteri. Bryce says because the Stag King's castle was destroyed when the land came back, Sofie's body is gone, but Hunt gives them some of his lightning. Hypaxia and Ithan leave again, and Fury arrives with Juniper, Ember, Randall, and Cooper (Emile). Bryce sends Ruhn, Lidia, Flynn, and Declan back to Crescent City to try and recruit Isaiah and Naomi, Tharion and Sathia to the River Queen to convince her to open her city to refugees, and she, Hunt, and her parents plan to go to Nena to open the Northern Rift to let Hel's armies in. Cooper, Juniper, Fury, and Baxian stay in Avallen. Once in Nena, they get to the Rift, but instead of opening it to Hel, Bryce opens it to Nesta's room. She asks her for the Mask, and to take her parents as collateral. Nesta refuses, and says Rhysand is on his way to get her. Bryce begs Nesta to take her parents anyways so that way they are safe, and Nesta relents, taking her parents but also giving her the Mask. She closes the portal, and is about to open one to Hel but is stopped by Isaiah, Naomi, and Celestina. Hunt tries to kill Celestina for turning them over to the Asteri, and he melts his halo and Isaiah's. Bryce convinces him not to, and Celestina yields, saying she realized what she did wrong and is willing to rebel against the Asteri. They are then attacked by the Harpy, who has been reanimated by the Asteri using Hunt's lightning, but Bryce realizes she's just an animated corpse and no longer has a soul, so she uses the Mask to put her down. She then opens the gates to Hel, and Apollion, Thanatos, and Aidas come through with their armies.

Back in Lunathion, Hypaxia discovers the cure to the parasite. Ithan takes it, and is gifted powers of snow and ice, and his wolf form is much more powerful. They then go to see the Under-King, and Ithan meets with Connor. He is unable to speak but gives Ithan a bullet. Ithan is confused and begs the Under-King for more time, but he refuses. Ithan freezes him solid, and then Jesiba appears. She tells Hypaxia to kill him and she does, and becomes the leader of the House of Flame and Shadow. She gives Connor the ability to speak, and he tells Ithan that the bullet is filled with the secondlight of all of the souls in the Bone Quarter, and Bryce should use it to kill the Asteri. Connor also puts himself into the bullet. Ithan decides to go to the wolves and confess what happened to Sigrid and tell them about the cure to the parasite. Sabine appears with the Astronomer and Reaper Sigrid, and claims that Sigrid is now her heir. The Prime steps in and renounces Sigrid and Sabine, and makes Ithan his heir. But before Ithan can accept, Sabine kills the Prime and Sigrid sucks out his soul. Sigrid also kills the Astronomer, and Ithan kills Sabine. Sigrid escapes, and Amelie and Perry Ravenscroft swear loyalty to him as Prime. Tharion and Sathia manage to convince the River Queen to not kill Tharion and to shelter innocents in her city. They are confronted by the Viper Queen, and Sathia recognizes one of her childhood best friends as one of the Viper Queen's soldiers. The Viper Queen demands retribution from Tharion for the burning of the Meat Market caused by the sprites. Hypaxia and Ithan appear and demand that the Viper Queen leave them alone, but Sathia goes after her old friend, leaving Tharion alone.

Lidia learns that the Depth Charger has been attacked and her sons have been taken by Pollux. Everyone rushes to the Eternal City. Bryce and Hunt winnow into the throne room and Bryce uses the Mask to reanimate the souls of the Fallen and their wings hanging up on the throne room wall, and puts their souls into the mech suits that the Asteri have built. Rigelus appears and reveals that he has sent half of his army to march into the open portal and take over Hel, but Bryce and the demons planned for this and already left half of their army guarding the portal. The rest of the Asteri appear on the battlefield, and Bryce kills Polaris by combining the Starsword and Truth-Teller. This opens a mini black hole that sucks Polaris in and kills her. Ruhn and Lidia search the castle for her sons, but Ruhn shoots her in the leg so he can go on ahead to save them. Tharion finds Lidia, and Pollux traps Ruhn. Tharion and Lidia both take the cure to the parasite and Lidia faces off against Pollux. Ruhn reveals that Lidia is his mate. Lidia's power manifests as fire, and she burns Pollux to ash. Ruhn rushes Brann and Actaeon out of the city, and Lidia joins the fight. Hunt and Bryce arrive at the firstlight core beneath the palace, but Rigelus is guarding it. They both tire, and Bryce winnows them away. Ithan finds Bryce and gives her the bullet and the Godslayer rifle. She winnows back to Rigelus only to find the remaining four Asteri guarding it. She plans to use the bullet to blow up the firstlight core, but Rigelus tells her that destroying it is a kill switch, just like the Cauldron is in Prythian. If she destroys it, Midgard will also be destroyed. Bryce takes a chance and does it anyways. It creates a massive black hole that sucks her and the Asteri into it. She pulls the black hole through a portal into space, but as long as the portal is open, the rest of Midgard also continues to get pulled in. Hunt jumps into a mech suit, piloted by the soul of Shahar, and jumps through, putting on the Mask so he doesn't need to breathe. The portal begins to close but Apollion, Aidas, Thanatos, Ithan, Ruhn, and the rest of their friends hold it open while Hunt rescues Bryce and pulls her back through. Bryce, however, is dead. Hypaxia says she can bring her back if someone trades lives with her, and Jesiba appears and volunteers. She talks with Bryce in the afterlife, revealing that even what the Asteri was doing couldn't destroy the souls of the dead. She waves to Danika, Lehabah, and the Pack of Devils, and comes back to life. The demons all go back to Hel, and Bryce closes the Northern Rift. She then, being the Queen of the Avallen and Valbarran fae, demolishes the monarchy. Lidia's sons go back to their adoptive fathers. Hypaxia begins working on mass producing the cure. Tharion goes back to the Meat Market to find Sathia, and runs into Ariadne instead. Ithan takes on his duties as Prime.

The bonus chapters for this book included Ruhn and Lidia getting married, Hunt and Bryce spending Winter Solstice at her parents', the night Danika tricked Bryce into getting the Horn tattooed, Bryce, Azriel, and Nesta listening to music together off of Bryce's phone, and Ember and Randall in the Night Court and Ember bonding with Nesta.

Bryce Quinlan (Bryce Danaan/Queen of the Fae/Starborn): I always preferred Bryce over Hunt and wished she had been on her own or with someone else, mostly because I don't care for Hunt. But she really lost all respect from me in this book and was acting totally out of character. Her telling Hunt to just get over his trauma and picking fights with him all the time was so unnecessary and a horrible way to treat your partner. She made everything that happened to him about her, and she was also awful to Lidia near the end and didn't even apologize for calling her kids baggage. Bryce was trying to be Aelin but was falling way short. Her death at the end had no impact on me whatsoever because it was obvious she was about to pull a Rhysand and resurrect. Also her using her parents' as collateral, and then trying to send them through anyways to keep them safe was so selfish. They would have been safe in Avallen and if she didn't think they would be, she just forced them to leave their son there! I wish we could have seen Ember tearing Bryce up for that choice because she definitely deserved it. You would think after everything she would have had some growth, especially with her attitude towards the Fae, but then she just childishly dismantles their monarchy and basically tells them to figure it out. Giving the Fae a vote in how they run things while trying to push for change of thousands of years old belief systems was so not the way to do that. Ruhn killed Einar, and Bryce killed Morven, so they both should have been stepping up to take responsibility for the fate of their people.

Hunt Athalar (Orion Athalar/the Hunter/the Umbra Mortis/Son of Hel): Hunt has never been my favorite but I just felt bad for him this whole book. Bryce honestly did not deserve him by the end of it and the fact that none of her horribleness towards him got addressed and he mostly ended up apologizing was so out of character and honestly abusive. On a positive note, I really liked his backstory of being descended from demons, I think that was much better and made way more sense than the god Thurr theories, even though it was annoying for all of those references and comparisons to come to nothing.

Tharion Ketos (Captain Tharion Ketos): I liked Tharion in House of Earth and Blood. I liked him less in House of Sky and Breath. In this book, his entire purpose just seemed to be the village idiot. It was really boggling how badly he kept messing everything up, and anything from his POV was kind of infuriating. The only thing that ended up making anything about his story interesting was Sathia.

Ithan Holstrom (Prime of the Valbarran Wolves): I've heard a lot of people complaining about Ithan and his POV and storyline, but I honestly kind of enjoyed it. He made a lot of dumb decisions, but I liked the trope of "running from destiny but no matter what you do it happens anyways". I'm hoping in the next book we actually get to see him gain more confidence and wisdom and do things right.

Einar Danaan (The Autumn King/King of the Valbarran Fae): I was really disappointed with where his character went, I felt like he was being set up for a redemption arc the entire time, just for him to be like, "I'm totally evil and I'm going to kill you!" in very over the top classic villain fashion. I know the whole point is that he was manipulative, but that's not how it came across.

Lidia Cervos (Agent Daybright/the Hind): Lidia was the most interesting character in this book. I knew going into this that Throne of Glass was definitely not going to be getting the screen time some people thought it was, I thought this was a perfect way to incorporate easter eggs. I knew her powers were going to be fire but it didn't make the reveal any less awesome. And the ring she gave her sons and the fact that she named her son Brannon was just the icing on the cake. Other than that, she had the most interesting character development, backstory, dialogue, and POVs than anyone else in the book (especially Bryce).

Storyline: I loved the ACOTAR crossover in the beginning, I thought it wasn't too much or too little. The rest of the story was riddled with a lot of plot holes, for example the reveal that the mer had been on Midgard the whole time fell flat because Rigelus had told Bryce in House of Sky and Breath that the mer came from the shifter fae (which made less sense but she just changed something that had already been established for mild convenience). Other things include: What really is Fury and why were her and Baxian, two of their most powerful fighters, left out of the biggest fight ever? What is so different about Perry that Ithan keeps sensing? Are they mates? Is she actually an Alpha? Is she secretly super powerful? Why was Ariadne, a super powerful dragon, introduced just to not do anything ever? What was all the tension between her and Flynn for? Everything just magically fell into place, and while in Kingdom of Ash everything comes together because Aelin is a genius, a lot of things come together in this book thanks to Urd (fate). The ending fell really flat for me, no one major died, and it was a lot shorter of an ordeal than I thought it would be, with one of the Asteri even dying off page and no one mentions how they died or who killed them (although I guess we're left to assume it was Apollion). Hunt and Bryce's dynamic usually annoyed me, but their back and forth between fighting, fucking, and fine was giving me whiplash and honestly taking away from the story. What happened with Sigrid did anger me at the time, but ultimately I did enjoy Ithan's storyline, contrary to popular opinion. Also, why did we spend so much of the story in caves? I got really tired of that by the second time around.

Representation: Baxian, Celestina, Juniper, Fury, Hypaxia, Marc, Isaiah, Hunt, Bryce, etc. were all POC. Juniper and Fury, Marc and Declan, Hypaxia and Celestina, and Davit and Renki (Brann and Actaeon's fathers) were all gay and in relationships with each other.

Summary: While the crossover and easter eggs were really cool, and the overall tie together of how everything connected was well done, the characters, dialogue, and plot made this book fall a lot flatter for me than I was hoping it would. I honestly wish SJM had wrapped up everything in this book and then left it as a trilogy because honestly I don't feel any desire to revisit this world or these characters (unless it's Ruhn and Lidia).