A COURT OF MIST AND FURY BY SARAH J. MAAS | Book Review


Well, that was a ride, amirte?

*this post will have a MARKED spoiler/discussion section for ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth when I talk about my theories for the third book*

This is the second book in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy (I'm like 80% sure it's a trilogy), and I have a review of the first book HERE if you haven't read the first book yet!

Believe you me, if I rated this book on how many feels I had alone, then this would have gotten 6 out of 5 stars for a number of reasons.

1) MY SHIP HAS SAILED. (kind of, sort of)

2) All of the other ships that I didn't know existed before this book are all there and beautiful AKA: the romance in this book is done really, really well and I'm a tiny bit in love. 


I am an absolute sucker for amazing side characters. I will fall over myself searching for them, and I have to admit that the side characters in ACOMAF are amazing. While Maas did an amazing job creating side characters that I am absolutely in love with, she almost got to an Eclipse-like problem. Every time that Feyre got one on one with a character, the plot would just come to a rapid halt so that we could get their tragic backstory, an info-dump of character history that wasn't needed to develop the character but contains one tiny snipet of information that we see later in the book.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good tragic backstory, but it just got repetitive and annoying.

We get a ridiculous amount of character development in this book, something that I felt was very lacking in the first book. Like, it was almost ridiculous how much character development. She almost made a complete 180 degree turn at one point in the novel, and while I do see why that happened, I would have liked to see more of a struggle to change because of how stubborn Feyre is as a character (this was a product of forcing the ship, in my opinion).

Either way, I was really happy with Feyre's development aside from the fact that all development (emotional and otherwise) came from other characters, especially from the men. I would have loved to see more self-empowerment and female-empowerment from a NA fantasy series.

Another smaller problem that I had was that there is a female friendship that ends up just getting tossed aside for the sake of the ship.


And as with my last ACOTAR review, we come back to my main problem with Maas and the reason that the only other book I will ever read from Maas is the last ACOTAR book, and that is her writing. It's one of the most important things to me when I am reading because it's the medium through which the story is being told. I'm spending my time reading words on a page, so I usually expect the words to be put together in a sensible fashion. I'm going to list the main problems I have with Maas's writing . . . now.

1) So many unnecessary ellipses (. . .) and hypens (--) that the prose doesn't even make sense half the time.

2) She tries to make it "stream of consciousness" and, for the most part, I think it works; however, at times that style of writing really hindered my comprehension of the story, especially when Feyre is in the Spring Court. 

3) Maas can vividly describe sex, breasts, and fingering, but she can't describe a) what "vulgar gesture" Feyre makes repeatedly throughout the novel or b) blood and guts and fighting. You gave me one, but I'm "too sensitive of a reader" to understand war? No, thank you. 

4) The info-dumps in this novel are absolutely ridiculous. There are two (Chapter 16 & pages 517-528, for those of you who doubt me) 10 PAGE INFO-DUMPS IN THIS NOVEL. This is simply unacceptable, lazy writing, and I demand better as a reader. 

5) Her character descriptions make 0 sense half the time. Try to exhale while talking. I'll wait.
Pretty impossible right? Well, somehow the people in ACOMAF do it regularly. Also, the amount of times that characters "bare their teeth" at each other had me LOLing.

I hate ending on a bad note; however, this book pissed me off quite a bit. 

 0.75
Okay, I think Rhysand is going to die in the third book. I don't want him to die because he is my baby, and I love him. However, I think that he will, and that is going to be my first thought if the book is in dual perspective. We all know how Allegiant turned out, and that is honestly where I am drawing this from. As soon as I opened Allegiant I knew (I mean, I didn't really know but there was immediate gut feeling that didn't go away) Tris would die because it was written in dual perspective. 
And if that doesn't get the point across, then tell me this is not foreshadowing:
"You think I don't know how stories get written--how this story will be written?" Rhys put a hand to his chest, his face more open, more anguished than I'd seen it. "I am the dark lord, who stole away the bride of spring. I am a demon, and a nightmare, and I will meet a bad end. He is the golden prince--the hero who will get to keep you as his reward for not dying of stupidity or arrogance." (421-422)
Um. Okay. *dusts hands and walks away* 
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (ACOTAR #2)
Published: 3 May 2016 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Format - Length: Hardback - 624
Source: Library
Genre: New Adult Romance, Fantasy
Goodreads | My Goodreads Rating
“Tell me what you see.” “A world divided in two.”

Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.
HAVE YOU READ THIS? Tell me down below what you thought of the book if you have!

Follow

Be First to Post Comment !
Post a Comment