- Throne of Glass Review - Click Here
- Crown of Midnight Review - Click Here
- Heir of Fire Review - Click Here
- The Assassins Blade Review - Click Here
Without futher ado, here are my thoughts on the book Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas.
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| Photo Credit: @marsdenreads on Instagram |
Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her, but at last, she has returned to the Empire - for vengeance, to rescue her kingdom and restore it to it's former glory, and to confront the shadows of her past. She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, the Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for he people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.
Here we are. Queen of shadows - one roller-coaster of a story. I came out of the story unsure of what to think of it. It had broken my heart a million times and make me loose so much respect for Celaena. But I also really enjoyed this books. Despite the things that I disliked about it, I could not put this book down and I found myself completely engrossed in it. It did not end how I expected it to or wanted to, but I trusted Mass to tell this story and overall trusted her decisions, even though I did not necessarily agree or understand them all. It as a satisfying addition to the series in a lo of ways, and I did enjoy this book as a whole.
This is one of the biggest books in the series, coming in at over 650 paged. This is a series that I love and a world I adore, so having more story was the opposite of a problem. Although, I do think that the pacing was a little bit off in this particular book. There are only a few major plot points that take place in this book; there is a lot of talking between the characters with little action.
A thing that really makes me dislike this book is the fact that I found myself really starting to hate Celaena; I really found her frustrating in this story. She treated a lot of people badly, and it felt like it was out of character for her compared to what we saw of her in the first three books and the Assassin's blade. Most of the time, she pushed the blame of her actions onto others and did not take responsibility for them. She would make rash and stupid decisions and I felt myself shaking my head at her for write a bit of the story. The friendship between her, Chaol and Dorian seemed lost in this book. Celaena was happy to write off one as lost forever and she screwed over the other one so much. What happened to the beautiful friendship we saw between the three in the first two books?
As frustrating as her character was at times, Aelin is officially here. She is fierce and extremely smart, but a little arrogant at times. She has definitely changed after the events of Heir of Fire, and she is practically a completely different person. She undergoes a lot of growth and you really travel through those phases together with her, so you can understand what she is going through.
The story did introduce us to some new characters, but I had no real feelings about some of them. They were okay, but they just felt like they were there to add more pages to the book. However, I loved seeing Lysandra again after not hearing from her since the Assassin's Blade. She was awesome and I loved seeing this side to her, and her friendship develop with Celaena. She was a very interesting character, and this story introduced another side of Lysandra to us.
Now onto a more controversial character - Manon. Some people despise Manon and the witch chapters, which is something I will not understand, especially in this story. Manon is my personal favourite character in the series, and I find her fascinating. I liked her way more than Celaena in this story. In Heir of Fire, I wanted to skip the Witch chapters, but in this story I needed more! Manon went through a lot of character growth, starting her story arch as a psychotic which who had no feelings and loved to kill humans and drink their blood. She develops into a strong, in control leader, who is not going to take rubbish from anyone.
There were two main goals set out to be achieved in this book: Kill Arobynn and retrieve the amulet; free Dorian and free magic. These needed to be achieved, but it took so long to start to work towards them in the story. I hated the lack of caring for Dorian and his situation, Celaena was so cold when it came to that. The last third of the book is very action packed and it feels like everything has been packed into this part of the book. But the ending is something that I loved! I found rereading the story definitely helped me develop a better understanding of what was going on. This is a massive series, and the books steadily grow more chunky as you go along. There is very little in this book that feels significant, and a lot of the details in the previous books are brought to light in this book.
I am definitely conflicted when it comes to reviewing this book. On one hand, there were aspects that I absolutely hated, including Celaena's character arc. I especially was not a fan of the romance in this story. But overall I enjoyed the story and the reading experience. I could not put the book down, and I loved the journey that this book took me on. It is rare for there to be a book that is over 600 pages and I am left wanting more. Luckily for me, when I read this book the first time, Empire of Storms was recently published, so I did not have to wait too long before I could find out what happened next!
Here we are. Queen of shadows - one roller-coaster of a story. I came out of the story unsure of what to think of it. It had broken my heart a million times and make me loose so much respect for Celaena. But I also really enjoyed this books. Despite the things that I disliked about it, I could not put this book down and I found myself completely engrossed in it. It did not end how I expected it to or wanted to, but I trusted Mass to tell this story and overall trusted her decisions, even though I did not necessarily agree or understand them all. It as a satisfying addition to the series in a lo of ways, and I did enjoy this book as a whole.
This is one of the biggest books in the series, coming in at over 650 paged. This is a series that I love and a world I adore, so having more story was the opposite of a problem. Although, I do think that the pacing was a little bit off in this particular book. There are only a few major plot points that take place in this book; there is a lot of talking between the characters with little action.
A thing that really makes me dislike this book is the fact that I found myself really starting to hate Celaena; I really found her frustrating in this story. She treated a lot of people badly, and it felt like it was out of character for her compared to what we saw of her in the first three books and the Assassin's blade. Most of the time, she pushed the blame of her actions onto others and did not take responsibility for them. She would make rash and stupid decisions and I felt myself shaking my head at her for write a bit of the story. The friendship between her, Chaol and Dorian seemed lost in this book. Celaena was happy to write off one as lost forever and she screwed over the other one so much. What happened to the beautiful friendship we saw between the three in the first two books?
As frustrating as her character was at times, Aelin is officially here. She is fierce and extremely smart, but a little arrogant at times. She has definitely changed after the events of Heir of Fire, and she is practically a completely different person. She undergoes a lot of growth and you really travel through those phases together with her, so you can understand what she is going through.
The story did introduce us to some new characters, but I had no real feelings about some of them. They were okay, but they just felt like they were there to add more pages to the book. However, I loved seeing Lysandra again after not hearing from her since the Assassin's Blade. She was awesome and I loved seeing this side to her, and her friendship develop with Celaena. She was a very interesting character, and this story introduced another side of Lysandra to us.
Now onto a more controversial character - Manon. Some people despise Manon and the witch chapters, which is something I will not understand, especially in this story. Manon is my personal favourite character in the series, and I find her fascinating. I liked her way more than Celaena in this story. In Heir of Fire, I wanted to skip the Witch chapters, but in this story I needed more! Manon went through a lot of character growth, starting her story arch as a psychotic which who had no feelings and loved to kill humans and drink their blood. She develops into a strong, in control leader, who is not going to take rubbish from anyone.
There were two main goals set out to be achieved in this book: Kill Arobynn and retrieve the amulet; free Dorian and free magic. These needed to be achieved, but it took so long to start to work towards them in the story. I hated the lack of caring for Dorian and his situation, Celaena was so cold when it came to that. The last third of the book is very action packed and it feels like everything has been packed into this part of the book. But the ending is something that I loved! I found rereading the story definitely helped me develop a better understanding of what was going on. This is a massive series, and the books steadily grow more chunky as you go along. There is very little in this book that feels significant, and a lot of the details in the previous books are brought to light in this book.
I am definitely conflicted when it comes to reviewing this book. On one hand, there were aspects that I absolutely hated, including Celaena's character arc. I especially was not a fan of the romance in this story. But overall I enjoyed the story and the reading experience. I could not put the book down, and I loved the journey that this book took me on. It is rare for there to be a book that is over 600 pages and I am left wanting more. Luckily for me, when I read this book the first time, Empire of Storms was recently published, so I did not have to wait too long before I could find out what happened next!
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