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Katie's Reviews > Queen of Shadows
Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)
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by
The is the best book I have ever read. Period.
I don't tend to fangirl. I anticipate and I love books, but I don't rant and rave and get pissy when others don't have the same taste. But I will allow myself this one instance to unwaveringly defend the fact that Queen of Shadows was fucking amazing. At least, for me.
A List of Things this Book Does Perfectly
•E±¹±ð°ù²â³Ù³ó¾±²Ô²µ
I'm not going to go into depth about this right now because I am still speechless and proobabbly 285% biased. I will update this after I die waiting for the next book, WHICH ISN'T SET TO BE PUBLISHED UNTIL LATE NEXT YEAR, and have to reread in order to sustain my life force.
UPDATE: I have had some time to process and come down from my Aelin-high and have thus constructed
My Small Yet Necessary List of Grievances (spoilers ahead!)
•Chaoleana's End
Chaol's entire person shifted, I think, for the purpose of sinking this ship. I never really liked Chaol, but in this book he lost all dimension. The "I'm over you totally everything's fine" repetition between the two got old... you could tell Maas wanted badly to give shippers closure, but their goodbyes lacked conflict, development, and heartache, which made it flat and kind of disappointing. I'm mad Maas made me resent Chaol for being simple-minded because he's not. Aelin is not flawless, she is not always right, and she's made plenty of mistakes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Chaolaena died with Celaena, but Maas didn't even touch on the huge pile of possible heart-wrenching ends. HOWEVER, it's extremely frustrating to watch Chaolaena shippers shit on this book just because they're butthurt their ship sank... Maas wrote in some pretty logical justification, and I personally saw this coming from book 1.
•Glorification and (occasionally) Douchenozzle Aelin
As Aelin grew in the previous books her triumphant declarations of her queenliness and badassery made me swoon... But in this book they were so overdone and frequent, they lost a lot of impact. Aelin is/should not be perfect, nor immortal, nor as powerful as she was made to be in this book. As much as I'm a sucker for OP characters, I value the realness of Maas's old Aelin far more. I miss the grit of Celaena, who was not entitled to anything or celebrated as the goddess of all things great. I miss the danger, the mystery, and the struggle to survive. I miss the badass girl who faced so many hardships and kept so many secrets. Now that everything is out in the open (view spoiler), I don't know how the next 2 books will function without the intricacy of a thrilling mystery.
•Simplification of Dorian
I was a DorianxAelin shipper, which seems silly now, but really would have been an amazing Ice and Fire possibility. So when Dorian was shut up into a box of self-hate and angst in this book, I was disappointed. I wasn't sad, or touched, just disappointed. I will definitely be looking out for DorianxManon though.
•Sexual Insta-Love
You may be thinking, "Skylar, how could you resent the delicious fluffiness of RowanxAelin?". Well, I don't. Not exactly, anyway. Rowan and Aelin's banter and nightgown scenes made me squeal, but I don't appreciate how they got there. In the previous book, they were distant and newly bonded, but certainly not lovers. In this book, they see eachother and melt. Their relationship is grounded in a magic carranam connection that hides its Inta-Love nature and simple sexuality. No matter how good of a writer Maas it, it's still a cheap trope.
•Too manycharacters aelin worshippers
It's a little too obvious that all these new characters are just going to be added to the Aelin Fanclub. I'm (declaring myself) the head of the fanclub and I gonna go ahead and ban anymore members, because the worshipping she gets from Rowan, Aedion, and even Chaol is enough already. In my opinion, Elide was a cheap shot at sympathy and Nesryn only existed to take Chaol off Celaena's hands. Too convenient, too cliche. Especially since we know even more characters will enter in the next book, like Ansel and the healer, I doubt even Maas can make this insufferable court work.
•Being similar to ACOTAR
I'm a big critic of her Court of Thorns and Roses book, and Queen of Shadows got a little too close to the mass of cheap cliches for comfort...
YO, I'm being critical because I refuse to be dogmatic.
such amaze. it's almost like I can to love something and still retain the ability to recognize its weaknesses. wowow many rare
(view spoiler)
I don't tend to fangirl. I anticipate and I love books, but I don't rant and rave and get pissy when others don't have the same taste. But I will allow myself this one instance to unwaveringly defend the fact that Queen of Shadows was fucking amazing. At least, for me.
A List of Things this Book Does Perfectly
•E±¹±ð°ù²â³Ù³ó¾±²Ô²µ
I'm not going to go into depth about this right now because I am still speechless and proobabbly 285% biased. I will update this after I die waiting for the next book, WHICH ISN'T SET TO BE PUBLISHED UNTIL LATE NEXT YEAR, and have to reread in order to sustain my life force.
UPDATE: I have had some time to process and come down from my Aelin-high and have thus constructed
My Small Yet Necessary List of Grievances (spoilers ahead!)
•Chaoleana's End
Chaol's entire person shifted, I think, for the purpose of sinking this ship. I never really liked Chaol, but in this book he lost all dimension. The "I'm over you totally everything's fine" repetition between the two got old... you could tell Maas wanted badly to give shippers closure, but their goodbyes lacked conflict, development, and heartache, which made it flat and kind of disappointing. I'm mad Maas made me resent Chaol for being simple-minded because he's not. Aelin is not flawless, she is not always right, and she's made plenty of mistakes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Chaolaena died with Celaena, but Maas didn't even touch on the huge pile of possible heart-wrenching ends. HOWEVER, it's extremely frustrating to watch Chaolaena shippers shit on this book just because they're butthurt their ship sank... Maas wrote in some pretty logical justification, and I personally saw this coming from book 1.
•Glorification and (occasionally) Douchenozzle Aelin
As Aelin grew in the previous books her triumphant declarations of her queenliness and badassery made me swoon... But in this book they were so overdone and frequent, they lost a lot of impact. Aelin is/should not be perfect, nor immortal, nor as powerful as she was made to be in this book. As much as I'm a sucker for OP characters, I value the realness of Maas's old Aelin far more. I miss the grit of Celaena, who was not entitled to anything or celebrated as the goddess of all things great. I miss the danger, the mystery, and the struggle to survive. I miss the badass girl who faced so many hardships and kept so many secrets. Now that everything is out in the open (view spoiler), I don't know how the next 2 books will function without the intricacy of a thrilling mystery.
•Simplification of Dorian
I was a DorianxAelin shipper, which seems silly now, but really would have been an amazing Ice and Fire possibility. So when Dorian was shut up into a box of self-hate and angst in this book, I was disappointed. I wasn't sad, or touched, just disappointed. I will definitely be looking out for DorianxManon though.
•Sexual Insta-Love
You may be thinking, "Skylar, how could you resent the delicious fluffiness of RowanxAelin?". Well, I don't. Not exactly, anyway. Rowan and Aelin's banter and nightgown scenes made me squeal, but I don't appreciate how they got there. In the previous book, they were distant and newly bonded, but certainly not lovers. In this book, they see eachother and melt. Their relationship is grounded in a magic carranam connection that hides its Inta-Love nature and simple sexuality. No matter how good of a writer Maas it, it's still a cheap trope.
•Too many
It's a little too obvious that all these new characters are just going to be added to the Aelin Fanclub. I'm (declaring myself) the head of the fanclub and I gonna go ahead and ban anymore members, because the worshipping she gets from Rowan, Aedion, and even Chaol is enough already. In my opinion, Elide was a cheap shot at sympathy and Nesryn only existed to take Chaol off Celaena's hands. Too convenient, too cliche. Especially since we know even more characters will enter in the next book, like Ansel and the healer, I doubt even Maas can make this insufferable court work.
•Being similar to ACOTAR
I'm a big critic of her Court of Thorns and Roses book, and Queen of Shadows got a little too close to the mass of cheap cliches for comfort...
YO, I'm being critical because I refuse to be dogmatic.
such amaze. it's almost like I can to love something and still retain the ability to recognize its weaknesses. wowow many rare
(view spoiler)
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