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**1.5 stars**
EDIT 07/07/2018: I am working on a comprehensive review of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series that will be posted as a review of the second book (ACOMAF) since it's the most popular. It is deeply concerning to me that a series with the unhealthiest relationships, a horrible and glorified misogynistic culture, and racism, homophobia, etc. is the best-selling young adult fantasy series on shelves right now.

*** REVIEW ***

When ACOWAR was first released, I read so many reviews; either people loved it or hated it, and there wasn't much of a gray area. While I didn't hate it, I certainly didn't love it and I definitely don't like it. And the more I analyze Maas's writing, the more it loses its luster and the problematic ickiness of it begins to seep through the woodwork.

When last we saw them, the ACOMAF gang had just gotten their butts kicked by the King of Hybern and Tamlin. Rhys and Feyre decide to infiltrate the Spring Court by sending Feyre in as Tamlin's love at long last returned. She manages to convince Tamlin that Rhys had her under a spell the entire time, and the dude believes it. Lol. (THAT was a little hard to believe... Actually, a LOT hard to believe.)

ACOWAR picks up with Feyre in the Spring Court, doing all kinds of snakey things to extract information about Hybern from Tamlin and some evil envoys from Hybern. This part was slooooooowww, and I really don't see what Feyre and the Night Court gang gained from it. There was almost one hundred pages of this, and I feel like a lot more should have happened in one hundred pages.

Unfortunately the slowness doesn't get much better for the rest of the book. The Next Big Thing in ACOWAR happens like 300 pages later with the High Lord meeting, which was by far the highlight of the entire book, if not series. (Honestly that's not really a good thing: it's actually kinda sad and says a lot about Maas's capability as a writer.) Maas did a pretty good job giving each High Lord their own, unique magic and aesthetic. The dialogue during the meeting was probably Maas's best, but at times overly witty. And, apparently, two women can't have a conversation with each other that isn't about their "males?" ???????? Literally, the banter between Feyre and the other ladies in this scene were all about their men and just... Yikes. Whatever. *eye roll.*

This High Lord meeting should have occurred no more than 30% into the book and not 60%... The bulk of ACOWAR is filler; filler dialogue, filler backstories, filler minor events. There's a attack that happens on a place (which I will not disclose) that spurs Rhys and the other Inner Circle members to decide to call the High Lord meeting. Except you don't actually get to the High Lord meeting for fifty more pages, and the rest in between was just... fruitless. Same goes for everything leading up to the big battle. That's not good, folks.

Because ACOWAR neared 700 pages when it should have been not nearly 400, and because Maas danced around so much with her characters and random subplots that contributed nothing to the overall narrative, I feel like Maas definitely lost a hold on her story like... Two books ago. Although ACOTAR #1 was critically not her best, her long-term goal for the series was a lot more clear. By ACOMAF, I really wasn't sure why Maas was writing this series. I don't think she knew, or knows, anymore either. I think that ACOWAR exists solely for the continuation of Feyre and Rhysand's relationship and nothing else. This is evident in the solidification of their pairing in ACOMAF and the rock-solid existence of that pairing in ACOWAR whilst every other subplot falls apart and makes no sense whatsoever. While "Feysand" may not be meant to be the main plot of ACOWAR, it's the only plot that I feel like Maas actually tried to make sense. A sad consequence of this poor writing decision is that her grip on other characters, particularly Feyre, is lost.

In the previous book it is clearly established that Feyre has the gifts of all of the High Lords combined and is the first ever "High Lady." But does she ever use those powers? Absolutely not. She spends most of her time looking on at the battlefield but never actually touching it. For a series that loves to honor itself as a feminist epic, there's not really much that makes it feminist at all. I don't think that a female character has to kick as much ass as a male character to be inspiring. I do think that a female character is only really empowering if she's the driver of her own narrative, if she has solid relationships with other women that are about more than just their relationships with their men (i.e. Feyre and Mor), if she has a clear set of strengths and weaknesses and grows because of them, and if she doesn't need to depend on the men around her for practically everything. Feyre lacks all of those things. She exists in ACOWAR (and even in ACOMAF) to be Rhysand's property, to be flaunt around an never do anything. Really—ever since ACOTAR, Feyre has done almost nothing productive. Even when Maas attempts to give Feyre something productive to do, she snatches it all away in the end to give to her male characters, more specifically Rhysand. I'm very convinced that Maas just really has no clue how to write women as anything but objects.

I'd lastly like to address the controversial "LGBT" representation by being pretty frank: it's all bullshit. It's such a shitty attempt at "checking off the box" that ends up just being insulting. I don't think that Maas deserves praise for at least trying, but she really didn't try very hard. That's how much it sucks. As a bisexual reader, it sucks to read something that perpetuates stereotypes about my sexuality. End of discussion.

My dissatisfaction with how this series concluded is not something that can be confined to a brief review. It's definitely something deserving of a long meta. For supposedly being the conclusion to a trilogy, ACOWAR was in no way conclusive. The only thing it achieved was creating more plot holes and subplots that never needed to exist. The fact that Maas plans on releasing a novella (but we all know it's gonna be a full-length novel anyway) is evidence that Maas herself doesn't even know what she's really doing with these books anymore and that this entire Faerie universe just exists for her to keep writing Feysand smut. (It's been revealed that the novella will focus on the post-war relationships between Feyre, Rhys, and the "Inner Circle." Which is just fancy talk for Feysand smut.)

Anyway, I'm really beginning to realize what utter nonsense ACOTAR is and I'm disappointed I didn't realize it sooner. I'm definitely going to go back and adjust my thoughts on ACOMAF and write a full-length review of ACOTAR.

Does this book pass the Bechdel Test? A hard NO.