4/5 stars
Reread: January 2022: Still good, even though I knew about the reveals since I've already read this series.


This series has come a long way from its first book. The writing has improved, many more characters, great world-building, higher stakes, better plot. It's easy to categorize this as high fantasy now. The first half of the book was a little slow I will admit, but the second half really picked up and the ending just completely astounded me. If this is only the 4th book, I can't imagine what the endings of next books will be like (and my friend assured me they're even bigger). The plotting and schemes are good and a big strength of SJM's.
I'm not gonna lie that I am aware about the problematic elements of SJM's books and I'm aware that she has a diversity issue, redundant plots, many-sue characters, etc, but I still really enjoy her books. and that's okay . I am aware there are issues in SJM's writing, but almost every author has issues in their books. There may of been a few almost eye-rolls when I was reading this book, and a few times I thought of the writing as redundant, but there were so many other moments to triumph these. Books aren't something above the faults of man (as much as some people seem to think so), but rather a reflection of us. So yeah, I will keep reading and enjoying SJM's books for now and a long while to come.