theinquisitxor's reviews
805 reviews

4.5/5 stars
Hello and welcome to I Don't Really Know What To Say About This Book Because Nothing Else Can Triumph That Ending.

Seriously. While the beginning may have felt a little slow, and other parts of the book a bit too drawn out and taking up page space (similarly to how I felt about HoEaB) the climatic ending that this book races towards in the last two hundred pages or so is insane.

A well known fact about me: I love portal fantasy books. They are possibly my favorite genre/trope. SJM has been hinting and dropping easter eggs about a multiverse for so long, and seeing some of that come to light is so rewarding. I definitely read crossover fan fiction, and this becoming canon is a dream come true. It's a brutal ending, and reveals a truth about the multiverse that is absolutely horrifying, but wow SJM go off.

On a technical note, I think this book is her best writing yet. Either she has matured more as an author, or her editors toned her structure down, but it's much better than the line-by-line stuff she had going on in KoA.

I still think I like HoEaB more than I liked this second one, especially after falling in love with HoEaB even more on my reread. I just hope that CC3 has more Adias. Much more. He has zero page time in this book, and he was pretty much my favorite character in CC1.

Reread: February 2022. All of my thoughts and feelings from when I first read this book stand the same today. Check out my review below!

I thought this was a satisfying end to this series, that kept me entertained and turning each page of this almost 1000 page book. Even though I didn't care for Empire of Storms much, but loved Tower of Dawn, I was quite excited to read this one. Between all the hype, the beautiful cover, the detail on the front of the hardcopy, and what I knew would be an epic battle between the forces of good and evil, I was ready. SJM did give a thick, action packed book that is the result of the 6 previous books. I think back to the very first two books and look at all the little hints and clues SJM gave us about the future books, and I wonder if she had almost everything planned out from the beginning, or if she is just really good at weaving stories.

By the last book, SJM had so many characters and storylines that I wondered if she'd be able to spend enough time on each and not push any to the background. And while this series has always been centered around Aelin, SJM does a good job of balancing everything out. I feel like the characters had their equal proportions and page time. I can definitely see this as a woman driven installment, and while the men do very important and good things, I feel like the women really shine through. I wouldn't go so far as calling this a feminist book but it definitely was centered on the women of the story.

Looking at the characters, Aelin and Rowan haven't been my absolute favorite characters, but I'm glad they got the ending they did. But for how much I never really connected to Rowan and Aelin, I got so many other awesome characters who I do love so much: Manon, Abraxos, Elide, Lysandra, Yrene, the Thirteen, Aedion, and more. They made up for some of the cringy and eye rolling type purple prose about how 'Aelin is so awesome', 'Aelin is the most special person to ever walk the earth'. Another thing that has bothered me in this series is the fact that SJM can't seem to write a whole paragraph?! So many things are just one line, or just one sentence for dramatic effect that it got quite tiresome by the end. If Maas didn't do this, her page count would probably be a lot lower.

Either way, I wanted a high fantasy story about good vs evil with sweeping world building with daring quests, plot twists and huge battles, and I was not disappointed. The world building was probably one of my favorite parts of this series, and this is a book universe that I wish I could go in and explore myself. I would love to see Terrasen, the Staghorn Mountains, Wendlyn, the Southern Continent and sail farther on to discover the other countries and lands that were only ever hinted at. SJM has some special talent at creating a land like Terrasen (and the Night Court from acotar) about a northern land of mountains and snow that I can't help but love and feel just a little bit at home with. This just makes me look forward to her future books and series in the hope that she continues to not disappoint. I read this series in a little less than a month and now I already want another high fantasy with just the same level of development and stakes.

Reread: February 2022. I definitely enjoyed this book more than when I first read it. Doing a tandem read with Tower of Dawn definitely helped, and I love how interconnected the two books are. It’s still not my favorite in the series, but I did enjoy it more this time around.



3.5 stars/ This was well...I'm not too sure. I'm going to round up to 4 stars for now, but it that might change. On one hand, I thought it was overall good as I read almost 700 pages in two days (SJMs writing is very quick to read tbh) and I liked the plots and twists and continuation of the storyline. I think it was the fact that the ending of this book was already spoiled for me that it didn't have as much of a shock value impact. Do I dare say that I liked the two previous books a little more than this one? This review will contain some mild spoilers so continue to read at your on risk. Either way, lets start with what I liked:

1. Manon, Elide, Lorcan, Lysandra. These characters really begin to shine through in this installment and I continue to stan Manon and Lysandra. Elide has become on of my favorites and she has such a strength in her own way that is different from the other characters that I can't help but adore her. Her thing with Lorcan was unexpected, but easily the best romantic subplot of the book.

2. The plots. As I have said before, I love books with elaborate plots and schemes. I like not being told everything and surprised when something major happens that I didn't see coming, but realize there were many clues which I should have seen earlier in the books and writing.

3. Debts owed. I loved that part of the ending. I loved it when all the debts owed to Aelin come through and she now has her allies and forces that she needs to take stand a chance against Erawain. She has her army now and even more to come once Manon and Chaol pull through. It was such a powerful moment and one that was needed with the way this book ended.

Now onto the things I didn't like so much:

1. Romance, lust, whatever the heck to call it. These scenes take up a good portion of the writing and honestly, most of it could be cut. Not every character needs to end up with someone and Maas tries to pare off every main character with another main character. Some of the romances work, and others just fall flat. The amount of 'snarling' and 'biting' the male characters do is just weird. I don't find it attractive, this 'territorial' stuff is actually low key kinda toxic.

2. The ending. There was a part of the ending I didn't like. I didn't like how everything was super pre-destined from the gods and every little thing led to the main plot of the story. I think Maas should've just left that out and revealing that Aelin is actually an even bigger 'chosen one' than she already was isn't worth it. I think some things should be left up to chance, and luck and the whims of the characters. You basically find out that every little thing in the previous books was planned out or pre-destined or schemed by someone else. I thought this was actually kinda hurtful to this particular story. I'm of the opinion that some things should just be up to fate, luck and the choices of the characters, not something pre-decided a thousand years earlier.

3. Aelin. I like Aelin, but she's not my absolute favorite tbh. I'm not googly eyed over her and Rowan. I really liked her in the other books, but she didn’t quite sit right with me in this one.I think her character arch is a bit confusing at some points but that might just be me. She's a little annoying and a little to much at some points as well, and there are other female characters in this story that I like better. The whole plot of her getting trapped in the iron coffin seemed somewhat unnecessary. Either I'm not understanding it enough, but other than to re-make the Lock, what else is it for other than shock value?

Overall, I'm glad that Tower of Dawn is next because I'm looking forward to taking a step back and going to hang out with Chaol a bit. I'm looking forward to the (hopefully) refreshing and different plot of ToD and getting to know some new people and the Southern Continent before diving into Kingdom of Ash.

Reread: February 2022. contrary to many people’s opinions, this is my favorite book of the series. I would reread this just as a stand-alone. But doing the tandem read was really enjoyable too. It felt more like a show or movie, flashing from one scene and setting to another


Where do I even begin on this book? It was so full of all my favorite tropes and everything I love. The world building, culture building, new characters and everything was fantastic. Honestly, SJM, you had me smiling through almost the whole book. Reading this was like a breath of fresh air after EoS. I needed this fresh plot, new location and different characters to keep my interest in this series. I know this is the book that people don't care for too much in the series, but damn. I loved it.

Chaol. He was just about my favorite character in the first two books, but SJM did him dirty in HoF and QoS. He need this book to redeem his character and remain significant to the plot. His whole character arc is fantastic and how he learns how to work around and continue to live with a disability was very well written in my opinion. As a mild spoiler I'm glad he's disabled-not-disabled. I think it was very important to have him accept his disability and realize that it doesn't hold him back. It's a good message in my opinion.

Yrene Towers. She was the star of this book. Everything a healer should be, plus snark, a temper and not willing to take any bullshit from anyone, least of all Chaol. Enemies to lovers is my absolutely favorite trope and her relationship with Chaol couldn't have been any better. I can't wait to see her in the next book, and see where her powers take her.

Nesryn. Nesryn was this side character who I didn't have any strong feelings toward. But her character grew so much in this book. She went from an almost nobody city guard to a very important person to say the least. Her relationship with Sartaq and her time spent with the Ruk Riders were some of my favorite chapters.

While this was very character driven, the plot advanced as well and this book parallels the events happening in EoS. The characters still uncover secrets, the past and further ways to help save the world. And most of all, getting what they came for in the first place. The Khagan's children were a lot of fun, in a strange, kinda great way, and I can't wait for them to meet the other characters. I'm excited now to read Kingdom of Ash and looking forward to reading that behemoth of a book. Hopefully it lives up the hype and level that so many other people have set it to.

This was so good. I was not expecting to like this nearly as much as I did, and I read it in practically one night. Considering I don’t like reylo (

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.

4/5 stars
After a dismal 4th book, Cibola Burn, I was a little hesitant to pick the next one up. Quickly I realized that this book was back on par with how good I thought books 2 and 3 were. There was a lot of character development that happened, and some big events in this book to continue the progress of the series. I also want to get back into watching the show!

Reread: January 2022. I forgot how much I like this book, and it really starts to become high, epic fantasy in this installment!

This is where Maas's writing style and abilities really start to shine through. We got Celanea's great character development, the introduction of some awesome characters and a very well written book that seems like it will push the series into its next phase.

Celanea's character arc in this book is great. You learn so much about her backstory and who she was in the first two books and the start of the third is not who she is at the end of this book. We also got to travel more, to another continent (why was there not a map?) which was really great. The introduction of Manon and the wvyerns were some of my favorite chapters. I can't wait to see what happens with the witches.

As great as this book was, and the fact that I could barely put it down and read over 500 pages in about 2 1/2 days, I do have some minor complaints. I thought it was a tad bit too long for the type of almost 'filler' it was. Several of the other characters, fell flat and lacked development. But overall, I thought it was great and I have Queen of Shadows sitting here ready for me to start tonight.