A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. MaasMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I hated A Court of Thorns and Roses. But I decided to read this sequel because so many people have told me how good it is, and Maas has a fairly stellar reputation among readers of YA fantasy.
Having now finished A Court of Mist and Fury I can't say I'm sorry I read it. I liked it enough that I will probably pick up A Court of Wings and Ruin from the library when it comes out. But I don't mind confessing that spending time on this series stems mostly from fear of missing out on something everyone else seems to love, not my own genuine enjoyment.
So, let's get to the nitty gritty, shall we? I took A LOT of notes while I read this book. And I'm going to address as many of them as I can.
First, why the three star review? I gave ACOTAR one star because I couldn't give it zero. But ACOMAF I'm giving three.
- One star for characters because FINALLY there are interesting secondary characters. I liked the Court of Dreams quite a bit, and especially Amren with her ominous backstory. I liked the Weaver and the Suriel and the Bone Carver, all interesting and slightly frightening. And I even liked the Summer Lord Tarquin who would be so easy to fall in love with. I hope we get to see more of him and that he proves to be as seemingly complex as the much beloved Rhysand. I'm being kind with the full star here though because so many of Maas's characters are still quite flat or cliche. See: Ianthe, the mortal queens, Jurian, the king of Hybern... I see a pattern here of Maas having a difficult time making her true antagonists complex and believable.
- One star for readability. I'm sighing and rolling my eyes at myself as I say this, but this book did manage to grab my interest and pull me in after Feyre leaves the Spring Court for the Night Court. Finally Maas gave me the action sequences and travel across Prythian I desired.
- Half a star for setting. Maas's world building is still quite thin (stereotypical medieval Europe setting, very little Fae mythology, no big cultural differences between the mortal and immortal worlds), but it was so much better than the first book.
- Half a star for plot. Maas spends way too much time lingering over details that have NOTHING to do with the plot. (For example, the number of times I knew every stitch of what Feyre was wearing was frankly unforgiveable.) Most of time I feel like she is writing the script for a TV/movie with how much attention she gives to describing pretty scenes that seem purely atmospheric or just fan wish-fulfillment.
There we go. Three stars.
Now I'm going to get into my notes... This will probably be mostly for my own reference later, so expect some rambling. And ranting. >.>
Right, Maas gets no style points for me because of the following:
- the number of times she used the verb "barked"
- the number of hyphenated colors (dawn-pink, blue-grey, sky-blue, etc etc etc)
- this phrase: "sighing through her pert nose"
- Feyre referring to everyone as males/females rather than men and women or anything else. I'm not sure why this bothered me so much, but every time she did it I kept looking up from the book and wondering if she was working with animals or people...
- Feyre using a wrestling metaphor???? "He'd built something. And then gone to the mat to defend it."
- The truly unforgivable sin of this sentence: "There was an orb, it turned out, that had belonged to Mor's family for millennia: the Veritas." IT TURNED OUT? NO. BAD WRITER. This is just as bad as writing the words "for some reason."
- The brief flip to Rhysand's point for the second to last chapter. As a writer, you must have a ridiculously good reason to change point of view when you've written the last 1000+ pages of your series in a close first person narrative of your main character. As far as I can tell, the only reason she flipped to Rhysand for four pages was to show us 1) Cassian and Azriel don't die and 2) to reveal the crap about Rhysand making Feyre the High Lady of the Night Court the evening before their invasion of Hybern. Oh, and I guess to reassure us that he did indeed understand Feyre's duplicity. If I could reach into the past and smack Maas's hands off her keyboard while she wrote this chapter, I would. I'll repeat myself: BAD WRITER. Give the readers the suspense of wondering what is happening with poor Cassian and Azriel and Rhysand. And if you're going to reveal in the final chapter with Feyre that she's the High Lady anyway, you sure as heck don't need this chapter to reveal it first. Bad, bad writer.
Other stuff...
The sex. Wow, these books should in no way be marketed as Young Adult. I realize that is probably the publisher's fault, but I'm also going to ding Maas because I really don't understand the point of the sex scenes. I find them awkward (tongues scraping/stroking roofs of mouths more than once...? gag) and I just don't get what they add to the plot. Maaaaaaybe the first time Rhysand and Feyre have penetrative sex is relevant to the plot. But why she feels the need to turn it into a romance novel, I just don't get. Dear readers of this series who just love these scenes: get thee to the romance section of a bookstore or library and enjoy the actual good stuff.
Feyre's trauma. I don't want to judge Maas and whether or not she has ever suffered any kind of trauma or depression in her life, but my feeling is no, she hasn't. I did like that she made Feyre's trauma from what she did at the end of ACOTAR a huge part of ACOMAF and the vehicle for her character growth, but I thought it was handily clumsily. A lot of telling, and little showing.
Feyre rockets back and forth between thinking she's plain or thinking she's gorgeous. I guess she's insecure, but I found the abrupt switches in her view of herself off-putting and unbelievable.
The sexting. Are you serious. Why was this a thing. The entire exchange between Feyre and Rhysand about licking each other made me want to vomit. It also played into my constant frustration that all of the centuries-old immortal fae in these books act like stupid teenagers. (I'm pretty sure Amren was the only exception to this.) Also, later when Feyre tells Rhysand she wants to paint him and it's so cute and such a big step for her - and then he replies "Nude would be best," I nearly lost my mind. I was so MAD that the moment felt ruined by a typical fuckboy response.
(Also why did Feyre think flirting with Rhysand was so "lethally dangerous"? She thought that a lot, and I didn't get it. Was it just because she viewed flirting with him as betraying Tamlin? Was the lethal part her thoughts about Tamlin's reaction or Rhysand's?)
The fact that Feyre mind-rapes Tarquin... and then doesn't really think about it at all after that scene? I sure hope that gets addressed again because that was super disturbing.
Feyre is now an immortal super being with powers other fae can only dream of and she never once considers just leaving everyone else behind and figuring out what the heck she wants out of life and who she is as a person. I really dislike her utter dependence on other people. Rhysand might have ended up being her mate, but she trades her dependence on Tamlin for dependence on Rhys long before she was romantically attached to him.
The differences between Tamlin and Rhysand were reiterated so often and so overtly that I kept shouting "THIS IS A BIT MUCH" at the book. More telling rather than showing. Ugh, it bothers me so much. So basic.
And now I'm going to end with two things I liked. :)
1) Tamlin's fucked up move of locking Feyre in his house. This felt realistic to his character. And her reaction also felt realistic. I really liked how fucked up this was because it felt like an appropriate catalyst for the rest of the book's events.
2) This is very personal, but Maas managed to make me love Rhys and Feyre together by playing into my favorite hurt/comfort tropes. Rhys helping Feyre process her trauma? Yes. Feyre comforting Rhys after his nightmare? Yessss. Feyre saving Rhys from his captors and then healing him? YESSSSS.
...well, I've now invested way too much time in this review. And I'm way too curious what my reaction will be to the next book in this series. I still don't understand why these books are as beloved as they are, although I suppose I now understand the obsessive Feysand shippers. Cheers until ACOWAR comes out!
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