on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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I read nearly all of this book in one six-hour sitting.
Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 569
Started: 9 July 2023
Finished: 10 July 2023
Summary:
Celaena has been sent from Adarlan's castle to Wendlyn, all the way across the ocean, to assassinate the Wendlyn royals. Burdened with her new knowledge of the king of Adarlan's power, the mythical Wyrdkeys, and by the tide of death she seems to bring with her wherever she travels, Celaena decides instead to ask her Fae aunt Maeve, an immortal queen, for help with the King and the Wyrdkeys. Maeve, cruel and calculating, presents her with an ultimatum: Celaena must train, and master her power, in order to earn the information she seeks. So despite her grief and self-hatred, Celaena takes her place at Mistward, the fortress for demi-Fae, and begins to train with the legendary Fae warrior Rowan. But despite the seemingly never-ending well of power that she begins to discover, Celaena quickly learns that she is not the only dangerous creature in Wendlyn--monsters in human forms, chained with collars around their throats, roam the forests, spreading darkness and evil wherever they go, and Mistward is far too vulnerable to their advances.
Thoughts:
I may have changed my mind--this may be my favorite book in the series. I love a good training scene, and this book is basically one big high fantasy version of that. Enemies to friends-who-want-to-get-better-together is one of my favorite tropes, and the way Rowan and Celaena's relationship progresses brings me so much joy. The other characters are a bit useless in this book, with the exception of Manon, whose violence and perfection is a pleasure to read, but their chapters are all short enough that the focus can stay on Celaena.
Perhaps SJM's writing, and particularly how she write's Celaena's thoughts, just fits with my brain, but I think the writing is a bit more clever than people give it credit for. Celaena is a very interesting combination of self-loathing and ego, and the way her internal rules and jealousy work are well-defined and really satisfying to read. This book is a perfect example of two of my biggest theories about writing. The first is that a good book can be defined by its ability to evoke emotion, which this book certainly does---it's thrilling, satisfying, exciting. Its emotional impact is strong, and so I will argue that it is a strong book despite its flaws. And the second theory is that, in order for writing to depict both emotion and power in a logical and meaningful way, there needs to be a baseline amount of emotion and power, that is increased at specific and meaningful points to increase emphasis. SJM utterly fails at this. All of her characters react so extremely to everything that, while it does give me strong emotional reactions, it also makes it really hard to tell what counts as important versus just inconvenient, what counts as powerful versus just temporarily on top. That, and the lack of diversity, are the two things that bother me the most about this book. But aside from that, I really do firmly believe that this is a strong and exciting book that delivers a joyous and pleasant reading experience. I am wildly excited to continue through the series.