A Brief Intermission: Queen of Shadows

I suspect there may be a few more "brief intermissions" featuring Sarah J. Maas' Queen of Shadows over the next week or so, given that (1) Queen of Shadows is quite lengthy and will take me forever to finish because (2) lately I've only been able to concentrate on books while reading on my subway commute to work. But I've already underlined a few dozen passages and am really enjoying the story so far.

Here's a passage that's been on my mind – probably a throwaway detail to most readers, but I liked it a lot and I'll tell you why in a bit:

Elide gazed across the flickering lights of the war camp, and a chill went down her spine. An army to crush whatever resistance Finnula had once whispered about during the long nights they were locked in that tower in Perranth. Perhaps the white-haired Wing Leader herself would lead that army, on the wyvern with shimmering wings.

I've always been intrigued by the way Sarah J. Maas uses different points of view. The Throne of Glass books are written in a third person omniscient perspective but each chapter generally follows one particular character at a time.

I love seeing things through Elide's eyes for the first time because it creates a richer picture of the world. For example, we've already come to know and understand both Abraxos and Manon Blackbeak in Heir of Fire, but Elide doesn't have that benefit. Her perspective grounds us back into the de facto culture of the Throne of Glass universe, a universe where Abraxos is a creature that is monstrous, dangerous, and untameable, period. And yet he has been tamed by this Blackbeak witch, who therefore must be even more monstrous and dangerous than the wyvern himself.

As readers, we go into a book series with certain assumptions... or sometimes it's certain things we've picked up along the way – it's like we have this basic understanding of a person, or a culture, or a history, that gets built up over time... which is why it's nice to remember that other characters live by other truths that don't always align with our own, simply because they haven't yet experienced what we have. Their perspectives help create a different and, might I add, refreshing picture of something we might already take for granted.

This is a long-winded way to say that I really liked this passage because of the way it described Abraxos as the wyvern with shimmering wings.

Review: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Title: The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Publication date: March 4, 2014
Rating: ★★★★½

Summary (via Goodreads):

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

I've been rereading the first three Throne of Glass novels to refresh my memory in preparation for Queen of Shadows, and I finally had the chance to read The Assassin's Blade, which includes all five of the pre-Throne of Glass novellas: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, The Assassin and the Healer, The Assassin and the Desert, The Assassin and the Underworld, and The Assassin and the Empire.

This review contains spoilers for those who have not yet read Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight so proceed with caution, my little darlings.

I have always loved Celaena, in spite of her haughtiness and arrogance, or maybe because of it. I have always admired her. I loved her even more in Heir of Fire, watching her grow exponentially, seeing her confront her biggest fears and challenges.

But The Assassin's Blade made me respect and admire and feel for her infinitely more. It's that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach, when you're observing something and you already know it's going to end badly. It's like watching a train come off its tracks – fascinating and horrifying and dreadful all at once. This is what it's like to read these novellas.

It's almost upsetting to hear her talk of the life she will lead once she's free of Arobynn Hamel – all you want is for her to be happy and for her to live the life she deserves… and for a moment, you almost forget that Sam dies and that Celaena ends up in Endovier and that everything else happens. For a moment, you entertain that dream with her. For a moment, you imagine what her life could have been had she stayed in the Red Desert from The Assassin and the Desert – not the most lavish of destinations, but maybe something good for her soul. How different things would be.

It's hard to watch things start to backfire, from the slave deal in The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, all the way to her sentence to Endovier in The Assassin and the Empire. Just thinking about it makes my heart squeeze painfully. I can't even get into what happens with Sam in The Assassin and the Underworld. Like, my brain will just not even go there.

And that's only the beginning of her story. To think about everything else Celaena has gone through… all this darkness that spans her life… she is one of the strongest characters I've ever read. You just want to tell Sarah J. Maas to give the girl a freaking break already. There's a line in Heir of Fire where Celaena says that she can't remember anymore what it feels like to be free. And reading that, and knowing all that happens in The Assassin's Blade, makes it so much harder to take.

I loved these stories. I love that they were meaningful and revelatory without being required reading. I love that they enhance the rest of the series – they make Celaena a more empathetic character; they reveal more of the world that Sarah J. Maas has built; they expand and play on little details mentioned briefly in the other books, like Dorian's sapphire eyes that feel like something she's forgotten, and the stolen Asterion horses from the Red Desert, and so much more… Such a treat for anyone who's read and enjoyed the Throne of Glass books.

Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Publication date: May 5, 2015
Rating: ★★★½

Summary (via Goodreads):

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin – one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it... or doom Tamlin – and his world – forever.

Dear ACOTAR,

It's not you – it's me. I wanted to be in a love affair with you. And don't get me wrong – there are so many things that I love about you. But we're just not compatible... or maybe the timing is off. Who knows? But listen – you'll do amazing things in the world, and I'm still going to be sitting there following along. I wish you every happiness in life.

Sincerely,Tiffany

The Story

This is a very loose re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, with layer and layers of secrets and twists. Dark and intense from the beginning and even more so at the conclusion of the book, once the end game is revealed to you and you start to retrace the strands of the complicated web that is ACOTAR. The last two-thirds of the story were the most interesting to me – maybe it's because by then I had come to care about the characters and understand the backstory. I will say that I was pretty disappointed to have figured out key parts of the story so easily. I like to have my mind blown, and to me, some things (like Amarantha's riddle) just seemed so obvious that it felt strange to have them as such crucial parts of the story.

The Romance

It was a slow burn, I suppose you could say. A slow burn with some glimmering coals. A slow burn with some glimmering coals and sparks that jump up high into the air and nearly burn off your eyebrows and you're like JESUS CHRIST SAVE ME IS IT HOT IN HERE OR WHAT. I guess you could say it was like that.

The Characters

As always, the characters are the most compelling part of the book, and Sarah J. Maas continues to be amazing at building out people who are strong in their own ways but also flawed – you can sympathize with them but maybe you're also frustrated by their actions or their attitudes or their human-ness or the way they choose to present themselves to the world. SJM is so stinkin' good at writing a complex character.

Tamlin, powerful faerie nobility and total babe (like I said, it's loosely based on Beauty and the Beast), is a remarkably likable person/faerie. After Feyre kills the wolf and sets off this chain of events, he gives her asylum, in what appears to be a display of sympathy – and continues to offer her kindness again and again. He holds a high position of power, yet he remains fundamentally good. We get to explore so many different facets of his character in ACOTAR – from seeing what he's like after the Fire Night celebrations, to his sincere conversations with Feyre in the garden, to his impassiveness Under the Mountain.

Feyre, I will admit, was the one character whose thoughts and feelings I disliked reading the most, especially in the last hundred pages of the book. It was like I turned the page in the book, and turned a switch, too – she went from a fairly neutral-to-admirable character in my eyes to suddenly unbearable, going against all the advice she'd been given, not thinking about the consequences to her actions, being so short-sighted. Maybe it's the result of having figured out the plot twists and other characters' motivations up front, or maybe it was just that she seemed unclever compared to some of Sarah J. Maas' other characters in other books (ahem, Celaena Sardothien)... I just couldn't gel with her in the end.

Rhysand, High Lord of the of the Night Court, is the one character who immediately intrigued me as soon as we met him through the end of the book. He's a dark horse, that one. He's someone who strategizes – intelligent, smooth, incredible at keeping secrets. He has a sharp sense of humor, he's incredibly self-confident, and while Tamlin may be the one who knows how to play a fiddle, Rhys is the one who knows how to play a person like a fiddle. I'm really excited to see what happens to him in the next few books. (God, I hope it is/isn't a 6-7 book series like Throne of Glass. My heart won't be able to handle it.)

So many other characters that I could talk about, but all I'll add is this: I've already decided that if ACOTAR ever becomes a movie, Amarantha will be played by Helena Bonham Carter. There is really no one else.