Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass #4

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Publication Date: September 1, 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Source: Purchase

Pages: 656

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Summary (from Goodreads):

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

****OKAY, I TRIED, BUT THERE ARE DEFINITELY PROBABLY GOING TO BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW. I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO REVIEW THIS BOOK. SO I'M BASICALLY JUST BABBLING INCOHERENTLY ABOUT IT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.****

This book was fantastic! I did not receive mine on the day that it released because I ordered a signed, personalized copy from Books of Wonder so I spent the last week aggressively muting anyone who said anything about what they were reading in it or did tweets with their goodreads updates. I did not want to know anything about this book going into it, but I had something figured out before I even got it that I thought would be a big deal, but I am actually a lot more okay with the thing than I thought I'd be. I'm surprised. Anyway, I loved this book. I was really happy with it. I saw a lot of people talking about the pain that this book caused them, but I didn't feel it. I don't know if I just read this book too fast so I could unmute everyone (I like a lot of those people and reading their tweets!) or so I would know what the hype was about or what. I guess I just experienced the book differently. It was awesome. Expect lots of rambles.

I'm not even going to try and recap the story of this book. I literally have no idea what to say.

Aelin was amazing. Even after reading this whole book with her being called Aelin, I still find it weird. I want to call her Celaena. I think I like that name better. Anyway, Aelin has grown so much in this book. She is ready to reclaim her throne and she is working on building up her court. Ahhhh... She's so smart, clever, brave, strong, fierce, generally amazing. I don't have the words.

Chaol.. Oh Chaol. I don't like what happened to you throughout this book. I loved you so throughout this whole series. I think I even loved you more than Sam (ONLY because I read The Assassin's Blade after I had already read through Heir of Fire). But you're mostly a douchebag in this book. At the beginning of this book, I thought that your feelings towards Aelin and her magic sounded DANGEROUSLY close to echoing the king's thoughts on the subject and that was what made me almost totally give up on you. That and you totally placing the blame on Aelin for all the awful things that happened while she was gone when you're the one who sent her away. I think toward the end when you start to realize how douchey you're acting, you start to redeem yourself and I kinda like you again. But you're gonna have to try harder. Because I want you to be the one, but you gotta shape up or ship out.

I ached for Dorian through this whole book. His chapters were just so hopeless and sad. The things that he had to endure were SO horrible. What a miserable existence it must be to have a demon inside you while you still exist in there.

I absolutely hated Manon's chapters in Heir of Fire because I couldn't bring myself to like the witches. I didn't think that anything that went on in those chapters was important. I thought they were icky. I just liked reading about the wyverns, which I'm still not sure, is that like a dragon? ANYWAY, I truly grew to love Manon! I loved the changes we see in her. That she decides not to be so blindly obedient. She has a conscience. It seems that she actually has it in her to care about others. I kinda think that she's going to switch sides. I hope she does. I think that her and Aelin fighting together would be amazing and would definitely have things going in their favor. I LOVE Manon's wyvern, Abraxos. I love that he's supposed to be this vicious beast, but he's such a softy and likes to smell flowers. Okay, Manon's Thirteen grew on me A LOT! I'm glad that the witches finally met Aelin.

Rowan. I like Rowan. After Chaol's actions in this book, I was happy to see him and Aelin get closer in a way that I NEVER would have thought I'd ever want. I think I only felt that way when Chaol was being a douche. Because even now, I still feel that that relationship is weird. I don't know, maybe it's not weird to get with people that you're blood sworn to? I don't know! I just know that it doesn't feel right to me! I still think Chaol is the one. I hope the last two books go in their favor. Anyway, I'm glad Rowan is in Aelin's court. He is brave and loyal and would do anything for her. 

Since I don't want to write a whole entire book about what I thought about all of the characters, I'm going to just say that the rest of the characters that are new and old that are introduced, I love them all. I love everything. I can't really think of a new character that was introduced that I don't think I liked.

So anyway, in this book, I feel like really, not all that much really truly happened. But I personally never felt like this book was slow. I don't know. Maybe I'm still just floating on that book high. I was happy to see Arobynn dealt with. He got what was coming to him. Bastard. He's even more of a disgusting pile of trash than I ever thought he could be even after reading The Assassin's Blade. 

Now seriously, if you have read this far for some reason and haven't read the book, stop now because I feel like this part would be the part that I'd be the most angry about having spoiled for myself. Beware, turn back now, etc.

The whole book seems to be working up to the big battle with the king. Which when that battle finally comes, it doesn't feel as epic as it's made out to be, but I mean, it ended in a satisfying fashion. But like, I can't believe that the king was like controlled by one of those awful rings. That was probably the thing that surprised me the most. I feel like he met a really anticlimactic end, but in the scheme of things, I guess really there is a bigger battle to come. One that will definitely be more epic. I was really excited to see Aelin and her court FINALLY head to Terrasen!! I can't wait to see how it comes along in the next book! I don't know how I'm gonna wait a year!! I only just had to wait like 2 months for this one because I actually just heard about this series shortly before I started my blog. And even though I just read the rest of the series a couple of months ago, I feel like I should have reread them before I read this behemoth of a book because I already forgot some stuff.

ANYWAYS, that's my unedited thoughts on this book. It was amazing and I would HIGHLY recommend this book and the whole rest of this series because Aelin is amazing and I love her and STILL want to be her!

This book takes the square for a book with over 400 pages!