Right off the
bat, I have to say that while I thought that A Court of Mist and Fury was a bit of
chore to get through, and I ultimately didn’t like it very much, I thought
that A Court of Wings and Ruin was definitely an improvement
upon that book. However, even though I liked A Court of Wings and Ruin a
little bit more than I liked A Court of Mist and Fury, there are
still a lot of things about this book that I don’t like, and that I definitely
found this book rather frustrating and disappointing in a lot of ways.
When I finished
reading A Court of Mist and Fury, I have to admit that I wasn’t too
crazy about the fact that the book ended with Feyre returning to the Spring
Court in order to spy on Tamlin and the others, with the intention of bringing
the Spring Court down. However, I ended up really enjoying how that storyline
ultimately played out in A Court of Wings and Ruin. I’m really glad
that Sarah J. Maas didn’t make it easy for Feyre to carry out her plan, and
that she actually ran into some problems along the way, because I think that it
would have felt incredibly contrived if Feyre had been able to carry out her
plans without a hitch. I also love that Feyre ended up having to work with
Lucien in order to carry out her plan, because I feel like that added a very
interesting dynamic to that particular part of the book.
While the blossoming
romance between Feyre and Rhysand in A Court of Mist and Fury was
definitely one of the bright spots of the book for me, I thought that the
writing for their relationship in this book was for the most part more
frustrating and annoying than anything else. The way Feyre and Rhysand’s
relationship was written in A Court of Mist and Fury made
their relationship a relationship that I really enjoyed reading about and could
root for, especially considering the way Rhysand really encouraged Feyre to
better herself and gave her a greater sense of freedom; unlike Tamlin who
really seemed to try to shelter Feyre. Sadly, the way Feyre and Rhysand’s
relationship was written in this book really made their relationship come
across as being incredibly shallow and primarily about sex and constantly
flirting with each other.
Personally, I
really hated the fact that there’s some kind of telepathic bond between Feyre
and Rhysand. I didn’t keep count of how many times the phrase “down the bond”
was used throughout the book when it came to Feyre and Rhysand flirting with
each other, or just communicating with each other in general through the use of
their telepathic bond; but I’m pretty sure that if people made a drinking game
out of how often the phrase “down the bond” was used throughout the book, they
would probably die of alcohol poisoning before they had even read a third of
the book. If Sarah J. Maas had actually used that bond between Feyre and
Rhysand for reasons besides it being a way for them to constantly flirt with
each other, I might not have necessarily minded there being a telepathic bond
between them. Maybe it could have been used to help progress the plot more
often than it was; but the fact that Feyre and Rhysand’s telepathic bond for
the most part really seemed to serve no other purpose aside from it being a way
for them to flirt with each other, really annoyed me quite a bit throughout the
book.
As weird as this
might sound to some people, the shift in the writing for Feyre and Rhysand’s
relationship in A Court of Mist and Fury compared to the
writing for their relationship in this book felt very reminiscent of Sylvia
Day’s writing for Eva Tramell and Gideon Cross’ relationship in the first book
in the Crossfire series, Bared to You, and how it compares to the
writing for their relationship in the four other books in the series that
followed: Reflected in You, Entwined with You, Captivated by You, and One with You. While I wasn’t 100% happy about
the writing for Eva Tramell and Gideon Cross’ relationship in Bared to
You, I still really liked them as a couple, and I was rooting for their
relationship to work when I read that book. Unfortunately, I felt like the
writing for their relationship only went downhill more and more with each book
that followed Bared to You. When it comes to the books that
followed Bared to You, Day really made their relationship seem like
it was primarily about sex, so their relationship felt incredibly shallow in my
opinion, despite the fact that Eva and Gideon were constantly talking about how
much they loved each other.
Not only that,
but one of the numerous other problematic things about Day’s writing for
the Crossfire series is that the extremely strong emphasis on
Eva and Gideon’s sex life caused the writing for the series in general to really
suffer in a lot of ways. For example, I felt like the writing for Gideon really
suffered from a serious lack of character development and the failure to truly
flesh out his backstory throughout the course of the series. That being said,
to be fair to Maas, while the writing for A Court of Wings and Ruin in
general is rather flawed; I don’t think that the writing for Feyre and
Rhysand’s relationship, and this book as a whole, is nearly as bad as Sylvia
Day’s writing for Eva and Gideon’s relationship and the Crossfire series
as a whole is, but I digress.
It seemed rather
ridiculous to me that Maas paired up most of the characters with a love
interest. When it comes to the romance aspect of A Court of Wings and
Ruin, I kind of felt like Sarah J. Maas was being like Oprah Winfrey: “You
get a love interest! You get a love interest! You get a love interest, and you
get a love interest! You all get a love interest!”
Sure, I know
that not every single character actually ended up with somebody by the end
of A Court of Wings and Ruin, and I’m honestly glad that not
everybody ended up in a romantic relationship with somebody; because I already
thought that the number of romantic pairings in this book was rather
ridiculous. Even though not every single character in this book ended up with
somebody, the absurd number of romantic pairings in this book still really
annoyed me. That being said, while I do think that the number of romantic
pairings in this book is pretty ridiculous, I still kind of wish that Tamlin had
found love with somebody else by the end of the book. Sure, Maas did kind of
ruin Tamlin as a character in A Court of Mist and Fury, but I feel
like he ultimately redeemed himself to a certain extent in this book, so I do
want him to be happy.
While I do have
a lot of problems with A Court of Wings and Ruin, I definitely have
to give Maas kudos for genuinely surprising me and subverting my expectations
quite a few times throughout the book. There were a variety of plot
developments that either completely surprised me, or things played out in a way
that was very different from the way I was expecting them to. Given the fact
that the Bone Carver appeared to Feyre as her future son with Rhysand, a big
part of me was really expecting Feyre to find out that she was pregnant at some
point. That being said, I was really glad that Feyre ultimately didn’t end up
finding out that she was pregnant at some point in the book, because I feel
like if Maas had done that, she could have easily had Feyre experience a supernatural
pregnancy where the baby grows really fast and is born shortly after Feyre had
learned that she was pregnant. That to me would have been incredibly dumb, and
it most likely would have felt rather reminiscent of the last book in Stephenie
Meyer’s Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn, and I definitely
wouldn’t have viewed that as a good thing.
One thing that
really bothered me about this book is the fact that the portrayal of Feyre’s
fae powers felt very inconsistent with how they were portrayed in A
Court of Mist and Fury. I felt like Maas had really built Feyre up as being
this incredibly powerful, badass fae in A Court of Mist and Fury,
and yet in this book, she oftentimes either didn’t use her powers at times when
they could have been very useful to her and the other characters; or she acted
like she didn’t think that she was powerful enough to do what needed to be
done. I just thought that was really frustrating, and I really wish that the
writing had been more consistent in regards to Feyre’s powers (As well as a lot
of other things, too, but especially the use of Feyre’s fae powers).
On the more
positive side of things, I was happy to see Maas redeem Tamlin to a certain
extent in this book. One of the things that bothered me the most about A
Court of Mist and Fury is the fact that I felt like Maas basically
assassinated Tamlin as a character in order to prop up Rhysand as a character,
and get the readers to root for a romance between Feyre and Rhysand; instead of
simply having Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship end in a more organic manner.
After really hating the writing for Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship, as well as
Tamlin as an individual character in A Court of Mist and Fury, I
definitely appreciated the fact that Tamlin helped bring Rhysand back to life
after he was killed, and he was dead for a brief part of the book.
While I
definitely found a lot of the action that took place outside of the parts
of A Court of Wings and Ruin that focused on Feyre and
Rhysand’s relationship much more interesting than the parts of the book that
actually focused on their relationship; I did think that there were quite a few
times throughout the book where the amount of action that was going on got to
the point where the book just felt too chaotic and insane at times. There were
times throughout the book when certain plot points that probably should have
taken about half of the book, or at least a large portion of the book in order
for it to be executed well only took a chapter or two of this book to happen
and be resolved. That often led to the overall pacing of the book feeling
rather uneven. It also caused the book as a whole to come across as if Maas had
made a checklist of things that she felt needed to happen in order to end
Feyre’s portion of A Court of Thorns and Roses series, and it
was like she was just trying check each item off the list. Personally, I feel
like A Court of Wings and Ruin could have been a lot better if
Maas had taken some of the plot points from this book, and had written an
additional book or two for the part of the series that focused on Feyre, only
those plot points would hopefully be much more fleshed out and less rushed if
she had done that with some of the things that happened throughout this book.
The parts of the
book featuring Feyre’s sisters, Nesta and Elain, were kind of interesting.
However, I was also really frustrated by the fact that they ultimately never
really came to accept the fact that they are now fae, or at least started to
accept it by the end of the book. I think that if Maas had expanded upon the
parts of the book featuring Nesta and Elain, and had them both show more
character development and growth in this book, that I might have enjoyed the
parts of the book that featured them a little bit more than I did.
Personally, I
was rather disappointed by the whole revelation about Mor being bisexual. It
felt rather random and forced on Maas’ part to have Mor reveal that she’s
bisexual in this book. There hadn’t been any indication or hinting at the
possibility of Mor being bisexual in A Court of Mist and Fury, so
the whole thing felt like it had been completely shoehorned into this book. I
haven’t read any books from Maas’ Throne of Glass series yet,
so at this point in time, I can only base my assessment of her writing on
the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. That being said, from
what I’ve heard other Sarah J. Maas fans say about her books, one of the common
criticisms that people have apparently had about her books is the lack of LGBT
characters in them. Perhaps the revelation about Mor being bisexual was Maas’
attempt at trying to include some diversity in her books, but it ultimately
just didn’t work for me personally. Being bisexual myself, I felt like the fact
that Mor had apparently been stringing Azriel, Cassian and Andromache along for
years, simply because she prefers women the most, pretty much put people who’re
bisexual in a bad light. If Maas’ really wanted to establish Mor, or any of the
characters in the series, as being bisexual, I really wish that she had
portrayed bisexuality in a more positive way than she did; because the way she
handled it just didn’t work for me personally.
Considering the
fact that A Court of Wings and Ruin is the conclusion to
Feyre’s portion of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, I
really feel like the stakes should have been a lot higher in this book than
they actually were. Throughout the book, there were constantly times when
characters’ lives were in serious danger, and yet they somehow miraculously
survived; or in some cases, characters actually died, only to quickly be
brought back to life. By constantly having characters survive extremely
dangerous situations, or die, only to be brought back to life good as new, I
feel like Maas really cheapened a lot of the action and emotional stakes in
this book. I might feel at least a little bit better about characters being
brought back to life in this book, if a character had to sacrifice something in
order to bring another character back to life; or if a character wasn’t exactly
good as new after they had been brought back to life. Unfortunately, Maas
didn’t do either of those things when characters were brought back to life,
which was just really frustrating and stupid, if you ask me.
Even though I
definitely like A Court of Wings and Ruin a little bit more
than A Court of Mist and Fury, I’m honestly not entirely sure that
I want to continue reading the A Court of Thorns and Roses series
at this point; since I found both A Court of Mist and Fury and
this book rather frustrating and disappointing in a lot of ways. A big part of
why I would be okay with not continuing with the series at this point is due to
the fact that this book is the conclusion to Feyre’s story, so if I decide to
not continue with the series at this point, at least I can walk away from the
series knowing how Feyre’s story ultimately ends. As far as I understand,
the A Court of Thorns and Roses novellas that Sarah J. Maas is
going to be writing are going to focus on completely different characters in
terms of who the protagonists of those novellas will be. It’s entirely possible
that the novellas will be focusing on some of the side characters from the
first three books in the series. If that’s the case, I might be interested in
reading those novellas depending on who the focus of the novellas is, but
that’s definitely a very tentative “might”. That being said, while I’m
currently on the fence about whether or not I want to continue with the A
Court of Thorns and Roses series, I definitely still want to check out
Maas’ Throne of Glass series in what I’m hoping will be the
near future.
All things
considered, I definitely think that A Court of Wings and Ruin serves
as a decent ending to Feyre’s story for the A Court of Thorns and Roses series,
even though I have a lot of issues with this book. While I found a lot of the
action in this book fairly interesting, I feel like Maas tried to do way too
much in this book. A lot of the pacing for the book felt rather off, and there
were various storylines that were ultimately very rushed, and quite a few
characters that felt rather underdeveloped.
Sure, I
definitely got the impression that Maas was trying to incorporate some
character development into this book, but in a lot of cases, it was handled
rather poorly; especially when it comes to the whole revelation about Mor being
bisexual. There are quite a few things that happened in this book that I think
could have been featured and expanded upon in an additional book or two before
wrapping up Feyre’s portion of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series.
It also didn’t help that quite a bit of the action that took place in this book
came across as being rather ridiculous and frustrating due to the stakes coming
across as ultimately not being very high in this book. There should have been
some genuine loss and character deaths that weren’t rendered pointless due to
them being resurrected without any long-term consequences, but there sadly
wasn’t really anything like that in this book.
Personally, I think
it’s really sad that I found the writing for Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship
in A Court of Wings and Ruin so ridiculous and frustrating,
since their relationship was one of the rare bright spots of A Court of
Mist and Fury for me personally. Their relationship really felt like a
relationship that I could root for in A Court of Mist and Fury, but
their relationship ultimately comes across as being incredibly shallow,
eye-roll inducing due to Feyre and Rhysand constantly flirting with each other,
and mostly being about sex in this book. That made their relationship suddenly
become a relationship that I had a really hard time getting truly invested in,
and caring about as I was reading this book.
While I
definitely still want to check out Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series, A
Court of Wings and Ruin has currently left me feeling incredibly
undecided about whether or not I want to continue with the A Court of
Thorns and Roses series. I absolutely loved the book A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I definitely
found both A Court of Mist and Fury and this book rather
frustrating and challenging to get through for various reasons; which makes me
rather sad since I felt like this series started out on a very strong note.
That being said, my final score for A Court of Wings and Ruin is 6.5 out of 10.
