Review : Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
Pages : 418
Genre : YA, Fantasy
Series : Throne of Glass, book 2
My Rating : 4/5
About the Book :
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.
Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.
My Thoughts :
I love classifying my books with ratings, but very often, these little numbers at the top of my review don’t do a good job of translating all of my feelings. This book for instance, was so, so much fun! I gave it a big 5 stars on Goodreads for entertainment alone – though quality-wise, I know over time I’ll see it more as a solid 4 stars book. Yet I loved it, and it had me reaching immediately for the next in the series. So, how do you quantify that?
From a more critical point of view, I could still see a few flaws in the story. For one, I thought the book was unevenly paced. The first half was very slow, and very similar to Throne of Glass. At that point, I wasn’t sure why the book had received so much more love than its predecessor. And then things started to happen. And then other things. And then it was a crazy roller-coaster ride to the conclusion, and I could see why readers had loved it so much; I did too.
How could I not? Crown of Midnight was pretty much everything I had asked for. I complained about the romance being too present and flowery in the first book, and here to author faded it away slightly, giving space to the fantasy of the story. I felt the first book often placed us beside the action (we don’t get to see much of the tests, for instance), but here we were brought right into it. There’s more worldbuilding, more mysteries, more magic, more everything.
But the biggest improvement for me was the character of Celeana. I felt she was too perfect in the first book, and I demanded answers; I feel satisfied with those I was given here. Her flaws, which were less in focus in Throne of Glass, were more present here : she’s vain, impulsive, a cruel killer who is not so in control of her emotions and unforgiving (which could be both a flaw or a quality, depending). I also thought that all of her awesomeness was more justified : we get to see her in action, and I finally felt as though her title of assassin was more than just a decorative word.
And finally, twists! Lots of twists and revelations. I’ll be honest, I saw most of them coming; the author tends to leave clues around that are a bit too obvious for my personal taste. My preference is for clues that are missed on a first read, but suddenly make sense once secrets are revealed. I still had tremendous fun reading the story and seeing how, exactly, things were being unveiled; but I would have loved it even more if I hadn’t seen it coming (and while I do have a lot of experience in reading, I don’t consider myself a particularly good “detective”!)
All in all, I loved it. It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a series continuously, book after book after book. But despite its flaws, something about Sarah J. Maas’ books has me a bit obsessed with it. At this point, I have all of the books on my shelf and I’m pretty sure I’ll be flying through them in no time!
