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Without further ado, we shall go into my second book review, for the second book of the Throne of Glass series: Crown of Midnight.
Thoughts
Here we go! Another pretty awesome-looking cover! I had this book delivered to me in class... And I was pretty hyped up!
Until... Memetrash stated "It looks so anime"...
cough... ANYWAY, moving on...
Shade at Memetrash shall wait. For one does not get away with shade at anime. Ahem.
Alright, so this series was pretty darn good so far. It's captivating, with all of the unique characters, the concepts, the development, the relationships, the build-ups, and the multiple plots combined into one very complex and very well thought out story. Well done, Sarah J. Maas.
except for you... Memetrash.
So I got to reading the book. I wasn't disappointed at all. We start off with my fave, Celaena, out at night, tasked with murdering someone who has "wronged" the corrupt king. Remember, after the first book, she won the honor of becoming the "King's Champion", aka his personal assassin. She's supposed to work for him for four years, and then she will be free. Also, remember that the King destroyed her homeland and ridded it of all magic ten years prior. She's pretty much has no choice but to work for the treacherous king of Ardalan for the time being to survive. Now what's interesting, is the fact that even though she's sent to kill these people, people on the King's blacklist for little to no reason for all, she doesn't actually kill them. She fakes their deaths instead, by going to corpse houses and taking dismembered body parts as evidence to present to the king-body parts that look similar to the victims'. She makes the victims change their names and run away, and by doing all of this faking, we really get to see a lot more to her character- she's no longer the morally ambiguous assassin that we saw earlier on. Development, people. Development.
(SOME writers really need to know how to do that. *cough *cough)
Celaena's next assignment is to murder Archer Finn, a man that she used to work within the Assassin's Keep, as he is suspected to be aiding rebels in rebelling against the King. We also see a lot more development with Chaol and Celaena. They're a pretty cute couple if you ask me. Just wait till later... A LOT later. I just loved the interaction between them and I personally felt like she had a stronger connection to him than to Dorian, the crown prince. Though I do appreciate Dorian's love for puppies. I mean, come on. PUPPIES. Puppies. We also get a few more hints about the magic going on in the castle, with Nehemia, discovering more secrets of the Wyrdmarks, the little passages in the castle, etc. So much build up going on, followed by more of Celaena's backstory revealed. One of the many things I love about this story is that NOTHING IS EVER WHAT IT SEEMS. (Doesn't that remind you of the Wizard's of Waverly Place Theme Song?)
Remember in the first review, when I was going on that spiel about Love Triangles and how cliche they were? Remember when I said that this series often adds so much more to things that cliches aren't even cliches anymore? Yeah. That happens again. I love the incorporation of Chaol's POV and more about his feelings for Celaena. He's a very strong and very well developed character at this point, playing a larger role than before. We get to see the extent of his feelings for Celaena and what he will go through to protect her. Dorian also still has feelings for her, but he's at this point, accepting her relationship with Chaol and acting more as a friend to her. He doesn't interact with them as much in this book, as he is busy discovering things about himself: Magic. Yes, as if this prince could not be in an even more ironic situation than he already is in. The son of the King who banished magic, has now discovered his abilities. He goes through more in this book, and is experiencing changes in his life, that are ultimately mirroring Celaena's own hardships, turning him into a much stronger character as well.
The secondary characters all play a pretty important role in this story. More secret motives going on with all sides. Rebellion is growing even more in Princess Nehemia's country and she definitely adds on a lot to Celaena, shaping her... Until the very end. After I read Throne of Glass, I looked everything up on the wikia and I was like "WTH IS GOING ON". Yes, so many changes in the dynamic of the story... And two of the changes were just feelzy. *sniffles
awwww
The Verdict?
Of course, this book is as suspenseful and action-packed as always. What goes on in the story never ceases to amaze me and I was looking forward to everything. My lord, so many twists and turns in the plot and so many moments where you wanna say "WHYYYYYYY"? Honestly, it reminds me of some of dem anime series where they love to put the characters in bad situations and have them suffer and grow at the end of the day. Nothing wrong with that, you gotta show struggle and hardship. Be sadistic as you want to see what they will do. Celaena is even more broken than before with the amount of hardship she faces in this installment of the series, and just so much was revealed about her in the very end. Of course, I already knew what was going to happen, as I personally, love to find spoilers and I love finding out what happens before I get to it. I know, you're probably like "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU, YANDEREPANDA? YOU WERE SO PERFECT UP UNTIL NOW! SUCH SUPERIORITY! SUCH GREATNESS! QUEEN PANDA! WOOH!" haha jk. But yes, it's a weird thing I do. I always love looking things up ahead of time, so I know what's going on. If something bad happens in my research, I'll know whether or not to just drop the thing entirely and not waste my time. (Blood of Olympus...) But yes, if you're amongst the vast majority, that hates spoilers, you will probably not see the final twist in this one. This sequel ends in a cliffhanger, one that has had so much buildup to it, and it makes sense. Highly recommend this one. Definitely a better-written book than the first one. I'd say, 4.5/5, for sure. Some of the problems that happened in the first have been fixed and this one is definitely more compelling. Much expectations for "Heir of Fire", "Queen of Shadows", and the 5th and 6th installments. I honestly wish I came across this series earlier, as it has restored some of my faith in YA Fiction. If you want action, suspense, romance, fantasy, thrill, some dark aspects, a complex plot, bada** heroine, etc, then THIS IS THE SERIES FOR YOU.
Peace out, fam.
-YanderePanda
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