Queen of Shadows: Book Review

Hello! YanderePanda here! As promised, I have the Throne of Glass: Queen of Shadows Book review here, immediately following the Heir of Fire Book Review! We are currently with the fourth book in the series, out of the possible six, and so much transition has taken place in this fourth installment!
BTW, I've noticed that there are hardly any book summaries out there. (I'm looking at you, Wikia.) Basically all my reviews from now on will consist of a summary and a review section, for anyone wishing to get the general run-down. Don't want spoilers? Then gee, idk, maybe one should not be looking at this. Just Super Saiyan.

Definitely the coolest cover so far!

Summary

So this book came out more recently, in September. So finally, I am actually caught up with the series in terms of updates. (As mentioned earlier, I kinda gave up on a lot of YA fiction prior to reading this series, hence the reason  why I haven't really discovered these books till a few months ago.) 

This book is definitely a lot faster paced than Heir of Fire, but still not as fast as the first two books. There's not as much buildup needed for this story, as the magical concepts and stuff with the Fae was pretty much explained for the most part in the predecessor. Now, actual schizz starts to happen, with Aelin back in Ardalan, ready to confront Arobynn, find the third Wyrdkey, destroy the King, etc. Celaena is truly gone, as in the book, she is always referred to as Aelin in the narrative and she makes people refer to her as such. It's clear that she's ready to take her throne, once all this crap is over.

Comes back to Ardalan via ship, goes to where Arobynn is, and the two reunite after quite some time. It's pretty clear that he's not this father-figure care-taker person that he was stated to be in Throne of Glass, as Aelin knows the full on truth of what exactly this a**hat has done. Found her frozen by a river, took her Amulet, aka the Third Wyrdkey, made her become an Assassin, turned her into a weapon, manipulated her for his own gain. He was the reason for the death of her first lover and had a role in her going to Endovier. Basically, a good chunk of Aelin's troubles were because of THIS GUY. But she can't do anything yet, as she needs the third Wyrdkey and needs to figure out what the heck was going on while she was away.

She runs into Chaol again, and things get a bit ugly. I mean, it's understandable, but come on... They were former lovers? So much buildup happened with their relationship in Book 1 and 2? Tbh, I was kinda annoyed when I saw the amount of animosity between these two. I mean, Chaol was kinda of a jerk to Aelin and vice versa, but I get why. She didn't tell him anything about her life as Aelin and lied to him. After he filled her in about everything, Aelin made it clear that she had to kill Dorian. Given her run-ins with the Valg Princes and the fact that there's one inside him, the only humane thing to do at this point is to end him. Chaol is against it, because Dorian was his dear friend and he sacrificed himself to save the Captain. Chaol is definitely one of the most realistic characters in the series; a lot of his actions and beliefs are justifiable, as so much as happened to the poor guy. He doesn't really have anyone anymore, and a lot of his beliefs are challenged and he doesn't know what to think. He was a loyal Captain of the Guard who worked for the King, but now with all this going on, he doesn't know what to do anymore. Chaol's frustrations towards Aelin are justafiable, but personally, I don't think he should've gone to the extreme for his former lover like that. I mean, this is the guy who wanted her for his wife and he imagined a future with her. Also, the Nehemia thing kept getting brought up as justification for Aelin to be so against Chaol, but I personally thought she was being too harsh. He did so much for her, and if he didn't send her to Wendlyn, much of this wouldn't have happened. Additionally, Aelin appeared to be a lot more female-dog-y in this book than ever. I still really like her, but some of the stuff was uncalled for.

Anyway, we get some introduction to Lysandra and Nesryn, two pretty cool female characters, one thing I loved about this book. In the first two, we just had Celaena and Nehemia. Now, we have Manon, Lysandra, Nesryn, the 13, and this other new character named Elide, who is in Manon's story arc. (Yes, Manon's arc continues in this book also. Yay.) I haven't read the prequels yet, but apparently Lysandra is in those as well. She's basically this prostitute that works for Arobynn (against her own will, in a way.) She and Celaena hated each other and competed for Arobynn's affections. Lysandra eventually grew on me, because we got to see her backstory, and then see a friendship grow between her and Aelin. Development! Yay! She becomes a vital ally for our heroine. Nesryn is a city guard who works alongside Chaol and the rebels. She's pretty cool in terms of abilities, but I personally thought she was kinda boring. Also, her and Chaol... Sorry, I just don't really ship it. Just like how I didn't ship Dorian and Sorscha.

So Aelin finds about her cousin, Aedion being trapped in the castle, and she works with her not-really-allies to free him. In the invasion, she runs into Dorian, who is clearly not himself and she almost kills him, but is stopped by Nesryn. Luckily, they get Aedion back and the cousins reunite. Yayyyy! More tension with Chaol and Aelin because of the Dorian thing! Gahhh! And we also get some Arobynn stuff going on, as the Third Wyrdkey isn't given to her just yet. In exchange for him helping her with rescuing Aedion, she has to give him a Valg monster thing. So Aelin's side of the story is basically her interacting with her cousin, the guards, trying to figure out what to do with Dorian, getting the Amulet back, and taking out Arobynn.

We sometimes get chapters with Dorian's narrative, consisting of him with the Valg Prince inside him, showing how he's lost himself and cannot remember anything or truly act on his own accord. Before, I stated that Dorian was kinda boring compared to Chaol, since all we knew was that he was some hot prince that girls fangirled over who liked puppies and was kind. Now he's a lot more interesting and I feel so bad for the poor thing.

We also see Duke Perrington and Kaltain again. And we also get more of a human-like side to Manon. She does some cruel things, but then we start to see a nicer side to her. Honestly, I love Manon. She's freaking awesome. So we get her and Elide, who is from Terrasen, hoping for her queen. And more info about the 13, witches in general, the Valg stuff, and more with the ginger Duke. He has no soul. Literally.

Rowan comes back! Yayyyy! Chaol sees RowAelin! Lalalala. Now here's the problem. In Heir of Fire, the two were clearly shown to have developed as friends... But then in this book, they just kinda instantly transition into lovers. I mean, I like the two together- Rowan's the only one who truly understands Aelin for Aelin. As Celaena, as a Fae, etc. I understand why Chaolena didn't work, because Chaol only loved Celaena. Not Aelin. But THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE BUILDUP FOR A RELATIONSHIP TO HAPPEN. There's quite a bit of scoodilypooping suggestiveness going on here. Anyway, I loved the interaction between Aelin, Aedion, and Rowan. Very entertaining. So more operations occur with the Valg stuff, blah blah blah. They capture a Valg Person, take him to Arobynn, Amulet is given back, Lysandra becomes closer to Aelin.

Finally, Arobynn gets slaughtered by Lysandra, as they don't have any use for him left and after a certain event, it's clear that he can't be trusted at all. I liked how Aelin allowed her to do it instead of Aelin just murdering him herself, because she believed Lysandra deserved to. The Keep ends up belonging to Aelin and she sells it to the other Assassin people in exchange for money for Aedion's army. 

Eventually, Manon and her 13 are sent over to Ardalan for the King's bidding. Some stuff happens, and they're seen in a forest with Dorian and the King, after Lysandra gets captured. They have to go rescue her and Chaol finally understands Aelin's desire to kill Dorian, as it's clear that he's suffering and it would be more human just to end the suffering at this point. He tries to kill him, but fails to, because of the 13. WE GET AN AWESOME MANON v. AELIN FIGHT! YASSS! It was pretty awesome. Manon almost dies but Aelin has a change of heart and decides to save her from getting crushed by a crumbling pillar thing, because of her 13's despair. I'd say that was some good development, on both sides. Manon is in Aelin's debt and eventually she helps her indirectly with the Dorian fiasco. Lysandra gets saved. Yay!

Finally, they plan an invasion into the castle to end things once in for all, at the Summer Solstice, because of magical stuff. Basically, they do stuff with the Wyrdkeys and stones and marks to release the magic that was sealed off so long ago. Then Aelin and Chaol head off to go fight Dorian and the King. They FINALLY respect each other again, after understanding each other for their actions and they are not longer jerks to one another anymore. Yay! Development!

Rowan and Aedion are busy with the whole Magic Freeing process, and the basic gameplan is that Aelin will pose as Celaena, with Chaol as her prisoner, pretending to return to the King. Unfortunately, this doesn't work, and confrontation occurs anyway. Chaol is stuck with the king, Dorian is stuck with Aelin, with Aelin trying to free him. Chaol almost dies, but survives thanks to the Amulet. Magic is freed and then Aelin is able to free Dorian, and the King ends up confroting them. Battle ensures and thanks to their combined magic, they get to overpower the king. He gets killed by Dorian, not before revealing the entire truth with the Valg Princes and the Valg King. Basically, Perrington released the King thing when they were younger and the King took over Perrington's body while a Prince took over the Ardalan King's. Crap happened. Magic was banned as a sort of protection. Then bam. Decapitation. The Glass Castle gets destroyed, Magic is permanently back, Dorian becomes the King. He starts to recover and become himself again. Chaol is bedridden, as he cannot walk, but at least he is safe. Things are amended and the book ends with Aedion, Aelin, Lysandra, and Rowan heading to Terrasen. Yayyyy! Chaol and Dorian's issues are resolved along with fixing of Ardalan once and for all!

The Review

Queen of Shadows was quite the powerhouse of a book. A lot of issues were resolved after things were built up. We finally get Aelin coming to terms with her past, ending Arobynn, getting magic back, destroying the King and the corruption of Ardalan, having Chaol and Dorian's life back together, Aelin and Aedion reuniting, and finally, Aelin's return to Terrasen. I believe this book had the most occured events out of the whole series so far and it was quite an action-packed adventure. Loved the introduction with the new characters and development with Manon. There were many strong points in this book, just like the ones before it. Plot is as complex and well thought-out as ever, and even though a lot was resolved, it was set up so new issues have been introduced. Maeve is still in power, and it's hinted that she will play a bigger role later, Aelin needs to be at her throne and fix Terrasen, the Valg stuff is still happening and is still a threat, and Perrington is still alive. Manon will continue to play a role, and I'm curious about what else will happen with Ardalan, now that Dorian is king. So many more questions to be answered. However, this book still has its flaws. There were some issues that I've stated before with Aelin. In Heir of Fire, it appeared that she accepted her role as Aelin and that she and Celaena were different. But she seemed so much like Celaena when she had her fire-breathing ***** queen moments. There were instances where she was stated to look like a queen, but I hope she fixes some of her attitude because we can't have a proper one with that behavior. Also some stuff with Chaol that I felt like was too extreme, but in the latter half of the book, he was the good old Chaol that we came to love in Book 1 and 2. Again, there were those issues with RowanxAelin shipping. It just seemed like an awkward transition from close friends to lovers like that. It seemed rushed and unexplained. And I question how the stuff with Arobynn was able to end so easily. The King of Assassins just dies from a slit to the throat from a prostitute? Seemed unrealistic to me to have a King of Assassins die so easily. He was just murdered in his sleep. You can't justify a King of Assassins dying in his sleep from a knife from a prostitute without actual training. Also, the stuff with Aelin sneaking out and doing things ahead of time that ended up becoming too convenient to the plot to help the good guys was kinda repetitive. The fake jewelry thing was helpful and interesting the first time, but then it became laughable and redundant. How could people just conveniently be fooled so easily by fake heirlooms and jewelry? Overall, a strong book with a complex plot that cannot bore anyone with some flaws and issues. 4.3/5 

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Happy Holidays! 
-YanderePanda

Heir of Fire: Book Review

Hello! YanderePanda here! It's been a while! You can thank demonic homework assignments and the very concept of school for that. Aneeewayyyyy, I is here with another book review! The third book in the Throne of Glass Series: Heir of Fire!

yasssss. I summon thee, Chuck Norris

thx doge (is it pronounced DOG-E or DOHGE?)

So, like I said before, in case any of you haven't noticed, I stated that this is the THIRD book in the series. Therefore, there will be spoilers for those who have not read the first and second. So keep your salt away from my chocolate flavored Lays chips if you "accidentally" see spoilers. (MURICA I tell you. Murica. Who the poop puts potatoes and chocolate together? Also, it's like four bucks for like what... Ten chips? Madness.)

Summary

As seen in the second book, Crown of Midnight, our beloved protagonist and one of my favorite female characters of all time, Celaena Sardothien aka Aelin Galathynius, the heir to the throne of Terrasen, and part Fae woman, was sent to Wendlyn at the end of the book. She is now here to find out about the Wyrdkeys and Wyrdmarks and other magical mumbo jumbo. (Kudos to you, Maas. You continue to amaze me with the development of the characters and the added complexity to this fantasy tale's plot and concept.) CelAelin has to deal with her identity, accept who she is as a Fae, come to terms with her fully revealed backstory, and figure out how to fix the crisis in the world. In the first two books, Celaena dealt with getting out of the Salt Mines and working for the very king who destroyed everything she had at a young age, in order to survive. She was born Aelin, but then she became Celaena, when Arobynn took her into the Assassin's Keep. Now that push came to shove, she's back as Aelin, the very identity that she abandoned when her family was murdered and she was taken away from Terrasen. Now she has to take action, accept her fate, and save the lands. It's hard for her to accept who she is, because she didn't WANT to become a queen, as stated when she was little, in a flashback. She felt like she had no role in doing so and wanted to be free from everything, as she already failed to save so many already. 

CeAelin meets Rowan, a Fae Prince aka her next love interest. Now calm down, please withhold your eyerolls. I know. She has love interests. A decent amount of them. Sam from the prequels, Dorian, Chaol, and now Rowan. But hey, at least it's not a stereotypical romance and love triangle thing going on. At first, I thought Rowan was a complete buttface(for lack of a better word.) However, I eventually warmed up to him. He is part of the Fae Queen's court, in this land, Maeve, aka Aelin's great aunt or great great aunt or something. (They're immortal, okay?) She has information about the Wyrdkeys and basically a good chunk of information CelAelin needs to know. I don't need to go too much into detail, since it's a decent amount of stuff to talk about, but you people have the general idea. In order to get the information she needs, our protagonist needs to prove her worthiness, by training her Fae Powers. Rowan is her personal trainer/tutor/mentor person. Oh, and we also find out more with Maeve's connection to CelAelin. There's more detail about the deaths of her family and some more stuff about how Maeve is actually an evil, demonic swampface.

Instead of typically sticking to CelAelin's POV most of the time and with a little bit of Chaol and Dorian's, we actually get a Chaol/Dorian side every few chapters to see what's up in Ardalan. We also get a new character, Manon, this witch that is trying to win these War Games, taking place with other witch clans, to determine the Head. We get some insight into Chaol's life, and he continues to develop. He starts to get a bit more out of his loyal to the king, narrow-minded ways. I still feel so bad for him, as he truly sacrificed so much for the greater good. His intentions are good, he just doesn't know exactly what's right and wrong anymore. Sadly, he and Dorian drift apart, and Dorian continues his discoveries about his magical abilities, while getting a new love interest, a healer named Sorscha. (Personally, I wasn't a fan of those two together. Granted, she was a nice lady with good intentions but it was just... Ugh... I can't picture Dorian with different love interests tbh. Perhaps its my Yandere tendencies.) 

heh. heh

Also on Chaol/Dorian's side, we get General Aedion, Aelin's cousin. He's very loyal to his queen, but has no idea that she is still alive, as most people believe that she's dead. We get some Chaol and Aedion partnership going on here to try to do something about the evil King that we all hate. Aedion is in a similar position to Chaol and Celaena, as he's pretty much forced to work for the King and the two men basically are there to work alongside the rebels. Meanwhile, Sorscha and Dorian get interaction and they try to find out more about forbidden magic.

Back to Rowan and CeAelin. They are in this Fortress-like area, with some civilian people where he trains her and makes her do kitchen duty at first. Yes, make a future queen help out in the kitchen. Nice going, ***hat. She befriends two part fae dudes and we find out more about Her Royal *****ness and more things about Fae in general. Later, when Rowan actually gets to training her, he makes her shift into Fae form and refuses to do anything else until she does. Unfortunately, she cannot do it right away and it takes a LONNNGGGGG time for her to do it. She gets frustrated with him a few times and he gets all physical and hits her and they get into some nasty fights. Like, worse than Chaol and Celaena fights in Book 1. At least Chaol didn't try to give her black eyes and damage her face multiple times. Like I said earlier, Rowan is a SHOWERBAG. At least... At first. He calls her childish and insults her to no end, not understanding her true backstory, as he believes she just ran away from everything like a spoiled child, not knowing about everything with Endovier, the brutalities of the Assassin's Keep, and pretty much most of the trauma she's been through. Eventually, CeAelin's buddy tells Rowan to stop being a Sack of Narts and eventually Rowan learns about her horrid past. We start to see some softer sides to Rowan, and they eventually become friends, when he opens up to her about how he lost his lover and ever since then, has been sworn to Maeve, not caring about anything else. He finds out about her scars from Endovier and the softer sides to her. 

And of course, she finally is able to shift and have access to her powers, but it's still very difficult for her to control. She continues to work harder and harder, to master her abilities. This, I respect her greatly for. She's no longer the Most Powerful Assassin in Ardalan. She's this struggling heir to the throne of Terrasen, trying to figure out how to use her magical abilities, getting her derriere kicked by Rowan and being outmatched in general by other Fae. For those accusing her of being a "Mary Sue" (I'm looking at YOU, some of you GoodReads and Wikia People.) Read this book, and see how she's not. A Mary Sue doesn't struggle like this and deal with the effects of hardship in this way. She earned Rowan's respect through her development, desire to work harder, and when he found out about her past. We see a strong friendship develop  between these two.

Manon Blackbeak deals with stuff with her clan, her grandmother, and dealing with the War Games, after finding a Wyvern and training with it. She's kinda like Celaena in terms of Chuck Norrisness, except she's far more heartless. She's not exactly as human as Celaena, as she's technically not even human, being a witch.

Chaol and Aedion deal with more stuff with the rebellion, and eventually... Some bad situations happen. They and Dorian and Sorscha end up getting caught and in a set of events, they all get tricked. Aedion is revealed to be working with them to the King, Chaol is shown to be conspiring with the rebels, Sorscha is Dorian's lover. Long story short, Chaol gets away safely thanks to Dorian's magic protecting him. Unfortunately, when the magic is finally revealed to the King, he ends up getting trapped with a Valg Collar and ends up getting possessed by a Dark being, called a Valg Prince.

On CelAelin and Rowan's side, they deal with some Valg Princes also and other magical issues and other dangerous situations that I don't need to go too much into detail for. CelAelin is able to use her powerful Fire magic to take down Valg Princes and then she is finally ready to face Maeve, as she is clearly very powerful at this point. Stuff is revealed, as promised, and then CelAelin is able to get Rowan to be freed and is able to have him bloodsworn to her instead. (Bloodsworn concept is kinda like a mate thing.) Maeve is ticked off and even though it's the last time we see her, it's pretty obvious that she will probably be a threat in Book 5 and 6. (The review for Book 4 is coming up right after this one, since I read them back to back.) The book ends with CelAelin heading back to Ardalan, with Rowan not coming with her just yet. She now knows where the third Wyrdkey is, as the first two belong to the king. With the third one, she can finally take him down and fulfill her promise to the late Nehemia, as she struggled with fulfilling it this entire book, due to her grief. First off, she needs to go back to her old master: Arobynn, the one who knows about the third, after she was able to piece it together.

The Review

The first two books were faster paced, while this one was definitely a lot slower, and there's a good reason why. First two focused on Celaena the Assassin, getting out of the Salt Mines, and establishing her new life as the King's Champion. This one focuses on Celaena transitioning back into Aelin, accepting her role as the heir, etc. There's so much more build-up to the magical aspects of the world and the concept of Fae. With the subplots for Manon and Chaol/Dorian, there HAS to be a more slowly-paced plot. Heir of Fire needs to build up this transition with Aelin's character and lead the story into Book 4, combining all of the sub-plots together. If this book was fast-paced like the first two, it wouldn't work very well. Overall, I enjoyed this one, as Maas continues to amaze me with the narrative, descriptions, transitioning, development of all the characters once again, etc. However, I would also like to point out that it was a bit shaky when it came to explaining all of the concepts; there were almost too many things going on at once, being somewhat confusing at times to the reader, when elements from the prequels were thrown in along with all of these names put together. 4.5/5 Still impressive, still a good series to read for those who like Action+Fantasy+Concepts-once-cliche-turned-into-something-great.

Recently, I have been referred to as the "Queen of Shade" by NotYourBlendedFruit. 

Merry Christmas Eve Eve! And have a ruffin day!
Peace out.
-YanderePanda

RWBY Review: The Series So Far And Predictions

Heyoo, my awesomesauce people! It's a me, YanderePanda! Here with another review! Wooh! Yay!

Ah yes, RWBY, the web series created by the greatness of RoosterTeeth. Note: WEB SERIES. Note: CARTOON. Note: ROOSTERTEETH. Since this is a Western-Made animation, it is NOT AN ANIME, thank you very much. Just like how Avatar: The Last Airbender and its Sequel is not either, contrary to some noobs' beliefs. However, I do appreciate these Japanese-Inspired series, as it is bringing in more Western audiences.

Anyway, as I was saying... RWBY is an ongoing series, with two completed seasons and a third season that has just started a month ago. I'll just say that it is a pretty impressive series as of now, especially for a Web Series. At first, I was a bit skeptic of it, but given the praise and popularity, I decided to give it a go. Also, it was right up my alley, (Man, that was cheesy, especially for me.) being a fantasy-based, supernatural, Fairy Tale-inspired thing with a good plot and great characters, namely female Chuck Norris's.

Volume 1

Set in the world of Remnant, filled with supernatural forces and shadowy creatures known as "Creatures of the Grimm", with humans who have waged war against these creatures with power of a mysterious element called "Dust". During the time-period in which this series takes place, Dust is used to power abilities and weapons. The people who use such abilities are called Huntsmen, or the female equivalent, Huntresses. The series focuses on four girls, forming a team called RWBY, in an academy for potential Huntsmen and Huntresses, called Beacon. There are other academies too, and this world is also made up of four kingdoms, and Beacon takes place in one called Vale.

The concept is pretty cool, but it's been done so many times before, which made me a bit skeptic of the series at first, as the whole "kids going to school to train to become something" was kinda cliche. But keep in mind that cliches aren't necessarily a bad thing if done right, and done differently than expected. The story is pretty simple in this, so far at least, but I believe the main focus of the story is how it's conducted and the art and characters. We first start off with Ruby Rose, the main protagonist. She's admitted into Beacon as a first year, even though she's two years younger than them, because of her prodigious skills with a scythe. As you can tell, Ruby is based off Red Riding Hood. She's a cute, little girl who is naive, optimistic, and lacking in social skills. Luckily, she's entering Beacon alongside her older half-sister, Yang Xiao Long, this outgoing, motherly, confident, awesomeness, who is arguably the strongest of them all, using these fist-cuff, glove things. They both adjust as first years, meeting other people, being part of school life for Huntresses such as themselves, and enter this exam thing, to help determine teams. They are put in a team with Blake Belladonna, a somewhat anti-social, mysterious girl who eventually opens up (Loooooveeee herrrr), who wields dual blades and has these ninja-like reflexes, and Weiss Schnee, this stuck-up, rich girl, whose family owns a Dust Company, who wields a rapier, with a pretty awesome fighting style with grace and uses magical glyphs. She also ends up developing into a likable character later on. Ruby is appointed the leader of the group and the focus of the first season, is developing them as a team.

Ruby and Weiss don't get along at first, with Weiss trying to be the leader and with their fighting differences. But eventually, they end up becoming friends and Weiss ends up being nicer to her. We also get some more spotlight with the side characters in other teams, like JNPR, with this noob guy named Jaune and the prodigy, Pyrrha (LOVE HER). Jaune is appointed the leader of the group and Pyrrha, being the celebrity who is famous for her fighting ability, trains him. (I anticipate a future romantic relationship between these two. Hehehehe.)

Anyway, we get some introduction of the main villain in this season, this dude who wants something to do with stealing Dust. We also learn about the White Fang, an organization of this animal-like race, called Faunus, that started off as a peaceful protesting group that fought for equality between Faunus and Humans, but then became violent, when they got a new leader. Some robberies start to happen, and there's suspicion of the White Fang and possibility that the main villain, Torchwick, are connected. We get some development with Blake and Weiss especially, in these particular episodes. Blake is revealed to be a Faunus, hiding cat ears under her giant bow, and was a member of the White Fang, but defected. Weiss shows hatred for the White Fang, because of the crimes they committed for her families company, and also shows hatred for the Faunus. But eventually she gets over it and accepts Blake for who she is.

At the end of the season, we find out a bit more about White Fang and Torchwick and his men and get a few more allies: Sun, this Faunus who I believe will be Blake's love interest, and Penny, this android who helps RWBY.

*slaps knee

Volume 1: The Review

In Episode 1, the animation was a little bit iffy. Same goes to the dialogue and the voice acting. This continued for the next few episodes. (A girl was literally seen slurping a pancake... so...)

 Next few episodes were a lot better, and the soundtrack was always pretty good. Animation became more smooth, dialogue became less cheesy, etc. However, the episode length should've been a lot longer, as most episodes were like 10-15 minutes, and this continues for the rest of the series, sadly. I mean, there's so much more development and characterization that you can have with a longer episode length.

   But anyway, it is what it is. Get over it, people. ANYWAY, I really liked the growth in RWBY as a whole. We got some development with Ruby, with her adapting a bit more as a leader. Sadly, Ruby and Yang didn't have much focus or development in this volume, as it was mainly focused on some of the side characters and Weiss and Blake. Weiss with her relationships and becoming kinder and more respectful, Blake with dealing with being a Faunus and blending in with everyone. Overall, I thought Volume 1 was enjoyable, but it was definitely the weakest out of the seasons. 7/10

Volume 2

Much better. Volume 2 is where stuff actually starts to happen, after the buildup in Volume 1. This is where the students actually start to get involved with what is happening and there is definitely far more development with the characters at this point. AND a lot more action! Yayyyy! Also, the dialogue, voice acting, and animation have improved!

yes.

So it starts off with General Ironwood, commander of Atlas' military and academy, from the kingdom of the same name. He arrives to discuss security of Vale with the Headmaster of Beacon, implying that the students will soon have a role in helping with the crimes. Blake starts to have much anxiety about the White Fang, and the stuff that the White Fang has done has put a strain on the poor girl. Ruby proposes for them to work together to discover what Torchwick is up to. Also, we get this trio of "foreign" students: Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, who are here for an upcoming huntsmen tournament. They are seen doing some sketchy stuff, like sneaking around and whatnot. RWBY continues their investigation for the White Fang and we get some pretty awesome fight scenes and find out about Yang's semblance-basically these special abilities that are unique to each Huntsperson. Yang's is this Super Saiyan OP Awesommesauceness thing, where the more she gets beat up, the stronger she gets. Sounds pretty OP, I know, and kinda cheap, but the way it's shown in the show is pretty cool.

There's a dance that is coming up soon and everyone is excited except for Blake, who has become distant again, even though she started to open up and have fun with everyone earlier(And my poor Pyrrha, who is still being friend-zoned). She's still struggling with anxiety at this point, refusing to rest, until Yang decides to talk with her, explaining her childhood. Development for Yang! Yay!

Yang reveals that Ruby's mom was a huntress, but never came back from a mission and that Yang's mom left when she was a baby and she was always trying to find her. She kinda went crazy trying to find her, and almost got she and Ruby killed when they were little, during the search. She compares her obsession with Blake's and then is able to convince her to lessen her obsession a little, but to not give up entirely. Nice! We see more maternal aspects to Yang's personality. Not only to Ruby but to Blake too. 

The dance happens and we see some moments between my anticipated pairings. *squeals Ruby catches Cinder trying to sneak into this big tower that's for the Schnee Company and hacks into it and does some other bad, criminal stuff. She is able to sneak back into the dance without Ruby being able to recognize her.

Following the events of the security breach, Ruby and Yang receive a package. And then it pulls a Doctor Who and then a cute corgi appears out of nowhere! Their family dog, Zwei. (Not to mention an OP dog. Must nerf.) The Headmaster Ozpin announces that the four kingdom academies are now allowed to shadow real Huntresses and Huntsmen on assignments. RWBY is allowed to go shadow their history teacher (This weird dude who has like drugged coffee or something), after bending the rules, since first years are not allowed, but their Headmaster is awesome. 

They set out on their mission and go off to Mountain Glenn, this area in Vale that is now abandoned, being overrun by Grimm. They are forced to fight the Grimm, and meanwhile, the Crazy History Teacher asks them why they wanted to be Huntresses. Yang loves the thrill and doing the right thing, Blake believes that it's better to do something than to do nothing and for the name of Faunus, to show that she doesn't want to run away anymore, Weiss does it for the sense of duty and wants to restore the moral dignity to her company, due to the poor working conditions issued by her dad.

Eventually, Ruby gets captured by the White Fang, and there is revealed to be an underground hideout where Torchwick resides, and it appears that Torchwick is their leader. The rest of RWBY catches up with her and they rescue her, and they fight the forces, in this cool, train fight scene with bombs and flying, firey corgis. Also get some cool fights inside the train with Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Yang loses for the first time, against this strange girl with heterochronic eyes, named Neopolitan, and gets saved by a masked woman. Blake uses her semblance- these shadow clones, and wins in her fight against Torchwick and helps Weiss. The train crashes at the end, and creates a hole up above, into the middle of Vale.

The final episode of Volume 2 has these epic, awesome fight scenes including the Beacon Administration, RWBY, JNPR, some other teams, some second years, and for some reason, Emerald and Mercury. In the aftermath, Torchwick gets arrested, and Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury discuss White Fang's future. Also, this mysterious guy named Adam, who worked with Blake in the past appears, revealed to be the White Fang's true leader. In the post-credits, Yang is seen talking to the masked woman, now unmasked, resembling Yang. I assume that she is her mother.

REALLY need some merch

Volume 2: Review

Volume 2 was loads better than Volume 1, improved in all aspects as said before. It was far more interesting, more build-up, and with more foreshadowing for Yang's character especially. I just loved the interaction with RWBY members, their relationships with the Headmaster, other teams, the still unknown objectives of the White Fang, etc. Everything flowed pretty nicely, from one thing to another, making a well-written plot and presentation. Overall, I give this season an 8/10

Volume 3: Predictions

So far, there are three episodes of Volume 3, and wow... It is pretty amazing so far. The animation and soundtrack and fight scenes are just on point. So much of an improvement. Volume 3 starts out with the tournament between the academies, introduction of Ruby and Yang's uncle, and Weiss's older sister. I'm excited to see what will happen in this volume as the opening is clearly hinting quite a few things. 

From what we have so far, I'm assuming that we will find out more about this Adam character and Blake will definitely get even more development as she's been focused on so much with Volume 1 and 2 already and it's clear that she and Adam will reunite, but I'm hoping that she will get less focused on, to allow the rest of the team to be the center of attention. I'm also predicting more growth for Yang, as she currently is the least developed of RWBY, and it's foreshadowed that she meets her mother again. Despite her lack of development so far, she's a very layered character and I respect that. She's a thrill seeker, as she claims, but also shows this mature, maternal nature most of the time. She also had that goal about wanting to find her mother but doesn't let her goals get in the way of everything. Her anger gets the best of her and even though her Semblance is crazy powerful, it can also be her weakness if she lets her excitement get the best of her, as seen in her first seen loss against Neo, which in a way, is a form of development. At that part of the story, we see RWBY lose for the first time and struggle, which is good. We shall find out more about her and why she disappeared. She appeared in the White Fang train, so I'm assuming she disappeared because of them and has a role with that particular fiasco. As seen from Episode 3, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury seem to know Ruby and Yang's uncle, so they will definitely be more present later on. We'll probably expect to see a little bit more with Weiss as well, with her sister being thrown in. Perhaps we will meet the rest of her family and some more will be shown with the company as well. But overall, I'm mainly looking forward to a Yang development and possibly Ruby, since she was shown talking to her mom's grave in Episode 1 and in the opening, there was a part where she looked sad with everyone and another part where she had her eyes open while everyone else's were closed. I just feel like this volume will start to become much darker, and perhaps Ruby will start to see things in a grey area, rather than a black and white one. Must mean something, right? Much expectation, much anticipation, much hype.

@any of you people who still complain about episode length

Peace out, and Happy Turkey Day!

-YanderePanda

Crown of Midnight: Book Review

Hellooooo guys! It's YanderePanda! And we are here with another book review! By the way, take a look at NotYourBlendedFruit and Memetrash's debut blog posts! They're pretty awesomesauce... And snarky.

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

Meninism

Brought to you by memetrash

For those of you who are blissfully unaware of the coalition of human trash known as 'meninists', Urban Dictionary states: 

   

Meninist

Meninism is a mockery of feminism and proves that we can't request equality without white
men making everything about themselves.

by velvetcrowbar November 12, 2014

(Thank you, user Velvetcrowbar. I couldn't have said it better.)

'Meninism' originated as a silly, none-too-harmful (or so I naively assumed) Twitter account that 'parodied' feminism by stating instances in which women have 'rights' that men do not have; an example being, "Why doesn't the woman have to do a pregnancy test to check if the baby is hers?" Of course, I was a little bit uncomfortable even when I assumed the account was created by feminists looking for a laugh. If a person truly believed in feminism, I thought, they would take it seriously. To make a joke account would be undermining the effectiveness of the movement.

Sadly, my intuition was correct, and Meninsim spiraled out of control. Why do I always have to be right? In fact, I had my first public sighting of a kid wearing his meninist shirt yesterday. I was repulsed. I sincerely hope somebody slapped him. 

Being A FEMALE and a Tumblr user at the origin of neo-feminism in May of 2014, I was quick to become an aggressive feminist. I mean, women already have to deal with periods and pregnancies and looking over our shoulders at night to make sure we don't get raped :):):) We literally make up 50 percent of the population. Why should we have fewer opportunities than our fellow non-women? Feminism is not about matriarchy, although I would casually joke that I am 100 percent okay with that. In the west, feminism is simply about empowering women in an undeniably patriarchal society. One thing should be kept in mind for all the nonbelievers: feminism is the reason women can vote.

Now, why are meninists human trash? Good question! After some playful, harmless Tweets that sounded like a joke, @MeninistTweet started getting ACTUAL RECEPTION from MEN'S RIGHT ACTIVISTS (the most ignorant group of whiny white boys in existence). The account garnered multiple copycat accounts who were sincere in their whinings. I have no idea whether the administrators of the original MeninistTweet actually believe the disgusting things they post, or if they simply play to their disgusting-er audience. Whichever it may be, the Meninist account has posted despicable things that condone slut shaming, raping women, abusing girlfriends, drugging drinks, and attacking feminists. 

None of the content is so called "men's rights activism" anymore. It is sheer misogyny. What did women do to deserve the further abused? Oh, that's right: we stood up for ourselves. Typical of men to get all defensive and make a mockery of women who defend their human rights. Why didn't women get to vote when men did again?

Well, I could go on for hours but I'll spare you all.

Go, friends. Defeat the patriarchy.

memetrash out.

Tweet Dissecting #1

Tweet Dissecting #1

By NotYourBlendedFruit

Let me start off by saying, I'm a calm person. Much calm, so calm, very calm, such calm...until I see stuff like this. 

Okay. 

Alright....

Huh...

*absorbs the content of the tweet*

*loses calm*

Excuse me why I hit my head with a hammer.

So let me ask you a question Alexa. Are you a human being?  Do you human? You *points to Alexa*, Human?

Alexa probably reflecting

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but according to the vast amount of humans that currently inhabit this planet, you probably aren't.

Why? Well, for starters, your a fan of Justin Bieber. And are kind of (really) insensitive to everyone and everything that happened yesterday. Don't believe me? Let's dissect this tweet of yours Alexa aka. @biebssexplicit.

"PARIS IS FINE," 

Just your average clique, meeting up in the city, hitting up some popular places, giving some hugs, holding some people hostage, shooting only a few people, and as a result, you know, like 200 people die. *shrugs* And oh wait, it was also Friday 13th. 

At least croissants still taste good, right Alexa? 

Not bashing croissants.

"WE HAVE OBAMA." 

Your right, we do! We also have mom jeans, angst against Starbucks coffee cups, and a little (a lot) of saltiness towards Donald Trump who is running to be the next president. 

I don't like you.

It kind of feels like a Madlibs game. Replace "Obama" with any other noun. Please, let your mind be free, and explore the vast nouns of the universe. With the except of you sick people out there, please don't. 

"AFTER THE PARIS PEOPLE ARE DEAD, WE STILL HAVE AN ALBUM THAT IS ALIVE..."

I'll be fine without you Spartan's (fangirls) in my face.

Yes, many people died! Almost 200! Thank you for acknowledging some of the damage that has been caused by these events. Can you do one more thing though? Enlighten me about your beliefs on how albums are living things? How are they... alive?

Alexa, since we acknowledged that you most likely aren't human? I also think you might live in a box. Or at the very least, under a rock. Perhaps under a box full of rocks.

Albums are not living things. End of that. Okay?

"AND THAT WE NEED TO GET TO #1."

...well it's Justin Bieber's album we are talking about. I'm sure there is enough said about this guy already. 

Sorry Justin. it's not me, it's you. 

This was Tweet Dissecting #1, let me know what you think! Please COMMENT and SUBSCRIBE to this blog if you would like to see more tweets get dissected. Thanks for reading! Last but not the least, my condolences to all that have lost their lives tragically in Paris on November 13th. And to those families out there, stay strong.

-NotYourBlendedFruit

Throne of Glass: Book Review

Heyo! Yandere Panda here!

*in a sing song voice FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVEERRRRR... Haha, jk. 

Okay, so this will be my first book review of the first book in a more recent series. I just finished it, and thought "Oh, hey! Why not make a blog post! It pertains to the blog theme in general! Wooh! Yippeee! Toodaloo! Fruity doody doo!"

Ahem... *coughs

Oh, right uh... To the review!

Throne of Glass: General Premise

 As a writer myself, I tend to be more critical when it comes to written work, and will call things as I see it after analyzing, and it was my pleasure to come across this book, after stumbling upon it at my local library. 

Throne of Glass is a YA fantasy novel, the first in the series of the same name.

This illustration just screams "Chuck Norris Bada**ery"

The book follows Celaena Sardothien, an assassin in a fictional world, set in the kingdom of Ardalan, a kingdom that is ruled by a tyrant that has banned magic. (Whatta jerk. Must be a muggle or something.) She is famous for what she does, and a year prior to the story, was captured and sent to the Great Salt Mines of Endovier for punishment.

In the Great Salt Mines, she was forced into inhumane, slave labor where guards would whip the prisoners very harshly and abuse them on a daily basis, leaving them with little food, and terrible living conditions. The conditions of the place were so bad, that even surviving for a few weeks was lucky. Due to a year of being in these living conditions, Celaena was stuck in a weakened state, and obviously nowhere near as powerful as she was in her Assassin days, with scars all over her and painful memories.

Lucky for her, the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian comes by and offers her freedom from the mines, but on one condition: she must become his champion in a competition for being the Royal Assassin of Adarlan. She must fight twenty-three other contestants, consisting of warriors, thieves, and killers. If she wins, she will serve as the King of Ardalan's assistant for four years, and then will be free. If she loses, she will return to the Salt Mines. She agrees to enter this competition, and is escorted by the Captain of the Guards, Chaol, to the Glass Castle, where the competition is being held.

We also find out a bit more about Celaena's background. She didn't choose to be an assassin, she had no choice. It is revealed that Celaena is from the kingdom of Terrasen, and her parents were killed when she was little, being traumatized by it (as revealed later). After her parents were killed, the King of the Assassins, Arobynn, rescued her and gave her an option: either to end up as an orphan on the streets or to be taught the ways of the Assassin and repay him in the future. She chose the latter option, and the King of the Assassins became the closest thing she had to a parent, being brought to a keep, and trained amongst other people. She's slain her first victim at the age of nine years old, and also dealt with a lot of hardship along the way. At this point, and throughout the book, we still do not know how she got captured and the exact background of the whole thing, but supposedly it is explained in the e-Reader prequels and the sequels after.

In addition, it is also hinted that she has a connection to magic, but nothing is really revealed, as the King ruled out magic, destroyed magical beings, and just created a ton of hardship in her life, in general, as His Majesty had a role in having her separated from her home. And now she's stuck with the possibility of working for him, but only if she survives this competition. Now I know the competition part with the fight of the death sounds a lot like Hunger Games and Battle Royale, but there's so much more to it. This book has a few similarities to other popular books, but there's just so much going on at once in the story, which makes it more unique. (Now THAT, is inspiration from different books done right. I'm looking at YOU, Divergent. You could use a few tips. *dodges bullets from the fangirls. Yes, THIS is how you dodge a bullet, Tris.)

Thank you, thank you. *holds up wine glass with Kool-Aid in it and does that Leo smirk thing.

They finally arrive at the Glass Castle, and Celaena is given a luxurious bedroom, clothing, food, and a wonderful selection of beautiful clothing. It turns out that our sassy, arrogant, sarcastic main heroine has quite the feminine side to her, being fond of clothing, reading, and playing the piano. She goes under a codename in the competition, so nobody else knows about her being the Queen of Assassins, besides Chaol, Dorian, King, and the servants. Her alias is Lillian, a Jewel Thief, much to her dismay. Later on, she meets the other twenty-three competitors. 

Over the course of nine weeks, the competitors will train with their respective trainers and tests will be conducted every so often, to knock out contestants, until four remain, and will duel by the time nine weeks is over. People will go home or die if they lose. The winner of the duel will become the King's Assassin. Chaol, her trainer person tells Celaena to lay low and not reveal her identity as a strategic maneuver, which annoys our prideful heroine to no end. She's far too full of pride to want to appear weaker than the rest of her competition. Which is understandable, I mean anyone who's known as the best of something would probably act in the same way, if they were thrown into her situation prior to the story, and then forced to act like one of the weakest competitors while the other contestants taunt her mercilessly for being "pathetic". 

As the weeks pass by, we see some development with the relationships of Celaena with Dorian and Chaol. With her witty, facetious nature, she tends to bicker with them a lot, but we definitely see growth between them all. At first, we see some physical attraction from the dudes towards Celaena, as Celaena is said to be very beautiful. Anyway, Chaol and Celaena interact a lot in this book, as he is her advisor and trainer and he finds out a decent amount about her, even though he started off distrusting her as an assassin. Their feelings end up growing for each other, even though Chaol doesn't want to admit them at all. Dorian and Celaena don't interact nearly as much, but when they do, there's definitely banter and more physical attraction and their feelings grow for each other. Ooh! Love triangle!

Alright, I know what some of you guys are thinking. YA Fiction? Love Triangle? Seriously? Lol, well a ton of forms of entertainment have love triangles nowadays. It's a norm. And this one, is actually pretty well developed. Chaol and Dorian are childhood friends and it's interesting to see their interaction with one another. Also, we get to see the relationships with Celaena on both sides and how they differ. Dorian is a prince who is kind and highly disagrees with the deeds that the King has done and spends the first book wondering what he should do about it, as he's powerless to stop the King. He chose Celaena as his competitor, as a form of rebellion towards his father and then ultimately fell in love with her. She's different from the noble ladies that he's courted, she provides more insight into the state of the kingdom and brought a different perspective onto his life. I know that sounds a tad cliche, but there's definitely a lot more to it, once you read the book and see it for yourself. Also, things get a lot more complicated in the second book, so I hear. With Chaol, he started off highly distrusting her, always mocking and teasing her, but still carried out his job and trained Celaena. Over time, he starts to find out more about her background and starts to trust her and eventually have feelings for her, but doesn't really realize it till later. Now, this is a love triangle done right. We see development on both sides, we don't really know who she will end up with, and we can see it happening for either of them. Way better than a certain "love triangle" I blogged and ranted about before. *cough

Along the way, we find out a bit more of the competition and a few other characters. This big, muscular, powerhouse is Celaena's main competitor. Cain, a shower bag who always taunts people, but is well loved by the other contestants, because of his strength and natural fighting abilities. Celaena also gets an ally, named Nox. He's a kind thief, and they help each other in the competitions. Throughout the book, I sincerely wished for the poor kid to not die. This noble, satanic woman, named Kaltain is also thrown into the story. She's thirsty for Dorian, but there's far more to her. As the secondary antagonist, she basically is there to find out more about the true identity of "Lillian" and will stop at nothing to mess with the competition. Celaena also gets another ally, Princess Nehemia, from the kingdom of Eyllwe. Nemehia was sent to Adarlan, to learn the ways of the kingdom, or so we're told. She secretly aids the slaves and rebels of her kingdom, as they are going through corruption as well. She's witty and arrogant as well, but sensible and kind, becoming Celaena's closest companion.

As the competition goes on, some of the people in the contest start to die off, one by one, mysteriously in the castle. The deaths are brutal too, having their organs ripped out, limbs dismembered, etc. Then, Celaena discovers these strange, magical markings around the castle and ends up having strange dreams. She then discovers more and more secrets of the kingdom and the castle itself, and soon, it is up to her to stop the growing threat and win the competition... Before it's too late. Many twists and turns happen, and some of the supporting characters have a far bigger role than you think, later on.

The Review

Although this book is not perfect, there were definitely aspects about it that impressed me, a person who is generally not fond of YA novels, ever since books like Divergent started copying off of each other with their cliches and badly written narratives.

Let's start off with Celaena Sardothien. Overall, I definitely saw her as a well-written character. She's complex, has strengths and flaws, and has a very large role in the story, especially in later books as we find out more about her. But this review, will mainly be analyzing her character in the first book. Celaena was my favorite character, and potentially could be on my "Top Female Characters List". Whether she will or not, will depend on how good of a character she is in the later books. Anyway, I just loved the backstory of Celaena. 

She's an assassin, but there's so much more to it. Being from another kingdom and not much being revealed about her time there, waking up with the blood of her dead parents on her at the age of eight, being taken in by Arobynn, and trained as an assassin in the Assassin's Keep. At a young age, she experienced much hardship and trauma. She mentioned to Chaol that one time, Arobynn stated that she needed to be good with a sword with her left hand, as she was mainly right handed. To do so, Arobynn gave her the option: either he would break her right hand or she will do it herself. And that's exactly what she did. Then, she mentioned to have lost a lover prior to the story, and then was brought to the Great Salt Mines. There, she was whipped over twenty times when she first arrived. She almost didn't make it, but a slave girl gave her some salve. The next day, the slave girl was raped and murdered by the guards right in front of her. Celaena continued to go through crap like this, and one day she had it. She tried to escape the place and murdered twenty-three of the guards who treated the prisoners and slaves so horribly. Unfortunately, she failed to escape, after coming close. Even after being relocated to the Glass Castle, she dealt with traumatic nightmares and still has the scars on her body. We also know that she has some connection to magic, but that's not expanded upon until later books. So we see now, that she's so much more than your typical female assassin who is powerful.

I mean, it makes a whole lot of sense for her to be an extremely powerful assassin if she was trained by the best one in the land from a young age. She has knowledge of turning anything into a weapon, knows her poisons, and is a capable battler though she's definitely weaker than before due to malnutrition and being beat up all the time. She also loves to read and is miraculously good at the piano. Though the latter didn't make too much sense to me, but whatever, I guess it's supposed to add onto her character? However, one thing that bugged me about this book was the fact that it kept saying that she was "beautiful", over and over again. Like, we get it, we got it after the first few times. And the constant suitors vying for her attention whenever she dresses up in a pretty gown. It just got really repetitive. The flirting and physical attraction aspects to her relationships with the two dudes kinda bugged me also, as that was also repetitive. Though I do like the flaws that she has. Troubles with the trauma, being very slobby and unladylike at times, her wit and arrogance. I liked the sassy banter between her and the other characters as it added a lot of humor and it made her character more interesting. The arrogance was understandable, as she truly was one of the best, and hey, no person is perfect. Flaws are good to see in a character, because nobody likes someone who's perfect in every aspect. *groans. Anyway, I kinda understand where she's coming from with the physical attraction towards Dorian and Chaol. She's a teenage girl, and it's nice to know that she's not some typical, stone-faced assassin who is immune to love while everyone else is pining for her. Assassin or not, she's still a teenage girl and I respect her liking towards clothing and attractiveness in people, as those things ultimately make her seem more relatable and human. I'd take that over some stone-faced assassin who is perfect at everything and is unrelatable to the audience. 

Though I find love triangles to be a little too common these days, this one to be more interesting and better developed. I liked Chaol and Dorian and I personally did not care too much about who she ended up with because I liked the interaction between the three. I liked Chaol because he was more complex, being a Captain of the Guards, tasked with dealing with an assassin of all people. Dorian came off to me as a stereotypical prince, at least at first. The charming, attractive, Adonis, who doesn't act much like a prince. But then, we start to see more to him, which is a common theme in this book, as you can see. Things are never what they appear to be, and everything has a lot more to it. Dorian doesn't know exactly everything that is going on in his kingdom and castle, but he clearly has an idea of what the King has been up to, and I'm anxious to see what happens in later books, because supposedly, he goes through a lot later on.

Nehemia was one of my favorites also. She ultimately had a role in helping Celaena with the magical aspect of the story. Her interaction and friendship with Celaena was a pretty great one, with development on both sides.

I also liked the roles of the antagonists in the story. The King, the Duke, Kaltain, and Cain. They all are connected through the secrets of the castle and the kingdom, connected to the magic somehow, which is yet to be explored in the later books. I also liked the connection between the King and Celaena and the role it played in the story. 

And now, we move onto the plot. Honestly, I loved the plot as a whole. There were multiple plots going on at once and I can tell that it's thought through very well. We have a deathly competition for a position in the kingdom, a love triangle, magical connections, the roles of the antagonists in the events, the mysterious deaths, the friendship between Nehemia and Celaena, Nehemia's role in the story, Celaena discovering what she was meant to do and be, etc all going on at once. It's a very complex, but a well-structured plot. And in the next book, we will find out more of Celaena's role in the series, her true connection to magic, and more about these mysteries of the kingdom. A good setup.

Overall, the plot, characters, dialogue, and development were very well written. But some of it falls short with the excessive descriptions and some issues with repeating aspects of Celaena's character that are overdone. I would give it a 4 out of 5, or at least a high 3, if possible. It's definitely not a 3 out of 5, as it is far better than that, but it is definitely not higher than a 4 out of 5 with the reasons being stated above. I enjoyed this book, and I actually finished the thing, which is unusual. Most of the time, I will drop the book some time through if it becomes too dragged out and boring or if something just sucks about it in general. What kept me going was definitely the complexity of the plot, the different twists in the story, and the interest in the main heroine. With that being said, I will definitely read the second book and see what I think about it.

Till then, good day, my fine people! And happy Halloween! I am spending mine watching old, kid movies like Nightmare Before Christmas and just chillin and reading up on what will happen in this series. Unlike most people, I actually like to look up what happens in stories, because I hate not knowing things and I also need to know what to expect, in case if I have to drop the series!