Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. MaasMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Month Read In: April 2022
Challenge:
PopSugar 2022: Past Challenge
PopSugar 2021: Starts with a Q, X, or Z
Methodology: Ebook via Amazon Kindle, Audiobook read by Elizabeth Evans, via Audible
Genre- Fantasy: Sword and Sorcery
Truly, I think Maas finally started to feel the Throne of Glass world. There is less repetition in her writing. Not as many repeats of the same phrases and nuances as in previous books. I honestly didn't notice it at first because it was taking me so long to work through the ebooks from the library. As soon as a coworker who has read the entire series mentioned it and I listened to the Audible Original of Queen of Shadows I noticed it once or twice. Thankfully Elizabeth Evans, the narrator, saved this repetitive tendency and may explain another reason why I didn't notice at first. Evans, and presumably myself, chose to read these repeated lines as emphasis.
As for the actual review of the story, I feel like the characters are finally growing up and becoming who they are meant to be. They are taking their childhoods and their young adult lives and choosing how it shapes them. They are finally choosing mature reactions. We finally head back to Rifthold, except for Manon and the Thirteen as they are still doing Duke Perrington's bidding in Morath, and we've left Wendlyn behind. But Wendlyn hasn't forgotten Aelin. The continent of Erilea is finally back in the forefront.
The major plot points were relatively predictable. The minor ones on the other hand, I have a feeling they are going to turn out to be major and quite important later on. For example, who the actual heck is Elide??? The subplots and the logic is finally starting to knit together into something that makes more sense. In Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire, I had to continuously reread sections, chapters, multiple bulk parts to understand why the characters were doing what they were doing. I recall that in my review of the latter I wrote I was not happy with the majority of the characters. I was beginning to despise them. The King of Adarlan was still too amorphous and I could not understand his logic, why he was doing what he was doing, and I was sick of the rage/hate lust thing between Aelin and Rowan and the freaking constant pity parties that Aelin, Chaol and Dorian were throwing themselves ad nauseum.
But it's starting to make sense. This book still didn't keep me as interested as the original novellas in The Assassin's Blade, but since I finally had an audiobook, I still got through it 90% faster than the previous books.
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