Fairytale Reader: Review: Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

QUEEN OF SHADOWS BY SARAH J MAAS
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Series: Throne of Glass #4
Pages: 648
Date Finished: 01.09.15
Rating: 5/5
Summary: Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

“She was a whirling cloud of death, a queen of shadows, and these men were already carrion.”

Yesterday, after months and months of waiting, speculating, and Tumblr-ing (?), at 11:30 AM the postman knocked on my door. And in his hands was a box containing Queen of Shadows, in all its beautiful, wonderful glory. After a lot of jumping up and down, fangirling and taking awkward selfies with said book in my Throne of Glass shirt (this was the only one that didn't put too much emphasis on the massive pimple on my nose which, lets face it, is still the first thing you notice), I finally sat down to read. And I read right into the night, finishing the book at three minutes to midnight.

AND OH MY GOD IT WAS BLOODY BRILLIANG ASDFGHJKL I'M SO HAPPY AND MOVED AND EMOTIONALLY DRAINED AAAAHHHHHH

*ahem*

To put it simply, I think this book is better than Heir of Fire. Even though the story is far from over, Queen of Shadows feels like the final transition from the arrogant, hot-headed Celaena Sardothien to the brave and queenly Aelin Galathynius. It's not without tension, failure, mystery and heartbreak, but this book is so much more than a story about an assassin fighting for her freedom. Whilst the word I would have used to describe the first two books would be badass, I would pick epic to describe the wonder that is Queen of Shadows (and believe me, it's more bad-ass, bloody and gritty than the first two books combined).

“What a shame that the current owner of the Vaults, a former underling of Rourke Farran and a dealer of flesh and opiates, had accidentally run into her knives. Repeatedly.”

First of all, I'm going to say that this review probably won't be any good, considering it's a really long book to talk about and 99% of my notes are things such as 'YES OMG I AM TOTALLY SHIPPING IT NOW', 'lol lol Rowan oil' (don't ask), and 'OH HOLY SHIT PLOT TWIIISST'. I'm not ashamed to admit that they're direct quotes.

Queen of Shadows introduces a bunch of new characters. I'm not going to go over them all, but my favourite is definitely Lysandra (yes, the courtesan from The Assassin and the Underworld) who alongside Rowan and Aelin is one of my favourites in the entire series. All the characters felt so much more mature, especially Aelin. I don't want to outright spoil anything, but there were three distinct moments that really showed how far she's come and I just loved it.

"To her surprise, the woman obeyed--but then said, "Or you'll threaten to kill me again?"

"I don't make threats. Only promises."

Arobynn Hamel also makes an appearance, and whilst he's a dreadful bastard the complexity of his relationship with Aelin is... interesting to say the least. You can see why he had a hold on her for so many years.

Another thing I loved was the friendship between Lysandra and Aelin, as well as the bromance between Aedion and Rowan. They have their territorial, testosterone filled moments, but their scenes were just hilarious. The fact that Aedion, like me, is a bit of a Rowan Whitethorn fangirl made me smile.

"Rowan Whitethorn is a legend. And so is his--what do you call them?"

"Cadre," she said glumly.

"The six of them..." Aedion loosed a breath. "We used to tell stories about them around fires. Their battles and exploits and adventures."

She sighed through her nose. "Please, please don't ever tell him that. I'll never hear the end of it."

Speaking of Rowan, I absolutely love him. Although I was a little sad to find out that he'd cut his hair, he feels like one of the most developed characters in the series (aside from our wonderful Aelin, of course). We get to see another member of his cadre who is kind of a bastard, but everything he does makes sense, as if there's a method to his madness.

Chaol annoyed me a teensy bit in the beginning (I'm in mourning because I just don't love him anymore) but he really came around in the end and I'm so happy about that. I've been defending Chaol for so long (and I still will... to an extent) but when he said a certain thing to a certain fire-breathing bitch-queen I refused to tolerate it. I just want to say that even though he had his dickish moments (as did Aelin), they were all completely rational considering the hell he'd been through. Some people seem to forget that Chaol has literally lost everything that he once believed in. Everything. Still, he definitely redeemed himself with a great character arc.

I still absolutely adore Manon, but a teensy bit less than I did in Heir of Fire. Her character arc is wonderful but there weren't as many characters who were worse than she was (remember Iskra--the Yellowlegs heir--in book three) to make her more sympathetic. Still, I really do love her. Can I be the first to say that even if it'll probably never be canon, I'm really starting to ship Manon and Elide. Sorry, not sorry. That aside, it's becoming increasingly clearer where her story is going and I'm so damn excited to see what happens to her in book five.

"You make me want to live. Not survive; not exist. Live.

Aelin does make her choice in this book regarding romance, but I won't say who to avoid spoilers. To be honest at first I thought that romantic feelings between these two characters were being developed too quickly, but by the end I had totally jumped ship and was behind it completely. For the first two books there was one couple I shipped hardcore, but all of that was forgotten after a certain scene in chapter fifty two.

Sarah J Maas manages to be such a tease whilst still writing (in my own humble opinion) one of the best examples of chemistry I've read in a long while. There is no one more deserving of Aelin Galathynius than the person she ends up with, and to be honest I'm just terrified to see how our hearts can be broken in books five and six. Saying all of this, the romantic plotline didn't begin to take over from the rest of the story which I loved.

Heir of Fire really extended the scope of the world but that's nothing compared to Queen of Shadows. We learnt more about its history, its monsters and magic, and everything came together for That Ending which was, just so you know, perfect. Every titbit of information tied together as seemingly irrelevant characters/scenes from earlier books contributed to the complex web of a plot. I commend Sarah for how well paced Queen of Shadows was, and for how she managed to weave in a lot of POV's so seamlessly. Whilst some had more page time than others, I think we got to see into the heads of at least seven characters, possibly more.

"What do I do?" She had to swallow before she said,

"You light up the darkness."

Everything was just so epic and the tension was so high from page one right to the last sentence (which was PERFECT, by the way). Whilst we don't have that much to go on, book five was set up quite nicely and I already think the wait has been too long (at the time of writing this, I finished QoS about thirteen hours ago). I have no idea how everything is going to unfold, and I can't wait to see it.

Lots of people (aka Tumblr) have been hating on certain aspects of the book. People on Tumblr have defended it a lot better than I could, but I just want to say that if you're disrespecting a book just because your ship isn't canon, or because you think someone out of character for having character development, please don't. I trust that Sarah knows her characters and how to write a novel, considering everything I've read of hers has been a five star read.

To summarise, Queen of Shadows was a six hundred and forty eight page long example of badassery, fantastic storytelling and wonderful characters. It's practically impossible for me to find any flaws in this wonderful, wonderful book.