Review: A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas
Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2
My rating: {★★★★★}
YA Fantasy
Published May 3rd 2016 by Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Source: Purchased
Feyre is immortal.
After rescuing her lover Tamlin from a wicked Faerie Queen, she returns to the Spring Court possessing the powers of the High Fae. But Feyre cannot forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people - nor the bargain she made with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court.
As Feyre is drawn ever deeper into Rhysand's dark web of politics and passion, war is looming and an evil far greater than any queen threatens to destroy everything Feyre has fought for. She must confront her past, embrace her gifts and decide her fate.
She must surrender her heart to heal a world torn in two.
A Court of Mist and Fury is officially my favourite book in this series. Really, I don't know how to continue this review without melting into a fangirling puddle of goo. It's a tough life as a reviewer! The first time I ever read it I was dying to just open it back to the beginning and start all over again.
Suddenly everything that had irked me / made things uncomfortable for me in A Court of Thorns and Roses made sense to me and I felt such relief and such love for the series. It completely cemented SJ Maas as being one of my hands down favourite authors of all time and now she's a total autobuy for me.
No one was my master—but I might be master of everything, if I wished. If I dared.
The entire world of Prythian opened up before Feyre's eyes, and because everything is from her POV, it opens up to the reader's eyes as well and we realise just how huge the world is and how many amazing characters occupy it. I'm so serious - I can hardly believe that this world doesn't actually exist somewhere; it's so well thought out. In Fact, SJM manages to do that for me in both Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses so I just have to say that she's one of my top world building authors EVER.
The sheer diversity of the many various types of faeries and the different courts is almost overwhelming, but Maas manages to bring the world to life through careful details, glimpses of the world history and gorgeous descriptions interspersed throughout a compelling plot and fantastic characters. The Court of Dreams is #squadgoals - just saying. I LOVE THOSE GUYS.
The characters evolve and develop so much over this series - all of them, although part of the development is Feyre's increasing understanding of the true natures of the characters that she already knew.
Tamlin for example, as pointed out in my previous review, had already exhibited signs of being an overprotective male with a serious 'knight in shining armour' complex and his tendency to keep Feyre downtrodden and under control was evident even in the first book. I mean, I shipped them because Feyre was truly in love... But I wasn't blind to the fact that the relationship had its issues.
But this book is about people not being who you thought they once were, about YOU not even being who you might have once thought you had been. It's about a journey of self discovery and facing these discoveries with all the courage that you can muster and I applaud that: it's so much like real life.
A protector—that’s who he was, and would always be. What I had wanted when I was cold and hard and joyless; what I had needed to melt the ice of bitter years on the cusp of starvation. I didn’t have the nerve to wonder what I wanted or needed now. Who I had become.
Let's be honest - how often do we marry the first person we kiss? Our first loves? How many times have we asked for romance to be more realistic than instalove and happily ever after? And here we have it! An author who is not afraid to let her characters grow and change and evolve and for ships to crumble because they weren't actually right in the first place.
In this book, Feyre is suffering some pretty severe trauma and stress following the events of A Court of Thorns and Roses. I love that Sarah can take her characters to the depths of despair and bring them back stronger and better. She isn't afraid for us to see them at their most broken and worst and trusts that we, as readers, will still love them for their vulnerabilities and faults and broken pieces.
“He thinks he’ll be remembered as the villain in the story.... But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key.”...
“He was the one who let me out.”
Not only do I love the characters, but I love how empowering this felt. There's plenty of strong female characters in this series and there isn't any shaming - women stand up for other women. There's plenty of strong male characters too, and they are allowed to shine just as brightly, they just don't feel the need to overshadow their female counterparts. Each person has their strengths, and their weaknesses.
“I love my people, and my family. Do not think I wouldn’t become a monster to keep them protected.”
The overarching plot smoulders and grows and is revealed piece by piece along with some pretty impressive action scenes and even some Hero in Distress moments when the guy must be saved by the girl. There is definitely no 'middle book syndrome' here.
But there is a pretty desperate cliff hanger that left me wailing for the wait of A YEAR for the next book. Luckily, the entire series is now fully published so if you haven't managed to read any of this gorgeousness - it's totally available for a binge read AND, thankfully, even more books are being written in this glorious world.
I can't stress enough HOW MUCH I LOVE this series. It's really one of my favourites of all time and I want everyone to go and read it now and LOVE IT TOO.
“To the stars who listen—and the dreams that are answered.”
←A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1)
