A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR#2) – Sarah J. Maas (Book Review)

//This review is more than 1500 words long, and I’ll be surprised if you read the entire thing. In a gist : THIS BOOK WAS FANTASTIC AND EASILY MY BEST READ OF THE YEAR.

Title : A Court of Mist and Fury

Author : Sarah J Maas

Series : A Court of Thorns and Roses #2

Genre : NA Fantasy, Romance

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Summary

Goodreads summary

Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

[I usually do not act like a crazy person in my book reviews but I need some time to fangirl.]

 I literally just finished this book and I scrambled over to my laptop to pen down a review – which I know is harmful for SJM books because when you read an overwhelming book you tend to review it in a much better way than if you review it two days later in a cool, calm manner – about which I don’t really care because this book was FUCKING BRILLIANT. If you want coherent thoughts – please move on to the ‘PROS’ part of this review because everything before that is going to be gibberish, more or less.

Okay, so if you haven’t yet picked up this series – you’re missing out. And, if you’ve read ACOTAR and are still not convinced about this series – you need to pick up the sequel because it is TEN TIMES BETTER. LITERALLY. OH MY GOD. ALL THE FEELS. 

Now, for some more coherency.

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Pros

1. Master storytelling : Sarah J Maas isn’t a great writer. She has strong writing but she doesn’t even come close to authors who can actually write well, and beautifully. But, can SJM keep you hooked to every word and every page of her book? Yes. Can she make you devour her book, and unable to put it down? Yes. 

SJM is a master storyteller. She may not be a good writer, but when it comes to penning down things which will keep her reader hooked, she excels. The way she spun this story, the pace at which everything was presented to us, just the right scenes, just the right dialogues, just the right smut and sass and action and magic – she had it all. She’s absolutely brilliant in spinning the story and uncovering the plot, and she’s the kind of author who writes books you cannot put down. No matter what.

I read the first 40% of the book all together, but my growing discomfort with the developing relationship (which by the end of the book, I have come to ship) and also the need to read this book slowly and drag it out over a considerably long time made me put it down. I picked it up again today and read the rest of it all at once, and oh my. I couldn’t put the book down, each chapter making me want to read more and more and more.

2. Plot development : I kinda touched upon this in the previous point already but I need to talk about this more. In the first book (ACOTAR), the plot was a very basic, simple story whereas in this book, it developes and stretches to a much wider extent and world. It just widens and grows into this big affair and SJM has done it just right. I love how it is no more just a simple thing including a few characters, but has widened to include so much more. Mainly, the plot has grown and it is heading into an amazing direction. May 2017, COME SOON!

3. The world : I mentioned this in my review of A Court of Thorns and Roses too that SJM has built a beautiful world and described it so very well. Well, the world expands in this book, much more, and I thought that it was extremely well done. Also, all the past history about each of the characters, all the past stories and all the Fae background was brilliant (I’m sorry I’m using that word too much) to read about and I personally enjoy books which have their own stories to tell.

4. Character development (also the new characters) : The main characters who are developed in the story are Feyre and Rhysand. Tamlin is completely overlooked and I missed Lucien so hard, but Feyre and Rhysand’s development completely made up for that. I absolutely loved Rhysand – which is crazy because in my review of ACOTAR, I came off as a silly thirteen year-old who had sworn her heart to Tamlin. Ah. My sixteen year-old heart has betrayed me yet again and now I’m all for Rhysand. But SJM has a thing with shifting love interests – I’ll get to that in my ‘Cons’ part of the review – but anyway, back to point – I absolutely loved Rhysand. His story, his character, his role – everything was so well-crafted; I applaud SJM. I was pretty much disgusted with him in the first book – for reasons, of course – but this book completely wiped away all of that. I disliked Rhysand so much in the first book and by the end of this book I’m completely crazy for him and I think SJM did a commendable job in bringing about such a change in my regard for a character she has sketched. 

As for Feyre – her development was phenomenal. She grew enormously – and now when I look back to what she was in the first book, I almost can’t recognize her. And that’s what I call character development. The way she transformed, in such a realistic way and how she became this completely whole new person and came to accept this person was just astounding to read about.

I also really loved all the new characters introduced. Mor, Azriel, Cassian, Amren – more or less everyone else had an impact and it was wonderful to read about them.

5. Relationship development : [Mild spoilers] At this point, I’m not talking about which ship I’m rooting for. If you’ve read ACOTAR, you know that Feyre and Tamlin ended up together at the end of that book. If you’ve read this book, you pretty much know who Feyre is romantically involved with. Thing is, I don’t ship either relationship. I would much rather Feyre ended up alone than with either Rhysand or Tamlin and if she absolutely had to end up with someone, I’m definitely more favored towards Rhysand. A part of me is still loyal to Tamlin, but Rhysand has won me over completely and I’d definitely want his happiness over everything.

But back to the point, forgetting for a moment who falls in love with whom, I’m just going to comment on the development of the relationship. All the different relationships in the book (romantic and non-romantic) were beautifully depicted and I loved reading about them. And mainly – Feyre and Rhysand’s relationship was so naturally, realistically, and beuatifully developed. Commendable.

Cons

1. Shifting love interests : I shouldn’t have been surprised, because after all this is SJM and after what she did with the Throne of Glass series, the shifting love interest in the book shouldn’t have surprised me. But it still did. The way she overlooked Tamlin and completely focused on Rhysand really annoyed me, though by the end – I think I’ve said this a million times – I was completely won over by Rhysand. But this same thing – the fact that SJM could so easily shift me from one character to another – it brings on a rage that this is somehow wrong. In order to make Rhysand shine and to make readers fall in love with him, she completely ignored Tamlin which is an infuriating thing she even did in the Throned of Glass series. Which reminds me of how Tahereh Mafi did the same thing in her Shatter Me series and if this thing becomes a trend, then that will be really, really sad.

2. The sex : I don’t mind reading sex, especially going into a NA novel (though what this book had was basically milder erotica). I just felt that when SJM writes sex scenes, she just makes it seem an act which can’t be pictured with humans – which is essentially correct because her characters are faeries – but sex is a human act. All this big deal about ‘roaring’ and ‘blazing skin’ and ‘scorched skin’ and ‘going on for hours and hours and hours and hours’ and just the animalistic way she writes these scenes are kinda – well, weird. I don’t know a better way of putting that.

Recommend to?

All fantasy lovers.

A ‘good book’ or a ‘good read’?

A great book. A fantastic, amazing, mind-numbing read.

My Rating

Some books are not meant to be rated critically, keeping in mind all the different aspects of books. Some books are simply meant to be rated based on the reading experience. Such as this. Thus,

4.5/5 stars