๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: Queen of Shadows
๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฌ: Throne of Glass (Book 5/8)
๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ: Sarah J. Maas
๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐: Young Adult, Fantasy
๐๐๐ญ๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐๐: October 19, 2023 @ 11:57 PM
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โโโ
At first I thought that once I read this book, maybe it'll clear out what Empire of Storms was all about and maybe once I finish, it would make me less angry. It did not. The shift between this and Empire of the Storms hurts because this book was as close to the original story as it can get, there was the idea and there was character. There was a yearning for love and intimacy that was never present in the next book. There were emotions, despite being the emotions that you wouldn't understand why the character is feeling that way, you'd still go along with it because those parts are what makes them a character, the way they act and feel predictable and unpredictable at the same time makes them sound realistic and grounded with how we perceive parts of people and their own ways of feeling and living. There were parts of this book that was never present in Empire of Storms and it just cemented my anger.
Chaol is present in this book and this is the part where he and Aelin meet each other again, and oh boy, I love the way that their characters had this friction because of how Chaol is going through this arc of trying his best to find where he must stand in the conflict and Aelin heartbroken because the person that she once loved sees her as a threat and as monster. They never miss, when they're together it's always so personal and character driven and I love every bit of it. This is also the part where they break up and it kinda pisses me off on how it was only a single page long when the author can manage to write 17 pages long of unfiltered sex scenes. It's weird but okay, sure why not.
๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐ ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐: ๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐, Asterin Blackbeak, Manon's cousin reveals that she fell in love with a mortal man and got pregnant. She carried the baby full-term, which is rare for witches. But the baby was stillborn. Manonโs grandmother was furious and beat her, branded her with the words โunclean,โ and cast her out of Blackbeak Keep. I did not expect such a thing to happen in a book like this, it is not that shocking at least to me because it is a story about war and all that, but something like this in a YA book caught me off guard. Not to say YA mustn't include topics like these but the way that it goes:
In the middle of it all, why must you add in the description of her breast? Not to say that you can't and you shouldn't, but it made it sound so weird especially when the scene is literally about the trauma that a woman went through in giving birth that also led to her family casting her away. That it was the moment that I realized, SJM would randomly describe boobs in random. Even with the way that Aelin wears a necklace, boobs would be shoved it there for no reason. I would understand it if it was for imagery, but the way that it's phrased and handled in context sounds more like the way that men write women more than anything.
Which is absolutely hilarious to me because in the following book, she exactly becomes that foolish and stupidly unaware because they had sex in the middle of a war on a beach. It altered my brain chemistry in a way that shouldn't be. And this is the first and last time that the book acknowledges the age difference between the two, hell, it ain't even an age difference at this point, it's a whole century gap. The Twilight era never disappeared, it only evolved. Dear heavens... This is one of the main reasons why I took out a star from my rating, it could've been an easy three stars but this had to be in the story.
One of the things that I adored about this book though was about Chaol and Dorian, their bond was solidified in this part. I don't want to get too detailed in case someone wishes to read the series Pฬถlฬถeฬถaฬถsฬถeฬถ dฬถoฬถnฬถ'tฬถ hฬถaฬถvฬถeฬถ mฬถeฬถrฬถcฬถyฬถ oฬถnฬถ yฬถoฬถuฬถrฬถsฬถeฬถlฬถfฬถ but when one of them was severely hurt to the point of death, but they weren't actually dead, one of them thought that they were and they lose absolutely every bit of patience and sense of honor in their soul and they go absolute apeshit. Like YES! THE TROPE OF ALL TIME. I love them your honor, they deserve the world. ๐ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ.
