Cecilie

5 stars
Was confused throughout the beginning and part of the end of this book, yet I can't help but give it five stars because whenever it began to make sense, it left me speechless. So fucking good. Takes a while to get used to the new characters but when you do, it's just amazing. Absolutely loved it. I was literally fooled around fifty million times in this book, like I can't believe it just kept happening and I just kept believing it every single time. Highly recommend this series. If you're in doubt about reading it, just do it, man! Just do it! It will be worth it.

This was shit. It doesn't hit my good spot at all. I'm a very character-driven person, you know? If the plot is bad, I can sometimes get by if the characters are still good, but these characters are so many, and they're all unlikeable, they're all the same, they do the same shit, and they know the same people. I can't read books like this! That's not interesting to me! It's so clearly satire, but it's not funny to me. It's just depressing and frustrating to read. I need hope! This doesn't give it. I need enjoyable characters (not necessarily likeable ones) but this doesn't give it. And finally, it's just such a fucking drag. There was absolutely no reason for this book to be longer than 300 pages. None. Silch. Nu-uh. It's too long, and it's hard to keep tabs on which character you're with, and it's entirely character-driven but without character development (because it's satire...), and I really wish I hadn't needed to waste my precious time reading a book that wasn't suited to my tastes whatsoever, when I'm busy enough as it is right now. Because all this book did was frustrate me. It was just. so. frustrating. Never again do I want to think about this book. 

The overall story of this book is actually really good, probably 4 stars, maybe even 4.5 stars. 
But!
It is sooo. daaaamn. looooooong.
Like, it's just too long, and would have benefited greatly by decreasing it by at least 50 pages. AT LEAST. 
So yeah. That knocked off a star or so because it was simply too long. 
Otherwise, I really really enjoyed it!

Very mixed feelings with this book.
Overall I really enjoyed it, but it started out slow and took a while for something to happen, but as soon as it did things were just flying left and right, going 200mph like some insanity, and then I didn't like the end all that much either. BUT THE MIDDLE WAS SO GOOD AND IT WAS THE LARGEST PART OF THE BOOK
I'm excited for the movie, oh yeah.

I don't know what to say about this book except that after listening to the audiobook, it severely warrants a re-read, possibly before continuing. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and I adore Gideon and Harrow. Gideon was particularly surprising as I had assumed from the name that she was a man but knew based on fanart that she was not entirely sketched as such. She turned out to be a fantastic narrator for the story though, and I really enjoyed her arc, as well as Harrow's arc. Just a great book about lesbians and necromancers. 

This was actually really fun an enjoyable! Watching it as a play would probably be tons more fun. I read the play while listening to an audio recording (which was awesome; great cast, sound effects, overall great) that really enhanced the entire experience of reading the play. There are a few things I found to be less logical than I would have liked, but I can only expect so much of a comedy, I suppose. 
(But seriously tho, are we really going to pretend Sebastion and Antonio weren't in a fully fledged relationship?? That seems like such a stretch, Antonio legit said they spent both day AND NIGHT together for months! And Antonio is constantly confessing his love for Sebastian so why, o why, did they have to pretend their relationship wasn't a thing that was happening?? Damn the hets, man.)

Overall, I thought that there were quite a few stories that simply were not dark academia, but just a campus mystery, so that pulls the anthology down in general. No stories were exceptional, though I definitely would have loved more of The Unknowable Pleasures. It ended too abruptly and I was invested.
Standouts were: Pythia, The Ravages, Four Funerals, The Unknowable Pleasures, and Phobos.

Absolutely unhinged. In the best way, I loved it! The rating might increase based on jow the book stays with me, but I had a great time! Took a bit to get into the groove of it for me personally, though I would say that had more to do with my busy days rather than the book. 
It was deranged and ridiculous. Highly recommend. 

Oh I loved the ending! Thank you, M. L. Rio, for not leaving me hanging with only a tragic ending. I needed that. What a brilliant Act V.
I wanted more queer than there was throughout ALL of it. I honestly thought they were gonna hit me with the plausible deniability of any Shakespeare play right up until the kiss on stage. Thank fucking god they didn't.
Filippa is MVP, hands down. The only sane of the bunch of them, and deeply relatable. Had this been The Secret History, Filippa would have been the main character lmao. 

This is a book that introduces a cast of very interesting characters, all of which I'm curious to see how they will interact with trees (this book's main focus is trees) and how they will interact with each other. 
It loses me a bit after the halfway point, mainly because I found things were getting a little convoluted, and it was somewhat hard to keep up. The latter third of the book is terribly bleak in ways I didn't quite feel prepared for, and in very humane ways that I felt had been distanced for so long in this book that it almost felt out of place.
That being said, I did find myself intrigued and interested in the characters and what they were doing and trying to accomplish, which is why I overall found myself enjoying this.

This was so good!
I mean, it was totally weird in the beginning. I didn't really understand the point or where we were going, but it was so interesting! So i kept reading, and by like 150 pages I was absolutely invested. The characters started forming bonds and stuff, so it just became a lot more enjoyable to follow the story.

Content warnings for eating disorders, sexual assault, miscarriage, and more, probably, but those were the ones I picked up on.

Dude... oh my god.
I technically started this book in November and read ten pages and put it down. Not because those ten pages bored me or anything. But because this book is so daunting. Going away from well-known lands to new lands, from well-known characters to new - or at least some we haven't seen in a while, from a novella to a nearly 700 paged book, there's nothing about this book that is not daunting. It is the SIXTH installment in a series, that alone is frightening when you know it's not the last book you're reading.
So I finally picked up the book again three or four days ago, I can't remember, and I was scared to begin because it's so long and I knew that I would go straight to Kingdom of Ash afterwards (which I am, most definitely), but I did begin again and look at me now I'm done.
It was a crazy ride. Like there were ships sinking and sailing, birds flying and spiders trapping, demons possessing, trauma healing, like what did I not encounter in this book? Seriously, what.
I was blown away. Forgot how much I love Sarah's writing, it's been years since I read a book from her, the last either being ACOMAF or Empire of Storms, again, I can't remember, but it's so easy! And as you sit there reading the sixth book in a series, it's hard to remember all the details, but this book brought me back to the first three so smoothly in Chaol's flashbacks. So many things I most definitely would have not connected as an overall arc thing if I had not been reminded in this book, and I'm sure I'll be glad to know it for the next one.
Anyway, there's nothing to say without spoiling, so just know that, yes this book is intimdating as hell but that, yes it is also completely and totally worth it. Such character developement. I honestly thought Sarah had left Chaol for the dead in this series, I'm very glad she didn't put him on the bench for the rest of the story and we got this book from it. I think we were all worried he was becoming less than even a side character in this huge story arc, so to see him with so much purpose again was truly wonderful.
Loved it. 10/10. Or, well, you know what I mean.

I did it. Somehow, I did it. I got through this gigantic monster of a book.
It was such an emotional experience reading this, knowing the story has now ended. The story of an assassin named Celaena Sardothien, which started in one place and ended somewhere none of us expected when we read the first Throne of Glass book, I'm sure. It is a really tough book to read, this one. It's war through and through, and it's hard and awful and emotional and sad and horrifying. It is the kind of book where you can't exactly gather your feelings for it until it's over, until you have debated with yourself if the ending was worth all the horror.
This book is grueling, yet powerful and vital. It is the end of an era - a very long end, but it is the right end.

Holy mother of gods and lords and Aelin fucking Ashryver Galathynius (if that's even how you spell it).
There are no words
Not without spoiling.
It was fantastic.
Just- wow.
I was on the fence about my feeling on this book in the beginning, because people were acting not the way I wanted them to, and there were things going on that I didn't like, but then suddenly it turned. Well, not suddenly, but it turned around, and things got better, people started getting along, they stopped fighting, I found myself loving the biggest ship of all the ships, which I never would have thought, had you asked me after Heir of Fire. I don't know, man, there were just so many things, and it ended so epicly, and now there's not just one more villain to end, but two, Spoilereven though one was literally just killed and I could sit here reading and feel the pressure of the whole situation along with everyone else, and holy gods, it was truly amazing.

I loved this, I think.
Like, there were some things that made me roll my eyes and want to mock the book, but when I didn't feel that? Y'all. That was some good shit.
I can tell that Sarah's idea of good shit is basically the same as my idea of good shit because she really likes to give all that good shit and I like to get it.
(And by that I mean, I love happy endings; romance; relationships; twists, even when I see them coming a mile away (and especially if I don't); and when the cranky, mean, short-tempered person gets with the easy-going, witty, and charming person, I just like that, okay, don't @ me.)
I can't help but compare it to the finale of Throne of Glass, which I read before this, and while I thought that was a great finale, I actually liked this one better. It might be because it's a shorter story arc and also focused on a smaller group of characters, as well as written from one POV rather than 3rd person, but I felt the story flowed more easily. The 1st person POV that this series is written in has in some ways been my gripe with the other books, but here I think it centered in the story and made it feel less overwhelming (even though some parts were very conveniently seen by the main character).
Oh and I also know that technically it's not a finale because there's more books, but you're not going to be able to convince me that this wasn't written as a fucking finale, like shut up, i don't care.
I really liked how the first act of the book was centered on this revenge/spy-plot, and how Feyre got out of it, and how much she really has grown from the first book. I think character-arc wise, it would probably have been better to have the events of the previous book set over a longer period of time, but it still works even if she is conveniently good at things at times. I actually think that was one of the biggest things that annoyed me about this book, Feyre being conveniently good at everything. I'm much more lenient toward convenience when it relies on others than the MC because then there's usually been planted some clues for that to make sense. But you know, considering my rating of the book, you'll realize it wasn't THAT big a gripe.
I enjoyed seeing much more of the sisters in this book and how they played into the story, as well as the trouble of getting all of the high lords to work together, and at that, meeting all the other high lords because we've really only met two before this. I can certainly see how plot points for future books are sprinkled in here, but it's not enough for this to not still be a conclusion, like you could definitely stop here if you wanted.
Anyway, it was great, I loved it, I love Rhysand, I love Amren, and I really found myself adoring Azriel in this one, he really stepped forward and became more than a shadow of a person.
All in all, it was really great.

2nd read 2019 (5 stars)
I loved this the first time I read it and I loved it the second time too. I don't think I loved it as much as the first but enough to give it five stars anyway. It starts off rather slow, much like the first, again because we're seeing a truly miserable Feyre.
ACOTAR - Feyre being miserable because of family and circumstances
ACOMAF - Feyre being miserable because of depression and PTSD
ACOWAR - ???? both?????? I- how will this pattern continue?? (I have not read this one)
But it picks up a little faster than the first. When Rhysand comes to bring her to the night court the first time, a little bit of life breathes in to Feyre and it's tolerable to be with her. And then when she goes permanently to the Night Court everything is like a thousand times better.
I was really surprised how I remembered many things from but in all the wrong places. Like, so many scenes that I thought happened later came earlier, it happened several times. And then when we came to the ending, I realized that while I had known what happened at the end, I had forgotten what exactly happened at THE VERY END. Somehow my dumb ass had forgotten Feyre's stellar acting.
I think the addition of new characters helps the story too, giving more people for Feyre to bounce off. Cassian, Azriel, Mor and Amren all bringing great dynamics that were missed in the first book where we only really had Lucien and Tamlin.
And I'm a total sucker for Feysand. Like, total. That's all.
Also, why is it that everyone remembers and talks (myself included) about this book as an absolute smutfest when it actually isn't???? Like, yeah we get some sex, sure, but like... There were literally hundreds of pages, probably 400 or something like that without sex and I was like ?????? why did I remember it as smutty when we get like two scenes??? me no comprendo. My memory does not serve me well, honestly.
I really loved this. I think Rhysand ultimately carries the book, as his character is so charismatic and fun in ways that Feyre just isn't (and it is written from her pov, 1st person, so we can't avoid her feelings). That's not to say that Feyre is boring. I mean she is for about 100 pages, but then she finds the light and begins to feel again. And then she's less boring. But Rhys is just a force to be reckoned with. He's witty, charming, charismatic, devastating, and kind? Like, what's not to love?In my first review I said Feyre was more badass than Celaena. That's... well... up for discussion.

1st read 2016 (5 stars)
How does one survive being ripped to sheds?
Because I was by reading this books.
I can barely BREATHE right now, and I'm sitting here wishing I was home alone so I could scream my guts out because this book makes me want to scream.
I cannot BELIEVE- I LITERALLY CANNOT BELIEVE THAT ALL OF THIS HAPPENED AND I'M SO EXCITED AS WELL AS INCREDIBLY FEARFUL OF WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE NEXT BOOK.
I AM DEAD, OKAY? I AM FUCKING DEAD, THIS BOOK KILLED ME TO THE BONE, AND I'VE BEEN CRAWLING IN MY BED AND SCREAMING INTO MY PILLOW BECAUSE MY FEELINGS ARE LITERALLY SO OUT OF CONTROL AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY, I JUST FEEL ENTIRELY FED UP BY ALL OF MY FEELINGS AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH IT.
THAT. ENDING.

Okay so actual thoughts:
I loved this a bajillion times more than I did ACOTAR. And I loved ACOTAR.
Tamlin's story arc is... interesting. ;)
Feyre is more badass than Celaena. I will stand by this statement till the day I die.
Rhys is dreamy. That's all I gotta say about him.
The dream team is my favorite thing ever. (lol get it? DREAM)
NESTA. nuff said.
I will literally die when Amren goes home. DIE. (my bae)
Can we just talk about the romance that SHOULD be happening between Cassian and Azriel?
I wish we saw more of the Summer Court because Tarquin, man. Potential ally, I'm telling you now.
Don't know if I should be happy or annoyed by all this mating. I mean I do love love stories. And romances. And happy endings. So don't blame me if I'm happy!
Lucien... when you open your mouth I want you to say things that have ACTUAL VALUE AND GOOD REASON.
Oh, and as a last thing: BY THE CAULDRON, THAT WAS GREAT.

For all the people who haven't read this book, I have a fun game for you.
Here is a list of names:
Azriel
Cassian
Amren
Morrigan
Nesta
Varian
Tarquin
Nuala
Cerridwen
Do your best and try to guess who are men and who are women. Seriously. Try.