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Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

Sarah J. Maas

Start date: December 1, 2015

Finish date: January 1, 2016

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Apr 16, 2015 Twila rated it it was ok

Shelves: over-600-pages, annoying-characters, long-read, buddy-read, series-dnf

Le sigh. I really wanted to love Queen of Shadows. But ... what was this?

5%, only FIVE PERCENT dang it, have given this book 3 stars or less. Unfortunately, I am a part of that 5%. That ~~very lonely~~ 5% of people.

I just felt that many of the characters changed. And I don't mean that they evolved slowly and beautifully and grew into themselves. I mean CHANGED. I mean that they flipped the switch. They felt unrecognizable, off. My poor, dear Chaol got the brunt of this. His character does a complet ...more

61 likes · Like · see review

Sep 26, 2017 Jenn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, read-in-2017, swoonworthy-boys, books-i-own, do-you-believe-in-magic, fey, so-effing-excited, royalty, 5-star-reads

Yeah, I don't know what my 2017 self was thinking about not giving this 5 stars, but it's freaking 5 stars.

"Let's go rattle the stars."

***2017 Review***
She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers.

description

This series, man. I don't know why it's taken me this long to read it. But damn, I'm glad I did. If you haven't read at least the first 3 books, probably stop reading this review because I can't promise that I won't spoil them.

In Queen of Shadows we finally see Aelin stepping into her Queen status ...more

36 likes · Like · see review

Oct 25, 2015 Dr. Andy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2018, audio-narrators-i-love, read-2015, reread, read-2016, read-2017, read-2019

I CRIED THREE TIMES WHILE READING THIS, GODS MY BABIES

I don't know if I'm extra emotional after Heir of Fire left me raw and bleeding or it's because the series is ending or Mercury is rising or whatever. But this gods damn book made tears come to my eyes SO many times! Usually they were because these characters have wormed their damn way into my coldass heart and made it melt. There are just so many touching moments in this book, even though I will still say Heir of Fire is more raw.

This serie I CRIED THREE TIMES WHILE READING THIS, GODS MY BABIES

I don't know if I'm extra emotional after Heir of Fire left me raw and bleeding or it's because the series is ending or Mercury is rising or whatever. But this gods damn book made tears come to my eyes SO many times! Usually they were because these characters have wormed their damn way into my coldass heart and made it melt. There are just so many touching moments in this book, even though I will still say Heir of Fire is more raw.

This series just gets better every book I read. The world building is really developed between HoF and QoS, we learn so much about the various deities and other magical powers between these books and it's amazing. Also, the plot keeps getting more complex. Every time I think I know where the series is going, SJM comes in with some new information or a plot twist and I'm left speechless. The ending of this book was explosive but it was also so happy and hopeful, which is horrible because I AM NOT READY FOR THE NEXT BOOKS.

QoS finally gives us answers about Kaltain Rompier and oh gods let me say that she was fantastic and devastating. I loved everything about her. We also get a new character: Elide Lochan. I came to love Elide for her intuition and ability to manipulate people into seeing what they wanted to of her. She is going to go far in the next book even if she doesn't have flashy powers. We also learn more about Asterin through Manon and her story is so heartbreaking and I want to kill the Blackbeak Matron so badly for it. Out of all the characters in this book, Manon goes through the most change in this installment. I think it's change for the better and I'm so excited to see what she'll do next.

The last thing I want to talk is Chaol. This poor boy. And I mean boy. Chaol has gone through so much and he is grieving and hating himself for it. He lashes out and constantly says stupid things. Sometimes he has a point, but not always. He wants others to hurt as badly as he does, especially Aelin because she has come back stronger and hotter (hehe) than ever. Towards the end, Chaol does begin to see that not everything is his fault, but he is on his own healing journey and he definitely needs it. He still has his amazing and loyal heart, but it's buried because of the losses he's gone through. I can't wait to see him get it back. ...more

17 likes · Like · see review

Aug 29, 2015 Kayleigh {K-Books} rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-physical, fantasy

Queen of Shadows Review on K-Books

"She was a whirling cloud of death, a queen of shadows..."

Queen of Shadows is probably THE book that was my most anticipated book for the entire of 2015. Ever since I got my hands on an ARC of the first book Throne of Glass a few years ago I have been obsessed with this series. It is my favourite YA Fantasy series and nothing can quite compare to my love for it. To say I was excited for this book was a total understatement and I know there is a lot of mixed ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2016 Maddie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own-have-read, ya-fantasy, books-i-own

Read 10 chapters of this a day (excluding the last 19 which I had to just read in one day because I can never stop myself)

This was still holy woah. Incredible!!!!! Especially the last half! As soon as this hit the (view spoiler) there was no way I could stop. So much stuff happened, and (view spoiler) ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 16, 2019 Melanie rated it it was amazing

This is my fave book of the series. I love all the characters so much!

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 16, 2015 Kylara Jensen rated it really liked it

Shelves: fairies, assassins

3.75 Stars

To be honest with you, I really thought I was going to hate (or meh) this book and DNF it within the first hundred pages.

The first book was meh, I LOVED the second book and I struggled with the third. A lot of my friends didn't really like this book very much and I just thought I wouldn't get into it. But I did. By 50 pages, I was totally sucked in and I knew I would be finishing this book.

I do think it's about 100 pages too long and there are some slow parts. Aelin is just as perfect 3.75 Stars

To be honest with you, I really thought I was going to hate (or meh) this book and DNF it within the first hundred pages.

The first book was meh, I LOVED the second book and I struggled with the third. A lot of my friends didn't really like this book very much and I just thought I wouldn't get into it. But I did. By 50 pages, I was totally sucked in and I knew I would be finishing this book.

I do think it's about 100 pages too long and there are some slow parts. Aelin is just as perfect as Caelana Sardothien in Book 1, but somehow this half-fae is entirely more human than Caelana in Book 1. I think what I didn't like about the third book is that it was too different and too transition-y.

This book takes up back to Rifthold and Aelin has basically leveled up. And things are getting resolved. I love when that happens in epic fantasy books. It's weird how this little YA assassin game book has become this totally epic fantasy. I'm really enjoying the series.

Arobynn was so scary in the first book and the prequel novellas, but here he's just this pest they have to deal with. I love the addition of Lysandra as a character. And I really like Nesrin Faliq and I wish we got to see more of her.

WARNING: Minor Romance spoilers ahead.

Let me just say that Chaol is a pain. He is such an interesting and compelling character, like Javert kind of, but he is so annoying in this book. I've never been on board with his and Caelana's relationship and I'm really glad it doesn't continue in this book. But Chaol is so whiny and angsty and untrusting and mean in this book that I just want to shake him and knock some sense into him. He gets better though, which is good.

Aelin and Rowan. They are sweet together in this book. I would really like their eventual romantic entanglement, but IT COMES SO OUT OF NO WHERE. Like it seems a complete 180 from Book 3. I guess it could be explained away because we don't really see much of Rowan's pov in Book 3, but it's still weird.

Manon is pretty much my favorite character. She's so interesting. The whole Ironteeth witch story line is just so intriguing. They are raised without empathy to be totally brutal, but something is going on there. Is empathy a learned trait? I dont' know. Manon was my favorite part of Book 3 and I really liked her in this book too.

I'm excited to read the 5th book. I just hope it's shorter than this one. (I'm not holding my breath.) And I think it's going to be a lot different than this one. More war and rebellion and Aelin the Queen stuff. I'm interested to see what Terrasen is going to be like. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2021 Toshita rated it really liked it

This was a great book. It really was. I wasn't able to predict anything that happened which I love. But I hate the romance. I hate it with a passion. Because I really hoping that they would just be best friends. They really should have been best friends. I can't get behind their romance. I just can't. That's the only reason I'm giving this 4 stars. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 19, 2018 Tbirdplanstoread rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-hard-back, library

The longest one I've read of this series by far but it was so worth it!! I am so in love with the characters (especially Rowan!!!) And I can't wait to dig into the next one!!! ...more

1 like · Like · see review