ily 's Reviews > Queen of Shadows

When my sister told me about an early review that promised really bad things happening to our favorite characters in this installment, I didn't care. I didn't actually think that was true; I trusted SJMAAS. But oh, dear nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to face the moment I picked up this damn book. With this review I'm putting these book down and getting some needed rest. I think we all deserve it after dealing with Aelin and the author's bullshit, am I right?

Now, let's get down to business.



How to ruin a book series by adding absurd romantic subplots and destroying some characters for the sake of a ship: A novel by Sarah J. Maas.

Prepare yourself for QUEEN OF BULLSHIT. This one was definitely my most anticipated book of 2015, and reading it was an absolute torture. I'm outraged and sad and deeply disappointed that one of my favorites series is now such a piece of crap, but I'm certain that I am done with SJM's work. What she did to this series--to its characters--is an insult to the readers. This is not a book--this is poorly written fanfiction of the Throne of Glass series.

(If you listen closely you can hear Sam and Nehimia yelling that they didn't die for this shit.)

I'm gonna miss you, Celaena Sardothien. The assassin we all loved was murdered. She was sassy, smart, badass and arrogant, but in this book the author turned her into a fucking fangirl, Aelin Galathynius. She did not only act out of character--she became dependant on a hot fae dude who's centuries older than her. SJMAAS failed at creating an empowering female character. Aelin Galathynius was a self inserted version of the author, a poor caricature of Celaena Sardothien. If you think that the way Aelin acts in this book is how a queen should be like, Wyrd help y'all. Celaena would never hurt Dorian, yet Aelin was so eager about killing the Crown Prince who was posessed by a demon. She never stopped to think for a damn minute of what her actions would cause to the friends she loved. No--she was so obsessed with Rowan that everything else what pure background. While Chaol and Nesryn worked to free Dorian from his father, Aelin showed the city to her fae companion. She socialized with Lysandra, she wore dresses for Rowan, and she had dinner with her cousin and her new friends. And when they finally managed to rescue Dorian, Aelin had the audacity to tell him she had come back for him. BULLSHIT.

She’d kill whoever was needed, whore herself, wreck herself, if it meant getting Aedion to safety.

Remember when Celaena said to Dorian "I'll come back for you"? Yeah, me neither.

Chaol Westfall deserved better than to be destroyed so I ship could happen. The author kept using the Nehemia card to make him look bad. Aelin blamed him for everything--leaving Dorian, having a part in Nehemia's death, working for the King of Adarlan and never killing him. But when he replied,

“You do not get to blame me for that. For his actions.”

But you do get to blame him for things that were out of his control, Aelin? Where's the damn logic.

Chaol had run. He’d run, and Dorian had been left to been slaved by the collar.

If he had stayed he would have been killed by now, and who would be trying to save Dorian? You? YOU, Aelin?! I thought so.

And just to make it even more clear,

You should have gotten Dorian and Sorscha out the day the king butchered those slaves. Did you learn nothing from Nehemia’s death? Did you somehow think you could win with your honor intact, without sacrificing something? You shouldn’t have left him; how could you let him face the king alone? How could you, how could you, how could you?

Chaol had to endured this throughout the entire book. Damn, the entire series!

He got the worst part. If I recall, Celaena never tried to kill the King, and she worked for him too. So, she's a freaking hypocrite for throwing those accusations to Chaol. SJM made Chaol feel sorry for himself, she made him see himself as a fool for trusting an assassing when HE GOT OVER IT A LONG TIME AGO!!

No, Celaena Sardothien certainly did not exist anymore. That woman—the woman he had loved... Perhaps she’d drowned in the vast, ruthless sea between here and Wendlyn. Perhaps she’d died at the hands of the Valg princes. Or maybe he’d been a fool all this time, a fool to look at the lives she’d taken and blood she’d so irreverently spilled, and not be disgusted.

I see what you're trying to do, SJMAAS. But I'm no fool. I SEE U, VILLAIN.



Chaol Westfall deserves better 2k15 #CHAOLWESTFALLDEFENSESQUAD



I WILL ALWAYS SHIP CHAOLAENA. It's over. They're not endgame according to this damn book. But I still have my copy of Crown of Midnight that proves otherwise. SJMAAS changed her mind. She wrote Crown of Midnight with an idea, and she changed it the moment Rowan showed up. Nesryn Falig was obviously used as a plot device. It seems like SJMAAS didn't want Chaol to end up alone. I can't buy anything written in this book. Chaol Westfall would blush whenever he saw the girls who used to wait for him at his morning runs. He was dedicated to his Prince and King, and yet the author created this poor excuse of him having a relationship with Nesryn Faliq even before Throne of Glass so he wouldn't mind seeing Aelin and Rowan together. THAT WAS PATHETIC.

A faint sort of amusement shone in her dark eyes. The same sort of amusement that had been there last year whenever they would meet, at inns or in rooms above taverns or sometimes even up against the wall of an alley.

Ok that sounds fake but ok.

I think what bothers me most about QoS is that the sort of closure Celaena and Chaol had in Heir of Fire was thrown to the trash can. I was fine with them not being together anymore, but what they both did in this book felt completely out of place. They acted like kids--SJMAAS pitted them against each other. Reading it was like watching a dummy relationships reality show. And they not having feelings for each other?? I get it, they are over. But when Chaol got hurt Aelin didn't even look at him! And Chaol never cared about Rowan, either. (Actually, Chaol seemed startled by Rowan's beauty, just like everyone else who came across him.) Their past was was erased. Like it never happened.

“It meant something to me. What you and I had. More than that, your friendship meant something to me. I never told you the truth about who I was because I couldn’t face that truth. I’m sorry if what I said to you on the docks that day—that I’d pick you—made you think I’d come back, and it would all be fixed. Things changed. I changed.”

@ Sarah J. Maas, WAS THIS FUCKING NECESSARY?!!!!

There was so little left of the guard she’d come to care for....

You changed, not him.

You remind me of what the world ought to be; what the world can be, she’d once said to Chaol. Her face burned. A girl had said those things; a girl so desperate to survive, to make it through each day, that she hadn’t questioned why he served the true monster of their world.

WHY ARE YOU LYING. STOP FUCKING LYING, WOMAN. STOP. LYING.

Yes, she’d loved Sam—more than she’d ever loved anyone. Even Chaol.

BITCH DON'T MAKE ME SLAP YOU WITH MY COPY OF CoM.



This part, though.

Do you understand what it was like for us here? While you were off playing with magic, off gallivanting with your faerie prince, do you understand what happened to me—to Dorian?

WHERE'S THE LIE. #Chaolspeaksthetruth

Rowan/Aelin should have stayed platonic. In Heir of Fire they repeatedly told us that there was absolutely nothing romantic in their relationship, but in this book they acted like lovers in a erotic novel. It was pathetic. Rowan treated Celaena like hell in the previous book: he told her she was useless, that she would be better off dead; but now they're so suddenly in love with each other and it's all over their heads. And I wonder how they went from friends to lovers in such a small amount of time. Aelin would wear a dress with nothing underneath, and Rowan would take it as a huge turn on. She would freak out thinking too much about her incredibly handsome male partner that I wanted to punch my head against a wall. Several times. Their relationship is not healthy at all, SHE LITERALLY OWNS HIM. And every five seconds Aelin would come up with things like this:

A chill fog had blanketed the world the night before, seeping in through every nook and cranny. Nestled under layers of quilts and down blankets, Aelin rolled over in bed and stretched a hand across the mattress, reaching lazily for the warm male body beside hers.

I just hope it's a dead body. #sorrynotsorry

After all that she had endured, after what she had overcome in Wendlyn, to return to this... She wished Rowan were beside her, wished she could smell his pine-and-snow scent and know that no matter what news Arobynn bore, no matter how it shattered her, the Fae warrior would be there to help put the pieces back together.

That sounds like the typical "fix me, I'm broken" plot we find in every NA book.



I know Rowan is hot and has amazing fighting skills and his body's been formed by centuries of war and blah blah blah, but he acted like he was a member of Jersey Shore. Everything was an excuse for him to be shirtless. And the way he and Aedion acted around Aelin WAS THE MOST PATHETIC THING I'VE EVER SEEN. It was like watching a pissing contest. Guys, Celaena made it through three damn books without you. I'm pretty sure Aelin can take care of herself.

BACK THE FUCK OFF.

Everybody loved Aelin Galathynius. She was beautiful, she was sexy, she was lethal. Rowan and Aedion would fight over her. Arobynn would send her expensive gowns and perfumes. And she was definitely enjoying the attention. Celaena was arrogant, but Aelin reached a whole new level.

She did not need the extra strength, speed, and agility of her Fae form to bring down her enemies.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, honey.

One of the few good things about this book was Dorian and Chaol's friendship (BrOTP af). At this point they're all I care about. I wouldn't mind if they get together and get married and have babies. They're the only two characters I dare save from this mess. Don't fight me on this.

Everything—everything was for Dorian, for his friend. For himself, he had nothing left to lose. He was nothing more than a nameless oath-breaker, a liar, a traitor.

I love how loyal to Dorian Chaol is. I love how he fought Aelin just to save his Prince. His King. I love how he always believed there was a chance to save him. But I wish they had had a moment at the end of the book, because that is what they deserved. Chaol left with Nesryn, and now Dorian is unprotected again. It just feels off.

I would like to talk about Arobynn Hamel, because I thought of him as such a rich and interesting character. I hate that he was lowered to the point of being just another crazy fan of Aelin. In the short novels we got to see a bit about his creepy obsession with Celaena and how far he would go to have her. I believe his character had more things to offer than just that. I was looking forward to reading the epic battle between the Greatest Assassin in Adarlan and the man who trained her, but that didn't happen. Arobynn was a huge threat, and killing him off so soon--without getting his potential to its fullest--was a pretty ugly decision, if you ask me. And what a way to kill the Assassin's King: while he's asleep, by Lysandra.

Really, Sarah?! REALLY?!

The King was another disappointment. The biggest villain, a monster, the man who had erased magic from the Kingdom.... asking for mercy. The whole being-possessed-by-a-demon plot would have worked out pretty well if only had been thought throught. Why? Because we barely got the King's pov. If you want me to believe he had been struggling with a dark force within him, you must let me know him first--dude, we didn't even know his freaking name!--otherwise I don't care about what happens to him at all. Having Lysandra, The King and Arobynn's POV's in the previous books would have made things a lot interesting and added more depth to the plot. But the author just included them in this book, and honestly they felt more like mere excuses and subplots.

And can we talk about these ridiculously long speeches?

Manon Blackbeak, heir of the Blackbeak Witch-Clan, bearer of the blade Wind-Cleaver, rider of the wyvern Abraxos, and Wing Leader of the King of Adarlan’s aerial host, stared at the portly man sitting across the black glass table and kept her temper on a tight leash.

She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.

Stop acting like you're both Daenerys Targaryen.

If you go into my profile, you'll see that Sarah J. Maas has been removed from my list of favorite authors. I cannot believe in the poor excuses she made. Arobynn Hamel getting killed so easily even though No one—not even the King of Adarlan—would be stupid enough to go after him (actual quote); The King of Adarlan being posessed by a demon all this time; Lysandra and Aelin suddenly being BFFs and sharing everything; Lysandra being a shape-shifter (how fucking convenient)... And Manon, I couldn't bring myself to care about this precious character. At All. I got some serious Manon/Dorian vibes, so I guess in the next book there'll be another romantic subplot. The King and his son had such an interesting plot, but sadly Aelin and Rowan's adventures were more important for the sake of the plot. SJMAAS lost me when she decided that Aelin would be ok with killing Dorian.

So this is it. The most difficult part is that I now should see Crown of Midnight as an standalone, because that book is a contradiction to everything I just read from Queen of Shadows. A fanfic of her own series is what SJM wrote, and it pains me to see how my favorite characters were sacrificed over stupid subplots. It all ended in the second book, I'm afraid. Well--it was good while it lasted, because I already gave up on these books.


_______________________________________________________

Queen of Shadows, a summary:

Aelin: Celaena Sardothien is dead, I'm in charge now, and I'll burn everyone who dare say otherwise.
Chaol: but WHAT ABOUT DORIAN
Aelin: You left him!! You poor human with no powers couldn't save Dorian nor destroy the King and I hate you!!
Chaol: I feel so sorry for myself.
Rowan: How you doin'? *takes shirt off*
Dorian: ♪I was as pure as a river, but now I think I'm possessed♫
Aelin: *contemplates killing them all while also saying she's changed*
Chaol: but WHAT ABOUT DORIAN
Nesryn: This is too messy, I'm out.
Rowan: *breathes*
Aelin: omg did you see that? HE. JUST. BREATHED.
Manon: *staring at nothing* I...wanna...learn...what...love...is
Arobynn: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
Lysandra: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
Rowan: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
Aedion: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
Erilea: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
THE WORLD: Aelin Galathynius is perfect.
Chaol: She is not my queen.
Aelin: OMG how dare you you! I am Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir of fire, beloved of Mala Light-Bringer, and rightful Queen of Terrasen, and I have Rowan now.
Me: I thought Chaolaena was endgame.
Me: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SECOND BOOK??? CROWN OF MIDNIGHT??? WHAT ABOUT THAT???
SJMAAS: I don't know, suddenly I can't read.

*If you listen closely you can hear me cry* This was one of my favorite series and now it's ruined.