SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS!!!!!!
There will be ALL the spoilers for A Court of Thorn and Roses and a A Court of Mist and Fury here.
Accompanying this review, please welcome my special guests, my fellow members of the fairy smut book club who are on TikTok and Instagram. Lean into what you love, Friends!
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, I DID NOT LIKE ACOTAR when I listened to it, and I stand by that! Buuuuuutttt it was so easy to listen to while I sewed or took my stupid walks for my stupid mental health that I figured I might as well take a run at the sequel and see if it could keep me entertained, as well.
And yay! Because the sequel is... good? Y'all, I think it's good! I think it's actually very, very good and now I get to join the fairy smut book club, after all!
Even though I'm an uninfluential nobody and also read this many years after it was published, I swear it's like Maas took almost all of my criticisms about the first book and fixed them. Or justified them while doing something else genuinely interesting! Feyre actually has her own personality in this book, and she stops saying "high lord" every other sentence, and she finally learns to read (although it's clear that Maas doesn't know a lot about how people learn to read, because that's not how phonics works. I did appreciate all the handwriting practice, though!). Tamlin is still a boring shit who doesn't understand consent, but this time we all know it and talk about it!
@jessereadsbookss Reposting one of my favorite videos ive made because tiktok copyright claimed the original #acotar #sarahjmass #acotarmemes #acourtofmistandfury #tamlin #feyrearcheron #acourtofthornesandroses #thesuriel #suriel #sjm #sarahjmassbooks #bookishhumor #booktok #feyrearcheron ♬ original sound - Tay
My favorite part of the book is when, near the end, Rhys sits down and literally rewrites the canon of the first book to fix all the problematic stuff. It's not a bad authorial choice, actually! Maas also did a lot of work throughout this book to change the perspective of the first book and justify those changes through plot and characterization, etc., showing us, for instance, how Tamlin's inaction and refusal to understand consent makes him an unworthy partner and how Rhys' choices to treat Feyre as his equal and accept her as she is make up (I guess?) for that time Under the Mountain when he twisted her literal arm bone in his literal hand. But sometimes you just gotta sit your main character down in a small cabin in the woods and have a good, old-fashioned lore drop.
@itsthesuriel ok this ones actually sad RIP Clare 💔 #acotarmeme #rhysand #feyrearcheron #acourtofthornsandroses #acourtofmistandfury ♬ original sound - the suriel • acotar memes
There was still a lot of stuff that made me lol--Feyre passing flirty notes back and forth with Rhys and painting murals all over that cabin in the woods are soooo corny!--and I still don't think that any member of this particular fairy society is super bright and calculating, but tbh that kind of makes it more fun for me. Y'all, I think I'm smarter than a high fae! I'd even bet good money that I'm smarter than a high lord! I could certainly work out a better system for fairy tithing, that's for sure. That whole Spring Court day of tithing was some real "everyone must travel on foot to the place they were born and register for the census and stop asking me if you have to go even if you're eight months pregnant do you not understand the concept of a census?" bullshit.
But all the interesting characterizations and the improved relationships and the non-irritating internal monologue would still be boring if all Feyre did was sit around various magical fairy venues again. The real reason the book is so fun is that we finally get to explore fairy land! There's a secret city! A beachside Summer Court with a scary ancient sometimes-underwater building! Forests and byways! More monsters! And the final boss level is a raid into an enemy-filled castle in Hyburn, itself! Feyre does SO much cool stuff here, and yes the fact that she has *all* the fairy powers and is obviously the most specialist fairy ever (immortal with the heart of a mortal for the win!) is high-key corny, buuuuut watching her learn her powers and wield them and finally do some genuine fighting and machinating is fun and interesting. I just really liked the world that Maas builds here, and all the creatures that populate it, and all the adventures that we have in it.
@the.booktok.girls A straight savage 😂 #feyrearcheron #acotar #acotarseries #acotarmemes #acourtofmistandfury #rhysand #tamlin #acomafmemes #acomaf #highladyofthenightcourt ♬ original sound - The BookTok Girls
I barely even noticed how much I hate my daily 3.5-mile walk, I was so entertained, and retelling the book's plot made the hours my family spent in the car during our Father's Day day trip fly by. I'm not sure anyone actually understood the plot as related by me, ahem, but to be fair that's mostly because I kept doing things like say "OMG I forgot to tell you the part where the Spring Court all wore masks magically welded to their faces for 99% of the first book" and "oh, and this time Feyre can winnow because she just discovered that power because all the high lords gave her their special powers and she's now the MOST special" and then thinking about it again, myself, and not being able to stop laughing.
@itsthesuriel the masks are invisible and thats canon- period #acotarmeme #acotarseries #acourtofthornsandroses #acourtofmistandfury #rhysand #feyrearcheron ♬ original sound - the suriel • acotar memes
And then I brought up the mates thing and both of my teenagers were all, "NOOOO CRINGE NOOOO STOPPPPP!" It was the BEST Father's Day! I probably could have made them jump out of a moving car if this fairy world had had soulmarks.
In other news, I still hate Nesta and Elaine on account of how they wouldn't help with the chores while they were all poor, but apparently we're supposed to start loving them again and at this point there is no way they're not gonna be main characters in the third book so I might as well get used to it, sigh. And I'm still way into Lucian although I hate how he acts and I really wish we got a nasty sex scene or two with him, too.
Mostly, though, I wish some of these fairies were gay. Does Prythian seriously have NO queer representation?
@ancientlibrarybooks #fyp #acotar #highladyofthenightcourt #moracotar #amrenacotar #rhysandandfeyre #acomaf #feyre ♬ We go to war - Issy 🤍
Predictions for the third book:
*Nesta and Elaine will become main characters. SIGH!
* Feyre will forget a couple of doses of her fairy birth control in the chaos and we'll have a mini Rhys flying around like Cupid by book four.
* It would be hilarious if the Book of Breathings or the Cauldron possessed Feyre at some point so she was walking around and talking and doing stuff but it was actually the soul of the enchanted artifact controlling her.
* Surely someone will be gay at some point? Even in the background?
P.S. View all my reviews.
P.S. View all my reviews.
P.P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
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