Queen of Shadows, Sarah J Maas, 2015
This is book 5 (if including the prequel) of the Throne of Glass series. I consider this the storyline-strengthener, as its main purpose feels as though to introduce new characters/relationships and tie up loose ends for the next books, which I expect to be much more exciting. The characters in this fifth book feel distant and the relationships aren’t as enticing.
For those who shipped Celaena and Chaol, it’s frustrating that their passion for each other has fizzled out without any culmination. Aelin (then Celaena) is now with Rowan and Chaol is (semi) with Nesryn, a new character who we don’t know much about other than that she’s another badass rebel who has had a tough past? There are some sweet breadcrumbs of romance between Nesryn and Chaol which suggest it will be a major part of the next book.
Rowan, Aelin’s situationship-thing, is sort of a bleh character for me. He’s a big, brooding Fae who is constantly identified by how large and powerful he is, but I can’t think of a single personality characteristic to attach to him other than his chivalrous (if we call it that) overprotectiveness of Aelin. This is something that feels very overplayed. Sarah J Maas has caught onto how girls LOVE reading about an overprotective male, but it’s becoming the signature of every male around the female protagonist. Aelin/Celaena is the greatest known assassin in all of Erilea, AND a Fae herself, and has never once needed a man to save her, so to have these men each lose their ability to breathe when she gets a hangnail is sort of redundant. Also Rowan seems like a puppy dog just following her around all the time.
The main plot is that Dorian is controlled by the demon inside him, put there by his father, the King of Adarlan, via the wyrdstone collar. Aelin wants to kill Dorian, believing there is no way to pull him from the demon, but Chaol wants to save him. Spoiler: in the end, there’s a battle between Aelin, Chaol, and the King, where they free Dorian. Dorian kills Adarlan—at Adarlan’s request. It turns out that in a brief moment of Adarlan’s returning to sanity, he reveals he has been controlled by a Valg demon all along, and asks his son to kill him as mercy. This could be a point of confusion, as it’s a major plot twist without any foreshadow. Aelin sets the Glass Castle aflame, and Dorian is named King, with Chaol as King’s second. The two of them leave for healing in the southern continent, as Chaol was gravely injured in the battle, and Nesryn goes with them (this is the set-up for Tower of Dawn).
The other storyline is the 13 witches. Manon, leader of the Blackbeak witches, is struggling with the idea that witches are not naturally monsters and begins to build a conscience. She hands over the Yellowleg witches to breed with the Valg, when asked to by Vernon, and is given pushback by her second, Asterin, who recognizes it as abuse.
Elide is the abused niece of Vernon, one of the bad guys at Morath building an army of Valg. She is powerless and crippled. Manon recognizes Elide’s intelligence, as she acts submissive to hide that she’s planning to escape Morath. Manon vows to protect her. Once she escapes Morath, she joins the thirteen witches.
There is some overlap between Manon and Aelin, who have a hand-to-hand combat, but end up finding common ground as two brave leaders when Aelin uses her power to save Manon from the Valg.
Other small points to recall are that Lysandra, Aelin’s op and Arobynn’s courtesan, becomes Aelin’s best friend. Aelin helps Lysandra kill Arobynn, as he’s been abusing her all this time. Aelin goes public about being Terrasen’s lost Princess, and returns to Terrasen, ready for war against the Valg, as Queen.
As the most exciting piece of this series is the high-stakes romance for me, I do hope the Chaol/Nesryn plot becomes enticing, as Rowan and Aelin are overdone and don’t live up to what could have been between Aelin and Chaol (or Aelin and Dorian, for that matter). It feels like Sarah J Maas is trying to make them super slow-burn, but the tension between them isn’t satisfying enough. Up until this point, they have yet to be very physical (there was a makeout/cuddle scene, but that was all), but it feels futile. They’re just like “no, we shouldn’t,” but really, why?
Yeah, overall there’s just something I felt disconnected from in this book.
