A review by ellawh
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This review contains spoilers.


I am a bit conflicted about this book. While I gave the first book five stars (it was a good opener in a book series, and I really enjoyed reading it) I chose to give this one four. Which is not bad at all, I liked this book, I just felt like it could have been different for the better. I find that the second book in book series containing more than three books often has that second book where it sort of feels like you’re not really going anywhere. Sure, a lot of things happened, but it felt a bit slow and unmoving. This was a book of a lot of lore building (If that’s even a word…) which came off as info dumping to me.

 Celaena (or should I say Aelin now?) for some reason broke it off with Dorian (I mean come on?? It’s DORIAN) and begun a relationship with Chaol. It felt quite random, and I feel like she did it to create a new love arc to create conflict in the story. But honestly, while I like Chaol, I found him quite boring. It’s so typically Sarah J Maas to in order to keep the readers interested during a long series to switch up love interests all the time, and to have that one love interest that becomes the object of all readers hatred. Chaol… Tamlin…  

Also the whole switching to Chaol or Dorian’s pov for it to be less than one page of them pining for Celaena without her knowledge felt like poor character building. I wish she would have focused on them, not only on the love drama between them and Celaena.

Unfortunately I also find the lore boring, to be frank. I love a good lore, I read for lore. It wasn’t mysterious, it didn’t keep me interested. There is nothing better than a good lore in a fantasy series, one that keeps you on your toes. TOG’s lore does not feel cohesive, nor give me any special feeling or vibe. After a while I get kind of tired of Celaena running up and down to that tomb.

However, I am quite excited for the next book and I’m happy she’s traveling to Wendlyn. I want more world building, to see more of this fantasy world. Also I’m interested in reading about Rowan, who seems to be quite popular from what I’ve heard.

The end with the reveal of Celaena’s true identity didn’t come as a shock for me, I already knew from the start that her name was Aelin, I was actually quite confused in the first book when her name was different from what I’ve heard. I don’t know if I would be shocked if I didn’t know, but I don’t think so. It felt like the reveal came out of the blue, I don’t remember any clues planted earlier in the books. Maybe there were clues that I just missed, but to me it felt like she tried to create a shocking plot twist but it just didn’t hit me. It felt random. 

The Knowledge of being the heir to a great kingdom, the biggest threat to the most powerful kingdom, and the greatest elf being your ancestor is something I think would affect your behavior and the way you think, but apparently not. The eye thing was cool, but it surprises me that the king wasn’t searching for people with the color of her eyes already. But we’ll whatever. It wasn’t a plot twist worthy of Victoria Aveyard, but it wasn’t inherently bad.

As a reader I have a hard time connecting to just any character, which is why the death of Nehemia didn’t really move me. Sure I liked her, but I wasn’t invested, nor did I care for her.