Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas: Review

Title: Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Buy this book: Amazon (UK) / Amazon (US) / Book Depository

Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she's at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past . . .She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die just to see her again. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.Celaena’s epic journey has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe. This fourth volume will hold readers rapt as Celaena’s story builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.

It's finally time for me to review Queen of Shadows and it's impossible! I finished this book and felt like one conflicted bookworm. It took me on a rollercoaster of a journey, and left me with no idea how I actually felt about the book. Did I love it? Did I hate it? Or was I somewhere in between.

This was basically me by the time I reached the end of this book:

I didn't know how I felt or what to even think. This book had broken my heart about a million times. It had made me want to hurt Celaena so much, it even made me lose some respect for her and some of my love for her. But I enjoyed the book overall. Despite all of the things I disliked about it, I couldn't put the book down and found myself completely engrossed in it. It didn't go how I expected or wanted, but I trusted Maas to tell this story and had to trust her decisions. I didn't agree with all of them, nor understand them all. But I enjoyed the book as a whole, and felt it was a satisfying addition to the series in a lot of ways.

This is one mammoth book, coming in at over 650 pages. I love this series, the world and the characters that Maas has created, so getting a lot more story didn't seem like a bad thing to me. I did enjoy the book, but I personally felt like the pacing was a little off and that the book was a bit too long. There are really only a few major plot points that take place in this book, followed with lots and lots of talking and not a lot of action. I just wish it had been a little shorter, so it could have felt like there was more action in this book.

Celaena frustrated me so much in this book and I found myself starting to dislike her. She just felt like she treated a lot of people badly, not how she should have treated them. She found it easy to thrust blame on others, but didn't seem to take a lot of responsibility for her own actions. She could make rash and stupid decisions, and she had me shaking my head at her quite a bit. I felt like she was a bit of a bitch throughout this book, and it made it hard to read. She had seemed to build such a strong friendship with Chaol and Dorian, but that did not seem obvious in this book. She was kind of happy to write off one as lost forever and screw the other one over quite a bit. I was confused! Where was there awesome, wonderful friendship?!?

We get introduced to some new characters, some of whom I have little to no real feelings about. They were okay, but they just felt like they were there. But I did love seeing Lysandra again, a courtesan we met during The Asssassin's Blade. She was awesome and I absolutely loved her in this, and her friendship with Celaena. She was such an interesting character and I loved finding out more about her.

Some people hate Manon and her chapters, something I will never understand. I LOVE HER!!! I think she is an absolutely fascinating character and can't wait to see where her story goes next. I liked her way more in this than I liked Celaena, which is really saying something. I find the witches so fascinating and was happy to continue following them. I like that Manon is going through a ton of character growth. She started Heir of Fire as this psychotic witch, who has no feelings and who loves to kill humans and drink their blood. SCARY STUFF! But she's strong, an in control and doesn't take anybody's shit. I LOVE THAT ABOUT HER! I love her. I love that she is like the Grinch, slowly gaining feelings as this goes on. 

Manon is basically the Grinch!

The main things that need to be achieved in this book are simple: Kill Arobynn and retrieve the amulet, free Dorian and free magic. Those need to be achieved and I felt it took so long for them to start actually working towards them. I hated the lack of caring for Dorian and his situation, Celaena was so cold when it came to that. The last third of the book is very action packed, where it feels like everything is happening. But I LOVED the ending. I couldn't put the book down and I was kind of in awe of Maas. She'd managed to turn me into a lover of this book. when I had been adamant that it was only getting 3/5 from me. 

5/5

I am definitely conflicted when it comes to this book. On the one hand, I hated some aspects of it and got very frustrated with Celaena. It was angering me and making me want to shout in frustration. It also broke my heart in places, I especially wasn't a fan of the direction the romance went in this. I had a lot to complain about. But I enjoyed the story and the reading experience. I couldn't put the book down and I am beyond eager to get my mitts on the fifth book. I have to give Maas her dues, that girl can write a story. I hated some aspects, but I loved the journey this book took me on. I'm learning to deal with the things I didn't like, and appreciate the story as a whole. 

Discussion:

I wanted to talk about the book in full detail, so I filmed a spoiler-filled discussion video where I talk about all my thoughts in detail.