Spoiler for the A Court of Mist and Fury.
Wow, it’s been a minute!
That the trouble with data entry positions as a writer. The last thing you want to do after hours of typing is go home and do it all over again. On top of that I’ve just been generally burnt out from have to wakeup at 5am to get to work despite naturally being a night owl.
The one good thing about the job is that I can listen to audiobooks for 8 hours straight. That means biggest barrier for getting through each 20+ hour ACOTAR novels is the Libby waitlist. But after about 5 months, I’ve gotten through the series to date…And I have thoughts.
For the most part, this post will be about A Court of Mist and Fury. I already made a separate post discussing the first book, A Court of Thornes and Rose, here.
As enjoyable as some parts of the series are (not those parts you pervs), ultimately any fun I had with the series was equally balanced with disappointment.
A Court of Mist and Fury: The Best It’s Gonna Get
The closest I got to getting the appeal of the series was when I read book two, A Court of Mist and Fury. For me, that book was the peak of the series with all the other books either leaving me underwhelmed or downright annoyed.
In my last post, it wasn’t a secret that I didn’t like Feyre and Tamiln together. Ultimately, it felt like they didn’t know each other all that well, especially not enough to be declaring their love they way they did in the first book, and book two confirms it was by design.
These two were meant to break up so Feyre could get with Rhysand, and thank goodness for that. Rhys and Feyre are much better suited for each other, and their romance feels much more mature compared to her and Tamlin’s.
The entire book is about them getting to know each other on a level the first book couldn’t even begin to reach. On top of them being mentally linked, Feyre and Rhys are much more willing to talk to each other and be venerable. It also helps that Rhys has a close group of friends as a support system both for himself and Feyre.
Without Morrigan, Azriel, and Cassian around to humanize Rhys and make Feyre feels more comfortable, this story probably wouldn’t have appealed to me as much. In the first book, Feyre’s friendships with the few side characters in Tamlin’s castle was one of the best parts of the story, so it makes sense that Maas expanded this with an ensemble cast. As a result, this book is as much about Feyre finding a new love as it was about her finding a new family.
Speaking of family, we are reintroduced to Feyre’s sisters, Nesta and Elain. I didn’t touch on this before, but Feyre’s sister, Nesta, is probably my favorite character in the series. If you’ve ever heard the musical Heathers, Nesta reminds me of Heather Chandler, who is described in musical as a “mythic bitch.” Nesta is a bitch, knows it and won’t let anyone tell her what to do. But more on that in a future post(¬‿¬).
As for Elain… I don’t care for Elain(¬_¬ ). This book starts a trend of Elain being perceived as so sweet and kind that she can’t possibly be held accountable for her past wrongdoings because of her soft-girl aesthetic. Ironically, Elain is a lot like my favorite Heather, Heather McNamara. (I didn’t expect to reference Heathers this much, but here we are.) Just as much a part and contributor to the mean girl act, but walks away from any accountability for the damage she’s done to others. That being said, Elain is still likable in this book because of the openness she has with accepting the fae into their lives.
My only major gripe with this book is how pointless it makes the book one. If Maas had always planned to switch the main couple, I think she should have just scrapped A Court of Thornes and Roses and either made it into an extended prologue for this book or held off and released it as a tragic prequel where everyone reading it knew that the relationship was doomed to fail.
I also have some thoughts about the implosion of Feyre and Tamlin’s relationship, but I think that’s better suited for either the next book’s review or a separate deep dive.
For now, I rate A Court of Mist and Fury 4 Illyrian wingspans out of 5.
I Think Thinks 