Young Adult Book Review – Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) – Sarah J Maas

Young Adult Book Review – Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) – Sarah J Maas

Recommended for literally everyone ever, though thinking about it I suppose it’s 13+ really

I waited long and hard for this. A whole year pretty much of anticipation and sweating and getting distracted by the amazingness that was A Court of Thorns and Roses and then some more sweating and publishing some more music to showcase my love of the Throne of Glass world (www.youtube.com/bertass if you’ve not heard any of it) and having another son somewhere in the mix too, before finally being rewarded for my diligence and devotion with the publication at long last of Queen of Shadows, book four in the Throne of Glass series.

I needed – like, needed - a fantastic and memorable story to go along with the various bouts of sweaty anticipation etc. outlined above, lest my world come crashing down around me as I tasted the horror of a Throne of Glass book not living up to my expectations.

Was it salty tears of joy that I tasted upon finishing, or salty tears of agony and disappointment?

Well, duh. Joy, obviously. It’s freaking brilliant.

The 650-page beast that is Queen of Shadows is full of action, revelation, twists and emotion with nary a page wasted, as Sarah J Maas once more takes us into the rich fantasy world that she has created and leaves us breathless in anticipation for what is to come in the last couple of books of the series.

The feels, man. The feels.

I’m not going to spoil those feels for you, as you need to feel them fully un-spoilered for yourself, but my whole heart took a huge pounding during this book, more so than with any other despite the agonising deaths that had come before. Everything is up in the air and no-one is safe at any point, barring Aelin/Celaena of course, and so you really don’t know who is going to make it and who isn’t.

Aelin truly becomes the Queen she has always been over the course of the book, and remains one of my favourite-written characters from any series I have ever read. Her relationship with all the other characters develops considerably by the time the story is finished, from those we’ve seen her interact with before, to those we know she has done but we haven’t personally seen yet. She gets her revenge on some, and she befriends others that she wouldn’t dream of befriending before. She establishes the main players in her court, and she rains hell on those that would oppose her. I’d follow her into the fires of hell, though I’d have to wait in line behind those already protecting her.

Elsewhere, we have the alpha-male-off that we’d always wanted between Rowan and Aedion, both devoted to her in different ways, but equally committed to protecting her life. Chaol is perhaps the most changed of all of them, fully on the side of the rebels opposing the king now, but bearing the scars of watching so many good people die and seeing his friend and prince, Dorian, consumed by the demon prince that now vies for control of his body. It’s not a happy reunion between Chaol and Aelin, to put it mildly, and the tension that builds between them as they disagree on the best way to help Dorian is heartbreaking, as is the state that we saw the prince in.

There are several new characters, notably the highly-skilled guard and lover of Chaol, Nesryn Faliq, and Lysandra, former rival of Aelin from her time in the Assassin’s Guild. Both are strong, brave, and fun to spend time with, and more great examples of strong heroines in the fantasy genre that Maas’ excels at writing. You don’t need to look far to find strong female characters for girls and boys to look up to in the Throne of Glass world.

We also get to meet Arobynn, King of the Assassins, and Aelin’s former master. He’s as cunning and deceitful as we’ve been led to believe, and its great watching the battle between him and Aelin play out as she seeks her revenge on him. And it’s not just Aelin who wants revenge…

The witch Manon and her Thirteen are also still there, growing increasingly frustrated under the command of humans, and as deadly and dangerous as ever, but they grow in a way that’s unexpected and promising to make their role in the final two books even more exciting and unpredictable.

I’ve always thought that the dialogue between characters is one of Maas’ biggest strengths, but she’s also fantastic at misdirection and twists, particularly so in this book. Aelin has plenty of tricks up her sleeve to fool both her enemies, her friends and us as readers, and there’s one particular twist that will throw everything you know about the Throne of Glass series on its head. If, as the characters themselves point out, it’s not just another lie…

So, are there any criticisms? Well, the length doesn’t bother me one bit. The more the better to be honest. I read one review that complained about the text going on too often about how wonderful Aelin is, and though I agree that the characters and narration do praise her a lot, I spent the entire book thinking about how wonderful Aelin is so it kind of just mirrored exactly what I was thinking at the time and didn’t bother me in the slightest. I can’t fault the dialogue, the world-building, the twists and turns, the interaction between the main characters…I just enjoy it all so much I can’t find faults to pick.

I have to wait another year for Book 5, and to be honest I almost feel like I need it this time to recover from everything that’s happened. A Court of Thorns and Roses 2 will come along and keep me going in the meantime, I’ve no doubt, but until then I’ll have to make do with analysing everything that’s happened and creating more music to go along with it. Queen of Shadows is a 650-page epic that will enthral you as much as anything else she’s written before, and it’s another brilliant addition to the series.

My favourite modern fantasy series just got even better.

5/5