Queen of Shadows

3.5 / 5

woof. i read some reviews that absolutely clowned this book into oblivion. and yes… i agree with some (if not all) of the criticism.

chaol can’t get his head out of his ass, aelin and chaol are at each other’s throats the entire time, aelin generally disregards the feelings of others, and of course, nobody is as worried about dorian as they should be. i think the reviews that attacked this book are from people who may have lost sight of what this series is, at its core: bad. this might piss some people off, but this series is not quality fantasy - it’s trash fantasy. which can be just as entertaining if not more so. it’s the fantasy version of those cartoon-people-on-the-front romance novels. it’s not MEANT to be high show more quality craft. of course it’s gonna piss you off when the characters you’ve loved and rooted for disappoint. and oh man do the characters disappoint in this one.

aelin is a lot more selfish in this than previous installments - she’s haughty and hard to like, which is sort of a new era for her. chaol is a fucking meathead with none of his previous charm. dorian isn’t even dorian anymore. things are not looking good for our main characters. rowan, at least, is more interesting and emotionally available in this one. but for the most part, there’s very little action and waaaaay too many scenes of people just chatting in apartments. it’s dialogue overload.

***spoilers ahead***

it’s really a shame to watch aelin and chaol mistrust each other. they’re both carrying a lot of guilt and pain, but they didn’t have to take it out on each other like that. i honestly felt like chaol lost so much of what i liked about his character - suddenly it just wasn’t clicking for me. and maybe this is because there’s no longer anything between him and aelin. maybe he’s boring as fuck on his own! still disappointing.

aelin also loses some of her energy in this one. you know what… i think a big part of what’s not working for these characters is the sheer length of this book. it’s too long! ugh i mean, aelin basically stays exactly the same with no development or spice or noTHING. she’s just flat as a board in this. rowan is semi-compelling, but he also does a lot that seems very outside of his character - i get that he loves aelin, but he seriously needs to stop fawning over her.

the ending was lackluster, i’m just gonna say it! it feels like it happens too quickly, too easily - i would have preferred the ending to leave us on some cliffhanger, or at least give me some sense of satisfaction! but something about it just didn’t hit right, and i’m afraid a lot of these reviews are right about the fact that this book is only useful for character continuity. as a stand-alone work, i would have rated this below 3.

*spoilers ended*

i just wasn’t impressed. i don’t have much to say about it, that’s how unimpressed i was. i got sick of the central conflict, i’m starting to chafe against aelin, and my favorite characters are acting like idiots a lot of the time. if this was the first book in the series, my journey would end here. i was missing that frenetic energy that filled the first two books, and honestly so much of QUEEN OF SHADOWS is exposition that i’m not surprised i struggled to pay attention. definitely a step down from the quality i expected from SJ MAAS. 3.5 / 5!

**edit**
after giving some thought to the way this series treats women and men… i think it’s fair to say that there’s some problematic tendencies in SJ MAAS books. there’s a whole lot of internalized misogyny, extreme belief in the binary of male and female, and worst of all there’s no real internal strength to our heroines. aelin’s world revolves around three men - what the fuck is that about? on the surface, this series seems feminist: our main character is a vicious killer, but also a powerful queen. but it just revolves around men! if you’re looking for a series that elevates women, it’s NOT this one. from her language to her characters, SJ MAAS makes it clear that women are powerful solely in the context of being desired by men - the rest of their power is told, not shown. **ahhhhhhhh, aelin’s so great, wooo** but let’s get real: is she? is she even a good person? why isn’t she grappling more with that? when you dive a little deeper… this series is a guilty pleasure and nothing more, and sets a poor example of female characters for other writers. don’t give these books to a minor… i’m begging you. show less

It’s just… too good.
Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, Lysandra, Dorian, Chaol, Nesryn, Manon, Elide, the Thirteen… Am I forgetting someone?

So many people, so much plot lines… So seamlessly written. I love it. Finished in two days. Read it through two straight days. So utterly perfect.

There are many scenes I love in this book. When she rescues Aedion, when Rowan arrives, when she meets Lysandra, the dinner party with Arobynn, the meeting in the forest with Manon and Dorian and the court… Everything, basically.

All stories with amazing twists and turns, complete with great characters all around.
• Aelin is utter genius, her planning skills and stubbornness to not tell anyone about her plans is only the beginning.
• Rowan is the love of show more my life. Completely.

“I missed you. When I was in Wendlyn. I lied when I said I didn’t. From the moment you left, I missed you so much I went out of my mind.”

“I kept thinking about how you might never know that I missed you with only an ocean between us. But if it was death separating us … I would find you. I don’t care how many rules it would break. Even if I had to get all three keys myself and open a gate, I would find you again. Always.”

“I spent centuries wandering the world, from empires to kingdoms to wastelands, never settling, never stopping—not for one moment. I was always looking toward the horizon, always wondering what waited across the next ocean, over the next mountain. But I think … I think that whole time, all those centuries, I was just looking for you.”

• Aedion is amazing. Superprotective Fae, yes, but amazing. The way he reveres Aelin, his cousin, his queen. I love him.

• Lysandra is a joyous surprise. Didn’t expect to love her as much as I do. Her protectiveness of Evangeline, her loyalty to Aelin, her power of shape-shifting, wanting to be something with claws and big fangs :) so relatable.

• Watching what was done to Dorian broke me. Literally broke me. He was such a cinnamon roll, and now he was obligated to turn into who he’ll become, and it’s such a loss. He didn’t deserve that.

• Getting into enemy territory here, but I liked Chaol. Really. He was an asshole at the beginning, sure, but let’s remember, so was Aelin after Nehemia’s death. And what happened to Chaol was similar, and if you think about it, somewhat his fault. He feels a lot of guilt and shame. He knows he’s acting like a bastard most of the time, like Aelin did, in her despair. But he does the right thing, and matures. His path was different than hers, and he had to cope with the fact that the man who he spent years working for, fighting for, who he pledged his loyalty to, was a demon in disguise. He takes a while to realize this truth, and didn’t deal with it in the best way. But he realizes in the end. He apologized to Aelin, she doesn’t blame him. And the thing I had most problem with: he didn’t accept who she was, all the parts hw didn’t want to see. And in the end, he is tearing up at the sight of the beauty of Aelin’s fire. He doesn’t back down at her Fae form. He smiled. And he accepts helping her in the Southern continent, to gather allies. I don’t care what anybody says. I like him. He did some shit? He did. But so did many people, including Aelin.

• Manon’s story gets me more interested by the minute. She says she doesn’t have a heart, but almost tears down Morarh to find Elide, cries over what was done to Asterin, and helps Dorian. And regrets. And has hope.

• Elide, our newest introduction. We heard of her in Heir of Fire. Her mother was Lady Marion. And I love her will of iron, even if her teeth are not. She will find Aelin and serve her in her court, for she has hope, and she teached the Wing Leader to hope.

I don’t know if I have more to say, other than this is one of the best I’ve read. And the best is yet to come. show less

Short summary:

Aelin returns to Rifthold to take revenge and to finally fight back against the king. She reconnects with Chaol and Dorian, but their relationships are strained. Dorian is possessed by a Valg prince, and saving him becomes one of Aelin’s main goals.
At the same time, she takes down Arobynn and the Assassin’s Guild, getting revenge for Sam. She also starts building a resistance. In the end, they manage to free Dorian from the Valg, and together they defeat the king, uncovering more about the bigger threat behind everything.


I really didn’t like this book, which surprised me a lot.

After enjoying the previous books, this felt like a big drop. The story has a lot going on, but instead of feeling exciting, it often felt show more frustrating and messy.

One of my biggest issues was Aelin. She suddenly feels like another person compared to the earlier books. Instead of the character I got to know before, she comes across as overly secretive and almost manipulative. She keeps making plans without telling anyone, and then everything just works out for her. It didn’t feel natural, and it made it hard to stay invested.

The relationships also didn’t work for me. There’s a lot of tension, especially between Aelin and Chaol, but it often felt dragged out or unnecessary. Some dynamics that I liked before just didn’t feel the same anymore.

I also struggled with the pacing. Some parts feel slow and stretched out, while others move too quickly, especially when it comes to important events.

There are still a few things I liked. Dorian’s storyline was interesting, and his situation added emotional weight to the story. The bigger reveals about the world and the final confrontation are important for the series, even if the execution didn’t fully work for me.

Final Thoughts:
This was a disappointing installment. While it moves the overall story forward, the character changes and the way the plot is handled made it hard to enjoy. show less

Ok, give me a moment to gather myself here because I can't even... I really have no words ...


Deep breaths in and out.... Okay.

I swore a long time ago I would not be one of THOSE reviewers. We all know the type, right? Grown women who get all flustered and hot and bothered over a YA novel, and then go into teen girl fan ravings.

And then I read this book and blew that all straight to hell in about a minute flat.

To write this review without spoilers is very difficult, so if I slip up, I apologize in advance. If you haven't read the prior books in this series, you will probably want to stop reading this review right now because I will totally ruin the earlier books for you.

The first thought that comes to mind for me right now is: Emotional show more roller coaster. I mean, not for nothing but holy crap.

While generally I tend to dislike a large amount of swearing in YA fiction, in this particular book I don't think the story would have been as good without it. Be warned that in this one there is a fair amount of sexual innuendo as well.

I both loved and hated it all at the same time.

The main character calls to mind the mythical creature the phoenix, because all I kept thinking as I got further and further into the depths of the pages was "out of the ashes," and from those ashes what is reborn is absolutely incredible.

I do have to say though that quite frankly the ending thoroughly pissed me off. There is no polite way for me to say it. It is only the inkling of an indication from the author's own Goodreads page that this is not the way the series ends and another book is somewhere on the horizon that kept me from blasting on Twitter and every other bit of social media about my disappointment that.... Well, the end just left me with too many unanswered questions... Hmm, that seems to be a bit of a pattern with me lately.

So, Ms. Maas, you have thrown down the gauntlet, and I have no idea how you are going to top this one, but I say, Bring it on! show less

We are so in. This book goes hard. Now that you really know the players and the stakes, it’s so easy to get completely lost in this world. It’s all a bit flawed, but still incredibly immersive, which is where the magic happens. Multiple storylines are running at once, and you’re following along, wondering when and how they’re all going to intersect. I’m falling in love with a lot of these characters and understanding more about what makes them do what they do. Even the new characters are easy to get attached to right away. There are still a few cheesy lines that take me out of it, and I’m not especially invested in the romance (even though it’s still pretty tame and minimal at this point). But it’s such a big book and show more still incredibly easy to read, very hard to put down. When I’m not reading these books, I complain about how long they are, but when I’m in one, I’m not complaining at all and already eager to get to the next one. show less

Set back in Rifthold, this entry in the Throne of Glass series brings together, for the most part, the original set of characters and the ones introduced in the third book. And things really start cooking.

This series took way too long to get going, I think, but I’m fully invested now. I still enjoyed ACOTAR more, but this one has potential and I’m excited to get to the next book.

Plot en wereldopbouw waren goed, karakters hadden een nu echt meer diepgang.

Zoals altijd bouwde het eerste deel van dit boek langzaam op naar een spannend avontuur. Wel heb ik vele pagina's met eindeloze romantiek overgeslagen. In eerste instantie leek het boek een goed einde te zijn voor de trilogie, maar het is nog maar een middendeel. Of de overige delen deze kunnen overtroeven? Wie weet.

Een van mijn meest favoriete personages is en blijft nog steeds Manon Zwartbek. Celeane/Aelin Galathynius en Rowan veel minder. Het was mooi om te zien hoe Manon langzaam van een ijskoude heks zonder emotie groeide tot een beschermende 'moeder'.

In de afgelopen delen heeft Maas een aantal nieuwe personages toegevoegd, waaronder Manon en Rowan. show more Zoals gezegd is Manon nu een van mijn favorieten geworden. Alle lose einden uit de eerdere boeken worden langzaam samengevoegd en afgerond tegen het einde van dit boek

Boek had heel veel acties en spanning, maar soms was het net een beetje TEVEEL. show less