Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas – Rachel Book Review

Queen of Shadows is the fourth entry into the seven-part Throne of Glass series, which is Sarah J. Maas’s first fantasy series. I devoured the author’s second fantasy series, A Court of Mist and Fury. So, of course, I would love Throne of Glass, right?

Wrong. I have a serious love/hate relationship with all of these books. The first book (Throne of Glass) did not have enough world building, back story, and the characters were not built up enough for me to care about them. The second book (Crown of Midnight) finally gave me the back story I needed and fleshed out the love triangle. I loved the second book once I figured out the first book was all build-up for a huge pay off in book two. Great! I was hooked.

Book three (Heir of Fire) was bloated and tiresome. The love triangle expanded to become a quad. Training montages and angst replaced actual plots. New character’s points of view were inserted and the jump around in narration was exhausting. I didn’t know who to care about or why.

And then finally, I got to the fourth book which is what I am reviewing today. Queen of Shadows suffers a lot in the middle, and at least 100+ pages could have been cut out that just discuss moody looks and sexual tension. I am here to read a romance/fantasy, but it got very repetitive. Oh and guess what? Even more characters and points of view were introduced. I started to feel like I was read book five of Game of Thrones and didn’t know why I cared about these people

I am happy to say that all of these plot lines and characters came together at the end up with a BONKERS twist. I am fully invested in the story, though I know book five will do the tired trope of splitting up our merry band for side adventures. But, I will read it. Now I know that I can skim the boring dialogue in certain parts, which will make these 600+ page novels go by a little more quickly.

To sum up, the Throne of Glass books are like the Star Trek movies: every even-numbered installment is awesome, and every odd-numbered one is borderline annoying.

Some states (I like stats):