ashwednesday

Death was her curse and her gift, and death has been her good friend these long, long years.

Fine Sarah Maas! You WIN! Take all my stars, make a chariot out of them pulled by six magnificent as fuck white horses which YOU and this INSANE book will ride with all the way to my favorite shelf!

TAKE THEM ALL!!!!!!!

First thing I did after finishing this, I went to the next Throne of Glass book's page and checked when its coming out.

Here.
Now.
This is me starting that vigil.

*five minutes*

Is it effing 2014 yet???
Why is the next book still untitled???
Am I ever going to get around to reviewing this book???

Look, I can't give this a proper review, my brain is still fried with all the twists and turns this book took me into. One moment I am laughing, thinking I had it all figured out only to be swooped into a sidestreet that I didn't even know existed. Because there are moments in this book that were completely predictable, things that are so obvious in the first quarter… and you will be right. But it is HOW this book will use these predictable bits and pieces that will take your breath away over and over again.

As it is I am having the compulsion to draw charts and tables just to keep track of who knows what, who told them that information and the possible repercussions for the next book.

The characters were much improved from the first book I feel. I have a better grasp and understanding of Celaena. She sounds like that heroine, the one teetering on Mary Sue territory but manages to avoid being intolerably annoying somehow. I liked the progression of Chaol and Dorian's characters, especially Dorian's in this book. I love Chaol, but I am foreseeing some interesting turns and conflicts in the prince's storyline in the coming books.This was divided into two parts and I am often wary when I see that in the Table of Contents (I have read Daughter of Smoke and Bone) because it means something big will happen down the line. Something that will change the pace and theme of the book that will either make me hate it or love one half more than the other. But this was uniformly gripping through and through.

There was romance, plotting, half-truths, outright lies, court intrigue, riddles, mysteries, betrayals (yes that's PLURAL) and an intricate paranormal plot thread that caught me by surprise in its complexity. It should be convoluted, some holes and gaps inevitable but I paid them no mind. There were moments that set my heart aflutter, moments that made me squee with glee

From the moment he'd pulled her out of that mine in Endovier and she had set those eyes upon him, still fierce despite a year in hell, he'd been walking toward this, walking to her.

And moments that just made me scream for completely different reasons.

I was in love from page 1 and I never looked back.

I think the only moment my attention wavered was with the Baba Yellowlegs storyline but the rest of the time, I was shackled to this world that anytime I put it down and pick it up again, there's no warm up needed. I am already there, invested and focused on these characters, I am living in the real world only because this book is kind enough to permit it.

I had a sense of direction, my mind's eye preemptively mapped the road I expected this to take… then I get to the last 10-15% and I get proven right, but I still feel this side of foolish. I though I had a handle on what's going to happen, I thought I had it all figured out. Those last few pages, those plot twists, probably at par with the Fever series for me in terms of WTF-ery (yeah, I said it).

You. Have. Been. Warned.

We're all looking for that… feeling, chasing that inexplicable joy that makes your fingers tremble a little when you type your review, that point where you could barely suppress the excitement in your words.

This book brought me there. Several times over.