Queen of Shadows

kristin huggins

The Queen has Arrived!

"“‘What if we go on,’ he said, ‘only to more pain and despair? What if we go on, only to find a horrible friend waiting for us?’ Aelin looked northward, as if she could see all the way to Terrasen. ‘Then it is not the end.’” — Queen of Shadows After training with the Fae in Wendlyn, Aelin Galathynius arrives in Rifthold, the capital of Adarlan, under her old pseudonym Celaena Sardothian: Master Assassin. Her purpose: to exact vengeance and free her family, friends, and people from the corrupt King of Adarlan. Queen of Shadows is the fourth book in the Throne of Glass series, written by Sarah J. Maas. I will forever have a gaping black hole of 48 hours lost from my memory, during which I fell face-first into this novel and refused to surface until it was finished. *And cue the Category 5 Book-Hangover Hurricane* You literally CANNOT put this book down! Why, you ask? Author Sarah J. Maas courted us in the previous installment, Heir of Fire, with intricate, slow-blooming character development, setting the stage for Queen of Shadows to be a non-stop rolodex of action, suspense, and all around bad-assery, making it a binge-worthy read! My lifeboat throughout this entire series: Aelin. Celaena. Queen of Shadows. Whichever alias you prefer, know this: I ADORE HER. This is something readers rarely see in fantasy literature: a heroine who is complex, broken, terrifying, and relatable: 1) Her love of couture clothing equals her love of a perfectly weighted dagger... 2) She obsesses over libraries filled with leather bound books, yet can snap a man's neck with blinking an eye... 3) She isn't afraid to shed tears, bearing her scars for all the world to see, while at the same time exhibiting an unyeilding core of strength that draws a circle of loyal followers like flies to honey... At the end of Heir of Fire, we see an Aelin who was stripped of all emotional blockades, piece by piece, layer, by layer, until she finally came to accept her true self, the identity she’s been denying for 10 years ever since the death of her parents and her kingdom: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, the part-Fae rightful Queen of Terrasen, beloved of Mala Light-Bringer. Maas unleashes this new, powerful Aelin onto all of Adarlan and its inhabitants, who hold on for dear life as her vengeance rips through the gutters and dredges of her past. The Queen has finally arrived! We see a new Aelin here: one with confidance, power, and a firm, unwavering purpose: before she can take back her crown and claim Terrasen as her birthright, she must free her cousin Aedion Ashryver, free her friend Dorian Havilliard, the Crown Prince of Adarlan, and liberate all of Adarlan by killing its king, and the Valg demon who inhabits his body. Maas barely bats an eyes as she raises the curtain for newer characters in this series, all with rich, vivid histories: Manon (the icy Wing Leader of the Blackbeak clan of Ironteeth witches, and rider of the wyvern Abraxos), Lysandra (Arobynn’s prostitute of choice, cloaked in secrets while dreaming of freedom), Nesryn (Chaol’s apt rebel second-in-command), and Elide (a crippled servant girl who suspiciously keeps company with witches). We also dive headfirst into the twisted character of the elusive King of Thieves, murderer of Sam, and Celaena’s old employer: Arobynn Hamel (who I could not stop picturing as Klaus from Vampire Diaries!!). *At this moment, I'd like to acknowledge that I am blatantly avoiding any/all romance in this book. This was done so in an effort NOT to give away spoilers. If you've already read the book, you know. YOU KNOW. If you haven't... *drowns in feelings* Part of the reason why I fell in love this series has to do with the author’s writing process. When interviewed during QoS's production, Maas explained: “Music—especially movie scores and classical music—is usually my main source of inspiration… With book four, which I’m working on right now, I was listening to Kanye West to get into Celaena’s head — eyes closed, just thinking about her, soaking in the music. I’m not an actor by any means, but when I’m typing, I act out my scenes. I keep a mirror behind my desk; I watch myself making expressions, and then I write them.” (be still my beating heart...) EXCITING: Maas has recently begun posting playlists from her Spotify account onto her blog where readers can listen to the tracks that inspired scenes in her books (And yes, I've already listened to all her playlists...). As a musician, this SPEAKS TO MY SOUL!!! When I was 15, I would take tracks from the Gladiator soundtrack and use them as background music while reading Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon. Sarah J. Maas is officially my new spirit animal. Overall, this is by far the darkest Throne of Glass installment yet. The reader is exposed to corruption, demon possession, prostitution, countless executions, slavery, abuse of the worst degree… All of us, to some extent, have a streak of darkness within; hiding, watching, waiting for the right moment to take hold and make our marionette strings rattle... Watching helplessly as Aelin takes that streak and splatters it in an arching crescendo of death and destruction, I couldn’t help but ask myself throughout this book: What if I was honed into a flawless weapon with a score to settle? Would I bring the world crashing around my feet as retribution? More importantly… would I enjoy it? At times, Aelin does. "She was a whirling cloud of death, a queen of shadows, and these men were already carrion." - QoS Aelin is broken. Her world was brutally ravaged, burnt to the ground with nothing left but ashes and despair. To save herself, she became Celaena. To save her people, Aelin was reborn. And Aelin wants vengeance. “V - ‘What was done to me created me. It’s a basic principle of the Universe that every action will create an equal and opposing reaction.’ Evey Hammond – ‘Is that how you like to see it? Like an equation?’ V – ‘What was done to me was monstrous.’ Evey Hammond – ‘And they created a monster.’” — V for Vendetta I give this 5/5 stars. ["

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September 25, 2015 Verified Purchase

Booknista

I Didn't Want This to End! Love this Series, Love this Book.

"Wow, it was tough waiting for Queen of Shadows to come out, Sarah J. Maas. Really. Like angsty and painful. But, I forgive you.Because it was so damn good. There are some series that are so riveting, and the cliff hangers are so giant and emotional, it’s like an awful physical sensation when they end and the next one isn’t out yet. This Sarah J. Maas series is one of them. I’m going to make an assumption that if you're reading this review, you’ve hopefully read the other three books and I don’t need to hide where we’re at when Queen of Shadows starts. Assassin Celaena Sardothien is actually the Queen of Terrasen, Aelin Galathynius. She has traveled back to Rifthold to save her kingdom and the people she loves from the horror it has become. She knows she’s the queen, she’s embraced it and is now ready to fight for the throne. There are a few things in the way. Let’s go over the challenges: • Dorian the prince is taken over by the evil that his father commands. He’s wearing a black collar and a demon is trapped in his human body, making it to do awful things. • Aedion, her part Fae cousin, is in the king’s dungeon and facing a certain horrible death. • Chaol, her one time lover, has left the king’s guard and is leading the rebels. Which is a good thing. But, he’s not a big fan of Aelin and doesn’t trust her anymore. • The King is still the worst person ever. In fact, let's just say he's not even a person. He's THAT bad. He’s controlling a increasingly large demon army of very powerful beings, and has a whole squadron of witches at his disposal ready to battle. • Magic- still not available to anyone who may have it. This means Aelin can’t use her crazy awesome shoot fire from her hands powers. • Rowan- Aelin misses him tremendously and wishes he were by her side. • Arobynn can't be trusted, he's up to something. When the book opens, Aelin is at the Vaults. A seedy joint owned by her old boss, Arobynn. She is meeting him there to catch up on all things Rifthold and they both are hoping to covertly gain some intel on each other. Arobynn has another meeting first and Aelin is waiting her turn. She is shocked to see that he is meeting with Chaol. Chaol is his client. It’s a dangerous game he’s playing and Aelin is sure Arobynn meant for her to see it. They talk and both learn a bit. After Arobynn leaves, the King’s men storm the Vaults and destroy everything. Aelin has cleverly led them there. Well played Aelin, well played. That place was nasty and violent. No tears shed. The whole book is packed with twists and turns, adventure, action and complex relationships. We see Aedion in his cell, hoping his cousin the Queen doesn’t try to save him. He's afraid for her life. He’s trying to die before they kill him. She meets Chaol in a dark filthy sewer under the city. His guard (a woman, Nesryn, go Chaol!) found Aelin and leads her to him. They don’t trust each other. She figures prominently in the rest of the story, as a confidant, and perhaps love interest of Chaol. Aelin’s meeting with Chaol is hard to read. When friendship goes bad, loves turn sour, it’s hard to see it play out. Difficult to reconcile when you like two characters so much and they don’t see eye to eye, and instead do this dance of mistrust. Rowan ends up going to Rifthold and Aelin is thrilled and whole again. He doesn’t have any of his Fae magic there, but he’s still a strong warrior and loyal friend. He falls in with her merry band of rebels, and they set forward to rescue Aedion and take down the King. There’s so much that happens during and after the rescue, and I don’t want to spoil the adventure. It’s a very satisfying end to this series. But, it kind of feels like there could be more on the way. Like at the end of a movie and they leave it a bit open for more…yeah…just like that. I sure hope so. I give Queen of Shadows a very enthusiastic A+. ["

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September 24, 2015 Verified Purchase

Canadian eReader

Names are taken and asses are kicked - go Team Aelin

"OK confession time; I couldn’t wait to start reading Queen of Shadows before writing my Heir of Fire review, so this is going to be a joint review of both books. For those of you unaware, Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows are the third and fourth books respectively in Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass series. It is YA fantasy series with a kickass heroine and great worldbuilding. If you’ve not yet started it, I highly recommend checking it out. I listened to both books within a fairly short space of time and loved both of them. Because Queen of Shadows builds upon and develops characters and plot points raised in Heir of Fire, they are excellent to read together. Many of the cliffhangers in Heir of Fire are also resolved, which is very satisfying. What I liked Character development. We see lots of wonderful character development in our main character, Celaena. When we rejoin Celaena at the beginning of Heir of Fire, she is in a pretty dark place emotionally, reeling from the events of previous book Crown of Midnight. Throughout Heir she along with new character Rowan works to get her mojo back. This is a significant chunk of the book. Such a wonderful character arc. Her success is expressed in the change of name from Celaena to Aelin in Queen – she has accepted her identity, her past and her powers and is going to use them to kick ass. Incidentally, I had no issue whatsoever with the name change – Maas has written the character consistently and her “voice” remains the same whether she is “Celaena” or “Aelin.” Given how much she has progressed in Heir, Aelin’s character development does stall a lot in Queen – the focus is more on kickassedness and achieving the goals she set for herself at the end of Heir. Personally, I was actually far less engaged in Aelin’s story in Queen because of this. In Queen, the character development is expressed far more through the character of Manon, and I absolutely LOVED her chapters. Given the choice between reading about Manon or Aelin in Queen I was far more involved in Manon’s struggles. I loved how her relationship with her wyvern, Abraxos and with her Thirteen and Elide, caused her to rethink the values and attitudes with which she has been raised. The Manon we leave at the end of Queen is not the Manon we meet at the beginning of Heir and it was beautiful. I fully expect to see Manon work to bring down the Matron in the next book. Strong female friendships. There are some pretty cool female characters in the Throne of Glass world; Aelin, Manon, Lysandra, Elide, Asterin to name a few. Each of these are strong women in their own right, but when they get together thrones will fall, names will be taken and asses will be kicked. Our characters are stronger and are changed for the better (cue Wicked medley) because they knew each other. Things would have turned out very differently if it weren’t for the bonds between these women and Maas writes these friendships beautifully. Promises delivered. In Heir, Maas set out some very clear expectations about what was going to happen in Queen and she delivered. What we expected to happen did happen, which adds up to a very satisfying book. It didn’t always happen the way we expected, and often there were many unexpected obstacles in our protagonists’ path, but the expected confrontations took place, goals were achieved and people were saved. Intriguing minor characters. We met some new and interesting minor characters. I was particularly touched by Asterin’s story and I’m really interested to see where Elide’s path takes her. I have very strong suspicions about young Evangeline and her “citrine” eyes. It appears yellow eyes have some power over the Valg, so I’m curious to see what part she plays. What I didn’t like Promises delivered. Yes, I know I had this in my what I liked list. In some ways though, I felt too many loose ends were tied up. Our characters, other than Dorian, are in pretty good shape. I was almost left with the feeling that, if the series were to end here, I’d be quite content. Certainly there are a few open plots for the next book, but nothing that had me thinking I have to have book five NOW. I’m not certain that that’s altogether a good thing given there are two more books to go. The Aelin/Manon confrontation. Don’t get me wrong, I loved that Aelin and Manon finally met, and I loved the developments that came out of their confrontation, but I just didn’t buy how it ended. Aelin’s thought processes just didn’t ring true. Sorry. Despite these slight misgivings, I loved both Heir and Queen. I gave them both 4.5 stars out of five. ["

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September 7, 2015 Verified Purchase

Julie

Character Discrepancies

"Quick Thoughts: This book was a roller coaster for me. Not only emotionally (maybe especially emotionally) but also my reading experience. I struggled at the beginning of this installment. Maybe this was because of a impending reading slump, but I think mostly because the characterization was off which kept distracting me from the events in the story. After about 150 pages this issue was less noticeable and the rest of the book was fantastic. Full Review: Queen of Shadows was the perfect follow up to Heir of Fire. While I liked Heir of Fire, we did not make a lot of progress in the story. There was a lot of character development, which was necessary, but the plot stalled for the most part in that book. This story in contrast explodes from the beginning with action, adventure and new information. Characters reappear and new revelations drive the plot forward. The female characters in this series are phenomenal! I love them and their relationships with one another. These relationships have only improved as the series goes on. Maas fleshed out several characters that felt flat and underdeveloped earlier in the series but especially Lyssandra and Manon. Their character development was out of this world during this book and I savored every second of it. At first I was unimpressed by Manon but I am almost as interested in what happens to her as Aelin. Her whole life could be another series in my opinion. No one is really a side character in this series. Everyone has a backstory, a life and a story to be told. I love how they all feel important and necessary. On the other hand we had a couple of instances at the beginning of this book where the characterization was out of whack. Chaol especially lot a lot of ground at the beginning of the story. I understand there is a certain amount of tension between him and Alein because they have differences of opinion, they are a former couple, and mistakes have been made on both sides. However, Chaol's character went backwards for a period which frustrated me a lot. His behavior also made me mad at Aelin for a while to because their interactions never seemed to be in character. There was a lot of frustration all the way around for me during their interactions! (Thank goodness I reread books 1-3 and don't ship them anymore) Speaking of ships. I am behind all the ships at this point. Even the ones that may be controversial to some, I am excited for and ready to see how they work out. Lastly I want to compliment Maas' writing in this series. After rereading the first three books and finishing this one, I can see how much planning went into this series. It is incredible to see how well she knows the world and what a deep knowledge of its history she has dreamed up. I love authors that know the history of their world long before any of the characters they write have been born. The events in this story had me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath. There were moments when I had to let out great sobs because the emotions overwhelmed me. I am so excited for Empire of Storms. I love these characters and cannot wait to see what happens in the next installment, but I am also terribly afraid it will hurt me. ["

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December 26, 2016 Verified Purchase