Queen Of Shadows (Throne Of Glass book 4) by Sarah J Maas (book review).
‘Queen Of Shadows’ is book four in the ‘Throne Of Glass’ series by Sarah J Maas, I believe this will eventually be a seven book series with other added novellas. This is her series about Celaena Sardothien.
In this book, Celaena Sardothien has returned to Rifthold but, this time as her own person, no longer a prisoner or a slave. This time, she wants to have her revenge on her previous master, amongst other people, and she has brought her new friends with her. Celaena wants to fight for herself, her friends and family but, most of all, for her people who she wants to free from their tyrannical king.
I have to admit that these books are getting enormous and quite nerve-wracking to me these days. There is just so much going on in them but, at the same time, you get to the end and wonder what you’ve just spent the last 600 plus pages reading about. I’ll be honest and admit that I’m really not 100% sold on these books anymore and I just don’t seem to understand everything that’s going on in them anymore. I find that the most interesting sections are the last 150-200 pages or so. The previous pages could have been cut by a good 200 pages or so in my opinion and might have improved the pacing of the books.
One thing I enjoy in these books is the relationships Maas creates between the characters. You just don’t know how things are going to change between certain characters before it happens. Some people who were enemies change in this book to become the closest of friends which was interesting to watch. I also enjoy having all the different points of view, this time from Celaena, Manon, Dorian and others.
My personal favourite are the Manon chapters, as I’ve really enjoyed watching her evolve as she realises certain things. I’ve also grown to like Lysandra, as her character has developed over this book in particular. We also learn a lot more about the Valg, in terms of who they are and what they want which I found interesting as up until now they’ve just been a bit of a faceless enemy.
I find Maas’ interpretation of the Fae to be interesting, especially in this book. They really are not the pointy-eared floaty characters from some books, they are much more beast-like. They seem to be forever smelling out people and growling, which is an interesting way of looking at them. I’ve certainly read Fae books where they are quite cold and distant but never seen them quite as animal like as in these books before.
One thing to take note of is that this book felt a lot darker than previous ones so I would say it’s not for younger readers in any way. There are some scenes of torture that are quite graphic in nature, so be warned. Oh and there are some romance scenes that turn a little hot and heavy, these sex scenes are not great in my view and I didn’t feel they were entirely necessary. If half of the sex scenes had been cut out the book would have been improved.
Overall, I will keep reading this series as there are only a couple more books and I’d like to see what happens at the end but I’m really hoping that the books won’t keep getting exponentially larger!
Sarah Bruch
June 2018
(pub: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2015. 648 page paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-40885-861-5)
check out website: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/childrens/
