The Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas Series: Throne of Glass #4
Published by Bloomsbury on September 1, 2015
Genres: Fantasy YA, Young Adult
Pages: 648
Format: Hardcover
Also in this series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire
Also by this author: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire
Source: Bought it
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads
The queen has returned.
Everyone Celaena Sardothien loves has been taken from her. But she’s at last returned to the empire—for vengeance, to rescue her once-glorious kingdom, and to confront the shadows of her past…
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.
She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.
The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.
Guys, my comprehension of the English language is insufficient for the praise I wish to heap on QUEEN OF SHADOWS, the stellar fourth installment in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series. I’m not ever put off by the prospect of huge books, so when I saw how large QUEEN OF SHADOWS is, I got tremendously excited, because the bigger the book, the longer I get to spend with these characters. Every book in this series builds so perfectly on the ones before, so everything is complex, nuanced, and expertly plotted. I loved everything about QUEEN OF SHADOWS. I literally cannot think of a negative thing about it.
I’m going to try and do things without giving too much away, but be warned: That’s going to be hard. If you haven’t read HEIR OF FIRE yet, proceed with caution!
QUEEN OF SHADOWS sees Celaena Sardothien fully coming into herself as Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, BAMF exiled queen of Terrasen. In order to reclaim her throne, she must first locate the Wyrdkeys. In order to do that, she must return to Rifthold, the home of her arch nemesis, the kind of Adarlan. Old enemies become allies, old allies become grudging partners, old friends become more than friends, and Aelin faces new threats, greater evils, and higher stakes. THE DRAMA!
I remember when I first read THRONE OF GLASS and was like, “eh, Celaena is kind of a bitch, and not like in a good way.” I didn’t love her. She was arrogant and mean and meh, I don’t like those things. Friends, she has grown so much as a woman in this series while not losing any of her fieriness. She’s still a bitch, but we also see more of her heart. This is what really endears me to her. The lengths she will go to to save the people who mean something to her, and to restore her kingdom for the people of Terrasen. Aelin with a purpose is something formidable, guys, and the inner circle she builds in QUEEN OF SHADOWS makes her even stronger. There were so many times while reading this book that I just pictured this cadre in like a slow-mo, Lord-of-the-Rings montage thing, and it made me so happy.
There are, of course, LOTS of other things going on in QUEEN OF SHADOWS, most notably with Manon and the Thirteen. I love these characters SO MUCH. Manon is SUCH a badass, but like Aelin (albeit on a smaller scale because bloodthirsty witch), we see little glimpses of Manon’s heart of stone…well, it’s not melting or cracking or anything that serious, but she shows her humanity in small doses. We see it with her wyvern and my new pet, Abraxos, but we also see it with another character in QUEEN OF SHADOWS and I. LOVED. IT.
I also want to take a second to mention that I really think my favorite character in this series so far is Rowan. It’s a close race between him and Aelin, but he has the edge. I just…he’s all hard and serious on the outside but this STORM OF FEELINGS on the inside and I die. He’s added so much to these books even though he’s only appeared in two, and I just kept loving him in QUEEN OF SHADOWS. I can’t imagine a better person than him for Aelin to have in her corner.
The plot of this series as a whole takes some pretty big leaps forward as well, so it’s good that things are moving forward, and in such wonderful ways. I like also that there’s a really strong sense of reality in these books. People die, bad things happen, romances begin and end, people change, but sometimes the good side wins too. It’s pretty balanced. I love that everyone is growing and changing as the world around them changes and things happen to them. It’s a great mirror to actual life.
So, as usual, upon finishing a book in the Throne of Glass series I’m left with an unquenchable desire for the next one. QUEEN OF SHADOWS has everything in it: danger, death, romance, drama, monsters, magic, plots, secrets. My mind is always taken with this world and the characters Sarah J. Maas has created. Reading these books is like settling in with a warm blanket and getting cozy; I just want to snuggle deeper into it. Now that we’re more than halfway through–AHHH!–I’m starting to get sad that this series will end because it’s rapidly become one of my favorites.
We had the exact same feelings about QUEEN OF SHADOWS! I just feel like Sarah has, once again, given us the gift of these incredible characters, their intense adventures and emotional ties, and it just drew me in from start to finish. And now begins the wait for TOG5…