A Court of Mist and Fury
Author: Sarah J Maas Genre: Romantic Fantasy Year of Publication: 2016 Pages: 626 (hardback)
Writing: 1/10 Plot: 1/10 Characters: 1/10 Creativity: 1/10
Overall: 1/10
Spoilers Ahead!
Prepare for what is easily the angriest review I’ve written so far.
I knew I wouldn’t care for this book, but I held out hope. I held out hope that it would be better than the first. On a technical level it is, but on a substance level… the rage I feel is unmatched.
The Review
I can’t breakdown the problems into orderly categories. They all blend together. Let’s get some of the small stuff out of the way first.
Positives: ACOMAF is better written than ACOTAR. SJM has laid off the em dash key and now only uses it when appropriate, thus making the flow of the prose more breezy and easier to digest. The first person narration is more personality-filled than the first which isn’t saying much. Feyre went from boring to insufferable. That’s something… 🤷🏽♀️ The descriptions are nice and vivid. I’m so glad we’re seeing more of Fairy World, even though I find it shallow, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The creepy creatures are written well. I like the Bone Carver. He’s pretty cool. Oh and I find Armen, one of Rhys’ friends, interesting. She’s hinted to be some sort of Eldritch Horror reborn as a fairy. I stopped reading at 50% so I don’t know what her whole deal is. I will never find out either because I am not picking up this book again.
Negatives: The archetypal characters either speak in quips or exposition. The frat boy, immature teenager dialogue is worse now and even more immersion breaking. These annoying ass characters don’t shut the fuck up! Instead of letting us get to know them through their actions and interactions with Feyre, we are told who they are via the expositional prose or expositional dialogue. There’s an entire chapter where Edgerson and his friends yap on and on about their tragic back stories in the most boring, unrealistic way possible. Let us learn about them over the course of the plot! When you dump all of their intrigue onto us in one go, there’s nothing left to keep us engaged. Whenever the characters are not blabbing about the lore or about each other, they’re being very boring and shallow. Like in book one, every character is an archetype. We have Rhysand the Edgy Shadow Boy, Cassian the Dumb Jock, Mor the Feisty Woman, Azriel the Sensitive Silent Type, and Ianthe the Perky One. Nothing more, nothing less.
ALL of the worldbuilding was done via characters talking. ALL OF IT! We’re not allowed to experience the universe through atmosphere because the characters won’t SHUT UP! We are bombarded with new terms and people and settings with no breaks. A lot of it is convoluted, confusing and lacks cohesion. After awhile I gave up trying wrap my mind around the lore because I quickly realized that none of it matters. SJM doesn’t give a shit about the worldbuilding. She only cares about shipping Feyre and Rhysand together. The world exist for that purpose and that purpose only.
Okay so now the plot… there is none. The “plot” is supposed to be about Feyre and the gang preparing for war with the King of Hybern. The king wants to invade the human lands for reasons I don’t recall nor care about. While they’re preparing for him, Feyre is supposed to go through an arc where she heals from the trauma she suffered at the hands of Amarantha. I say “supposed to” because that’s not what we got.
Tamlin and Feyre went through some shit. It makes sense why Feyre is put off by blood and closed walls. She killed two innocent people, she saw so much death and blood, and she was trapped in a cramped cell, awaiting the next Trial that could’ve killed her. Tamlin spent 50 years cursed with the weight of his whole realm on his shoulders. He had to sit by as Amarantha murdered people across the land, unable to do anything because he was sapped of his power. He was a defeated man until he met Feyre. And even then, he had to sit by and watch the woman he loves be tortured. He watched her die! They’ve been through it.
They trauma bonded and got together, but once every thing was solved and back to normal, they have a strained relationship. What should have followed was a touching, but sad tale of two people who bonded on their shared trauma coming to realize that they need time apart to resolve their issues. Tamlin is being overprotective because he doesn’t want to see Feyre hurt again, but he struggles to realize that he is stifling her. Lucien, Tam’s best buddy and a guy Feyre likes and trust, becomes their liaison. Since they struggle to talk to each other, they turn to him and voice their issues. Lucien eventually gets them together and gently guides them through a mature and deep conversation where they eventually conclude that they need time apart to properly deal with their issues. They’ll come back when they’re ready… but they don’t come back. They don’t really love each other. They like each other, but there’s no love. While Feyre comes to terms with that we can have the King of Hybern plot happening to keep things interesting. This is what I wish this book was. But no. SJM didn’t grace me with a touching emotional tale. She gave me one of the worst cases of character assassination and world warping I have ever seen!
SJM is not interested in creating a deep enriching world with rich characters and intricate lore. She just wants her two dolls to bang and she achieves this by: Butchering Tamlin’s character. Removing Feyre’s backbone. Making the Spring Court a dictatorship so the Night Court looks better in comparison. Adding sexism to the world to make Rhys look like a ✨#feminist✨And sanding down all of Rhys’ edges and erasing his crimes so that Feyre loves him more than Tamlin.
Tamlin’s Slaughtering and the Destruction of the Spring Court
As boring as he was, Tamlin was a normal okay dude in ACOTAR. He’d went through some shit and is having troubles. Understandable. But SJM made him so unlikable. He’s a cartoon villain now. He won’t let her go to the town, he keeps her trapped inside all day long, he doesn’t tell her about political affairs, he tells her that the wives of High Lords are meant to shut up and look pretty, he forbids her from training her powers, he has guards watching her every move, he doesn’t comfort her whenever she has nightmares, he doesn’t listen to her concerns, and he’s never in the castle with her which makes her feel isolated. Even when he tries to be nice, Feyre hates everything he does. She doesn’t like painting anymore all of a sudden and so when he gifts her a traveling paint set she gets mad. He’s even mean to his best bud Lucien, who was warped by the Hand of God to be more useless and pathetic. Lucien tries to speak up for Feyre, but his “friend” shoots him down. Instead of standing his ground, Lucien tucks his tail between his legs and lets Tam walk all over him. Maas made Tamlin so horrible. It feels like, as she was writing ACOTAR, she grew bored of Tamlin and decided to throw him in the garbage to make way for her fave Rhys’ Pieces. Authors picking favorites amongst their cast is just… strange to me. You created them. Shouldn’t you love all of them? Why would you write a character you hate? It doesn’t seem right to me. Maybe I’m built different.
The Spring Court is now stifling and evil. Feyre is constantly hounded by grateful fairyfolk, making it hard for her to adjust to normalcy. The Hand of God added wealth disparity to a world full of magical creatures so that Feyre can rescue the poor and so she can criticize Tamlin’s ruling. Like with all the worldbuilding in this book, we get a block of dialogue text explaining everything.
Lucien: “Twice a year, usually around the Summer and Winter Solstices, each member of the Spring Court, whether they’re High Fae or lesser faerie, must pay a Tithe, dependent on their income and status. It’s how we keep the estate running, how we pay for things like sentries and food and servants. In exchange, Tamlin protects them, rules them, helps them when he can. It’s a give or take. This year, he pushed the Tithe back by a month— just to grant them that extra time to gather funds, to celebrate. But soon, emissaries from every group, village, or clan will be arriving to pay their Tithes. As Tamlin’s wife, you will be expected to sit with him. And if they can’t pay… You will be expected to sit there while he metes out judgment. It can get ugly. I’ll be keeping track of who does and doesn’t show up, who doesn’t pay. And afterward, if they fail to pay their Tithe within the three days’ grace he will officially offer them, he’ll be expected to hunt them down. The High Priestesses themselves—Ianthe—grant him sacred hunting rights for this.”
Pg 27
A water fairy isn’t able to pay her dues because the stream she lives in is out of fish somehow. Tamlin threatens her. Bothered, the kind soul that is Feyre gives the water fairy a couple of her jewels so she can buy some food and pay the dues. Feyre and Tamlin get into an argument about helping the poor. “The rich do not help the poor, Feyre. The poor pay us. If not, they die.” Why is there wealth disparity amongst immortals? Shut the fuck up. Why you askin’ questions? Tamlin sucks and that’s all that matters.
The Hand of God decided to make the Spring Court and Fairy World as a whole sexist to make the Night Court look better. Tamlin tells Feyre that there are no High Ladies for sexist reasons. Feyre hates not being his equal. And then ✨Feminist Icon✨ Rhysand tells her “of course there are High Ladies!”
Feyre: “I’m not a High Lord.”
Rhysand: “No, but you were given life by all seven of us. Your very essence is tied to us, born of us. What if we gave you more than we expected?” Again, that gaze raked over me. “What if you could stand against us—hold your own, a High Lady?”
“There are no High Ladies.”
His brows furrowed, but he shook his head. “We’ll talk about that later, too. But yes, Feyre—there can be High Ladies.”
Pg 56
Unlike Tamlin, who doesn’t listen to her, Rhysand listens to everything she says and even tells her to stand up to that brute. She’s not his puppet! She can do anything! ✨#GirlBoss✨
[Truncated]
I began shaking my head. “Tamlin won’t allow it.”
“Tamlin isn’t your keeper, and you know it.”
“I’m his subject, and he is my High Lord—”
“You are no one’s subject.”… “I will say this once—and only once,” Rhysand purred, stalking to the map on the wall. “You can be a pawn, be someone’s reward, and spend the rest of your immortal life bowing and scraping and pretending you’re less than him, than Ianthe, than any of us. If you want to pick that road, then fine. A shame, but it’s your choice.” … “But I know you—more than you realize, I think—and I don’t believe for one damn minute that you’re remotely fine with being a pretty trophy for someone who sat on his ass for nearly fifty years, then sat on his ass while you were shredded apart—”
“Stop it—”
“Or,” he plowed ahead, “you’ve got another choice. You can master whatever powers we gave to you, and make it count. You can play a role in this war. Because war is coming one way or another, and do not try to delude yourself that any of the Fae will give a shit about your family across the wall when our whole territory is likely to become a charnel house.” … “You want to save the mortal realm?” he asked. “Then become someone Prythian listens to. Become vital. Become a weapon. Because there might be a day, Feyre, when only you stand between the King of Hybern and your human family. And you do not want to be unprepared.”
I lifted my gaze to him, my breath tight, aching. As if he hadn’t just knocked the world from beneath my feet, Rhysand said, “Think it over. Take the week. Ask Tamlin, if it’ll make you sleep better. See what charming Ianthe says about it. But it’s your choice to make—no one else’s.”
Pg 57
💅”Girl, you can do whatever you want. You can change the world! Don’t let that man hold you down, girlfriend.”💋 Another thing that makes Rhysand great is that his second and third in command are women 😱 because he believes women should be equal to men. 💪#GirlBoss💪 ✨#MenCanBeFeministsToo✨ It’s like he’s a different person! It’s as if he never twisted Feyre’s broken arm, or drugged her, or sexually assaulted her, or humiliated her in front of everyone! He’s so great. 😘
When Feyre is whisked away to the Night Court, everything is so open and cool and airy— the exact opposite of the stuffy Spring Court. And through magic, Rhysand shielded his friends and his home from Amarantha and so none of the citizens treat Feyre like a saint. She can walk around anonymously which is exactly what she wanted. And Rhys’ friends are super cool and nice and are very supportive. Mor, Rhy’s cousin, becomes her best friend after one speech.
[Truncated]
Feyre: “You don’t think it sends a bad message if people see me learning to fight—using weapons?”
… [Mor] “Let me tell you two things. As someone who has perhaps been in your shoes before.” … “One,” … “you have left the Spring Court.” I tried not to let the full weight of those words sink in. “If that does not send a message, for good or bad, then your training will not, either. Two,” … “I once lived in a place where the opinion of others mattered. It suffocated me, nearly broke me. So you’ll understand me, Feyre, when I say that I know what you feel, and I know what they tried to do to you, and that with enough courage, you can say to hell with a reputation.” Her voice gentled, and the tension between them all faded with it. “You do what you love, what you need.”
Mor would not tell me what to wear or not wear. She would not allow me to step aside while she spoke for me. She would not … would not do any of the things that I had so willingly, desperately, allowed Ianthe to do. I had never had a female friend before. Ianthe … she had not been one. Not in the way that mattered, I realized. And Nesta and Elain, in those few weeks I’d been at home before Amarantha, had started to fill that role, but … but looking at Mor, I couldn’t explain it, couldn’t understand it, but … I felt it. Like I could indeed go to dinner with her. Talk to her.
Pg 123
Everyone in ✨🌙 The Court of Dreams🌙✨ is so wonderful. They do everything Tamlin told her she couldn’t do. Cassian trains Feyre how to fight and use her powers, Rhys teaches her how to read and shield her mind, and they go on quests together where she can show off how badass and 💪Girl Boss💪 she is now. This is everything she ever wanted! This is everything she needs! It’s like the Hand of God specifically made the Night Court this awesome so she can be closer to Rhysie Boi🦇💋😍
Okay enough jokes. Do you guys see how forced all of this is? Do you see what Maas is doing here? Instead of real worldbuilding and character exploration, she morphs the world and creates a whole cast of people to cater specifically to Feyre’s every want and desire just to push her closer to Rhysand. This is fanfiction.
Feyre’s Spine Removal
Something that really irks me is Feyre’s immaturity and spinelessness in the beginning. She lets Ianthe the Priestess dress her up in horrible gowns and doesn’t say a word against them. Maybe I’m too assertive, but girl come on! Just tell her you hate the damn dresses! She doesn’t even bother to tell Tamlin that she’s not ready to be wed until the day of the wedding! What the fuck Feyre?! You had three months!! Use your words! Tamlin can’t read your mind! It was really difficult for me to emphasize when all she has to do was say no. Just have a conversation with these people. Be an adult! But no, she sits around and gets all pissy when people don’t read her mind. She gets upset that Tamlin doesn’t comfort her after her nightmares, but how can he help when she doesn’t talk to him about the fucking nightmares?! Why aren’t y’all talking?! She even acknowledges that he has nightmares too, but the Hand of God pushes that self-reflection aside so we can get a scene of ✨feminist icon✨ Rhysand telling her to breathe.
The Hand of God ripped Feyre’s spine out of her back and tore out her vocal cords so Rhysand can give them back to her by being awesome.
Rhys’ Glamification
I fucking hate Rhysand. I hated him for the abusive sack of shit he was in ACOTAR and I hate him for being Maas’ favorite in this book. Because he’s her fav, she Clear Sky’d the fuck out of him. Just like with Clear Sky in Warriors, the author sands down his edges, makes him a sensitive sad boy, and presents him to us as if his past crimes never happened. Rhysand is a completely different person here. She gives him all of these tragic backstories and makes him out to be an awesome ruler who loves his people so that we forget the time he twisted Feyre’s broken arm to force her to make a deal with him. He doesn’t have an arc of change. SJM just says he was always good. Forget about the times he drugged her. Dat didn’ happun. Whattayou talkin’ ‘bout?
And here’s the thing right: Like with Clear Sky, I would’ve loved to see a redemption arc. I don’t want him and Feyre together because he twisted her broken arm, coereced her, drugged her, and violated her. These are unforgivable crimes. But I would’ve loved to see him work out the trauma he suffered under Amarantha, prove himself, and grow into a better person. But the Hand of God said “No. None of his crimes happened. And if he did do them, it was because he was playing both sides and was always good.” I hate lazy, revisionist shit like this so much. This is not good character writing. Honestly, all of SJM’s characters suck because she’s not good at writing people who behave like people with depth and logic. She’s not interested in writing characters who are flawed. She’s not interested in writing actual arcs. Everyone is a sarcastic smartass who are so powerful that they can terraform planets with a flick of their wrist. They effortlessly breeze through issues with little to no struggle. And if they do have personal issues, SJM either brushes them aside or has them solve these problems by jumping into a relationship. We gotta get to those sex scenes. Quick! Quick! Quick!
Backwards Worldbuilding
The world warping is so absurd. I knew about the Tamlin’s butchering, but no one told me the universe literally morphs around this OTP. The world should inform and shape the characters, not the other way around. If they do shape it, they fight for that change. Here, everything is warped to push Feyre to Rhysand. The Night Court is specifically designed to be open and airy, the wealth disparity amongst all-powerful immortals is there to make Tamlin look bad, Rhysand’s batshit power to shield an entire city is there to give Feyre some space, the sexism is there for Rhysand to combat it with his radical feminism etc etc. It’s backwards!
Rhys and his guy friends come from a race of immortal beings who treat their women like breeding stock and abuse their children. The Illyrians’ mutilate women’s bodies and children undergo intense physical and mental abuse. These things are extreme so that we can feel extra bad for Edgy Man and his bois. This is pure shock content and nothing more. SJM is not making commentary about these things. She’s not worldbuilding. She’s just adding extreme shock content to manipulate us into empathizing and supporting Rhys so when Feyre becomes his mate, we root for him. I hate shock content. It’s cheap, lacks artistry and depth, and it’s lazy.
I hate Maas’ worldbuilding so much. It’s all lame and lacks cohesion. Why do these immortal godlike beings breed in the first place? Do they not have population problems? They should be overstuffed with people. Do they have a culling to keep the population stable? They still need food to survive apparently (despite being gods), so wouldn’t they have a food shortage all the time because the population is just too big? Why are there Heirs if they’re immortal? Wouldn’t a High Lord just rule forever since they don’t die or is it like President rules where they have a set term? Everyone is the most beautiful, most powerful beings to ever live because we can’t have our characters struggle. They’re just good at everything. They can do whatever. There’s no magic system. There is no limitation to their abilities. In fact, some of these guys are so strong that they have to be hindered by devices so as to not destroy the planet or whatever. The worldbuilding doesn’t matter. I don’t even know why I’m bothering asking questions. SJM doesn’t give a shit about creating a cohesive, immersive, logical world. This is just her dollhouse where she puppeteers the characters around without writing arcs or lore.
Feyre’s healing journey felt more like an excuse to get her closer to Rhysand. This sickens me. I was told SJM handled trauma well. I don’t know what the hell y’all read, because no it wasn’t. This book’s sole purpose is to ship Feyre and Rhys and Feyre’s trauma is the plot device for that goal. That is it. At least that’s what it felt like to me. If you connected to her journey, more power to ya. Don’t let me take that away from you. I simply think it could’ve been more impactful if Rhysand wasn’t in the book at all and Tamlin wasn’t assassinated.
Final Thoughts
Moral of the story: OUTLINE YOUR DAMN BOOKS! Figure out who the characters are, figure out what their arcs are going to be, flesh out the themes, flesh out the world, all that. This is the basic shit you’re supposed to do before you write chapter one! SJM clearly did not flesh out anything about this series. That’s why it lacks depth. That’s why we have this revisionist dogshit. That’s why the characters are all over the place. That’s why the worldbuilding is nonsense. That’s why the plot is so slow and empty. That’s why the book is so long. OUTLINE YOUR BOOKS!
While listening to this dumpster fire, I could see Maas’s hand moving the characters around and molding the world. She’s directly controlling how we’re supposed to feel about the characters and the universe. She’s not trying to create verisimilitude. She’s not allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions about the characters. She doesn’t allow her world to breathe and speak on its own. She’s not Tolkien. She’s not Robin Hobb. She’s not trying to create a world the reader can sink into. This is a fanfic of ACOTAR.
I’m not the arbiter of taste. I’m a huge fan of Warrior Cats. Warrior Cats is the definition of corporate product. I’ll have to be delusional to call those books “art.” Most books in that franchise are really bad. Hell, a lot of them have similar problems to this series. Meandering plots, flat characters, character assassinations, confusing lore, bad romance, cynical takes on serious issues, and hell, even some downright harmful messaging (which is actually worse in WC because that’s a series for kids). But I still love Warriors. Why? Because Warriors, despite its flaws, has what I crave in all books: character exploration and immersive worldbuilding. Characters like Crowfeather and Bluestar are fascinating and multifaceted. I wrote essays about these guys because they are deep enough to warrant essays. The world, as insane as it is, has a sense of immersion. I like the cats’ silly words for things. Terms like “claw-length, tail-length, leaf-fall, newleaf,” adds so much color and richness to the universe. When you read a Warriors book, you're stepping into a new world. I like how we can trace back a cat’s lineage (unintentional incest aside). I like their rituals and hierarchy system. I love the world of Warriors. I love (some of) the characters in Warriors. But I don’t get that immersion and character depth from SJM’s books.
I hate her repetitive, melodramatic writing style. I hate how she constantly tells over shows. I hate her shallow character writing is. I hate her lame, empty world. I hate Maas’ Hand of God bullshit. I hate how needlessly long the books are. I hate how everything feels like it was written in one-shot without editing or forethought. I hate how ACOMAF reads like a fanfiction of ACOTAR despite it being a damn sequel. I hate these books and I’m never reading another Sarah J Maas book ever again.
I had a miserable time with this. This wasn’t even fun bad like Iron Flame. I’m done. If this is your “fun popcorn book”, more power to ya. It’s not mine. Please do not tell me it gets better. I don’t care.
