ACOTAR Week: "A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
"A Court of Mist and Fury" by Sarah J. Maas
Welp, this is definitely a case of something I would have never done without being an active follower of other Bookstagram accounts, but here we are. ACOTAR week! The reviews of each of the individual books will be spoiler-free (I got to read them without spoilers, so you should, too!), but I do plan on doing a wrap-up of my thoughts of the series as a whole that will include spoilers.
Synopsis: Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.
As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.
Rating: 4.25
Review: I had to go through a lot to get this book, y’all. For some reason, a hard copy of this is backordered everywhere - my local bookstore, Target, Books-A-Million, Amazon for a brief moment. Ultimately, I was afraid if I left it too long I would lose momentum (I wasn’t totally sold on the series after Book 1), so I ended up buying it on Kindle! Then I randomly found a hard copy of it after popping into a small bookstore on a walk, so now I have two copies! It’s a good thing it was my favorite of the 5, or I would have been angry.*
Okay, y’all didn’t really want to hear that - but consider it a warning if you do want to read this one. Harder than one would think. Let’s get into the story, shall we?!
“Mist and Fury” picks up pretty immediately after the end of “Thorns and Roses” — Tamlin and Feyre have returned to the Spring Court, where they are quickly engaged and things seem to be going absolutely swimmingly.
Well, not quite.
Tamlin quickly shows himself to be the worst (like, the worst kind of faerie), and like Feyre, I’m just not having it. There’s no reason to isolate and ignore your “great love,” and to do so feels like emotional gaslighting. So I was quickly relieved when Rhysand, the be-winged Lord of the Night Court, appears to whisk our fine Feyre away. I was wondering how quickly he would act on their bargain, and I’m happy that it was soon. Unlike Book 1, the action in this one started fairly immediately, and I felt engaged in the story from Chapter 1, not Chapter 21.
This is harder than I expected to write without spoilers, so I’m trying to limit myself to what you would see from the synopsis. I will say that the Feyre that lives in Rhysand’s Court is the best of her — she’s smart, she’s sassy, she takes no shit. At the start of the novel, she’s been emotionally wrecked by everything that happened Under the Mountain, and after time with Rhys and his merry (wo)men, she’s back to herself.
The Night Court and Velaris may be the place I most want to visit in the Maas-verse. The description of the city and it’s inhabitants is some of her best writing: I want to get drunk with Rhys, Mor, Cassian, and Az (I’m still scared of Amren tbh). I also loved the clear chemistry between Rhys and Feyre; it’s very steamy, but also doesn’t feel out of place in their story.
The central plot driver of this book is figuring out what the next threat to the Faerie lands will be, and it’s Hyburn — the mysterious kingdom across the sea that was the source of our first villainess, Amarantha. Here, Feyre, Rhys, and a growing group of characters are on a quest for “The Cauldron,” a magical device that could dissolve the boundary between the human and the fae worlds. Again, no spoilers, but the story went in a direction I didn’t expect, and I actually gasped at the ending.
In addition to the action in the plot, we were able to meet some of the other High Fae, as well as some of the darker creatures that inhabit this part of the world. Sarah J. Maas expands the ACOTAR universe well, and while I did have to reference the map quite a few times, the story improved by having both more people and more “physical space” than the first.
Above all, the best part of the book for me was the character development. I genuinely liked spending time with Feyre and seeing her live up to her potential; in addition, the world of the Night Court is fabulous and engrossing. Where the first book felt a little shallow, the series really hit it’s stride with this one.
*Yes, it was extra to buy the hard copy, but I’m a completionist and I needed it for pictures. Be better than I am.
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