Crown of Midnight

Crown of Midnight

By: Sarah J. Maas



After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes. Keeping up the deadly charade—while pretending to do the king's bidding—will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. 

Oh. My. Wyrd. That was a freaking amazing book.

Okay, so I loved Throne of Glass, in some places it dragged one, but I loved it anyway. Then I read the novellas and I loved them even more. They hurt me to the core, sure, but I loved them anyway.
Then this. This beautiful masterpiece of a story tore out my heart in the very best way.

Characters:
Celaena: She just keeps developing and we're only two books into the series. She's fierce and smart and funny and just a little bit crazy. I love that her mysteries and secrets are getting deeper and even more serious. She's playing a risky game because she has no choice and she plays it well. We got to see some her grief in The Assassin and the Empire, but in this one we see her full cycle of grief. It hurt even more because what she went through was so similar to her other tragedy.
I also loved seeing what her relationship with Chaol was like and what her new friendship based relationship was like with Dorian. This is another supposed love triangle that quickly became less triangular. And I think it is handled so well, because Celaena is decisive and civil through it all.
Celaena has quickly become one of my favorite female characters ever. I am so very excited to see where things go in the rest of her story.
Chaol: Where to start...I love every bit of him. He's heartbreakingly self-sacrificing and so sweet. I'm not even an dog-person, but when he saved Fleetfoot for Celaena I just about died.
I particularly like that he's so conflicted. Despite his efforts to make a choice he is split between two loyalties. He's having to rearrange everything that he's previously thought about the world. Even with as much as I am dreading his separation from Celaena, I'm also strangely excited. I'm excited to see some separate development happen for each of them before they come together again (I'm assuming, of course, that they do come together again because I'm not sure I could stand the wait if I didn't let myself be optimistic).
Dorian: The poor dear. He said it multiple times, but it really hit me hard that he's all alone with his problems in a political shark tank. He could be found out at any moment and he's still so brave about it all. It actually hurt me seeing how much he cares for Celaena. I just want him to be happy.
Nehemia: I can't even piece together my thoughts about her. I love her character so very much. I've always loved her and Celaena's friendship, I mean, two fierce and straight up awesome heroines bonding over mutual responsibility to their people? That's the stuff that fantastic books are made of.
The King: The creepy just get creepier. Sarah J. Maas has really created a convincing villain in him. We don't see him directly all that often, but when we do it makes an impact. A page or two here and there and you have the reader quivering at what he's capable of.

The Plot:
I'll admit that when I heard The Throne of Glass series was going to be six books long I didn't know how it could last that long without overstretching the world or the plot, but now I get it.
Erilea just keeps expanding, both outward and backward, which means better expansion forward.
Now you could say that I'm thoroughly excited for the other four books (sure, I don't like that I'll have to wait until 2017 for the story to be completed, but it's also a great thing that the story will last that long). I'm looking forward to having four years left to live in this wonderful story and this terribly fantastic world.

The Writing:
Beautiful. Just beautiful writing. The way Sarah writes so easily evokes emotion. There were chapters and even lines that hit you really hard in the heart. Not even about characters that you necessarily knew, like Rena Goldsmith and the slave girl in Callaculla.

"Rena Goldsmith was still reciting her list of the dead when the ax fell."

I just. This review did not do this book justice, at all. There are so many intricacies to the world and plenty hints at what is coming and I, for one, can't wait to find out what that is.

Quotes:

"Sometimes, it felt as though the darkness stared back at her--and the face it wore was her own."

"Because," she whispered, her voice shaking, "you remind me of what the world ought to be. What the world can be.”

"...these people who had the dust of a hundred kingdoms on their clothes. To have that sort of freedom, to see the world bit by bit, to travel each and every road..."