Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2) ♦ Sarah J. Maas | Review

Crown of MidnightThrone of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas came around with new mysteries and old secrets, some were uncovered and many more are still unknown.



Crown of Midnight ♦ Sarah J. Maas

Opinion

Once the most feared assassin in Adarlan, who rebelled against slavery before becoming a slave herself in the salt mines of Endovier, she is now the King's Champion. In this position, she follows in her well-known footsteps as an assassin, only on behalf of the man who once enslaved her. How will Celaena handle this situation? Will she really kill for the man responsible for her family's death? Because killing, murdering, is what Celaena has to do for the King and the way she's found to circumvent the hit-and-runs is a balancing act. Should her betrayal of the King become known, it would mean her execution.

Sarah J. Maas greeted me with this brilliant start to Crown of Midnight, and she didn't stop there. The second volume had a lot more to offer, but one in particular: a main character who is gorgeous, strong, and in absolute control; this makes for an extremely welcome break from all the obnoxious and pathetic heroines that are prevalent in many Young/New Adult Fantasy books. But the secondary characters also come into their own, they have depth. Both Dorian and Chaol, with the former regaining some of its importance in the last third, while Chaol becomes quite significant for Celaena and the plot as a whole. The author put a lot of thought into all of her characters. While a love triangle was announced in Throne of Glass, this book proved me wrong.

While the first two-thirds of the story brought together a lot of information that was also essential for the plot of Crown of Midnight, it will probably also be important for the following volumes, as the last third was really tough. Intrigues were exposed, tears and blood were shed, and secrets were revealed that got my pulse racing.
Probably the most important twist of all turns out to be at the end and left me breathless.

Conclusion

All the storylines flow seamlessly, and I didn't even feel like Maas dragged this volume out unnecessarily. The dialogues were entertaining, the twists and turns had me glued to the pages. The character developments are becoming more and more solid, but I'm sure there's more to come.


This review was first published at The Art of Reading. ( )

1st read: December 2019
2nd read: September 2023

This is better than the first book in the series. More action, more character development, better writing. I hope that the series continues improving. ( )

The revenge plot is brewing and bubbling and I'm here for it. ( )

Sigue en la línea errática del anterior en cuanto a personajes. Es cierto que el lore avanza mucho más y plantea cosas interesantes (dentro de una narrativa juvenil no demasiada elaborada, pero yo tampoco suelo exigir un manual de rol en cuanto a lore fantástico, me vale que me entretenga). Pero los personajes son un puto cuadro.
No arregla nada del libro anterior (aquí el triángulo amoroso se ha enamorado porque lo dice la autora, porque cosas no han pasado), y encima empeora cosas como el profundo trauma que sufre la prota cuando se le muere la amiga... sin que la hayamos visto pasar tiempo de calidad con la amiga o nos haya mostrado que quiere muchísimo a la amiga.
Sí que por fin se ve que quiere arreglar un poco la trama política (todo lo de estar en un campo de concentración un año y apenas tener traumas me sigue dejando fría), pero con el reveal final de Celaena era la princesa perdida todo el tiempo desbarranca.
Yo entiendo que quieras hacer una revelación sorpresa que nadie se espere, pero eso hay que hacerlo muy bien. Y falla estrepitosamente ahí. El POV de casi todo el libro es Celaena, estamos muy dentro de su cabeza porque la leemos pensar y sentir cosas, y que en ningún momento piense o sienta nada relativo a "soy la princesa perdida y lo sé" se nota muy artificial, transmite que la autora ha querido engañarte y lo ha hecho mal (Enredados por ejemplo tiene este mismo tropo y triunfa porque Rapunzel tiene amnesia).
Pero bueno, sigue siendo el segundo libro de la autora y se percibe cierta mejoría, así que sigo confiando en la remontada. Pero uff. UFFFFF. ( )

Impressive improvement: the political plot gets better, more world building happens and even though it wasn't a plot twist perse the ending is very good. I'm excited for the next books and looking forward to them. The protagonist got a lot of depth in this books along with the supporting characters. I'm hoping we'll know more about the antagonist motivations soon! ( )