๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โ โโ
This one is about 16 year old Celeana acting like the bratty teen that she is, her silly little antics come off as annoying rather than understandable because โshe's young and this and thatโ though her actions did almost cost the lives of her and Sam. I didn't find much thrill reading this part of the book but it was still a fun short read because c'mon, assassins on a mission to find their fellow guild members in the territory of pirates? Great idea and could've been done in a very whimsical way but still better than the next one.
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: The Assassin and the Healer
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โโโ
This is just filler, there was nothing about this that intrigued me or gave me any worthy information for when I read the main series again. This felt more like a one shot fic that's tagged hurt and comfort, not to say that fanfiction is in any way shape or form a lesser media, there are tons of fanfiction out there that have the potential to be their own novels and some being better written than the series that they are a fanfic of. But this was like, a fanfic without the strong feeling of a fanfic. It wanted to evoke softness and compassion, but it couldn't reach it.
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: The Assassin and the Desert
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โ โ โ
Now this is the part of the book that is about Celeana's character development. She reaches the Silent Assassin's fortress and meets the Mute Master wherein her stay makes her slowly realize all the abuse that she had gone through in her life and how all of that suffering and pain was not normal nor okay. The side characters here were also more fun than the first two stories, they had a certain way of writing in them that made them sound more believable at least to me, more human than just characters. Or maybe it was because of the tone of the book, who knows? ๐คช
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: The Assassin and the Underworld
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โ โ โ
She's back at Rifthold and she's with Sam. Like, there is nothing more I could say that would explain the four stars. Celeana and Sam is my pre Celeana and Chaol. I don't understand why SJM chose to write her with someone like Rowan, there isn't a reason for them to be together. Also, fuck Arobynn.
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: The Assassin and the Empire
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โ โ โ
The start was very dry but the moment the feel rolled in, it steamed on without mercy. Sam and Celeana plan to leave from Rifthold and perhaps start a life somewhere else but they need money to do so, luckily they are offered a job that will make them both rich. Seems like a pretty sweet and simple plot about two teens trying to make it out of their shitty lives hoping for better in the future, UNTIL THE PLOT TWIST AND THE ENDING. This part of the novella alone can go against the entire main series and win istg. ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐
๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐: Queen of Shadows
๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฌ: Throne of Glass (Book 5/8)
๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ: Sarah J. Maas
๐๐๐ง๐ซ๐: Young Adult, Fantasy
๐๐๐ญ๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ก๐๐: October 19, 2023 @ 11:57 PM
๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ : โ โ โโโ
At first I thought that once I read this book, maybe it'll clear out what Empire of Storms was all about and maybe once I finish, it would make me less angry. It did not. The shift between this and Empire of the Storms hurts because this book was as close to the original story as it can get, there was the idea and there was character. There was a yearning for love and intimacy that was never present in the next book. There were emotions, despite being the emotions that you wouldn't understand why the character is feeling that way, you'd still go along with it because those parts are what makes them a character, the way they act and feel predictable and unpredictable at the same time makes them sound realistic and grounded with how we perceive parts of people and their own ways of feeling and living. There were parts of this book that was never present in Empire of Storms and it just cemented my anger.
Chaol is present in this book and this is the part where he and Aelin meet each other again, and oh boy, I love the way that their characters had this friction because of how Chaol is going through this arc of trying his best to find where he must stand in the conflict and Aelin heartbroken because the person that she once loved sees her as a threat and as monster. They never miss, when they're together it's always so personal and character driven and I love every bit of it. This is also the part where they break up and it kinda pisses me off on how it was only a single page long when the author can manage to write 17 pages long of unfiltered sex scenes. It's weird but okay, sure why not.
๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐ ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐: ๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐, Asterin Blackbeak, Manon's cousin reveals that she fell in love with a mortal man and got pregnant. She carried the baby full-term, which is rare for witches. But the baby was stillborn. Manonโs grandmother was furious and beat her, branded her with the words โunclean,โ and cast her out of Blackbeak Keep. I did not expect such a thing to happen in a book like this, it is not that shocking at least to me because it is a story about war and all that, but something like this in a YA book caught me off guard. Not to say YA mustn't include topics like these but the way that it goes:
In the middle of it all, why must you add in the description of her breast? Not to say that you can't and you shouldn't, but it made it sound so weird especially when the scene is literally about the trauma that a woman went through in giving birth that also led to her family casting her away. That it was the moment that I realized, SJM would randomly describe boobs in random. Even with the way that Aelin wears a necklace, boobs would be shoved it there for no reason. I would understand it if it was for imagery, but the way that it's phrased and handled in context sounds more like the way that men write women more than anything.
Which is absolutely hilarious to me because in the following book, she exactly becomes that foolish and stupidly unaware because they had sex in the middle of a war on a beach. It altered my brain chemistry in a way that shouldn't be. And this is the first and last time that the book acknowledges the age difference between the two, hell, it ain't even an age difference at this point, it's a whole century gap. The Twilight era never disappeared, it only evolved. Dear heavens... This is one of the main reasons why I took out a star from my rating, it could've been an easy three stars but this had to be in the story.
One of the things that I adored about this book though was about Chaol and Dorian, their bond was solidified in this part. I don't want to get too detailed in case someone wishes to read the series Pฬถlฬถeฬถaฬถsฬถeฬถ dฬถoฬถnฬถ'tฬถ hฬถaฬถvฬถeฬถ mฬถeฬถrฬถcฬถyฬถ oฬถnฬถ yฬถoฬถuฬถrฬถsฬถeฬถlฬถfฬถ but when one of them was severely hurt to the point of death, but they weren't actually dead, one of them thought that they were and they lose absolutely every bit of patience and sense of honor in their soul and they go absolute apeshit. Like YES! THE TROPE OF ALL TIME. I love them your honor, they deserve the world. ๐ ๐น๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐๐ป๐ฎ๐บ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ.