Crown of Midnight Review

Hello.

I was off from school today because I felt so sick and I was able to finish Crown of Midnight after starting it on Sunday. Now I’m in a bit of a predicament as I’m unsure whether to read Heir of Fire next, or continue with what I had planned and read Game of Thrones?

Anyway, on with the review.

---

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

(GOODREADS)

Characters:

Celaena:

Can. we. just. I mean… she’s just so bad-ass! In this book I found that she was way less cocky and more herself and more dangerous rather then arrogant. Her confidence didn’t come off as being self-absorbed, it but came across as powerful and like she could so anything.

I personally felt like in this book she was more certain of what she wanted and what (who) she was going to fight for. I feel like it added a lot to her character and with her being sure of herself I think that it added a lot to how she was portrayed in the book as more dangerous as she was more sure of what she wanted, and therefore more determined.

Choal:

Okay. Choal needs to just… I found that he was really protective, and still the bossy ol’ Choal. But his bossiness didn’t come off as rude, if you get what I mean? I feel like Chaol was also becoming more sure of himself in this book, and actually tried to show what he wanted, but then- not right at the end, but- towards the end, it seemed like he almost gave up fighting for what he wanted and then right in the end tried to make up for that.

Dorian:

I didn’t expect him to have such a big role in this book. Like I feel his role just came out from nowhere and I think it really helped me get hooked on the book. He added something else to the book that we didn’t get in the first one and mixed up the story.

I feel like in this book we saw another side of Dorian, where he was more determined. And I think that it was mainly because of his third person narrative was a lot more distinct in this book and he had a stronger voice on the whole.

Plot/Pace:

In the beginning, I thought that this book was kind of slow, and I think that it took me 150 pages or so to get hooked on this book. Up to page 150 or so it was good, but I felt like it was just not grabbing me, despite how I wanted to know the answers to all my questions.

Around Part Two my interest was at 100% I just NEEDED to know what was going to happen, and really liked how SJM hid things from us and built up the tension.

Around page 200 the tension was so intense that I was constantly thinking, “Is this it? is so-and-so going to die? What’s happening?” I just couldn’t put it down.

The plot was like a tangled up piece of thread, and you had no idea where to begin undoing the knots. When you would expect things to become clearer, they became foggier and foggier which played with my mind!

I definitely preferred this plot to that of the first book, I found it much more interesting, and there were so many lies, and unspoken truths that were all revealed at the end that made me want to pick up the next one immediately.

---

I really loved this book and am so temped to just move on to the next one instead of reading A Game of Thrones. What do you think? Let me know!

Thanks for reading,

Lu x