Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

by Sarah J. Maas

[pamela]

Had I never read the books that came before Queen of Shadows, I might have enjoyed it more. It was a fun read, action-packed, and I'm enjoying the majority of the world-building. But Queen of Shadows' real downfall for me is the fact that it feels like S J Maas changed her mind about where the story was going.

Overall, the world-building was still excellent, and I loved the development of some of the characters. At first, I still disliked Manon, but she did start to really develop as a character in the last quarter, and I can see her being a character I will learn to like in later installments, despite my original misgivings. Lysandra as well had an excellent character arc, and I really liked seeing the friendship develop between her and Aelin. It was good to see some ladies being excellent to ladies, even if they had rocky beginnings. It was definitely a high point for me.

But what Maas did to her romances in Queen of Shadows almost borders on criminal. Chaol, in the previous books, really developed and grew. He was learning a lot about himself and his loyalties and trying to navigate that. In this book, however, it was like Maas just decided that he was inconvenient to the plot. Instead of the lovely, respectful, and realistic romance Aelin had with Chaol, in this book we've got a toxic affair with Rowan (I mean come on, Aelin practically owns Rowan. For someone so obsessed with slavery, she seems pretty quick to subject her LI to something that might as well just be that) based on nothing other than he's strong and hot. I didn't get any connection between them other than the fact that they're both attractive. And Chaol was basically thrown to the wolves to make that happen. Chaol was largely written out of the narrative, and the parts in which he did appear he was rewritten entirely. He was not the same character that Maas has spent the previous three books exploring, and it made for a disjointed, and really disappointing read.

There are a host of satellite characters in Queen of Shadows who, once again, simply act as plot crutches. Nesryn Faliq exists so that Chaol can have an LI, Lorcan was a non-character except that we needed an active villain, Elide might as well not have existed for all the point she had in the plot. Even Aedion, who I really loved in Heir of Fire, was basically just there so there could be some ridiculous male shows of dominance (they were super cringey). Even Arobynn was done dirty. He existed only to be yet another person who is so in love with Aelin because she's so beautiful.

By the end of the novel, I was thoroughly sick of everyone being obsessed with Aelin. She's the most beautiful, the most talented, and everyone thinks she's just the greatest. In the shorter, more fast-paced, and popcorny novels, it worked, but in a longer, more mature work like Queen of Shadows, it just felt like lazy characterisation. She felt like a stand-in for Maas, rather than a real, fleshed-out character, which is such a shame given that I know she can do better.

Queen of Shadows has taken the shine off the Throne of Glass series for me. I'm still committed to getting to the end, but I'm hoping the characterisation remains more consistent, and we see fewer toxic romances. #teamchaol y'all.