Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)

by Sarah J. Maas

[pamela]

Although it had a slow beginning, I have to admit that I flew through the second half of the book, desperate to see how it ended. Am I invested in getting to the end of the series? Absolutely! Did I have fun reading it? Totally. Was this a good book? No.

*Warning that this review may contain spoilers*

My biggest issue with Empire of Storms is the same thing that bothered about Queen of Shadows. The characters are all completely rewritten from when we first met them. Rather than having grown and developed, they all just got some kind of personality transplant. Aelin is controlling, arrogant, spoiled, and manipulative. Dorian is a surly doormat. Manon has a fresh character arc, but how on earth she went from evil Irontooth witch to heroine is not really all that clear. She finds out her family history and then sort of just goes, "Hey, I'm a good guy now!" Rowan is still a broody prick, Lorcan was a broody prick, Aedion was a broody prick, the entire cadre were broody pricks, Elide was a damsel in distress, and Chaol played the role of Sir Not Appearing in this Book. The only character that was genuinely fun was Lysandra, and she got done dirty, my friends. She singlehandedly saves everyone, on multiple occasions, always puts herself in danger, and is willing to give up her sense of self to turn the tide of every single battle. But in the big sea battle when Lysandra shows her badass heroine chops, it was Aedion who gets all the accolades for making a single, lucky shot.

The personalities of every character of Empire of Storms are based around how attractive they are. Every man is chiseled, broad-shouldered, and impossibility handsome. Every female character is waifish, has *insert sensual description of* mouths, and is impossibly beautiful. Everyone's a royal. No one talks to each other. And everyone, at every point in this novel, is just down to fuck. Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of erotica, but that's not what the series started as. And don't even get me started on all the "mate" bullshit which devalues every single relationship any of the characters have ever had, and also removes the element of choice from the romances of the novel (having Rowan as a "mate" completely invalidates Caelena's relationship with Sam, and I. AM. NOT. HERE. FOR. THAT). Romance seemed to be the main focus of this book. There were times when I had to roll my eyes and think, really guys, is this really the time? It felt like Maas was pushing her characters to pair up to distract us from very little actual plot development.

The plot is full of twists and turns, which is what makes Empire of Storms such an exciting read. It made me push on and desperate to turn the pages, but the problem with the twists and turns is that the way they are written is incredibly lazy. Every surprise happens because Aelin did a lot of behind the scenes scheming that Maas couldn't be bothered to write. Instead of being genuinely shocked and surprised at every new revelation, I was just annoyed. People would turn up out of nowhere to save the day, and we find out that they did that because Aelin apparently organised for them to - Maas just couldn't be bothered to actually put that in the book.

Aelin is meant to be the good guy. She is even meant to have anti-hero elements to her character. But in Empire of Storms, she's just a manipulative brat and a bully. We're meant to think her aunt Maeve is the villain in this book, but honestly, Aelin doesn't seem much better. She'll kill, betray, and manipulate anyone she needs to, so long as it gets her what she wants. She continually goes behind her friends' backs, not trusting them with her plans, but still expecting them to fight and die for her. She bosses everyone around, even though she doesn't actually have any rank over the other royals in her little band of not-so-merry-men. She lays claim to other human (and Fae) beings as if they're property, and literally asks her friends to perpetuate a lie, possibly forever, forcing a populace she claims to care about to follow a false queen without any choice in the matter.

And that brings me to the casual sexism that is present in every single element of Empire of Storms. All the men lay claim to their women. All the women are sensual. The language employed throughout the whole novel is steeped in the idea that men are great and powerful, and women become puddles of sex jelly around their amazing "maleness." On the surface, our female protags seem like strong, badass women, but let's be honest, the way that Maas writes then, they're all about the D.

So how did I still give this three stars? Because against my better judgement Empire of Storms was just ridiculously fun the read. It had issues. So many issues. But god, when the beginning slump was over, I just could not put that shit down! That probably says more about me than anything. I enjoyed it the same way I enjoy a trashy romance novel. But for me, that's part of the problem. A series that started so amazingly and really felt like it was starting to mature has turned into nothing but new adult erotica.