Reviews with content warning for War - Crown of Midnight

Reviews tagging 'War'

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

79 reviews

cheerydeery's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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annadelreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

“The rest of the world quieted into nothing. In that moment, after ten long years, Celaena looked at Chaol and realized she was home.”

I devoured this book in just a few days. After finishing part one, I knew I had to binge read the rest of the book (because how could you not?!). This book contains more romance compared to the last two books of the series (TOG and TAB) and I noticed how SJM really do love stirring the readers with who's going to end up with whom. I'm not sure I appreciate it at the start of the book - because I was just confused how it happened. Although throughout the series, I can see it was bound to happen.

The book was pretty slow paced at the start but slowly was becoming more of a fast paced. The book was more or less just a month of its world timing, fyi. It showed how Calaena has been a King's Champion for the months after TOG ended and how she's immediately refraining to do what she's tasked to do - which is kill people. I love her and Nehemia together too since they've definitely bonded and became friends. World-building-wise, there's a lot more details I have to take note of that was explained throughout the book. The twists here and there of the book was also so much I had to keep up. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and hope to be more hyped in the next books of the series!

The ending though. Just the ending is enough for me rate this book more than four stars. Reading the other two books and end up with this third book ending was just so intense. Sure, we know that Calaena was something - Terrasen something, to be specific. But I was not expecting the what (don't want to spoil). UGH. I'm pretty addicted but I have to stagger the series reading because I'm waiting for my friend to catch up.

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jenniee_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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indigo_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm still enjoying following Celaena's story, she's a fun character. She does make some choices in this book that I thought seemed about OOC from what I know about her, but maybe I just have the wrong idea of her?

I really liked this installment of the story because there was a little mystery the readers could try to solve. It was fun gathering all the little hints to see if I could discover what was going on. I got somethings right but was caught off guard with other things so it was a lot of fun!

I'm looking forward to the next read!

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kathrynleereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Another solid re-read. In Crown of Midnight, Sarah J Maas focused a little more on romance but also didn't pull any punches when it came to the rebellion, politics, and the air of mystery surrounding the plot in general.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

As much as I love this book and understand the reasoning behind it, I will never, never, EVER forgive Sarah for what she did to Nehemia. I know why it had to happen, but that doesn't make it hurt any less.

Overall, I think I enjoyed Crown of Midnight just as much this time as I did the first time, even though I was dreading rereading the events of that cursed night.

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arialovegreen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Hoooo boy, if ToG was the warm up, Crown of Midnight is where things break out to a full sprint. The central conflict is revealed, the story takes a turn. Relationships are built and broken.

Shit went DOWN. So much lovingly crafted character building, story revelations. I love how this book is paced. Once I got about halfway through, I couldn't put it down anymore. I cannot wait to see how this continues in Heir of Fire.

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ameydireads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“It was war upon them all. Let them tremble in fear at what they had awoken.”

I was hoping to see more of Celaena’s skills as an assassin and this book definitely fulfilled that! There is so much happening and we learn more about the magic in this world. I do like that both Dorian and Celaena are such avid readers, lol.

I was so invested in Dorian’s arc. He is my favourite character without any doubt. We already know that he is a good guy, but there’s more to him and this made me like him even more. His journey in discovering

his magical ability was interesting. It’s not easy to understand this part of him, let alone accept it, especially when his father could have him killed for it.

Can’t wait to read more about this in the other books. I wouldn’t mind having more Dorian and less Celaena, oops. AND why do we still have this love triangle…

Celaena is still guided by Elena. What I don’t understand is why Elena’s hints are so cryptic. Especially now that time is of the essence, I would expect Elena to give as much crucial information as possible to set Celaena on the right path. Instead, she’s sent on a treasure hunt, only to discover at the end that

the king has beaten her to the first Wyrdkey.

But sure, anything for a plot I guess. Or is it all part of a bigger plan for Celaena? I also wonder what kind of troubles Celaena’s actions will bring in the future.

Killing a witch and opening a Wyrdgate are big enough problems that cannot be ignored.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part of the book started off slow, but the pace picked up as the second part drew near. In the second part of the story, grief plays a central role and I found that very interesting. It’s difficult to experience the loss of a loved one. Grief is definitely neither pleasant nor rational, but eventually it has some upsides as well. You might think I'm crazy, so allow me to explain! Grief makes one think about the meaning of life and creates a new perspective. It reminds one of their path and goal in life. If there were none to begin with, it provides an opportunity to set a path or goal. This is what Celaena experiences as well. Celaena is not always a pleasant character and her grief only made it worse. At times, I found her annoying and immature, but then I realised that this is normal when someone’s grieving and of course she is still very young.
“It was hard to care, she realised as she started the trek back to the castle. Incredibly hard to care, when you don't have anyone left to care about.”

We were also in for a bit of a surprise! There will be a big secret revealed at the end, IYKYK. Not fully a surprise I have to say as there were so many clues and suggestions dropped over time, making it possible to piece it all together.
“To escape death, she’d become death.”

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charley0796's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I feel like the twist was very obvious from the beginning but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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littlewishling's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Ooph, this book was brutal. I loved it but brutal and I doubt the rest of the series is gonna be any easier on my heart.

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bree_h_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

While I think the book had solid elements, I don’t think it was too much of a change from the last book.

I enjoyed the narrator and think she’s very skilled. Furthermore, I thought the introducing action of the book was very solid. My favourite part was Nehemia’s plot line and how it led to conflict between her and Celeana. It expanded on both characters very well.

However, I thought there was a lot left to be desired.

I was frustrated that Celeana wasn’t allowed to be morally grey. She’s a trained assassin, stopped in her tracks by a man seeming nice. I can’t buy into it. It also just made me really doubt Celeana and her skill, like she’s not everything the book CLAIMS she is.

I also found the foreshadowing and prose to be rather weak. To start, while the reveal of Celeana’s past was well built to, the big twist of the book was not. It caught me off guard in a bad way and I was baffled as to why and what the motivations for such actions were. The writing itself was also very repetitive. There were a lot of repeated words and phrases that would have been an easy fix, but weren’t. It just got old after a while.

I also, personally, didn’t care for the love triangle. It just severed to make me think less of the characters. Dorian and Chaol came across and entitled and whiny. Chaol especially was disappointing in this book, more than usual. Celeana also just felt too passive. It felt like so much of the book focused on this romance and I couldn’t bring myself to care.

Overall, the book was fine. It’s not my cup of tea but I see why people enjoy it.

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