Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Empire of Storms

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

10 reviews

katiekeske's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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khaley0127's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Gods be damned, this book absolutely broke me. The beginning felt like I was wading through murky waters, lost in a sea of information and even being mislead as a reader from certain plots until the very end. Very well written, and that ending is and ending I will not forget any time soon. Aelin’s sacrifices, her plots, so much she kept hidden from her loved ones and ourselves as readers. A truly unreliable narrator. The truths revealed in the end truly cleaves me open into devastation. Everything absolutely ties together neatly like a perfectly destructive blow to your already hopeful heart. The only thing that continues my hope is the path these characters are taking into setting things right. A beautiful read.

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g_monaghan's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is definitely one for the girlie's that love side character romances, started off a bit slow but enjoyed the multiple POV's and the explicit explanation of Elena's involvement with the vaalg (I had mostly forgotten about this since the first book).
Adore Aelin and Manon but Kaltain, Lysandra and Elide are my new faves - whilst not being the typical strong female archetype they serve as a reminder of the importance of inner strength and resilience. Scared to read the last installment.

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barbarianmissy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

Wowza. Ok. Ok. Ok.

I gotta wait till tomorrow to finish Tower of Dawn cause I need to process the fucking shit show (said as a term of endearment) that went on in the Empire of Storms.

AELIN GALATHYNIUS YOU COME BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT SO HELP ME GAWD!

This book had some stellar moments. Wyvern attack on the capital, Manon attacking her mean Grandma, Elide and Lorcan on the run, Lysandra kicking ass in Skulls bay, Aelin blasting all those ILKEN SHITS outta the sky, finding out what Elena did, and the END!!!!! Crazy stuff, man.

Sadly, the gang is unfortunately splitting up AGAIN *sigh* and all of my fav ships are SINKING!!!! 👎

Rowan’s Queen got shipped away in the bad box by the bitchiest UPS worker ever known to man. Elides pissed at Lorcan, and rightfully so (I am too, I have a very strong love/hate relationship with this dude). Aedion is being a man baby about Lysandra doing what she was told to do by THEIR QUEEN. Dorian and Manon are still rockin though 🤘good for those lil emos!

Something cool I realized in this book though was that each of the mains have one of those jerkface gods kind of pulling the strands of their fates together which is neat! Like Hellas with Lorcan, Annieth with Elide, and Mala with Aelin and Rowan.

Im very stressed. I’ll finish tower of Dawn tomorrow. I need a nap.

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aksmith92'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? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn as a tandem read, as requested by most BookTokers I've seen out there. Many recommend this because they love Aelin and Rowan and didn't want to be a part of them for one whole book; plus, there will ALWAYS be Chaol haters. I honestly don't care much about Aelin and Rowan (sorry!), and I am notoriously known for thinking there is more than meets the eye with Chaol. But, I will admit it: the tandem read slightly improved my experience with my Throne of Glass journey. While reading nearly 1400 pages, give or take, seemed daunting, I did fly through this read (these reads?).

Set up: The main characters are thrown into every direction as war breaks out between citizens and the infamous Vlag. Empire of Storms follows Aelin, Rowan, Dorian, Manon, Lysandra, Aedion, Elide, Lorcan, and others we know and love. Tower of Dawn follows Chaol and Nesryn as they trek to the southern continent to, hopefully, gain support from the kaghan there in the upcoming war. Also, to see if they can get Chaol walking again. In this book, we meet Yrene again after briefly meeting her in The Assassin's Blade.

What I liked: Lysandra. I also enjoyed Elide's and Lorcan's characters. I liked their romance. Theirs didn't feel forced per se, but their POVs were sometimes redundant. Finally, I was invested in this plot. I wanted to see how SJM wove in all the moving pieces and how it would end. I was invested. I didn't see TOO many plot holes. This is some decent high fantasy plotting.

What I didn't like: Aelin. Always. She's so annoying, even if she spouts some funnies occasionally. I didn't enjoy Rowan and Aelin either. "Just bang!" I would say throughout this novel, and THEN they did, and I was underwhelmed. Something about velvet-strapped steel also just....yuck.

"She really tortured them, she realized, by shoving her way into danger whenever she felt like it. Perhaps she'd try to be better about it if this dread was at all like what they felt." LOL, yeah, AELIN.

This (these) book(s) also did teeter on the ROMANCE scale so much. I was finally glad not to have a love triangle anymore, and thankfully, those (kinda) went away, but everybody is paired with somebody. I'm not sure why it annoyed me because I've read other books where this happens (Roots of Chaos - Samantha Shannon), but I don't think anybody quite hypes it up and makes it a considerable plot point like SJM. I also wished I counted how many kisses characters gave at the "corners of mouths."

"She thought of the new, delicate scars on his back - marks from her own nails (*cough* sex *cough*), that he'd refused to heal with his magic, and instead had set with seawater, the salt locking the scars into place before the immortal body could smooth it over. Her claiming marks, he'd breathed into her mouth the last time he'd been inside her. So he and anyone who saw them would know that he belonged to her. That he was hers, just as she was his." WHAT. First. What? Second. How would people look at his back and be like THOSE ARE FROM F'in! Third. What. Fourth. The dramatics. Fifth. What. Lastly, they can do that with salt water? Since freaking when? This internal monologue was also the start of a BATTLE IN WAR. Lol. Just lol.

Lastly, there is a plethora of toxic perseverance and the glorification of war, which is something I must get used to with SJM writing. In addition [I'm putting a spoiler on this just in case],

but
kind of healing Chaol's injury wasn't done super well in my opinion. He was disabled and then "magically" healed, yet still tied to Yrene's life and it can still go wrong? It's honestly a cop out of him being healed enough to still be mr macho man yet then things can go wrong? I don't know, it didn't quite sit well for me.

Overall, though, it was fine. This was a solid read (reads). However, I have officially decided that my TBR is too long for any more SJM. I will finish this series with Kingdom of Ash, and I will stop reading her works. Fated mates, toxic perseverance, and unnecessary romanticism of war simply isn't for me and I will officially put the books down after.

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ladydeathnesta's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Some plot holes, but it’s understandable in this book related to the rest of the series. Thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a real nail-biter!

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britwalsh16's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

I read this in Tandem with Tower of Dawn. And I am SOOO glad I did! If I had to read TOD between this book & KOA, I would have died! & not enjoyed TOD, cause I’d be obsessing over what’s gonna happen with the characters in this book!
This book was sooo good! I love being able to read from all the different characters POV’s.
I love all the couples & am so thoroughly enjoying them to settle in with eachother. The dynamics between the different couples are just amazing!! But Aelin & Rowan are still my favorite!
But, all the revelations at the end, I AM NOT OKAY WITH THEM!!! This story really can’t end the way it’s leading to!! There has to be another way! I am not okay with that!

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