Reviews with content warning for Sexism - A Court of Mist and Fury

This is better than the first book by leaps and bounds, but Mass still struggles with pacing issues. After the first book, Feyre and Tamlin's relationship is irreparably broken. Desperate to get away from his smothering precense, she leans into her bargain with Rhysand of the Night Court, eventually allying herself with him completely. In theory, the book is about them preparing for war with the fae king Hybern. In actuality, it's long, long stretches of romance between Feyre and Rhys without any mention of the various quests they need to go on in preparation. And even when they do remember, it's often not what Feyre thinks. I liked the interactions between Feyre and Rhys, but Feyre is often the last to figure things out (even as the reader I was usually several steps ahead) and it really bogs down the plot. Both this and ACOTAR could have been a fraction of the length or at least broken into 2-3 books. For as popular as these books are, the pacing and structure is just odd...

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ahoyitsjoy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

2.0

The last time I read so much about males and females and males fighting other males for females I was looking at screenshots from an incel forum.

Ok. There were good parts. In particular, the heist with Amren and Feyre. Amren in general.

Hey. Why did you make me read so many hours of Feyre agonizing over Tamlin. Over leaving him. Over moving on from him. Over being attracted to another person after 2 months. And just when I think there's gonna be some kind of emotional resolution, or she's going to like really deal with her shit, it's revealed that

Feyre and Rhysand are fated mates, and the thing with Tamlin was doomed from the start. NO NEED TO THINK ABOUT THAT ANYMORE! AAAAAUUUGGGHHHHHHHH

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dizzy_mittz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

A wonderful sequel that few could accomplish. SJM has earned her title as a leader of fantasy

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whyohchai's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this book in many ways, for taking

a traditional love interest and turning it on it's head and showing how the type of men we romanticize in media are in reality, controlling and unhealthy, for taking the protagonist's trauma seriously and exploring how deeply she would be affected by it and how difficult it would be to work through it, and the emphasis that is placed on Rhys being attractive because of how he supports Feyre and considers her right to choose to be sacred, wants her as his full equal, and works to see and understand her and to be vulnerable enough to show her the parts of him that he is ashamed. He's also a interesting, dynamic love interest in many ways.

But the author really struggles with characterization point blank (the characters are mostly deeply bland and we do not understand who these people are and why they care for each other), character development, can't handle balancing plot with romance and struggles deeply with world building and even basic things like the description of the world and paintings around them, and worst, the author uses

character retcon and assassination as a crutch instead of doing the work to show a more nuanced and complicated take on abusive relationships and the way a person's true character takes time to show/how our rose-tinted perception of a person can hide their flaws, and also constantly undermines her own ham-fisted feminist takes (having Rhys repeat the word "choice" 10,000 times in the books to convey he's a feminist JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT -- though his very actions contradict this but the author just glosses over it because she does not have the writing skill to create a true feminist partner!! ) by ignoring the fact that for example, Rhys in this book and going forward in multiple circumstances hides information from Feyre and does not in fact fully respect her personhood and her right to make her own decisions. Placing Feyre in a deeply traumatic and dangerous situation in the Crone's Hut, without her knowledge, and driven by a paternalistic view of how and when he believed Feyre should address her trauma, was abusive and controlling.

The author also still leans too much on an archaic framing of gender and heteronormative relationships, despite some efforts to do the opposite, which results in corny dialogue and interactions, and the idea of "mates" which undermines all of the romance in the entire series, and also a concept is deeply unclear and problematic (it's based on breeding? and is generally positively framed

even though Rhys' parents were mated and his father was abusive?).

Also, this series is fantasy and has a plot in the way a person wearing bunny ears on Halloween is a rabbit. Feels like serious mis-advertisement.

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