Crown of Midnight Review

The Albatross
Jul 28
3 min read

“You make me want to live, not survive.” -Chaol Westfall

Crown of Midnight by Sarah. J. Maas

Rating:

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice: 👼🏻

Tropes & themes: High stakes treason, slow burn betrayal, court intrigue, third act mic drop moment, forbidden/complicated romance.

reference my rating system here

Genre: YA Fantasy

Series: Book 2 of Throne of Glass series

Plot: "Celaena goes to great lengths to hide her secret, her deadly charade becomes more difficult when she realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. Her search for answers ensnares those closest to her, and no one is safe from suspicion-not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a princess with a rebel heart."

Read if you like: Legend Born, Shadow and Bone, Shatter Me.

The cover of crown of midnight by Sarah J. Maas

The Vibe:

Cozy until its not :/

SPOILERS FOR THRONE OF GLASS AHEAD

What I liked:

Celeana & Chaol <3
The more we learn about magic & Wyrdkeys the more interested I get in figuring out the puzzle
This one feels very ~fantasty, magic, fun~

What didn't work for me:

The "surprise" mic drop moment at the end was extremely obvious to me from literally the first book, it almost felt silly to build it up the way it did

Minor spoilers for Crown of Midnight ahead

Thoughts:

This felt so...fun? Like it was fully of magic (not really literally obvs lmao) and whimsy and yes there are some more "darker" moments because obviously Celeana is playing a very dangerous game lying to the king but ultimately this book felt very ~fantasy~

I LOVE LOVE LOVE her and Chaol together, I just love Chaol so much and I just want to see him happy, their friendship/relationship feels very natural. However....Celeana's reaction to a certain event later I felt was a bit dramatic. I really just felt she should have heard him out before acting out. But regardless I have hope for them.

The ending surprised me with the portal, not so much what we find out about Celeana just the whole "world" didn't really make sense to me?

Lastly the big mic drop moment for Chaol (and the reader) at the very end felt so silly. It felt like we were all pretending not to know what was so clearly the truth. I mean I knew from the moment we met Elena Galathynius. I don't think there is anything wrong with a little foreshadowing or having some mystery even if your readers likely know. But this case just read like it was supposed to be this big crazy plot twist moment, that just fell really flat for me.

Other than that I really enjoyed this one and I'm excited to see where the story goes from here, I fully expected like a "quest" moment with our heroes to find the Wyrdkeys but with Celeana going off on her own...IDK what's gonna happen!