Queen of Shadows Review

The Albatross
Aug 22
4 min read

"Across the hall, the dancers shattered their roses on the floor, and Aedion grinned at his queen as the entire world went to hell.”

Queen of Shadows by Sarah. J. Maas

Rating:

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice: 👼🏻

Tropes & themes: Vengeance, the chosen one, transformation, found-family, political power struggles, possession

reference my rating system here

Genre: YA Fantasy

Series: 4th in the Throne of Glass series

Plot: "Celaena Sardothien has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return.

Everyone Aelin loves has been taken from her. Everything she holds dear is in danger. But she has the heart of a queen-and that heart beats for vengeance."

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

The cover of queen of shadows by Sarah J. Maas

The Vibe:

Shit gets real real fast. This one is like one giant puzzle of mystery, sneaking around, heist and learning who you are...literally and figuratively.

What I liked:

Aedion Aedion Aedion. LOML. <3
Aelin's personal growth into Queenhood & just the brilliant way her genius mind works. Always 5 steps ahead.
Lysandra you devious little one
Lots of girlboss energy & feminine rage
Elide?

What didn't work for me:

Manon's personal growth felt...shallow?
The flow from the first three books into this one
Elide?

Minor spoilers for the previous TOG books ahead

Thoughts:

Okay I'll start first with the negative since it is few. This was by far my favorite book in the series thus far. I feel like the real story has actually started and therein lies one of my only cons which is more of a con for the series as a whole rather than this book specifically..

I just still struggle to understand how these books are supposed to flow? They all read decently enough on their own and yes they are all moving in the same direction but the pacing is different from book to book, the stakes are treated differently, and even the "voice" of the book feels different from one book to the next.

The first two read very surface level, very YA and straightforward. The third one is alllllll over the place and in my opinion a mess. Then this one feels like the most well written of all, but it really starts to dive in deeper and the series starts to take on a deeper, more complex tone. Even the plot gets so convoluted that the next two books take place at the exact same time but follow two separate set of characters & plots.

Idk as much as I love the characters, the world of Erilea and even the individual story lines; as a whole it feel scattered and to me. I feel distracted by what it could have been rather than enjoying what it is.

But moving into this book specifically I thoroughly enjoyed it! Aedion is probably my favorite character I loveeeee him so much and love getting to see more of him. Lysandra and Nesryn are also rising in the character ranks.

I find the pacing easy to get through and more entertaining than not. There are moments when I truly don't know where the story is going, but in a good way unlike the previous books.

My one real quarrel is with Manon and her personal growth in this book. Idk I just feel like we spent an entire book with her being a very flat and surface level character (basically: Witch = mean ruthless killer with no other thoughts, cares, or motivations in life) to suddenly she starts to develop a personality but only after she has a heart to heart with her cousin and then suddenly, literally out of no where she sparks a personality. Idk it just felt very weird and unnatural.

Don't get me wrong I love her finally showing some personality and giving me a reason to care about her as a character and about her 13 but like it took nearly two books in with her character before I cared at all. She kinda got the Nesta treatment of "here are three personality traits that are all negative because they serve the plot at this point in time and then maybe once you are important to the plot we will give you more traits that will directly contradict or at least conflict with what is established but oh well just pretend this is "growth" so that we feel bad for you enough to care about your story."

Her & Nesta seem to have gotten the short end of the stick in that regard. But at least Manon has a few more books to redeem herself I suppose.

Lastly Elide. Idkkkkkk she's so boring I literally do not care what happens to her, if I hadn't seen a minor spoiler that I'm interested in seeing develop I would be bored to tears with her POVs.