I finished Queen of Shadows and I have thoughts and feelings.

First, this is absolutely the strongest book in the series so far. I really enjoyed it. Despite every criticism I have for it, I think this was such a fun read and a good time. The reason I loved it so much, however, was because of the side characters. Yes, the rumors are true. People love Throne of Glass because of the side characters and they are... correct.

I'm not a fan of Aelin as a character for a lot of reasons I'll get into later. Let's start with the fun stuff.

This was much more action-heavy and things actually happened! The writing was snappy and kept my attention the whole time. I really resonated with the new POVs and had such a good time in the other stories, especially Manon's who I think had the best arc in QoS. I love Asterin so much, too. She is fantastic. And Elide! Elide was such a sweet, soft, wonderful character to add into this book. She really softened Manon's edges in a way that I loved.

Throne of Glass is a very character-driven story, not as much plot-driven. This is NOT a bad thing or a dig. There's a reason we have both types of stories! That said, I do have some issues with the shakiness of the larger plot premise. It definitely feels like it started half-baked and now it's finally formed, but it does suffer from that earlier half-baked nature from the previous books. It coalesced in Heir of Fire and expanded in Queen of Shadows though! Still, I can see the gaps. Which is okay because let's talk about the reason I had so much fun reading this book:

The characters.

Manon is fantastic. Her arc is identical to Chaol's, which is why I will remain an ardent Chaol defender and point out that people aren't paying any attention to him as a person and what his story is meant to do. Manon and Chaol have endured the same propagandist brainwashing loyalty demands. It's not easy to break out of that and we see Manon more explicitly trying than Chaol, which I think is just a product of SJM being younger when she first wrote Chaol as a character. If it were written today, it would probably be more overt. Still, it's the same damage and the same struggle. I actually think Chaol had it worse because he does his deconstruction in isolation.

Dorian abandons Chaol without empathy or understanding for how hard all of this it on his friend's worldview after knowing him his WHOLE life. You're telling me Dorian grew up with Chaol and knows what a deeply loyal and unquestioning person he is and then resents him for being unquestioningly loyal? That's just being a bad friend if you never try to put yourself in their shoes. I hope Dorian changes my mind because I'm a bit miffed at him for a few more reasons than that.

Aelin immediately expected Chaol to drop his entire worldview, loyalty, and life and just support her unquestioningly. That's crazy. Do you understand how wild that is to expect of someone? Nobody ever expected Aelin to drop all her history and trauma for their cause, but she does that to other people? No. That's nuts. Chaol wasn't wrong for staying the path he thought was best based off of his understanding of the world.

In the end, Chaol winds up processing literally the entire destruction of what he thought to be true and the person he believed himself to be on his own. His friends who should have been there and had empathy for him demanded he just be okay with betraying his core values ditched him when he wasn't immediately like yeah sounds good. Manon had The Thirteen to help her see and understood why she couldn't just abandon her beliefs. And yet Chaol gets hated on. It's hypocrisy.

Okay! Moving along. Aedion? I love him. I'm so sorry. I know he's so toxic and I want to slap him in the mouth, but I love him. He reminds me of one of my most beloved, favorite people in my real life who I adore with my whole entire heart. Like. I was texting him paragraphs and saying "YOU" and he replied with "shut up you're so annoying" but he loves the attention so I kept doing it.

Elide? I love the introduction of Elide. She is kind and soft and still tries to find her emotional strength. I think she is such a phenomenal foil to Manon. I love her impact and how she is echoing the Crochan witch Manon regrets killing. I can't wait to see what they do with her.

Now. I'm about to make people mad.

Rowan doesn't really do anything for me. In fact, he upsets me actively because he never holds Aelin accountable for her actions or behavior. A good partner doesn't just tell you you're doing everything right and never do anything wrong. A good partner helps you see your shortcomings and your mistakes and stands by you while you experience and learn from them. Rowan is 300+ years old. He's seen kingdoms rise and fall. Yet he doesn't see the potential for ruin in Aelin never owning her shortfalls or learning from her mistakes? He just tells her she's never in the wrong? I actually find that super worrisome and detrimental to their romantic arc. It makes it unromantic to me that he doesn't see her mistakes - he's no different than Chaol idealizing her.

Also I make no apologies but I find him kind of bland and boring. His personality is be growl, am hot, have face tattoo. That's nice for a few days but I would be bored to tears if there wasn't more to a person. Still, just a first impression! There's 3 more books to go.

You're not allowed to be mad at me for this next bit.

Aelin lost me in this book. Lost me HARD. Which is a shame because Heir of Fire Aelin had started to win me to her cause. I'm sorry, she is absolutely the worst and I'm struggling to keep an open mind for her. I think my patience has thinned immeasurably because I was so hopeful for her in HOF when she really seemed to have actual growth. Then I felt it all fell apart in QOS.

First, she comes back and asks nothing about what it was like for Chaol, then decides he's to blame for Dorian being collared. Aedion had been captured, Chaol had no weapons, and Dorian was the ONLY one in that room who could've done anything to fight the king. Dorian told Chaol to run. If Chaol had stayed, what was he gonna do? Toss Sorcha's head at him and hope she was the deus ex machina he needed? No. If he had stayed, he would have been killed and Dorian STILL would have been collared. He heeded his doomed friend's perceived dying wish to flee and get out.

Aelin rails into him for not getting Dorian and Sorcha out but has NO idea that Dorian wasn't speaking to Chaol and Chaol DID try to get them out. People forget that. He attempted to tell Dorian to leave and Dorian declined to do so until Sorcha went. What was Chaol supposed to do? Kidnap a prince? Ah yes that would've been a splendid plan. Aelin would have known any of this if she had asked Chaol a single thing about how things had been for him while she was gone. She was in the woods falling in love and learning magic. He was in the sewers fighting for his life to free innocent civilians from demons.

The Arobynn of it all is where I started to get a bit frustrated. There are literally demons taking over and possessing people and an evil king bent on destroying the world, but Aelin decides to take over half the book to play games with her old master when she has several opportunities to just kill him. "She's looking for the amulet" and she could've gone to his house, killed him in his sleep, and looked for it. There were surely a dozen other ways we could've wrapped that up faster. I got frustrated because she was fixated on her revenge and not on the much more globally pressing issue of demons taking over the world.

This also feeds into my other frustration with her. She expects everyone to drop their kingdoms, lineage, trauma, heritage, etc. and rally to her because she's using her real name finally. Like. Girl. Ten years is a long time. She's made no alliance, these people don't know anything about her, she could be as hell bent on evil shit as the king is. Why would they sight unseen come to her aid? She makes no effort to build alliances and then says they deserve to die and she'll kill them all for not coming to her aid. WHAT? Diva, that's not how political maneuvering works! Like. I don't understand what she believes the impetus for everyone coming to help her is? Just because she carries the name Galathynius doesn't mean she's inherently good or noble. She is a stranger to everyone who hasn't really done anything to fight for their cause for the last decade. Why would they suddenly be unquestioningly devoted to her?

Aelin never takes accountability or ownership of her behavior. She uses her self-claimed (which is what it is!) title of Queen of Terrasen to demand respect so she doesn't have to earn it whenever it's convenient, then drops that crown whenever it demands she be held responsible or accountable. She's volatile and has a cruel streak, which triggers Chaol's VERY REAL AND VALID CONCERN that she will use magic to destroy like the king did and believe herself righteous. Which she then immediately threatens to do. Frankly, I have a lot of worries about her having powerful fire magic and no emotional self control or sense of responsibility for her behavior. It's concerning, not charming to me.

Aelin regularly dismisses and disrespects and disregards and lies to everyone around her, then is shocked they are angry at her or frustrated with her and she immediately resents them for it. She's asked to meet at X place or Y time and don't follow, then immediately ignores that and follows. She interrupts missions without knowing the first thing about the risks these people are taking or why they told her to go a different direction. She just assumes she knows better than everyone and when it makes everyone else's plans go to shit, she blames them for bad planning when it was her fault they fell apart.

The lack of accountability for her character is making me despise her. A lot. And I'm annoyed with some of the decisions SJM made in writing her. Being able to outsmart Lorcan, a 500+ year old highly trained warrior-hunter with... a spare cloak? Are we real right now? And then she fights Manon, a 500+ year old battle-trained ruthless witch and beats her with... a leg hook? My problem with this is it makes Aelin feel plot armored. The stakes don't exist. Every plan she makes and fight she gets into she's going to win by some uninspired deus ex machina so where's my reason to worry about her? It also flattens the hell out of Fae and the witches. Like. They were built up to be such powerful, formidable enemies and... they're fooled and bested by a 19 year old human girl pulling out grade-school level tricks? This means one of two things. 1: Manon and Lorcan actually aren't very good at what they're doing OR 2: Fae and witches actually aren't very formidable. Both options conflict with everything SJM built up. Both are disappointing.

I also have a big problem with this whole... hiding things from the reader bit. It's one thing to surprise an audience, it's another to fool them. The overindulged plot device of "she switched it with a fake" fell flat after the second time. We are in Aelin's head in her POV, but we aren't let into any of her plans. We never get to see the exciting stuff like HOW she does it or what the plan is or what to watch for. We're just told "It was a fake she switched and the plan was a rousing success! Ta da!". That can work once, but this happened FOUR TIMES in the book. After a while, I just don't care about her plans. I'm not a part of them, so send a carrier pigeon when it goes off perfectly without a hitch and leave me to follow Manon.

The issue is these criticisms I have of the character make her feel so... flat. Not even likably unlikeable. She's just... boring. That's my thing. After the Manon fight, my feelings about Aelin kind of collapsed. I'm bored wit her. She's choosy about when she uses her trauma to justify her actions, she never shares with the class how the plan is going and it always goes perfectly, she's the best fighter and assassin and strategist and investigator and... after a while I just don't care. There's no threat to her. She has no flaws she acknowledges or explores. I don't care about the journey because "How do they pull it off" isn't a question that ever gets engaged. I know she wants to do X thing, she doesn't show me or share with me how she's going to do it, and I'm told it went perfectly. Like... great. What's her purpose to the story then?

Finally. I swear this is finally.

I do not understand why we care about Terrasen at all.

I know it's Aelin's former kingdom, but why would everyone around her with their own kingdoms and their own people and their own obligations throw all of that in the trash to prioritize Terrasen...? Am I missing something? I know she loves her homeland, as she should! It's her homeland! But I'm unclear why Rowan and Aelin expect everyone else to do the same? What's in it for them? I don't know why Terrasen is more important than everywhere else. "It was the site of a good kingdom" like... okay? Historically, that's been the case for thousands of years in different forms around the world. There's ruins of once great kingdoms all over the place. Why Terrasen?

I'm hoping some of my questions and holes and frustrations can be addressed in Empire of Storms. I've been advised there's a good transformation for Aelin as a character in that one and I really hope it's true because right now I'm fighting not to skim her sections entirely.