Title: Crown of Midnight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Other books in this series:
Empire of Storms
Tower of Dawn
Kingdom of Ash
Series: Throne of Glass, book 2
Age Category: Young adult
Published by: August 2013, Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages: 420 p.
Genre: Epic fantasy
About Crown of Midnight
Celaena survived the trials to become the King's Champion, now she has to obey the men she hates most in the world. The cruel King of Adarlan, has an extensive list of people who he would like to see murdered by Celaena.
Will she just blindly follow the commands of this wicked king, or does Celaena have other plans? All of her friends are starting to question her loyalties, but Celaena does not know how to trust. She is keeping secrets, and one night her entire world crumbles.
My thoughts on Crown of Midnight
Like Throne of Glass I also read Crown of Midnight two times, as I intended to continue with the rest of the series, but the funny thing with me and series is that I am not so good at finishing them. So it has been a long time coming, but I did recently also finish Heir of Fire.
And am about halfway through Queen of Shadows (I am a very slow reader, so I am taking my time with it).
Crown of Midnight starts off slow, as I have found is just the way Sarah J. Maas likes to write, this has been the case in House of Earth and Breath as well. And the same goes for Heir of Fire too, Sarah J. Maas just likes to really set up a story before divining into all the action, and I do not think there is anything wrong with that.
Along the way, the actions of Celaena will get explained, but it will always take us a while to get to the point, this serves the plot well, as you as a reader start doubting her motives for her actions as well. After reading Throne of Glass, which was fast-paced from start to finish, I think it will get some getting used to for a reader to slow down.
In Crown of Midnight, we slow down so that we learn more about the world, the book takes place in, and we get to know some of the side characters better. I enjoyed the friendship that developed between Celaena and Nehemia. Nehemia is a very strong character, and I am sad that we could only spend a little while with her.
What I also like is that in each book, new perspectives are added to the book. For example, we get some more Chaol and Dorian. With every chapter, we learn more about the world, and we learn more about Celaena. We learn about the different kingdoms, through Nehemia's stories, and we also learn more about Celaena.
At the end of the book, there is a large reveal about who Celaena is, this was not something I had seen coming. There was just enough left out to keep the mysteries of this story to be revealed at the end of the book. The book works to a climax where we get all the reveals, I kind of like this, and now that I have read a little bit more of the series, you can see that there have been a lot of clues in this book for things to come.
What I did not like about this book is, Celaena, especially the way she dealt with the death of her friend. She can be such a pain in the ass character, that you would very much like to strangle, or give a nice kick in the ass. I don't always agree with the main character, which at times makes it a very hard read.
I did like the prospect of learning more about the fae in this world. I have not read a whole lot about fae before, so I am curious to see what Wendlyn will bring, and where she is traveling to in the next book.
Rating Crown of Midnight
Throne of Glass was fast-paced, in comparison to Crown of Midnight. The new pacing took some getting used to, but did not harm the story, as we get to explore the world much more. The book is still mainly told through the perspective of Celaena, but there is also room for other perspectives, which is something I have enjoyed about this book.
All in all, we have been able to solve another mystery, I am sad that one of my favorite side characters died, but in return, we get to explore a new part of the world in the next books. There is still a lot left unsolved, and I cannot wait to continue the story in Heir of Fire.
The reveals at the end of the book and the amusing doorknob Mort make up for the slow pacing, these are such minor points of criticism, so I can only conclude by giving this book five cats.
Regarding the age range for this book, I would still recommend age 14 plus for this one. A younger audience is not recommended as there is some graphic content.
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