Book cover of Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Crown of Midnight

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass #2

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: August 15th, 2013

Genres: Fantasy, Romantasy, Young Adult

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil. Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart. Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for. Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey—a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motley group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside—and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?

I’ve completed book two of the Throne of Glass series as part of my readathon, and unfortunately, many of my gripes with the first book resurfaced in this one. Despite the fact that this series has expanded beyond a trilogy, this installment suffered from second book syndrome, and I’m still having trouble identifying why this series has amassed such a loyal following.

The characterization continued to be nonexistent in this book. There was far too much telling rather than showing about character attributes, and characters often acted in direct opposition to their stated traits and personality features. Celaena continues to be described as the most accomplished, talented, and ruthless assassin, but her actions in this book scream otherwise. She proceeds to make poor choices that aren’t representative of these descriptors, leading to her overall character feeling cheap, flat, and unrealistic. Based purely on her actions, she would have made a far more convincing carpenter. Or poet. Or chef. But assassin would be nowhere on my list of guesses for her occupation.

The love triangle that tries to expand into a pentagon (or even hexagon) at certain points throughout the book became tiresome very quickly. I had forgotten how prevalent love triangles were in young adult series of the early 2010s, but it’s a trend that I did not miss. I quickly tired of the waffling between various romantic interests, and I didn’t see much of a spark or chemistry between any of the proposed pairings. Add in raging jealousy when a love interest so much as glanced at another character, and I couldn’t get away from these exchanges fast enough. The romance scenes themselves were G-rated at worst and very tame (primarily fade-to-black scenes), so definitely age appropriate for younger audiences.

The plot dragged a bit, and there seemed to be a fair number of extraneous fluff scenes that were included purely for beefing up the page count rather than furthering the storyline, relationships, or character development. Insert stereotypical second book syndrome here. This book felt very transitional. It was trying to set up plot points and threads for later books in the series, and there was very little in the way of satisfying payoff or wrapping of those loose ends within this installment. For fantasy series in particular, I expect each book in the series to stand on its own with respect to plot structure. There should be buildup, a climax, and resolution in every single book in the series, and this book didn’t contain all of those components, leading to considerable disappointment.

The writing felt a little stilted and odd in this one, which was a considerable deviation from the first book in the series. Maas seemed to focus on only one aspect of the book at a time, harping on that component for chapters at a time before abruptly switching to a different fixation for multiple chapters. For example, 4-5 consecutive chapters would be spent almost exclusively focusing on world-building, then there would be an abrupt shift to only spotlighting romantic relationships, then a complete upheaval to exclusively highlight a conflict between two characters. There was no melding or integration of these components into the same scene or the same chapter, which was very frustrating and strange within the fantasy genre. It made the book feel formulaic, almost as if a fantasy book had been deconstructed into its most basic components, and these were presented one by one without integration or cohesion in each scene. The first book in the series didn’t suffer from the same hyper-fixation on one fantastical attribute at a time, making this shift confusing and unexpected.

One of the few redeeming qualities of this novel (and the series thus far) has been the fast-paced action scenes with a heavy emphasis on combat. Maas appears to write these scenes effortlessly, and they’re easy to follow along and fly through without having to exert considerable effort dissecting the small details. This made the book mindless, fun, and a very fast read, all of which are excellent attributes for young adult fantasy. The fast-paced nature of the book further contributes to the ease with which I read this, and it sets up the series as a welcoming introduction to the fantasy genre. The world-building, plot, and characters aren’t terribly complex, leading to an accessible entry into the genre and improving the readability.

Overall, my track record for this series hasn’t been stellar. The first two books have been lackluster and disappointing. While I didn’t hate them, I also didn’t particularly enjoy the reading experience, and there’s very little that’s innovative or revolutionary to set this series apart from competitors. However, I’m still optimistic that there will be considerable payoff later in the series. Perhaps by the time an author is publishing the fifth, sixth, or seventh book in the series, they will have improved drastically upon their writing flaws. It seems like a lot of time investment for questionable future payoff, but I’m determined to finish this series! Here’s to hoping for a higher rating for the next book!