Simona B's Reviews > A Court of Mist and Fury

When I finished this book, the mountains trembled.

*Do I need to remind you to be civil? No, I don’t. Good kids.

Thanks to my wonderful friends Emer, Reyes and Sarah (click to read their reviews) who helped me up this calvary, with whom I shared joys and sorrows, and who made me laugh so much I probably won't need to swing by the gym for the rest of my life.
And a special mention goes to Katerina, Nastassja and Vera (again, click and be delighted by snarkiness), who ranted with me in the comments of more than one update.
Thank you. <3
(I told you reading this book was so much fun.)
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➤ The book, in brief:

“Stop comparing. Stop comparing me to him.”

Because do you know what it is called when you keep and keep and keep comparing the previous love interest to the current one, and each single one of these sugary, clichéd, obvious and trite comparisons invariably leads to the conclusion that the ex is a prick while the newcomer is a Perfection Milkshake?
No, Maas? I thought so.
Oh well.
I’m going to say this just once: it’s called manipulation.
Now look at me, Maas. Do I look like a reader who enjoys being manipulated to you?
No? Why, I thought so.

To all those who still have to start this series and are intentioned to: don’t read A Court of Thornes and Roses. Spoil yourself a little of what happens there and start with this one. Because -and this is the truly sad thing, as someone else said before me- A Court of Mist and Fury could even be enjoyable if the first book had not happened before.

•I won’t go so far as to say that what we have here is a case of lack of “show” and an excess of “tell”, because the first chapters do show that Tamlin, whether for some PTSD or because he has always been a scumbag, undeniably acts like the worst man on the planet. I am even willing to forgive how caricatural his behaviour appears. But, throughout the book, every occasion is a good occasion to throw in a comment to overturn completely also all the positive parts of him that are showed in the first book.
(In this regard, I should say that in A Court of Thornes and Roses I did not care for Tamlin in any way, so I am not speaking out of frustrated adoration.)
In this scenario, Tamlin is the epitome of all evil, while Rhys, of course, the epitome of all good: Tamlin cares for hierarchy, Rhys cares for family and nothing more (ugh); Tamlin wants her caged, Rhys want her free; as it turns out, (view spoiler)[it was Tamlin’s betrayal to begin the feud between his family and Rhys’s (hide spoiler)], and so on. I am not in any way saying that a man shouldn’t give freedom to his woman (it’s not that he should; he must, uncompromisingly), or that a plot-twist like the one I mentioned isn’t a good turn of events, even in terms of characterization, but everything is just so stereotypical and trite and sickly sweet.
All of this, in the name of a ship. I think Maas should understand that falling out of love is just as normal as falling in. People fall out of love for normal reasons even if their exes don’t suddenly turn into maniacs. I am sick of this device, courtesy of Queen of Shadows, and I don’t need the new love interest to be pushed on me: I am perfectly able to decide for myself.

•I’ve seen some reviews in which these two characters are described as complex and multifaceted on the basis of their role reversal. Allow me to say that, in my opinion, nothing about them, in this book, is complex nor controversial. Maas did nothing more than switch their places and their personalities with them: Tamlin was the good one and turns out to be the villain; Rhysand was the villain (somehow, and indeed the Rhysand of the first book is the one I can honestly call intriguing) and now he is nothing short of a Fae Prince Charming. Simple as that.
Besides, I liked Rhysand in this book, but I deeply missed the more wicked, morally grey part of him that we saw Under the Mountain. He’s hot, sure, but he also comes off as flat and, at times, pathetic.

•It was a dick move (view spoiler)[to lock Feure up in the mansion (hide spoiler)], yes. And yet, I can’t wrap my mind around Feyre’s fickleness, considering that two chapter later she says this:

“I'm thinking that I was a lonely, hopeless person, and I might have fallen in love with the first thing -thing? Now he’s a thing?- that showed me a hint of kindness and safety. And I'm thinking maybe he knew that- maybe not actively, but maybe he wanted to be that person for someone. And maybe that worked for who I was before. Maybe it doesn't work for who- what I am now."

She had every right to leave the mansion and let him stew for a while, but if that is the result of months and months of undying love, well. He stopped being worth of her love maybe, but I don’t think she fought for it that hard either, especially if he really was dealing with some PTSD. I think love is also about trying to fight for the other person even when they don’t seem to fight for us, to give them time, to give them chances, even though at one point we have to stop. It just would have been nicer and more enjoyable if Feyre’s affection’s shift hadn’t been so swift, that’s it.

•All the contradictions. Feyre leave her abusive boyfriend, but then falls in the arms of a man who breaks every bone of a guy who called her names. Uh-uh. And if you say “He did that because he called her ‘whore’, and he’d been called whore too, and the trauma”, I say: how do you know Tamlin’s behaviour wasn’t due to his trauma too. Maybe he just needed time. But it’s okay if it’s Rhysand that does that because epitome-of-perfection, remember? His being all possessive is okay. He can say things like “She’s mine” and snarl at people who so much as look at her. And don’t get me started on indecent exposure.

•The new characters are all nice and pretty and invariably haunted by a dark dark past. It’s nice to read about them and to witness their banters, but they don’t stand out as particularly well-written or sophisticated.

•The plot is even weaker than Maas’s usual. And contrary to what I usually do, I’ll sum it up for you: Feyre flees. The My Little Ponies gang- ops. I meant the Court of Dreams’ defenders (I know, the ponies were cooler) look for Things. Which do Stuff. Precisely, destroy Taran’s Black Cauldron and defeat The Horned King, minus the fluffy Gurgi.
Well, wrong story, but that's basically what happens. In more than 600 pages.

•People purr. Normal cats, thank God, ordinarily talk like freaking civilized beings.

•The first time (view spoiler)[Rhysand and Feyre have sex and he climaxes, the mountains tremble (hide spoiler)]. I refuse to comment on this thing, and if it was me who had written such embarrassing idiocy, I would be hiding my head under the sand. Moreover, all the sex scenes are very cheesy, dramatic and over-written.

•Lucien and(view spoiler)[ Elain’s mating bond (hide spoiler)]. I swear on my heart I have never, ever read anything more ridiculous than this scene (oh, no, wait: the mountains). The passage from normal, rational person to mad caveman takes less time than a spark to burn. I almost expected he started hissing “My preciousss”.

•And yet, I enjoyed it, or better, I enjoyed Rhys, Rhys, his long, sappy, teary declaration/explanation (I have a thing for this trope; it could have been a thousand times worse than it actually is, and still I would've loved it. I am such a softie, I know. My fault), the ending, and Rhys. The other things I pretty much despised. I also appreciate the fact that at least the author tried –and at some length, I think, even succeeded a tiny bit- to conceive a scenario in which Rhys’s cuddliness actually makes some sense.
I still prefer him wicked.

➽ To sum it up, what can I say? I read it with with ease because of an extremely fluent, even though not particularly sophisticated, writing style, and, as we all know, idiocies and mushy stuff can also be enjoyable, and truly, this book take the concept of guilty pleasure to a whole new level. Nonetheless, I am sorry, but I can't overcome the irritation that Maas's little games cause in me. She used the same lame and unprofessional trick twice now; my trust in her is gone, and I'm wondering if we should expect a third time too.

EDIT 29/03/16: Ok, so I read the excerpt -as usual, unforgivably late, but this time the delay is due to the fact that I didn't know whether to read it or not. If you want to join the club, you can find it here.
What do I think of it? I simply think that making a protagonist go OOC with three plain lines does take an inconceivable amount of talent. Because apparently the whole Queen of Shadows mess wasn't enough.
Respect, Maas. Really.

EDIT 14/01/16:
*braces herself for the incoming tomatoes*
I don't like the cover!
*runs away as fast as she can*