The Laughing Listener
October 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Elizabeth Evans
Length: 22 hours & 39 minutes

Story Rating: 3.5 Stars
Performance Rating: 5 Stars
Overall Rating: 4 Stars

Chaol guys. Chaol. *Sighs loudly* I feel like the Throne of Glass fandom can be broken up into the pro-Chaols and the Chaol haters. Unfortunately I fall into the latter. Needless to say, this put a bit of a damper on my reading experience and I was DREADING this book. I have to admit though, this was a lot better than I was expecting!!

First of all, the wold building in this was spectacular and I really loved getting to know this new kingdom!! For some reason it reminded me a lot of the Summer Court in A Court of Thorns and Roses, which I ain't mad about. There was such a rich history to it, especially with the Torre healers, and it was so interesting to read about. Antica folds in really well with the rest of this universe and made it all that much more layered and rich.

And the characters!! There are so many awesome new characters that really made this book amazing. The royal siblings were amazing and Kashin was a sweetie. I'm not really a huge fan of Hasar, but I loved that she was gay and unashamedly herself. Yrene was feisty and sweet and despite my gripes with Chaol, I really enjoyed reading their love story for the most part (more on that later). All of the healers were great. And of course, Sataq and his Rukhin clan members!! BORTEEEEEEE!!!! SARTAAAAAAAQ!!!!!!! I was so so so happy that my girl Nesryn gets her own awesome love story with Sartaq and they were SO FLIPPING CUTE. She deserved so much better than the bullshit Chaol was feeding her and it was amazing to see it play out.



Plus, there were some developments in the last half of this book that shocked me! I admit that I went into this already writing it off, but Sarah J. Maas showed me. I was not expecting that plot twist and I'm so curious to see how this effects the next book!!

All right, brace yourselves. The Chaol ranting is about to start.



In the beginning I felt bad for Chaol because of his injury and what he was struggling with (which SJM did an excellent job writing about, by the way). I was even excited when him and Yrene started getting closer because I really like her and they were cute together. But every damn time I'd let my Chaol guard down he would do something to ruin it. Like blatantly flirt with Yrene while Nesryn was RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF THEM. Or say repeatedly that Aelin left him, when HE'S the one that corned her into leaving! And that kiss with Yrene?!?! What was that??? He says these awful, horrible things and that somehow leads to makeout session????? Screw you BUDDY.

Chaol has a big realization at the end and does some self-reflecting, THANK GOD, but I was so frustrated by the time the book got there I couldn't even appreciate it. I wish that realization had happened sooner or that the book was shorter because that would have really helped. Instead, my feelings about Chaol are kind of where I started. Literally, my only hope for the next book is that he doesn't piss me off more.

FINAL WORD

Would I have read this book if I didn't have to??? No probably not. But Sarah J. Maas does an excellent job of making it a worthwhile read and I actually really enjoyed it. Sartaq and Nesryn make this.

#0.5 ↦ [b:The Assassin’s Blade|18243700|The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1384362444s/18243700.jpg|25691778] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✧
#1 ↦ [b:Throne of Glass|7896527|Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1495278054s/7896527.jpg|11138426] ↦ ✦✦✦✧✧
#2 ↦ [b:Crown of Midnight|17167166|Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391580481s/17167166.jpg|21581860] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✧
#3 ↦ [b:Heir of Fire|20613470|Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460846511s/20613470.jpg|25128502] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✦
#4 ↦ [b:Queen of Shadows|18006496|Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441230104s/18006496.jpg|25272067] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✦
#5 ↦ [b:Empire of Storms|28260587|Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463107108s/28260587.jpg|25272004] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✦
#6 ↦ Tower of Dawn ↦ ✦✦✦✦✧
#7 ↦ [b:Kingdom of Ash|33590260|Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1531922609s/33590260.jpg|25272014] ↦ ✦✦✦✦✦