content warnings:

Spoiler

physical & psychological torture, public humiliation, branding, past major character deaths (relived), mention of infant death, ableist language, past child abuse, mind manipulation, self-harm (picking at cuticles), suicide by pills

rep:

Spoiler

bi/pan major character/LI [Maven], WLW major character [Evangeline], WLW minor character [Elara], established F/F relationship, PoC-coded secondary & minor characters

★ 3.5 stars ★

Honestly, it's a bit hard to pull together my impressions of a book I read over a literal month, and it doesn't help that this series is pretty tropey. Overall, it was an enjoyable enough read, though I wasn't sold on the necessity of multiple POV.

After Glass Sword I was hoping for more action and plot advancement, which we kind of get here? But I'm a little apprehensive about how many threads there are to tie up in the last book, since some interesting new machinations are introduced (such as

Spoiler

the Game of Thrones-type conflict for the crown, the possibility of "fixing"/"saving" Maven

).

For reasons I don't want to examine too closely, I have an affinity for the "dark" characters (except the Darkling, he can choke) so while I'm not necessarily rooting for Maven to win, I can't help being fascinated by his psyche and actions. On the other hand, I've been disproportionately attached to Kilorn since a character quiz matched me up with him, so I was a bit disappointed that he doesn't feature nearly as prominently as he previously had. To be honest, I find Cal a bit bland in comparison. I like Mare enough to want her to be happy, but ... oh boy, that ending.

>> Series buddy read with Amanda!