Not a one-star read, but not very far from it. I just can't with this series. I know some people love it, and I've slogged my way through it in my ongoing attempt to read through the backlist of Mythopoeic Award nominees, but something about it just rubs me the wrong way. Which is a shame, as I loved Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races, but there it is.

The reasons I feel about this last volume are the same reasons for the way I felt about the previous volumes. I do enjoy the imagery. Stiefvater has a real ability to produce stunning, evocative images and all credit to her for that. It's just overshadowed by the characters, who I mostly can't stand and who I can never take seriously. The enormously pretentious, enormously overwritten characters, who never feel like actual people to me. They're melodrama forced into human form. It's there in the supporting cast as well, but the main characters are the biggest offenders - Gansey and Ronan particularly. Four books of prophecy says the former was going to die, but he's just so unlikeable to me I knew I was never going to get that lucky. In fact, the whole slavish, obnoxious prologue dripping on about how kingly and wonderful he was might have been neon signage for plot armour, because we were never going to be shot of him. Frankly, I resent that the only character I really warmed to in this entire purple prose of characters come to life, Cabeswater Forest, has to be done away with to save his tiresome arse.

Rarely have I come across stories with a cast I roll my eyes at so much. God, they're awful.