I took two days to digest this book after finishing it, and I'm still not sure I know what to say. I cannot tell if the final, tragic inversion of Happily Ever After is a wise, genuine depiction of a heroine who has undergone traumatic, hellish tribulations... or is a bastardization of a strong, cunning, fierce heroine the audience came to care for, and who is ultimately supplanted by the dark faerie who saves her.

Some pros: I think this book did a solid homage to dark fairytales, and did a really good job of making that world visceral. Starving in the poor cottage, assaulted in the woods, tortured by an evil sorceress... There is a lot that's glossy and sing-song in a fairytale, and endured just because mythic heroes have legendary endurance... But a real human, in real danger, feels every hurt, physical and emotional, and has to wrestle with healing and learning.

The cons: This book suffered in places the same way The Force Awakens suffered: Sure, there are some interesting new characters here, but largely you're just plagiarizing popular works that came before. There's homage, and then there's word for word, frame for frame, the same thing we've seen before. At times, this book just WAS a Disney movie, or a classic fairytale. And I think those times outweighed the times Maas delivered anything original.

Biggest con for me was Rhys. I do not understand the fangirls squealing over him. I do not understand how he ends up Feyre's fated mate. I don't care what his sad backstory is, it doesn't make up for the way he treats Feyre and Tamlin. He is abusive, racist, and self-serving. And from the moment he offers his devil's bargain to Feyre, she is in the depths of despair, gives up on everything that gave her hope and meaning and life, literally submits her will and soul to him... and he humiliates her! He laughs at her, he drugs her and puppeteers her naked body around court, he licks her face without consent O_o. It doesn't matter what political games he's playing, the things he does to her against her will rob our heroine - our viewpoint character, our every-human avatar, our first person narrator - of everything that makes her HER. He imposes himself on her, and on us, and I hate him.

The Hunger Games -esque ending has me of two minds. I guess it's realistic for Feyre to have PTSD after everything she went through. The book seems to be setting up how trauma will divide her and Tamlin, but be something she and Rhys can commiserate over. There's a message in there somewhere about how it's okay to have multiple loves at the different stages of your life, and it's okay to outgrow your first love. Important messages that all fairytales and most YA fantasy skip over. And there seems to be the old, Biblical, "Once you've eaten from The Tree of Knowledge you can't unlearn about Good and Evil, you can't go back to The Garden". I get that, we all grow up, you can't go back to the Springtime of youth, the ease and naivety and safety - especially if you've experienced war or trauma. AND the notion that experiences change you, Feyre is literally, physically altered...
BUT, big BUT, I don't think Feyre becoming Fae is the answer, and I don't think Rhys is the answer. I think after enduring, Feyre should have to put herself back together, and find HER place in the grand scheme of things, not just become an extension of Rhys and The Night Court. As I said before, she gets supplanted, instead of evolving into her own person, scars and all. Would have been nice if Feyre got her OWN court, in the end.

ANYWAY, I feel like most of this book is just setting the tone and introducing the key players for the rest of the series, and that the true heart of the story is yet to come. On it's own, this book is a solid Beauty and the Beast retelling. As part of a series... time will tell how this book reads in hindsight.