Solid 2/5 stars. Had some pretty ugly issues, but there were a few pockets in here that I enjoyed.

To start with the good:

There's plot!! An actual plot! But joking aside, it finally didn't feel like someone going down the checklist for "progression" and instead almost organically went through its phases, along with a couple surprises (such as unpredicted battles - something that did not happen in other books where everything was predicted by the characters beforehand). The first 150 or so pages were probably the best in the entire book: espionage, revenge, making Ianthe look stupid, and the rickety relationship Feyre has with Lucien was great! It wasn't as great once Feyre returned to the Night Court, but also she actually has conversations with other characters? Has literal conversations with Cassian and Azriel!! Instead of just focusing on being horny with Rhysand? Amazing.

I did also like the idea that not everyone was "on their side" although

that was ruined by the end battle where literally everyone becomes their allies in a massive dues ex machina sweep

which took some fun out of rooting for the underdog.

I actually like Nesta and Cassian. I like how their relationship builds here. I like that Nesta sets boundaries and defends them, even if everyone treats her like shit for it, and honestly I hope she punches everyone in the goddamn face because IT WAS OKAY FOR FEYRE TO HAVE PTSD AND GET ANGRY AT THE WORLD but it's not okay for Nesta to suffer.

Nesta is a badass and I'm glad she has her own book now.

The not so good:

Everyone in this book was WAY too focused on lying to all their friends and family and then fighting when it's discovered that they've been withholding information and/or flat out lying. This is normally not an issue, and can actually make for good drama, but you can only do it SO MANY TIMES before it gets ridiculously tedious. This one went beyond tedious and into "are you fucking kidding me" territory. And most of the lies are wholly unnecessary or small things like 'Oh I didn't tell you I was inviting your ex to this meeting' and 'I didn't want you to worry while I ran away to risk my life gathering information' or 'how could you not have told me you were High Lady before we left for Hybern last book!'. And some of the reasonings for the deceptions? There are none. Feyre even goes as far as to think: "I wasn't entirely certain why I didn't mention it to the others." (page 478; 2020 hardback) when thinking about her bargain with Bryaxis. Like, okay... great. I think the only people who <i>don't</i> lie are Cassian and Azriel who straight up say what they're going to do and do it with or without permission. Thank God for honest men, I guess.

Continuity errors happen pretty often, too. Although this was also an issue in book 2 from book 1

tell me to my face that Rhys was <i>not</i> written as a white man in book 1 and then became a black man in book 2 for diversity favors (he is much better this way, but it's obvious this wasn't the original intention)

. A couple minor examples being: Feyre who suddenly is not suffering from angst and is a muuuuch more tolerable character, Rhysand is now a wet noodle and only tells Feyre yes ma'am, no ma'am, and only ONCE suggests licking her; he's boring af now, and Amren suddenly being upset about people going into the mountain prison and talking to the prisoners even though she encouraged Feyre to go in book 2. 

The book's ending was mediocre. Everything that happens after

Hybern being killed by Nesta

is obviously out to try and get some gasps for exactly 30 seconds until

Rhys is immediately resurrected along with Amren

. They all went through so much with zero consequence. At least one of them should've died; not everyone can come back from a war that... the narrator claims to have been almost lost... several times...

It's disconcertingly obvious where SJM gets her inspiration. GoT

implied incestuous twins, a seer sibling

, Howl's Moving Castle (google this one there's a whole video for it); The literal Bible

Amren prowls the city at night to seek out more agents of Hybern and the city protects themselves by <i>painting their doorways with lambs blood</i>, which hahahaha but also this implies that Amren is either God or an agent of God and whyyyyy would you allude to religion in a universe where there ISN'T really a religion beyond the Fae beginning 'myths'. Just bad taste all around.

. And also The Golden Compass

ARMORED WHITE BEARS? please be more obvious!

. 

And for the ugly:

The big one being Mor's confession.

Sure, being bi with a lesbian leaning is <i>great</i>, and even struggling with your sexuality because of your shitty family is <i>fine</i> but willingly and knowingly stringing along a man for CENTURIES because of your own insecurities, basically maliciously using your "friends" as a comfort shield is pretty despicable. I could get over that if this hadn't literally been happening for FIVE. HUNDRED. YEARS. like you cannot sort yourself out in that amount of time? But you've known Feyre for less than a year so you can admit it now and then.... keep doing it? Because Feyre said she understands?

YOUR SEXUALITY DOESN'T EXUSE YOUR SHITTY ACTIONS.

You thought I was done? But! But then to bully the shit out of Nesta just because Cassian was interested in her and not Mor!!! Her shield!! She doesn't even like men romantically!! But she needs them all to be super attentive towards her!! Why does anyone ever think this is okay?!? This is NOT how bisexuality needs to be represented in a massively heterosexual book.

There was also this line:

'Dagdan and Brannagh had listened to her fawning with enough boredom that I was starting to wonder if the two of them perhaps preferred no one's company but each other's. In whatever unholy capacity. Not a blink of interest toward the beauty who often made males and females stop to gape. Perhaps any sort of physical passion had long ago been drained away, alongside their souls.' (page 32) I'm sorry, what? Is she seriously implying that if a set of twins don't feel immediate sexual attraction to a random woman (Ianthe), who may or may not be to their tastes, that it means they're either in an incestuous relationship or HAVE NO SOULS. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Maybe they don't like her. Maybe they both only like men. Maybe they know she's an awful person.

MAYBE ASEXUAL PEOPLE EXIST?? CRAZY.

And finally WHERE ARE ALL THE MISSING QUESTION MARKS????? It actually affected how well I was able to read this because they were literal questions and not statements or like flat intonations. In some spots I misread who was actually speaking because I assumed it was a continuation statement and not dialogue alternation and then got confused when people actually answered the statement as if it were a question!!! There were so MANY. I wanted to meme it about halfway through the book but then there were so many more that I was legit upset by the end that I couldn't even find the humor in it anymore.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????