Ayo, I’m back in action! In case you missed it, this is PART 2 of my full ACOSF review. This time, I want to talk about all things characters, all things theories, all things I disliked… so go back and read Pt. 1 if you’re new here. Think of this as a rapid fire, all of my thoughts, no deep explanations type of review… so really, not a review at all. If you haven’t read the ACOTAR series yet, you’ll be confused AF. If you have not read ACOSF yet, do not continue reading; every single word from now on is considered a spoiler. Let’s roll.
First off, I loved Nesta’s journey and OF COURSE I LOVED THE HEAT IN THIS BOOK… but beyond that, we didn’t get to see much of the actual continuing plot of the series. In the end, I didn’t really mind this though because I think Nesta’s healing was important to focus on. And the heat? GIVE ME MORE. I just could have had additional details sprinkled in here and there naturally, because what was given to us felt rushed and pushed off to the side. Especially when Brialyn, the main “antagonist”, if you will, dies at the end of the story. The scene was badass, don’t get me wrong… but after reading it I thought what was the point of even having her sub-plot show up if she was going to die anyways. But, I’m hoping we’ll get more details going forward.
In the beginning, I did not appreciate the forced intervention on Nesta. Ok, I understand that Nesta’s behavior was horrendous, but I didn’t like how they took away her freedom. I know that if they had given Nesta said freedom, she likely would have taken it and ran… But something about the way they cornered her, full of judgment, full of disgust, did not sit right with me… anybody felt like this was a bit ick? Though, take that opinion with a grain of salt, because as someone who takes criticism similarly to Nesta, I too would have felt cornered. But I digress.
On a similar note, I noticed a lot of people didn’t like Rhys’s behavior throughout this book. I saw so many complainants that he was rude, arrogant, and an asshole towards Nesta… but I liked it *tucks hair behind ear suggestively*. Because think about it: we fell in love with asshole Rhys, right? The asshole that Feyre first met and interacted with during ACOTAR and the first half of ACOMAF was the one who first gave us butterflies… not the vanilla Rhys we got once Feyre accepted the mating bond. And really, we have only ever seen Rhys from Feyre’s POV, so to me, it makes sense that he has an attitude with everyone else, especially Nesta. He is High Lord of the Night Court, after all… I wouldn’t expect that he would be sunshine and roses, no matter how nice he is to people who have suffered. Honestly, I would have loved to have more of him in this book for these reasons alone. You guys know how I love my dark, angsty characters.
I can’t mention Rhys without talking about Feyre, so… she felt off. I know we now got to see her through a new character’s eyes, those eyes belonging to Nesta of all people… but I can’t quite place my finger on why I didn’t like her as much this time around… maybe it’s because I fell in love with Nesta’s character above all. I also found it kind of silly whenever Feyre commanded people or made extreme decisions. We saw a little bit of her struggle with finding a balance between friendship and command as High Lady in ACOWAR, and I do realize this book takes place two years after the war, but I just snorted every single time she made an important decision. Hence why I’m a Nesta instead of a Feyre.
At this point, I might as well talk about the whole… baby situation. I mean, we all saw it coming from a mile away. BUT I didn’t really dig it. Rhys being weirdly territorial was ick, Feyre going to DIE because of the baby was giving me Twilight flashbacks, and then we got the cherry on top: Rhys and Feyre’s asinine promise that they’d die together. Bruh. All of it felt… forced? Plus, I predicted Nesta would save Feyre’s life some how or some way. Did I still cry though? Yes. Moving on.
The House of Wind has my whole entire heart… That is all.
Speaking of friends, let’s chat about Gwyn and Emerie. Ummmmm, of course I loved everything about them, and what they meant to Nesta. Literally perfection. I’m so happy that Nesta found friends outside of the Inner Circle too, because I just liked the feeling of her becoming her own person. She never had that opportunity in the past. The only time I thought their little girl gang was trite was when they were dumped in to the Blood Rite. Nothing about that made sense to me, even after knowing it was all Brialyn’s idea to begin with. This entire part of the story felt really forced and really rushed… not to mention the fact that they were able to scale that mountain with like four months of training.
Ok, you’ve now made it to the segment of this episode I’d like to call: holy shit when did Azriel become my favorite character. I honestly was not an Azriel fangirl before this book. I’d see everyone talking about him, I liked him platonically, but I didn’t get his hype. This book changed EVERYTHING for me. We were ROBBED of our ménage a trois scene between Nesta, Cassian, and Azriel. I literally read the singular paragraph describing the brief image of it 20 times over, trying to make it come to fruition. We first met the Azriel who was trying to be polite to Feyre in the previous books, and I think that’s why I didn’t really connect with him… but this is the real Azriel and he’s A LOT more complicated. The copy I ordered was the Feysand copy, so once I finished it I immediately scoured the internet to read his chapter. I think the darkness within his thoughts surprised people; I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t see his possessiveness and his entitlement of Elain coming at all… BUT I will say it made me obsessed with him even more. The way he argued with Rhys… *bites knuckle*. Some people found it disturbing… I thought it was such a wicked surprise and I’m so excited that we get to see him in this new light. Going forward, I don’t care who he ends up with as long as we get a lot more insight into his extremely complex character.
Now buckle up and put on your tin foil hats, folks, because I’ll end this with theories; specifically, my favorites since there’s a million of them out there. If you want all of the theories, I suggest watching the Maastastic IGTV episodes on Instagram.
Dark Elain. Personally, I think floorboards have more of a personality than Elain, but I would LOVE to see her character spice it up and go AWOL for a while. Maybe have Koschei use her with some of the Dread Trove objects or something… ANYTHING. Plus, I thought she was sus throughout this book… all the gardening, all the disappearing, all the weirdness around Lucien… which, by the way, I think Lucien deserves personal justice. I don’t know about you guys, but I loved his character in ACOTAR and I feel as if he has gotten the short end of the stick throughout this whole series. I do enjoy the theory that Elain and Lucien will take over the Spring Court… if Elain would ever give Lucien the time of day.
Mor and Eris are actually mates. YES. This one truly makes so much sense. I honestly love Eris, he’s a complete prick but I think we’ve gotten to see that he has ulterior motives that run very deep… and I like it. Mor… ugh. She drove me nuts in this book. I hope she finds her happiness and she can find the strength to actually tell her truths. I also hope she ends up with Emerie, because I 1000000% ship that couple.
The Multiverse. Yes, I thought Lanthys was suspiciously described like a Valg. Yes, I do think there is a multiverse. We’ve gotten so many hints… SO MANY. Yes, I think the Harp could open up portals into the other worlds… and I do think that the fourth, blurred out item in the Dread Trove is Luna’s Horn, or something similar to it… The multiverse trope is one of my favorites, and I just think there are so many opportunities for SJM to make all of her books connect like this. I could talk about this for days.
Ooof. If you’ve made it to the end of this, kudos. Your prize is a virtual hug from myself. If you’d like to talk more theories and characters, comment below, DM me on Insta, send me an email, or even write me a letter. I would love nothing more than to talk more about this fandom.
My Novel Perspective 