Review: Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

Title: Kingdom of Ash

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Throne of Glass #7

Genre: Fantasy/Fae/Adult

Publisher: Bloomsbury YA

Publication Date: October 23rd, 2018

Edition: Hardcover, 984 pages/Kindle Edition, 992 pages

Source: Bookoutlet/Library

Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM

Synopsis:

   Aelin Galathynius has vowed to save her people ― but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. The knowledge that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, but her resolve is unraveling with each passing day…

   With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

   I started this book in early July, with the hardback. I read it pretty consistently for a while, but I kept not reading it. Not for lack of interest, it's heavy and I have noodle arms. I kept wanting to read it, so after avoiding it for months I decided that I should just borrow the eBook from the Library. I did and I finished the book in the amount of time I could have if I didn't have noodle arms. There are going to be some mild spoilers in this review, which detours from how I try to do reviews. There are just things that were done in this book that I like that I can't mention without spoiling some things.

   Now, I had no idea where this book was headed. I had an inkling that certain characters would make it to the end because my Hardback copy has them on the backside of the dustjacket, so I suspected they'd be okay. But I had no idea how they'd make it out, or what other characters would survive to the end. 
    This book was quite the rollercoaster as well. Aelin, heck man, she went through the wringer. I think that might be one of the bigger complaints about this book, she didn't really have any kind of mental setback for what happened. Or it didn't seem to last very long. Granted, it could be argued that because she'd suffered and had already been tortured for years in a different way, that she was better equipped to handle it or bounce back from it. But I just feel that there had been something that was at the very least a mental hurdle for her to overcome. Especially when she saw Maeve again. 

    Aedion and Lyssandra, they drove this book for the majority of it for me. What they were facing and dealing with was the most interesting part of the first half of the book. There were so many perspectives, and theirs was more interesting for the first half. What Manon, Dorian, and the Witches were doing, while interesting felt a bit slow at times, and I sometimes lost interest. Chaol and the army traveling with him, things also dragged a little. Most of the first half is people traveling to talk to other people. Things outside of Terrasen don't really pick up until after Rowan finds Aelin. Hardly a spoiler, we all knew it was going to happen, just the how was a mystery.

    When things picked up, OH BOY DID THEY. There were a lot of surprises, things I hadn't really expected to happen, at least in the way they did. This might sound weird, but I like how they handled the trauma Aelin had in this book. That it wasn't about being scared, but about not having any scars. Not even the ones she's had for years. About looking too "perfect". It was an interesting way to show how much damage was done to her while she was held captive and tortured.

    After Chaol's book, I no longer hate his character, and seeing where and how he grew up, his crappy personality made more sense. Having a man like that raise you would do a number on anyone. Yrene, not sure there's a lot to say about her for the early parts of the book. As I mentioned, everything before the reunions was just 'meh', in comparison at least. It just felt like all the characters we met in his book, that showed up in this book lost half their personalities. They still did things and had things to say, but all their personalities felt watered down in this book.

    Manon's mission, and Dorian's adjacent one, at times, felt like filler. What they were doing was important, but I didn't really feel all that invested for most of it. And their 'romance', eh... I could have done without it to be honest. It felt more like 'in lust' than 'in love'. It wasn't very prominent, but it also felt unneeded. They didn't seem to actually have chemistry, but I did like that whatever relationship that have was left unsettled by the end of the book. Still remained a "will they, won't they" and wasn't forced. 

    The sacrifices Aelin made in this book, she made a lot. And I really appreciate how, in this book you can see how Maas took the time to really weave things through the whole series, things that were in book one are brought up in this book. I had never really thought about why The King in book one's name was never mentioned, but in this book, it's mentioned why and there was a reason that wasn't that she couldn't be bothered to make one for him. It was a nice touch. This is a series that I can see myself re-reading and looking for more things that tie everything together. I am so glad that I kept up with this series. I can only hope that her new series has the same level of detail to it, and that the new books in the aCoTaR series continues like this one did.