This review contains no spoilers.
To the bitches that want to leave shitty hate comments, by all means, please indulge yourselves. I could give ten flying fucks what you have to say.
Let's get one thing clear: I am a hard core SJM fan. I have read and loved every book this woman has ever written. But can I be honest? Like really honest for a minute? This book was shit.
I hated it. I hated everything. Let's talk about why.
First of all, the characters. I absolutely hated every single person in this book. Well, except Azriel (he's fucking sexc). But I hate everyone else. I don't understand how you can make a fantastic, wonderful trilogy about love and friendship and healing and everything beautiful in this world, and then come out with a disgusting, trashy, smutty "romance" that has absolutely no plot, shitty character growth, and an overall shitty book. Not to mention the fucking cover. What the hell is that, anyway??? An orange mask??? A tiger??? It looks like a toddler designed it. Why couldn't you just get the same artist/designer from House of Earth and Blood? Why??? Where is the logic??? I see none??
SJM took her perfectly developed characters and pretty much let them rot. From the ACOTAR trilogy, I loved every single person. Everyone. Now guess what? I hate Feyre. I hate Rhysand. I hate Cassian. I hate Amren. I hate Mor. For fuck's sake, I most definitely hate Elain. Why is she even a character???? Why does she exist??? What is her purpose??? SJM, please write her death. I can't deal with her constant whining and bitching, running to Rhys and Cassian and telling them she wants to go home, back to the human world, just because Nesta was being nasty. Elain, you've been living with your sister your entire life, and you choose now to complain how much of a bitch she is? Where were you the past 18 or so years? Please, grow a fucking spine.
I honestly loved Feyre and Rhys so much (Note *past tense*). Now I despise them with everything in me. The entire book is just them fucking, and Rhys bragging to Cassian that he's fucking Feyre. And now (view spoiler) and now my life is over. I hated this book. I hated everything. Shit, have I mentioned that?
I woke up at 9:38 AM to write this review because my hatred is overwhelming. I hate it. I hate everything. I wanted to die reading this. Nesta is oh-so-powerful because her power is "pure death", as Rhys puts it. I just ... I couldn't even. I couldn't stand this book. The only person that was tolerable in the slightest was Azriel, who I would let do anything to me if we're being completely honest. I love him so much, but everyone else is just shitty and disgusting. The other character who I sort of like is Nesta, who everyone says is a selfish bitch, but that's pretty much the only reason why I like her.
I was going to reread ACOMAF and the rest of that damn series before I started ACOSF, but now I'm not even going to reread that shit. I'm not putting up with these damn characters anymore. Y'all can all die and I wouldn't shed a tear. Which is certainly a surprise, since I balled my eyes out when I thought Rhys was dead in ACOWAR. Now I myself would brandish the knife on him.
The character growth in this book is laughable. It was so minimal that it was astonishing to me. This shit was LAUGHABLE. I can't take it. It was just Nesta apologizing to everyone because she realized everyone fucking hated her guts and she had no one to go to. It's fucking disgusting, shows absolutely no growth at all. I agree, Nesta's bitchy behavior throughout the book was inexcusable. However, that is why I like her. It would've been better if she continued being the bitchy little shit that she was, but rushing her character growth towards the last 100 pages is stupid and obvious and a complete waste of time.
Now let's get into why the fuck I hate Rhysand's guts. Mind you, I used to love him. I used to LOVE him. Emphasis on LOVE. Now? I don't even want to see his fucking name for as long as I live. If I was in Prythian, I wouldn't even want to breathe the same air as him. First of all, Rhysand is the only form of character growth in this entire book. I'm sorry, did I say character growth? I meant to say character depletion. Rhysand has accomplished it, y'all. He has accomplished his unbecoming. Where was that sweet, kind, playful man that healed Feyre and helped her and everyone around him? Where the fuck did he go, because I sure couldn't find him.
Rhysand is a fucking jerk. Throughout the book he brags to Cassian about fucking Feyre nonstop. You have sentences like, "'Feyre initiated this round.' Cassian could hear the pure male satisfaction in Rhys' voice as he said it."
"I dismissed the maids bc I don't want them hearing what we're up to."
Cassian, laughing: "Give the poor female a break"
Rhysand: "We're taking a break. For now." (Did this bitch really say for now? *cRinGeS HaRd*)
But really though, why the FUCK is this necessary???? SJM do you think that's attractive in a male???? What have you done to perfectly good characters??? I am confusion? And disappointment? Now he is an egotistical jerk, a typical overprotective alpha male (*coughs* did someone say Rowan? - I despised him in EoS), and a fucking shitty ass friend. Bye, Rhys. You are cancelled and we are not getting a refund.
I wouldn't go so far to say that ACOTAR was one of my favorite Fantasy series ever, but it was definitely up there. Now, it is down there. Like, way fucking down. I don't ever want to read about these characters again.
Now, on to the next bitch of the month. Cassian. Why the fuck do I hate Cassian now (who I ADORED in ACOTAR trilogy)? Well, for a simple question, there's an equally simple answer. Mostly because Cassian doesn't know how to keep his cock in his pants, and all he can think about is Nesta sUcKinG it and fUckInG it and doing whatever kinky shit they did that I can't even mention with a straight face. I hate you, Cassian. I. Hate. You. Get me characters whose lives don't revolve around their OTP and who think about things other than fucking, bucking and yucking the love of their life. Which, not to mention, Cassian and Nesta don't even seem to love each other. It's all about the rElEaSe for them, because apparently, these fictional bitches have so much sexual tension that they can't help rubbing up on each other every five fucking pages. Bye. Y'all are all cancelled.
Wait, you're still not done talking about the shitty characters???? No bitch, I'm really not, because I'm so angry at how many trees died for this pathetic book. Talk about disappointment. So the next shitty character who I absolutely ADORED in the trilogy is none other than Amren the hoe and Mor the bird. I honestly feel a little bad talking shit about them just because I adored them so much in the trilogy, but this shit has GOT to be talked about. Heads-up to all those authors out there: when you are describing a character and how pOwErFuL they are, please. please. please do not get other powerful characters to "shiver" or "pale" when they are around the character you want to MAKE powerful. It is the cringiest, weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life. Come up with some unique way to describe their power and make readers admire them, NOT get powerful characters like Amren to "shiver" and Rhys to "pale" when they are around Nesta. UGH. And I don't necessarily hate Mor, but she's become so fucking irrelevant in the fourth book that there's really no point in talking about her.
Now, on to the plot. Wait, there was a plot????? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, no. There was not. Like I said, there was no plot whatsoever, to the point that there weren't even any plot holes. In order to have plot holes, you must have some semblance of a plot. I was just waiting for some crazy SJM shit to go down, for her to pull some astonishing shit, for some bitch to declare war on another bitch. But then the book just ended. And I was so confused. I didn't understand. I thought someone had ripped the last 200 pages from the back of my book. Alas, it was not my book's fault. It was Sarah J. Maas'.
Overall, I hate this book with every ounce of sanity in me. If you're looking for a book with some steamy, smutty romance, then by all means, this might end up being your favorite book! But for those of us who have brains and who are sensible human beings and actually like to have content in a book, who like to have a plot driven story, just go home. Get your money back. Don't even get yourself hype about this book. I walked down that path, and honestly, there is no going back.
And trust me, I know how popular SJM is. I can't scroll through the GR homepage without seeing some unsuspecting victim reading ACOSF. People probably won't stop talking about it for the next few months, which is highly unfortunate, because it's trash. I genuinely feel like this dumb shit is overshadowing some really top-tier books, so I'm going to redirect y'all to my favorite series of all time, An Ember in the Ashes. Read all four books, it'll do you some good, especially after shit like ACOSF fucks with your sanity. AEITA will put this trashy, smutty book to stupid, shameful tears.
-1,000 stars