Community Reviews
Slow start, really good reveal and pay off of setup, almost too much is spoon fed to the readers though that makes the pay off a little less than desired.
Piranesi lives in a fantastical world - a labyrinthine building full of statues and inundated by recurring tides, inhabited only by him and one other person ("the other").
Once you get through the endless descriptions of rooms and artwork, the book proceeds quite quickly. The detective story that unfurls is heavily foreshadowed and the science fiction aspects of how Piranesi ended up where he is are somewhat hastily glossed over. However, I was drawn in to the book and to Piranesi's unique world view, and invested in his outcome.
was not expecting to love this book as much 2 and 3 in the series but the character arc was so well written and planned.
ACOSF just can't be real. This can't be SMJ's writing, this had to had been fan-fiction that slipped through the pages of this book, or so I want to believe.
This 800-page monstrosity was 400 pages way too long, and needs some heavy-reading and editing. There's so many grammatical errors on top of the constant blabbering. So many different chapters that are too tiny to be chapters by themselves, and the chapters have even more breaks in-between, plus why... does... she keep... writing... like ... this... On top of the book being broken down to 4 parts, it makes no sense.
I love SMJ but not enough to justify what a poor written book she has published, on top of it having no plot, and no substance. The pages are full of fillers, endless thought-processes that became repetitive and boring, the story she crafts for Nesta and Cassian is a mirror to Feyre and Rhys, there's just no creativity or new ideas brought into play. She blabbers so much she repeats herself in paragraphs, some of them being exact copies, some of the same sentences repeating themselves Like calls to like and the fight scenes had me so lost... Like what was even going on?
I don't mind it being a Nesta book, I like Nesta. But this didn't feel like Nesta, nor Cassian. Nor the Inner Circle. Rhysand becomes Tamlin v.2 in this book and the Inner Circle are so cruel and repugnant. At some point Mor tells Nesta she would've dropped her off at the border of the court if it was up to her. Imagine, Mor--wishing to do the same thing to someone else that was done to her.
I can't say that Feyre is insufferable, because Feyre only shows love and compassion towards Nesta in this book. We are seeing how Nesta sees Feyre; with jealousy and hatred. So it seems like Feyre has a 'perfect' life and shes 'living it up'. But I can't agree with the Feyre-hate. Feyre sacrificed herself for that happiness she now has. Feyre was shunned and abused in her human family dynamic, she was a child trying to fill the shoes of her parents who failed her. She fed and clothed her family, and let's not forget that when she left with Tamlin, all she could think about was her sisters and father in that cottage. The fact that even in book 4 Feyre makes sure that Nesta has everything she wants, even to her own destruction, should be a clue as to how much Feyre loves her. Feyre deserves her happiness. I don't mind us hearing about her being happy, what I do mind is how badly executed the scenes were, and how SMJ was lazy and just gave us the baby-story in this book.
Also the sex-scenes. I love SMJ with how creative she is at including sex-scenes in her books, making them a meaningful romantic moment, webbing it into the story and keeping me wrapped up. In this book it's just tacky and terrible, the way she was describing it might as well had been a script for a porn movie. It was bad and cheap. I skipped those scenes completely, sometimes flipping through 10 pages before it was over. It was cringe.
The book could've been a lot shorter, less is more is something SMJ needs to look at if she's struggling to find filler to her pages. It was overly wordy for no reason, you could skip a chapter or two and nothing of interest happened.
The villains in this book were cliche, there was no real threat. The trove was boring. The whole story with the Valkyries was rushed, and unrealistic. The Blood Rite was also another unrealistic story line. 3 fae girls who just started training manage to beat warriors who have been training all of their lives... Yeah ok. The Valkyries are dead, but somehow they became Valkyries by reading the lore in the library and following their steps... Yeah ok.
I keep thinking perhaps SMJ had to write another ACOTAR book, she had to do it and didn't have the juice nor creativity for it. Maybe she signed a contract and had to deliver a book. I don't know, but this book lacks in effort, it was definitely a cash-grab and I wish I could refund it and erase from my memory how my favorite characters from my favorite books suddenly became so awful.
I don't want to be hurtful with this review, because I still love and support SMJ, and if she releases another book I am definitely going to purchase it and continue to support her work. This book felt like it lacked on effort and love, and like her talent didn't show it's hand. Please SMJ, don't abandon your work, keep pouring all the love you have poured on your other books. Don't murder a good story as you have with ACOSF.
This 800-page monstrosity was 400 pages way too long, and needs some heavy-reading and editing. There's so many grammatical errors on top of the constant blabbering. So many different chapters that are too tiny to be chapters by themselves, and the chapters have even more breaks in-between, plus why... does... she keep... writing... like ... this... On top of the book being broken down to 4 parts, it makes no sense.
I love SMJ but not enough to justify what a poor written book she has published, on top of it having no plot, and no substance. The pages are full of fillers, endless thought-processes that became repetitive and boring, the story she crafts for Nesta and Cassian is a mirror to Feyre and Rhys, there's just no creativity or new ideas brought into play. She blabbers so much she repeats herself in paragraphs, some of them being exact copies, some of the same sentences repeating themselves Like calls to like and the fight scenes had me so lost... Like what was even going on?
I don't mind it being a Nesta book, I like Nesta. But this didn't feel like Nesta, nor Cassian. Nor the Inner Circle. Rhysand becomes Tamlin v.2 in this book and the Inner Circle are so cruel and repugnant. At some point Mor tells Nesta she would've dropped her off at the border of the court if it was up to her. Imagine, Mor--wishing to do the same thing to someone else that was done to her.
I can't say that Feyre is insufferable, because Feyre only shows love and compassion towards Nesta in this book. We are seeing how Nesta sees Feyre; with jealousy and hatred. So it seems like Feyre has a 'perfect' life and shes 'living it up'. But I can't agree with the Feyre-hate. Feyre sacrificed herself for that happiness she now has. Feyre was shunned and abused in her human family dynamic, she was a child trying to fill the shoes of her parents who failed her. She fed and clothed her family, and let's not forget that when she left with Tamlin, all she could think about was her sisters and father in that cottage. The fact that even in book 4 Feyre makes sure that Nesta has everything she wants, even to her own destruction, should be a clue as to how much Feyre loves her. Feyre deserves her happiness. I don't mind us hearing about her being happy, what I do mind is how badly executed the scenes were, and how SMJ was lazy and just gave us the baby-story in this book.
Also the sex-scenes. I love SMJ with how creative she is at including sex-scenes in her books, making them a meaningful romantic moment, webbing it into the story and keeping me wrapped up. In this book it's just tacky and terrible, the way she was describing it might as well had been a script for a porn movie. It was bad and cheap. I skipped those scenes completely, sometimes flipping through 10 pages before it was over. It was cringe.
The book could've been a lot shorter, less is more is something SMJ needs to look at if she's struggling to find filler to her pages. It was overly wordy for no reason, you could skip a chapter or two and nothing of interest happened.
The villains in this book were cliche, there was no real threat. The trove was boring. The whole story with the Valkyries was rushed, and unrealistic. The Blood Rite was also another unrealistic story line. 3 fae girls who just started training manage to beat warriors who have been training all of their lives... Yeah ok. The Valkyries are dead, but somehow they became Valkyries by reading the lore in the library and following their steps... Yeah ok.
I keep thinking perhaps SMJ had to write another ACOTAR book, she had to do it and didn't have the juice nor creativity for it. Maybe she signed a contract and had to deliver a book. I don't know, but this book lacks in effort, it was definitely a cash-grab and I wish I could refund it and erase from my memory how my favorite characters from my favorite books suddenly became so awful.
I don't want to be hurtful with this review, because I still love and support SMJ, and if she releases another book I am definitely going to purchase it and continue to support her work. This book felt like it lacked on effort and love, and like her talent didn't show it's hand. Please SMJ, don't abandon your work, keep pouring all the love you have poured on your other books. Don't murder a good story as you have with ACOSF.
Loved the ending, however if you weren't annoyed with Nesta this entire book and you don't think she's a bitch - I don't wanna discuss this book with you 😂
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