A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR #2)
Spoiler Warning: This review is mostly for those who have already read ACOMAF and want to chat about it
I'm back again with another review of a book that has a cult following, although it's definitely less of a niche read than the last book I wrote about (All The Young Dudes). This book is A Court of Mist and Fury, which I just finished for the third time.
I have my dear friend Emily L to thank for this, as she handed me her paperback copy of A Court of Thorns and Roses (#1) at work last year and said "I think you'd be into this." It was my first foray into the romantasy genre, and I had zero idea what I was getting myself into. I will not be reviewing ACOTAR because every page of it was unhinged and at this time I do not feel like re-reading it. But something miraculous must have happened to the author between book one and two1 of this series because book two is a literal masterpiece.
The Main Character: Tolerable (For Now)
Feyre actually is mostly tolerable in this one. She's just a girl. In the faerie world. Who has the purest of hearts. She has been given the gift of immortality and a drop of power from each of the seven most powerful faerie lords in Prythian and she simply does not know what to do with it. All she knows is Tamlin (love interest of book #1) is keeping her trapped in a palace and Rhysand (possibly evil, extremely sexy faerie who saved her life in book #1) rescues her. Rhysand has come up with a bargain where she has to spend one week of each month hanging out with him. At this point, you may say this sounds like the plot of a story written by a sixth grader, but eventually, you will stop reading the book for substance or plot. It’s obvious where Feyre and Rhysand are headed, but what you don’t know is that it’s going to be like 600 pages of the best unrequited sexual tension and yearning ever written before they finally (finally!) kiss.
The Inner Circle: Love Them (in this book)
Feyre is rescued from the Spring Court palace. She is winnowed2 (like apparating but for faeries) to the Night Court (where Rhys lives) and discovers that not only is he not evil but he has a secret second court called Velaris filled with good people, beautiful nature, and an art district called The Rainbow. (Feyre thinks she’s an artist so she’s super obsessed with The Rainbow.) In Velaris, she meets Rhys’ Inner Circle, which consists of two Illyrian warriors with wings named Cassian and Azriel, Rhysand’s spunky cousin named Morrigan, and an ancient otherworldly being trapped in a human body called Amren. Each of these characters does have a distinct personality. A lot of my friends love Cassian the most; he’s more outgoing and fun, I guess, but Azriel is a Shadowsinger / spy and is very mysteriously handsome and has unrequited love. Basically, I love him. Morrigan and Amren are fine. IMO, SJM has better male main characters in these books and better female main characters in her Throne of Glass series. The Inner Circle goes out on the town together all the time and has fun and saves the world together and I’m here for them.
(pic is fanart by someone on the Internet named Charlie Bowater so ty to this person)
Soup of the Night Court: Romantic (and Ridiculous)
Rhysand finds Feyre hiding out at the winter cabin after they have a big fight; he didn’t tell her he knew they were (soul) Mates and girlie did not like that. After discovering that Feyre painted every inch of Rhys’s cabin with her mediocre painting skills and without permission, he goes on to tell Feyre the story of when he first started loving her. I will say this is one of the most romantic scenes I have ever read. I basically swooned while reading it, which is a bit embarrassing because I’m in my late 20s and this is a book about faeries, but I guess I’m a sucker for love. Anyway, Rhys describes having dreams about someone who was safe enough to paint flowers on a dresser and sending that person dreams of stars and the night sky. He was doing this when he was captured and tortured Under the Mountain. He tells Feyre about seeing her appear Under the Mountain and how he knew he would do anything to make sure she was okay, even if that meant letting her be with Tamlin, his sworn enemy who literally m*rdered Rhysand’s family. And he is out here truly having a meaningful, sincere moment while Feyre performs the ritual food-cooking that is supposed to happen when a female accepts a mating bond. And Feyre, this simple, pure of heart girl, heats up a mf can of soup3 over the stove with zero embarrassment. It’s so unserious but written so seriously that I cannot read it without laughing. Rhysand will be like, “And then after searching for you in my dreams, after the thought of you kept me alive throughout 50 years of torture, I knew we were fated in the stars” and then Feyre will be like “My hands were shaking as I stirred the soup. It’s starting to boil.”
Anyway, that’s mostly it about this book. I feel like that this point in the year 2024 people fall into two categories: 1) those who have already dived into romantasy and therefore have already read the ACOTAR series, or 2) don’t like the idea of this genre and will never read ACOTAR. If you fall into category 1, please text me so we can chat about it. If you fall into category 2, may I suggest another book (not romantasy) called All The Young Dudes. IYKYK.
The unfortunate thing about SJM books is that she can’t write very well. Either that or she needs a better editor. (People probably say the same thing about me, and they’re right.) But the fortunate thing is that she can write incredibly page-turning tension.
I tried to find how winnowing was described in the book because it was so hard to picture, basically a person turning into the wind, and I couldn’t find the description. But Russel took this picture of our new kitten Demoncat and it looks like she is in the process of winnowing. So now you have a visual.
A little anecdote for you, I saw this meme on twitter (RIP) that was like, “Why is there only Soup of the Day and not Soup of the Night” and now I think of Feyre’s mating soup as “Soup of the Night Court” instead.