I read Kingdom of Ash | A Farewell Post to a Series I Will Not Miss

Greetings readers!

Well, here I am. I am finally finished with the Throne of Glass series. Thank God for that, phew. I am done and it feels good. I wasted precious time this Holiday season to read this monstrous book, and technically it is my first read book of 2019, but it is finally out of the way and I couldn’t be more relieved!

I can finally scroll through Instagram liberally without having to worry about spoilers!!!!

Before I truly begin, I just want to release an official statement as to how this post is gonna go down. It’s not gonna be all sunshine and rainbows. I’m petty, bitter and just tired. I hope you guys don’t take any of what I say to heart. If you love this series, that’s great. Amazing! I’m so happy for you.

That being said…

1. This is not going to be a formal review. I will critique certain parts of it, but it will become more of a rant than a review.

2. This is going to be spoilery!!! Both for this book and the previous books!

3. I have a very unpopular opinion on this series, so if you came here to fight me, be rude to me, insult me in the comments section, you can kindly find the exit button. Otherwise stay! Any rude comments will be kindly ignored.

4. If you disagree with me, that is a-okay! I welcome it! Just be civil and I will kindly agree to disagree!

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

You mean Kingdom of TRASH….*too much too soon?*

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pub Date: Oct 23rd, 2018
ISBN: 9781619636101
Goodreads

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . .

Aelin has risked everything 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. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day…

With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they’ve gathered to battle Erawan’s hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation―and a better world.

And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen―before she is lost to him forever.

As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

Before Reading:

I tried to go in with the most open mind I could possibly have. Any preconceived notions about the book that I had, I tried to let go. But let’s be honest. I have a deep dislike for this series. Hatred may be too strong a word, but it’s not that far off from it.

I don’t hate SJM, that is not fair and I do not agree with people who hate authors because they dislike the direction of their stores. I wish no ill on SJM, I just fell out of love with the series.

Despite my best efforts, here are a few of the things I tried to not think about going in…but inevitably obsessed over.

1. Chaol is going to die and nothing will stop me from hating this series.
2. Dorian is going to die too because he is gonna sacrifice himself for Alien.
3. I am gonna have to put up with the smuttiest of scenes between Aelin and Rowan *vomits*
4. I am gonna have to put up with all the Alien Ashton Galifinakis worshipping (or whatever the Hell her name is)
5. CHAOL IS GONNA DIE WHICH MEANS YRENE WILL DIE, WHICH MEANS I WILL HATE THIS SERIES FOREVER.

During Reading:

Y’all I opened to the very first page of the book, to the very first scene and I wanted to chuck it across the room already. I just could NOT. It’s Rowan’s POV and he says and does such Rowan things and I just couldn’t bleh bleh blehhhhhhhhhhh

Then came Alien’s POV and uuuugggghhhhh I just could not again. Did I feel happy that she was being tortured? No, I’m no sadist. It was just the realization that I had to read 992 pages of this that I could not bear.

It took 6 chapters to get to Chaol. 6! And even then I only got a page and a half from him.

I trudged through this book people, trudged. There were too many people to follow, too many couples that needed their romantic subplot, their own battles and their time to give glorious speeches about the amazingly-totally-awesome Aelin. Ew.

Some things I noticed while reading that I just could NOT deal with:

1. The use of “MATE.”

You could honestly make a drinking game with this word and we would all be drunk by the end of the fifth chapter. That is how many times this word is written? Who is it uttered by, you may ask? None other than Alien and her magical Fae Prince. *barf* I know some of y’all out there find this cute and romantic…I do not. I personally think they make themselves sound a lot more like wild animals.

2. Worshipping the Alien’s Ass.

Whooooweeee I COULD NOT STAND THIS. LIKE SHE IS NOT EVEN THAT GREAT OR AMAZING. WHY THE HELL IS SHE PRAISED FOR EVERY SINGLE LITTLE THING THAT SHE DOES? I AIN’T SAYING SHE HASN’T DONE SOME GOOD IN HER LIFE, BUT PUH-LEASE I DO NOT SEE HER LIKE SOME GOD.
And it’s not just the characters that worship her, but the literal plot and revelations of the story have to support those claims of her amazingness. Of course she is not only queen of Terrasen or whatever, but she has to be a Fae Queen too and all the magical creatures have to worship her.

Give me a fucking break. Nah.

And then there is her court, who are honestly ugh. I am so done with them. #1 is Rowan because honestly I find no interest in him. SO bland and boring and honestly all he does is snarl whenever somewhere dares question/challenge something Alien says. He obviously needs to relax and ooof there was one scene, I just needed him to get out. Fenrys is doubly guilty of this.

3. This book is too fucking long.

Almost 1000 pages and more than half is filler content where nothing happens and the characters haven’t moved from the same spot they started the chapter in. It got boring real fast in places (*coughs–Aedion’s chapters were the most boring of all*) and I just felt like skipping.

4. Everyone was horny.

This book has 4-6 straight couples in this book and they each need there sexy times. None more than Alien and Her Rowan of course *eye roll* and I honestly could have lived without it. There are some fifty-shades scenes up in there. Not everyone went full out and it was not as long as that beach scene from EoS, but blerrrrgggghhhhhhhh.

The sweet and tender moments were replaced with the hot and heavy action. It just killed a lot of the ships.

5. Milking Sorscha’s death.

Hurt like hell. Sorscha was a star in Heir of Fire, I loved her and the way that SJM tortured Dorian with her death hurt.

After Reading:

How absolutely underwhelming.

*SPOILERS ARE GETTING BIGGER–BEWARE*

1. First we must pay our respects for the dead

*moment of silence*

I’l be honest, one of these deaths hurt me more than the other. It was really sad and soooo unfair. I didn’t cry, but I was still emotionally hurt by their final scene. And I use “their” because this was a group death. It was totally epic and really impacted one of my favourite characters.

The other death, well okay it happened. Like I was sad that this person died, but was I struck down with major emotion?…No. I’m not saying I am happy that they died either…it’s just that it impacted a secondary character and honestly I felt the death was brushed under the carpet so that the romance could bloom.

2. Now let’s talk Ships *Super spoilery for this book so I caution you*

Aelin and Rowan: Couldn’t give a bigger damn. Actually want to vomit. Ew.

Lorcan and Elide: The best romance in the book. I liked both characters and am very happy with their ending.

Manon and Dorian: Don’t end up together-together, but still end up together. Idk…look I like them together and all, but like what is their connection? All I got from their relationship were the sexy times.

Chaol and Yrene: My baby is gonna be a daddy. I am such a proud momma. I feel like their romance was fully cemented in the ToD so there was nothing new coming from them in this book that particularly excited me.

Aedion and Lysandra: *Unpopular opinion here again* Lysandra deserved waaayyy better. I’m sorry, I know y’all adore Aedion, but I just do not see it. I do not hate him, don’t get me wrong, but ???? I just do not see it! I don’t get it. It is possible that someone can sway me here, you just have to be super convincing.

3. My actual thoughts on the plots ending.

A. I liked how SJM brought in all the novella characters and company to really tie in all the books together (because let’s be honest books 1 and 2 take place on another fricking planet than the rest). I didn’t remember the details of most of them, but I still enjoyed seeing semi-familiar faces.

B. I liked the tribute to Yrene’s heroicness. Because my girl is amazing and I adore her and would read SJM again if it is about her.

C. The destruction of Maeve was so anti-climatic. All these people do is talk. Talk. Evil talk. Glorious heroic talk. Blah. Blah. Blah. BLAST. Maeve is dead. COME ON. Did no one else find this severely underwhelming????

D. Ya’ll I did not get the symbolism in the final final scene. WTF is the Kingsflame? A flower?

MORE ELOQUENT REVIEW-TYPE THOUGHTS

The Okay things

• I liked everyone, but Aelin and Rowan
• It was suspenseful
• The goodbye scene between the original trio–so much love (!!!!!!!!!!)

The NO-kay things

• Toooo looooooonnnnnngggggg, this could honestly be a 500 pg novel and we could have the same ending. Really needs to cut the crap (about 500 pages of it)
• The final-final battles are so underwhelming!!!!!
• The deaths (although sad) not nearly enough to create raw impact.

Rating: 2.75 / 5 Stars

Recommend: I say no, but you guys do you.

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Overall, I am relieved to be done. I didn’t hate this book, but I don’t care for it. This is not a series I will ever be picking up again, even if I have this major love for Chaol and other secondary characters, I just cannot deal with the others.

I do love Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. I mean the “Get Up” scene is ICONIC. I will not deny you that. And I know a ton of you out there love this series and I am so happy for you. I hope that this ending fulfilled some of your wishes and that you enjoy your rereads if you so ever choose. I will never dump on you for liking these books, never, that is not me. I just dump on the books, not their readership. ❤

So I hope you are not all angry with me, I just have a lot of feelings and I need to vent.

And Finally

Farewell ToG, farewell my faves, farewell to all.

We will not meet again.

Let me know what you think! Are you a fan of the ToG series? (I love that you love it–no judgement!) Thoughts on the finale? Things you wish would have gone differently? A character you would like to see more of? Want to convince me that Aedion is not as crappy as I think he is? Shoot your shot!

Happy reading!

~ Rendz