Spoiler Alert, the following book review reveals details about the plot.
I’m really done with this series. ACOWAR was disappointing to say the least, I had to force my way through it, it took me 2 months to finish it, waste of time. I struggled with this book and now I struggle with its review so I’m gonna keep it short.
There was so many unnecessary and weird descriptions in ACOWAR, some sentences were so obviously repeated, I’m guessing to over exaggerate a situation, but it was just annoying. Awkward dialogues between characters, most cringe sex scenes descriptions I have ever read, that book was just putting me off. Unnecessary use of fancy words that made no sense.
It is paced very slowly, there is a little improvement from ACOMAF, but it doesn’t matter, because it takes 600+ pages to get to the real war that is supposed to be a big thing, and it’s just boring. Underdeveloped. Nobody significant dies because after all why would war be unlucky and not in favour of the main character.
The plot is… either pulled out of nowhere or shot down completely after spending many, many pages on it. The author has been doing that since the first book, ACOTAR, but in this 3rd instalment it has gotten so annoying, because nothing has change and so many things don’t make sense. So, Morrigan is gay. Yea, what? Out of nowhere there is this idea of Morrigan being gay just thrown at us, without prior clues or not even an introduction to this idea. It just happens in one chapter, it’s there, the end. Yet again I have a feeling like the author lived this story in more detail in her head and forgot to tell us about it, instead just throwing it in, randomly. On the other hand, she has also spend a significant amount of pages on a mirror Ouroboros, this magical, irretrievable object.
“To take the Ouroboros, to claim it, you must first look into it. And everyone who has attempted to do so has either gone man or been broken beyond repair.”
So afterwards, we see the main character wondering about the mirror, deciding whether she will or will not retrieve it. It keeps being mentioned, this magical object that could be final thing to decide upon the war, so as a reader it’s always at the back of your mind. Until, finally, the main characters makes a decision and all this time that was spend on it is finally going to be paid off. Or so you would thing. Because it seems that the author has given up on this idea, unable to explore it further, to develop it like she couldn’t with many other things. And so she decides to wrap it up in 2 full pages with the description of the journey towards the mirror. That’s pretty much it because afterwards there are approx. 1.5 paragraphs describing what has actually happened when the main character has looked in the mirror. Suddenly that powerful, awful item was no bother for her, summarised as follows:
“How I had cowered and raged and wept. How I had vomited, and screamed, and clawed at the mirror. Slammed my fists into it. And then curled up, trembling at every horrific and cruel and selfish thing I’d beheld within that monster – within me. But I had kept watching. I did not turn from it.
And when my shaking stopped, I studied it. All of those wretched things. The pride and the hypocrisy and the shame. The rage and the cowardice and the hurt.
Then I began to see other things. More important things – more vital.”
And that’s all. I found it very disappointing, not explored to its fullest potential. But it doesn’t matter, it wouldn’t help the story much, since it read like the plot was focusing more on sorting out everybody’s love life and personal problems rather than focusing on world or character development.
It’s a pity. The strongest feeling I have felt while reading ACOMAF and ACOWAR was pity. I found ACOTAR to be an amazing introduction to a very interesting and unique world, with creatures and characters I wanted to learn more about. With the world I couldn’t wait to be expanded. What I found instead was 2 books filled with drama with insignificant points of focus in the plot. That series made me feel confused, constantly throwing at me facts out of nowhere or feeding me captivating ideas that were given up on. I ranted enough about that series, I’m fed up with it, I spent way too much time on it. It’s done.
The Wolf Pad 