Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsThere's good and bad
Reviewed in Australia on 11 May 2020
***Spoilers***
Look, this book was ok. It's got some great things that are on parr with the bad. I liked the first 2 ToG books, as well as the first 2 ACOTAR books (hated that Christmas special that was marketed as a 4th book). DESPITE THAT I would say I am a Maas fan. I read anything she puts out as she has some great writing moments.
Now onto CC.
It does seem like Maas is incapable of writing more than one character type. This book is literally what would happen if Cassian and Feyre/Caleana hooked up and had cellphones. No there isn't really a reason why someone who has been hung up on his lover's memory for over a century has gravitated to Bryce - other than she's hot. Bryce is basically like the other two main characters of her other books - females with attitude who become OP and more powerful than anyone else at the end of their books.
And let me guess - if we're going to follow Maas storylines, we're going to find out that Bryce is supposed to be with Aidas, the most powerful male, and not Hunt yeah? That's what I'm guessing the sequel will revolve around. Bryce being some sort of hell (sorry Hel) queen
I'm not sure that I'm the only one annoyed by the narration - there's a reason why not many of these third-person/omniscient POVs that jump around from character to character in the same scene don't get published in modern day. The narration style reads as messy, disconnected and lazy. I think this, and the fact that Maas writes the same characters/plot lines is why I rated this book down.
The last Part of this book is the best, but how they narrated this part through watching her on camera, that was a bit of a stretch, another reason why this is rated down. If I could rate this 2 and a half, I would have selected that, but this leans toward 2 more than 3 stars. Very slow build to a good finale (even with the weird fact that they can follow all her movements on some sort of drone).
I won't say I found elements of the plot/crime solving predictable like some other reviewers claimed, because I didn't predict everything here. Fantasy in modern day I think was also done well.
I would say it's a good plot, good world, driven by classic character-types that Maas favours with very messy narration. The friendships in this book are touching and for this element, I will read the next one, as I thought the bond between Bryce, Danika and Lele were done the best.
