This is a lovely, quiet book. It shows the aftermath of a massive battle and how the characters are coping (or attempting to cope) with all that they saw and were forced to do. In a way, I wish I had read it first out of the pile of books I got for Christmas because it would have fit the setting of Winter Solstice.
Maas is very good at confronting trauma in her work, which I’ve mentioned before. A Court of Frost and Starlight is no exception here. I was able to read it in a day and carried a sense of healing and understanding away from the novel. The characters are all quite real, their reactions understandable, and it was heartening to see them taking steps toward the future.
As an author myself, I take certain things away from every book I read. Cassandra Clare and Naomi Novik always teach me the beauty of language, for instance. Sarah J Maas, and this book in particular, put on display the need to slow down and let the characters just be. Let them be “human” on the page. (I put that in quotation marks because none of her characters are human in this book, but their reactions and emotions most certainly are.)
We tend to get all huffy-puffy about the need for plot. For entertainment. For something to be happening. But we can get all those things from a movie or a game. Reading is the only place where we can connect to characters on a human level. Where we can take a breath and go — Yes. I understand that completely.
So, thank you, Sarah J Maas for this book. You’ve taught me a lot.
For the disclaimers, these books are adult in nature. There are explicit scenes, so be mindful for younger readers.
PURCHASE LINKS – Amazon – Barnes and Noble
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