A Court of Mist and Fury is a High Fantasy Romance Novel by Sarah J. Maas, the second in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Following the trials Under the Mountain and the freedom from Amarantha that Feyre has brought to Prythian, she struggles to cope with the trauma. Feyre is struggling to find where she now belongs in this body, in this new world, and in her relationships. She is struggling to see if she belongs. And as if this were not enough to handle, she also has that little sticky bargain with the High Lord of the Night Court himself to contend with, and of course, war is looming. A war that will affect everyone she holds dear. Was the price she paid for saving Tamlin and all of Prythian worth the pain? Or was it only the first line crossed in many, many more to come?
A Court of Mist and Fury is split into three parts. In the first part of the book, you struggle along with Feyre, your heart aching for the darkness she is in. After the horrendous trials and after everything she has fought for, everyone around her seems to try to forget it or gloss over it at the very least. She is struggling to find her way, to find a way to cope with the nightmares, to cope with a body that is not really her own, and to cope in a world that is not really her own, with no help. Tamlin is keeping her in the dark, and Ianthe is moving her around, placing her where they need her. They almost sit her on a pedestal in a way that feels a lot like ‘Be seen and not heard’. This is Feyre, the same Feyre who killed herself every day of her life, who has fought tooth and nail to survive and for others to survive, and she is lost. She is lost in her mind in this cavern filled with darkness, and not a single person around her is helping her. It was heartbreaking, and I was desperately waiting for her to fight back and be the strong, fierce woman she was. So when Rhysand finally showed up, I was elated because he helped her Under the Mountain; he helped her keep her head down there. With the help of Rhysand and him pushing her, you get a glimmer of who she was back, and it was torture seeing her return to Tamlin to bottom out. I disliked Tamlin in the first book, but in this one, I hated him with a passion, and Lucien is not in my good books either.
In part two, you see more of her come through, and you see her slowly come back. You see her slowly try to put herself back together. I say slowly because it is a process; healing is a process, and Feyre certainly feels broken. But in this second part, you get to see more of Prythian, which I thoroughly enjoyed now that Feyre was no longer caged and was able to view it all. You get to meet the Inner Circle, the Court of Dreams. I love every character: Mor, Amren, Cassian, Azriel, and, of course, Rhysand. Getting to know more about them and watching how Feyre connects with them is both humorous and saddening. Unlike before, she is not afraid to ask questions; she is not holding her tongue, and they are not only listening to her but also hearing her out and actually answering her. Nothing is hidden from her; she is included, and I loved that for her.
Before now, you have been given bits and pieces of Rhysand, pieces he likes to share with Feyre to connect with her, but now he shares everything, and I love it. In this whole book, I just loved him more and more with every page. I loved his honesty and his ability to fight with Feyre and for her, and I adored his shameless flirting with Feyre and seeing her flirt back. He and Feyre are so similar; they are fighters and protectors; his protectiveness stretches to include so many: his city, his people, his friends, and Feyre. They deserve happiness and love; they deserve to not have to put their necks on the line for others all of the time. I just hope they get that. Also, the one-liners killed me in this book. Rhysand had me at “”Hello, Feyre darling,”” and every line after was either funny, heart-aching, or swoon-worthy, but Feyre got her fight back, and she is equally wicked. They are both a little dark and broken, and they are so quick-witted that they are beautifully matched.
The slow build, the healing, the darkness lightening, and the connecting are well underway by part three. Now this is where it starts to really kick off. Everything that has been slowly building—the tasks that they have all been tackling throughout the book—finally comes to a head, and I could not put the book down. Apart from the moment of screeching that happened at the end of Chapter Sixty-Three, I felt like my mind was being blown right until the end. I also felt like climbing into the book and just beating a few people up, but I am so excited to read the next book and see how everything plays out. The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is very quickly becoming a favourite series for me.
I am rating A Court of Mist and Fury Five out of Five Stars. I knew the rating of this book within the first hundred pages because I was so invested in Feyre, and when I reached the halfway point, I did not want it to end, so my pace of reading slowed to drag it out for just a little bit longer. It has very quickly become my favourite book of the year! In saying that, I have found writing this review to be difficult. I think partly because it must be the longest book I have read yet, but mostly because of how much I loved it. I loved every aspect of watching Feyre fight and be dragged out of the darkness she found herself in. Watching her claw her way back and try to find who she is now was captivating. I was rejoicing in her every small victory, so finding the correct words that show how much I was invested in her, in Rhysand, and in all of the Inner Circle for helping her has been daunting. But I suppose the correct words do not exist because no one person will read and connect to a book in the same way as any other, and that is the beauty of the world an Author creates.
A Court of Mist and Fury felt like a much harder-hitting book than the previous one in the series, and therefore I would recommend it to an adult audience. Please remember to check the full Trigger Warnings list online, as they include but are not limited to PTSD, Trauma, Violence, and Abuse. If you love a journey of finding your way out of the darkness and rediscovering your strength as a survivor, then you will enjoy the process of this book for Feyre. I felt like A Court of Mist and Fury was one big love story of every kind: finding your soulmate, finding your friends, finding your chosen family, finding your home, and finding yourself. Although it was hard-hitting, there was still so much joy. Chapters Fifty-Four to Fifty-Five brought the biggest grin to my face, as did the cheeky little Inn scene. But I have to mention that it was from Chapter Sixty-Three to the end, and I hate using this phrase, but I was on the edge of my seat. I needed a breather before I screamed with all the emotions. So much happened in this book, but how Sarah J. Maas writes the chaos flows perfectly. And if you were wondering, as impossible as it sounds, my love for Rhysand has grown. Someone get me a Bat Boy!
Favourite Quotes
“And I realized I was in a free fall with no end. I had been for a while. From the moment I’d stabbed that Fae youth in the heart.”
page 114
““So I’m your huntress and thief?” His hands slid down to cup the back of my knees as he said with a roguish grin, “You are my salvation, Feyre.””
page 213
“I shrugged, fighting the upward tugging of my lips. “Because I bet you could get into some interesting positions with those wings.””
page 401
“That I would never be a gentle grower of things, or someone who burned like fire- but that I would be quiet and enduring and as faceted as the night.”
page 488
““- then I learned your name. Hearing you say it… it was like an answer to a question I’d been asking for five hundred years.””
page 525
“There were different kinds of torture, I realized. There was the torture that I had endured, that Rhys had endured. And then there was this.”
page 606
Finer Details:
Title: A Court of Mist and Fury
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Pages: 624
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication: 2016
Language: English
Rating: 5/5