Kingdom of Ash Book Review and Throne of Glass series Overview
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
2018
Young Adult Fantasy
Major spoilers!
Compared to all the other Throne of Glass books, this one was by far my favourite. The entire novel felt like a blockbuster movie because of all the twists and turns, and the large finale battles. The only reason I rated the novel at four stars is because I think that I had the most fun reading Kingdom of Ash, and I do believe that Sarah J. Maas deserves credit for serving a good finale to a long series, even if the final pages failed to tie off all the loose ends.
Manon was by far my favourite character in the book. The death of her closest friends, the thirteen, was heartbreaking, made her compelling. Of all the main cast of characters, she was one of the few who actually had a bittersweet ending after all the grief and loss, but it made her feel real and well rounded.
The end of the long war was incredibly abrupt and actually made me angry after the hundreds of pages I read to get to the conclusion. Kingdom of Ash unfortunately followed Empire of Storms in having a deus ex machinas to save the day. Like, the hidden fae of Terrasen coming to save the day made no sense! We’ve never seen them before, and if we did, they were not enough of a plotpoint to make their arrival exciting and satisfying. In fact, it felt like Maas did something all of my english teachers have always preached not to do: she introduced a completely new plot point in her conclusion that only raises further questions.
I mentioned this in my Tower of Dawn review, but Nesryn, Borte, and all the ruks were given very few focused passages in Kingdom of Ash, which is unfortunate considering their previous importance. Considering that Nesryn was one of protagonists of Tower of Dawn, her lack of development and page time was incredibly disappointing. Yrene on the other hand, who started out as a secondary character, was bumped up to the main cast. While this is far from Yrene hate (I actually love her character,) the fact that characters who were previously important were bumped down to minor characters made it seem like the previous book didn’t need to exist.
Rating 4/5: I’m giving this book a high rating because I did have fun reading the book, but I can’t give this a full 5 stars because of all the issues within the series. In fact, I think the reason I’m giving this a high review instead of a lower rating is because I’ve come to expect issues like this from the TOG series.
Some thoughts on the Throne of Glass series
I have honestly felt so conflicted about the TOG series since finishing Kingdom of Ash because I’ve either really enjoyed the reading experience or I’ve hated pushing through every page. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a series that has conflicted me quite so much. While Kingdom of Ash and Heir of Fire were both really enjoyable reads for me, I had the worst time reading Crown of Midnight and Queen of Shadows. For this reason, I find it hard to recommend a series where, at times, you have to read through hundreds of pages to get to any of “the good stuff.”
As for age recommendations, I strongly believe this book should be catalogued as new adult. I know I have been cataloguing the books as young adult like they are published but as the series continues on, the themes just feel more relevant to older teenagers and people in their early twenties. Plus, considering the characters are mostly not teenagers towards the mid-to-end of the series (including a four hundred year old love interest,) their actions, and all of their struggles about the future, I fully believe that this series is a new adult series.
In terms of representation, there’s very little. The TOG series is very white and very straight. Aelin’s pale skin is constantly praised by the third person narrator. Masculinity and femininity have very narrow definitions in the book and by the end of Kingdom of Ash, every character is paired off. It just felt… forced. Furthermore, I would highly recommend checking out Goodreads for reviews by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ reviewers who can give you a much more personal analysis of why lack of representation is an issue in such a popular young adult series
While I have a lot of issues with the book's heteronormativity, internalized misogyny, and lowkey racist treatment of BIPOC characters, a lot of people have loved the books. Aelin is a strong lead and the books have empowered a generation of young women. Both views of the book series have enough evidence to support them, and I think that’s why the TOG series can be so divided at times. As with any review, my thoughts and opinions are strictly my own, and I would never tell someone how to feel about a book. Instead, I would recommend anyone going into the series to read critically. I think that if a book resonates with you, that’s great! If it doesn’t, that is also completely valid.
Whether you love the series or disliked it, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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