We’re finally reading A Court of Mist and Fury, you guys! Now I can finally make my joke about how there’s a new winner for Book Most Likely Named By A Middle Schooler. I assume book three will be named something like A Court of Mysterious Weather and Doom.
A Court of Mist and Fury: Chapter 3
Actually, it’s pretty funny how Maas felt the need to include “AND FURY” all the way up in the title for this book, because at least based on how it’s kicking off, if ACOTAR was Beauty and the Beast, then ACOMAF is a little more… Downton Abbey…
“Why did you lie about the naga?”
Lucien crossed his arms […] “Tamlin said I shouldn’t tell you-” He winced a bit.
“I’m not made of glass. If the naga attacked you, I deserve to know-”
“Tamlin is my High Lord. He gives an order, I follow it.”
I mean, Ariel’s chapters yesterday were mostly about planning a wedding, and now we’ve got mansplainy lectures about order and tradition. It’s kind of obvious there’s not a lot of momentum in this story.
“You didn’t have that mentality when you worked around [Tamlin’s] commands to send me to see the Suriel.” And I’d nearly died.
“I was desperate then. We all were. But now – now we need order, Feyre. We need rules, and rankings, and order“
No no no no, Lucien, you were the only character I liked.
“Tamlin is a High Lord. You will be his wife. There are traditions and expectations you must uphold. We must uphold, in order to present a solid front that is healed from Amarantha”
How does that even make any sense? Ugh, three chapters into the sequel and Lucien’s gone from Tamlin’s cool, snarky BFF to a fussbudget who voted for Brexit.
Lucien is accompanying Feyre on a day-trip to local villages (which I guess are a thing, since this literally never came up in the first book) which are rebuilding (which I guess is a also thing they have to do). Nevertheless, Feyre’s pumped to finally get off the grounds of Tamlin’s estate, which she hasn’t gotten to do for a whole month now. Feyre’s pretty annoyed that she has nothing to do in the story anymore, as opposed to the last book when it was just me who was annoyed about this.
“I didn’t realize I’d become a prisoner.”
“You’re not-” He chlenched his jaw. “That’s not how it is and you know it.”
“He didn’t have any trouble letting me hunt and wander on my own when I was a mere human. When the borders were far less safe.”
“He didn’t care for you the way he does now. And after what happened Under the Mountain […] He’s terrified. [His enemies just have to] get ahold of you.”
So, a few things that don’t make sense. 1) How does “but now he LOVES you” justify less concern over leaving someone in mortal peril or not? 2) Was Lucien letting Feyre get herself killed by the Suriel and ALSO hoping she’d break the curse by… not dying? What are Lucien’s motivations even? 3) Was the place under the mountain seriously named Under the Mountain? Do I have to stylize it like that? Why do I have to do this?
My hopes that book two of ACOTAR would have less infodumping immediately get dashed when Lucien starts explaining how taxes work in the Spring Court. I’m not fucking kidding, you guys. Thus far the plot points for ACOFAM are Feyre hating wedding planning and Tamlin having to collect taxes.
“Each member of the Spring Court, whether they’re High Fae or lesser faerie, must pay a Tithe, dependent on their income and status. It’s how we keep the estate running [and] in exchange, Tamlin protects them.”
PRO WRITING TIP: Please just assume your reader understands how taxes work. This isn’t that fucking complicated.
Something actually interesting happens during this heated conversation about order and tradition and taxes. Lucien admits he’s feeling jealous that Tamlin’s human lover was resurrected and magically transformed into a faeire, which is the exact opposite of what happened to the lower fae he loved.
[Edit: An earlier version of this post mistakenly said Lucien’s murdered lover was human, not lower fae. You’d think I’d have remembered this since the only thing Lucien really got to do in the first book was have a tragic backstory.]
Feyre finds herself unable to find anything sufficient to say in response to this and then they arrive at the village, so I’ve officially had to read more about how Lucien feels about taxes than I did about how Lucien feels about the aftermath of the previous book.
They find “a village halfway toward being built” and Feyre comments on how it “still suprised me” to see the “normalcy of Prythian, the utter similarities between it and the mortal lands”. This is a surprise to me too, since we already read one whole book about Prythian and this straight up never came up. Lucien explains that most of the faeries were locked away in underground camps during Amarantha’s reign and that it was “forbidden to speak of it”, which is a pretty convenient explanation for why we spent an entire book not acknowledging that the fucking population of the entire country wasn’t there.
Feyre notices some of the villagers referring to her as “Feyre Cursebreaker”. Lucien explains that they’re here to offer their services and aid in rebuilding, but the villagers refuse, explaining that “none is needed” and that “the debt is paid” while staring at Feyre. The same thing happens at every village they travel to throughout the rest of the day.
And that’s it for this week. Tune in next week for hopefully slightly more story than Beauty and the Beat 2: Belle Doesn’t Actually Know Much About Her Fiance’s Job.
Did you know that Bad Books, Good Times is primarily supported by donations from our readers? If you enjoy what we do here at Bad Books, Good Times, you can directly help us make this happen through our Patreon, where in return you can get access to exclusive content, free eBooks, and other rewards. For instance, did you know we have a TOP SECRET used book club? We’re coming up on sending out book #2, and it doesn’t take much to get in on this secret!
And seriously, donations from readers are what makes this thing happen. That’s how we pay for hosting and books, compensate for our time, and every time we have an idea for another thing we want to do (like recapping The Bachelor), we have to make sure we have the support for that. I know, I know, capitalism sucks and neoliberalism is a blight on creative spaces, but your support helps keep the blog going and me from writing sentences containing things like “neoliberalism is a blight on creative spaces”, which isn’t really our #brand. Any donation helps us out. You guys are the best.