A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 69: IT’S OVER

THIS IS IT. THE LAST CHAPTER. Remember how this all started as a “haha what if it’s Bad Sequels, Good Times?” and now it’s just like “why is this book over six hundred pages long please end our suffering”.

A Court of Mist and Fury: Chapter 69

Nice.

Really, Matthew?

THIS BOOK WAS WAY TOO FUCKING LONG. LET ME HAVE THIS.

A Court of Mist and Fury: Chapter 69

Tamlin winnows Feyre back to the front drive of his house in the Spring Court. It’s been a while! Like… five hundred pages a while. Not that I’m counting.

I had forgotten how quiet it was here.
How small. Empty. […]
Still lovely. But there were the front doors he’d sealed me behind. There was the window I’d banged on, trying to get out. A pretty, rose-covered prison.
But I smiled, head throbbing, and said through my tears, “I thought I’d never see it again.”

So, uh, I know we’re finally (FINALLY) on the last chapter of A Court of Mist and Fury, but, uh, seems like a good time to talk about the Hunger Games sequels.

A big problem I had with the second Hunger Games novel – Catching Fire – was that it moved very slowly to get to very little story, and then after all that, it ended on a twist with more narrative impact than anything that happened at any point before the actual last page of the book. Now, of course you want an installment in a series to set you up to be excited for the next story in the series. But at the same time, each installment has to be independently interesting – it doesn’t work if you’ve already stopped caring about the book you just read before you’ve even put it down. It can’t be an entire book of set-up for the next book.

And sure, some important character development did happen in ACOMAF (albeit basically just with Rhysand while Feyre and Tamlin somehow underwent character reductions), but between how all the war that happened in this book was 3% failed invasion of Velaris and 97% people just talking about war and the book’s primary antagonist not actually appearing until page five-hundred and ninety of this book… I’m kinda thinking that A Court of Mist and Fury was just an entire book of set-up for a more interesting followup book.

THAT BEING SAID, a story where people just have feelings isn’t “less” of a story. People don’t just get hurt by one person and then fall in love with another person overnight: there’s a lot going on in there! But that brings me back to my quip about how Feyre and Tamlin somehow are less interesting after an entire book about their feelings. I can agree that Feyre’s changing feelings are a mixed bag, but we spent basically no time on how Tamlin – second-most important character in book #1, which is weirdly easy to forget – became this person:

Tamlin was just staring at me, as if not quite believing it. “I thought you would never, either.”
And you sold us out—sold out every innocent in this land for that. All so you could have me back.
Love—love was a balm as much as it was a poison.

YEAH, FUCK YOU, GUY WHO WAS BARELY IN THIS BOOK.

Continuing the theme of how this book’s ending is pulling a “back to where we started but not!”, Lucien is already mounting a campaign to become my least-disliked character once again by being the only person to call bullshit on what’s going on.

“How did you break free of his control,” Lucien said flatly from behind us.
Tamlin gave him a warning growl.
I’d forgotten he was there.

lol same

My sister’s mate. The Mother, I decided, did have a sense of humor.

“My sister is this dickwad’s predestined soulmate, which is apparently a real thing that I just learned about a few days ago. How hilarious!”

Feyre literally just tells them “I don’t know, I just wanted to”, because even the characters in this book have figured out that everything in this story can be resolved with a deus ex machina.

“You freed yourself,” Tamlin breathed. He gestured to the house. “Rest—and then we’ll talk. I … need to find Ianthe. And make some things very, very clear.”

I like how even throughout Tamlin’s bonkers, barely explained heel turn in this book, the one thing that has remained constant is that he never bothers doing anything. Weirdly specific find-your-soulmate curse? Eh, maybe it’ll just work out. Learning that one of your allies isn’t really on your side and may want to overthrow you? Gosh, I guess I’ll give them a talking to. Classic Tamlin.

Feyre, however, has returned to Spring Court having grown into a confident, independent woman who knows what she wants and will work to get it. Just like she already was in the first book.

“I—I want to be a part of it this time,” I said, halting when he tried to herd me back into that beautiful prison. “No more … No more shutting me out. No more guards. Please. I have so much to tell you about them—bits and pieces, but … I can help. We can get my sisters back. Let me help.”
Help lead you in the wrong direction. Help bring you and your court to your knees, and take down Jurian and those conniving, traitorous queens. And then tear Ianthe into tiny, tiny pieces and bury them in a pit no one can find.
Tamlin scanned my face, and finally nodded. “We’ll start over. Do things differently. When you were gone, I realized … I’d been wrong. So wrong, Feyre. And I’m sorry.”
Too late. Too damned late.

So does her plan depend on Tamlin allowing her the kind of agency that his entire arc in this book was about him refusing? Seems kind of… presumptive.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m home now.”
“Forever,” he promised.
“Forever,” I parroted, glancing behind—to where Lucien stood in the gravel drive.
His gaze on me. Face hard. As if he’d seen through every lie.
As if he knew of the second tattoo beneath my glove, and the glamour I now kept on it.

I don’t understand the rules with the glamours and I’m sure this isn’t going to happen, but it’d be hilarious if Feyre just never took off this one glove like a spy that’s also a Michael Jackson cosplayer.

he could do nothing. Not unless he never wanted to see his mate—Elain—again.

WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. ELAIN is his mate? I certainly did not pick up on that during the last five chapters where every line of dialogue Lucien had was about this!

I gave Lucien a sweet, sleepy smile.
So our game began. […] And so Tamlin unwittingly led the High Lady of the Night Court into the heart of his territory.

That’s the end. I still have no fucking clue where the mist or fury were.