Spoilers but lol who’s surprised?
Previously, Feyre’s dad showed up for the first time in two books as a completely different character and said three sentences before getting murdered, Feyre’s sisters immediately killed the big bad who had maybe fifteen lines of dialogue in the whole series, and Amren “unbound” herself from this plane of existence which apparently means turning into a fire wind that conveniently murders just their enemies. Also, the book has been pretty heavily implying that Rhysand is going to sacrifice himself, but also never established stakes or had anything bad ever happen to its main characters, so, like… sure, I guess.
A Court of Wings and Ruin: Chapter 76
After Amren disappears and wins the war for them, Rhysand shows up. Varian is also sad that Amren’s gone, for all one of you who remember who Varian is. BUT WAIT, they STILL have problems! I know, this book won’t just end already. Welcome to fucking chapter seventy-six.
I looked at last toward the broken thirds of the Cauldron. […] I dared a step toward it.
And what I beheld in those ruins of the Cauldron … It was a void. But also not a void—a growth.
“It was a void. But also not a void” Pro Writing Tip: If you’re on chapter 76 and you’re describing things as “like a thing but also not like a thing”, you could probably make your story a lot shorter than 76 chapters.
“We have a problem,” Varian murmured, pointing behind us.
We followed the line of his finger. To where that fissure in the world within the shards of the Cauldron … It was growing.
The Cauldron could never be destroyed, we had been warned. Because our very world was bound to it.
If the Cauldron were destroyed … we would be, too.
I feel like if Feyre knew this, she could have led with the fact that they had just destroyed the thing holding the universe together, rather than that it was a void but also not a void.
Rhysand makes up some rules for how they can re-Make the Cauldron, which I won’t be bothering to explain because it’s really not important. Tell me I’m wrong; three chapters ago an immortal goddess of death was murdered by someone walking over and snapping her neck. Nothing is worth understanding in this story.
They remake the Cauldron and – surprising absolutely no one who has heard the term “foreshadowing” before or just read the half-dozen times Feyre explicitly said that Rhysand was going to sacrifice himself before this book was over – Rhysand pours all of his power into the process and tells Feyre he loves her as he dies.
A Court of Wings and Ruin: Chapter 77
To be fair, the book does a pretty great job writing Feyre’s trauma over this.
I was shaking him, screaming his name and shaking him, and my body stopped being my body and just became this thing that held me and this lack of him, and I could not stop screaming and screaming—
But it pretty quickly becomes clear that, nope, this story will literally never have stakes or consequences.
I looked up at Tarquin, lip curling back from my teeth. Looked at Helion. And Thesan. And Beron and Kallias, Viviane weeping at his side. And I snarled, “Bring him back. […] You did it for me,” I said, breathing hard. “Now do it for him.”
“You were a human,” Helion said carefully. “It is not the same–”
“I don’t care. Do it.”
Then they do start the exact same process they used to bring Feyre back from the dead in the first book, so turns out it is the same, I guess.
Tarquin steps forward first and offers up a seed of magic. The other friendly High Lords follow. Mor threatens Beron that she’ll kill him if he doesn’t, and Beron rolls his eyes and does it, which is the most relatable I’ve ever found Beron. Feyre asks them to tell her how to do it and then she does.
“But what about Tamlin?” you might ask.
I realized, just as he appeared, what was missing. Tamlin stood there, summoned by either the death of a fellow High Lord or one of the others around me. […] He studied Rhys, lifeless before me. Studied all of us […] There was no kindness on his face. No mercy.
“Please,” was all I said to him. […] “I will–I will give you anything–” […]
Tamlin stood there. Staring down at me. Those green eyes swimming with some emotion I couldn’t place.
“Be happy, Feyre,” he said quietly.
And dropped that final kernel of light onto Rhysand.
I kind of like this, in as much as there’s anything about Tamlin’s inexplicable heel turn and entirely off-screen redemption arc that’s substantive enough to “like”. It’s anticlimactic, but that’s… almost to its benefit? Tamlin’s too toxic (and underdeveloped) for any sort of “I’m sorry for everything I did, I see the error of my ways, I’ve moved on, and I’m going to work on loving myself first and then, idk, maybe one day I’ll get back on the dating apps when I feel ready to put myself out there again” reaction to actually make any sense. Tamlin’s quiet “fuck it” moment here is kind of the only thing he’s done in two whole books that feels… real.
Anyway, Rhysand is brought back to life, obviously.
Rhys groaned, “If we’re all here, either things went very, very wrong or very right.”
Rhys rasped, “You lot will be pleased to know… My power remains my own. No thieving here.”
This character was just brought back from the dead and somehow this is the part that doesn’t make sense.
“And—there’s another surprise.”
He pointed with a healed hand toward the Cauldron. “Someone fish out dear Amren before she catches a cold.”
YEP, AMREN IS FINE TOO. RHYSAND IS FINE. AMREN IS FINE. NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS. NOBODY’S REALLY DEAD. Well, Feyre’s dad is still dead. She doesn’t care about bringing him back to life, I guess. Or the Bone Carver, the Weaver, or any of the hundreds of nameless soldiers who died fighting for them. Nothing bad happened to anyone important, is what I mean.
If you enjoyed today’s post, please consider buying the BBGT writers a cup of coffee? That’d be swell of you!
Amren…is fine…:facepalm:
Hey, see it this way: We get not just one but TWO ultimate sacrifices for the price of none! This book is cheaper than Walmart ahem
Feyre: Rhysand is alive! We have a happy ending after all 🙂
someone: yes but… Your dad still is dead 🙁
Feyre: :/ I’m sad about it but he already was super old, right?
someone: girl, rhysand is 536
i’m so mad about how the others were just like, ok, sure. with no explanation why this is possible. like, MAYBE later on this will turn into a season 7 of buffy kinda thing where bringing buffy back to life in season 6 had consequences bc they upset the natural order, buuuuut does anyone trust this story to start enforcing consequences NOW?
so what was the fucking point then please,,,, explain
Pip that is literally my job 😭
Oh sorry lol I meant Sarah J Maas explain. You and Ariel are doing a stellar job, considering what an absolute dumpster fire of a plot this is
ha, nothing to apologize for! but thank you! i may not have written my joke very clearly, i was p much just trying to get at, like, well, we are the pros here and even we can’t help
Until the point where Feyre’s dad showed up and the clusterfuck of Rys and Amren’s “deaths” and basically this entire battle, there were SOME redeemable parts of this book that you could potentially enjoy (even though this book is certainly no masterpiece). This ending is frankly disgusting and such an extreme misuse of the readers investment, I am at a loss for how to even articulate this. If there are no stakes in a book, then what does any of it matter? This book reads like a bad fan fic in all the worst possible ways. Afjfkhshskfndjeinr fjsjdbfidjhdmsnd. That’s about how I feel.
What is the point of this book? Why does it exist? Is it just here to set up a big battle with lots of cameos and no stakes where everyone is fine? Why would anyone do that? Did Maas go to the Steven Moffat School of Dramatic Tension? (Apologies for this joke from 2013.) How many fucking chapters are in this fucking thing?
As An Writer™ (if not a professional one, but we’ll get there), I cannot fathom writing over 77 chapters of mostly filler. The problem I always have with pacing is that I go too fast, because I get impatient with endless conversations about nothing, and then I go back and I’m like, why are all these conversations about nothing in my story anyway, and I take those out and put interesting stuff in because I am familiar with the concept of editing, which I feel Maas could also benefit from. Uh. I got sidetracked. But I just…how can a person maintain [Googles] OVER SIX HUNDRED PAGES where almost nothing important happens and there’s no tension and keep enough interest to keep writing it? I just do not understand!
my girlfriend was asking me if I actually read every chapter for this book or just the ones I’m recapping, and I was just like, well, I am now bc things are finally happening, but I was skipping during the middle 400 pages because the middle 400 pages of a bestselling YA trilogy after book 1 don’t usually matter
“The middle 400 pages” is one of the most terrifying phrases imaginable