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.
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