catearphanatic
2.5 Stars Ok, I'll be honest, I didn't like this book. Less than the first book, which kind of redeemed itself with a very interesting ending. My main problem with both books is definitely Alina. She is annoying, the most powerful and weak at the same time (for some inexplicable reason - it feels like the author couldn't decide whether she wanted to have a strong main character or a damsel in distress and opted for both) and she's unbelievably hung up on how beautiful other people are. Honestly, if she were a better character I would have enjoyed the book a whole lot more. I see a lot of people not liking Mal in this book, which I agree with to a degree (the way he acted after their "break up" was just so unnecessary and cringey!), however, I feel like a lot of what people don't like about Mal comes from Alina's narration, which is another point why I don't like her. Anyway, the whole relationship between Mal and Alina bothered me because it felt a lot like the insta-romances I've read so oftenn before, which confused me because Mal was a part of the story from the beginning and so there was nothing "insta" about it. However, at some point I realized their relationship had the same dynamic because it never really developed within the story. It's established that Mal and Alina are best friends, then we learn that Alina is in love with Mal (Mal not with her though) and then we just never see Mal again or have any kind of interaction until near the end where he suddenly says he's in love with Aline and they get together. Since most of the relationship is simply talked about and not openly developed in front of us it lacks the depth and my emotional investment to care about it in any way. It was also just so boring to read about Aline and how every absolutely, drop-dead gorgeous boy fell immensely in love with her, while she wallowed in self-pity and in how ugly she was in contrast to other girls. She was so vain and whiny!!!! Additionally, I really liked Nikolai at the beginning but it was so obvious that he would enter into the love-triangle instead of the Darkling because why would we have a stable, supportive, non-toxic relationship between the MC and her boyfriend??? Actually, Nikolai isn't even a replacement for the Darkling. No, he's just another of Alina's courtiers (including Vasily), at this point this is going to turn into a reverse harem *rolls eyes*. Also, I hated how over-powered Alina was. Not that she was put as the most powerful Grisha to ever exist next to the Darkling (while we don't even really know what she can do except light up the dark and slash someone), she also had to be the weakest character during conflicts who always needed rescuing. Can someone please explain to me why she needed extra guards around her the entire time? Maybe as for protection against the Darkling, but they didn't even expect him without prior warning, and it is well-established that she's more powerful than all the other Grisha together. Why can't she protect herself??? Also, I have to say I kinda wanted Mal and Nikolai to have at least some romantic flickering between each other, it would have made the whole thing so much more interesting. Well, even though this book wasn't really good, I'll still be reading the third book, since I already bought it (damn you beautiful book covers). Let's hope it's going to be better than this one.
