Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
RedditIn this Kingdom of Ash book review I’m sharing my thoughts on the 7th and final book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. As usual I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there may be some. For a completely spoiler free review of the series check out my Throne of Glass series review here.
“Let’s make this a fight worthy of a song.”
Sarah J Maas, Kingdom of Ash
The Throne of Glass series is considered a young adult fantasy. While I’ve been moving away from Young Adult books over the past couple of years I have to say this has still been one of my favorite series that I’ve read.
Trigger Warnings
Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.
Possible Triggers in this book are:
- Anxiety
- Assault
- Attempted Murder
- Blood
- Bones
- Death
- Decapitation
- Demons
- Depression
- Fire
- Gore
- Hallucinations
- Kidnapping
- Murder
- Physical Abuse
- Poisoning
- PTSD
- Spiders
- Torture
- Violence
- War
For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here.
Synopsis and Author
In Kingdom of Ash we return to Erilea and Wendlyn while we follow Aedion and Lysandra in Terrasen. Rowan, Lorcan, Elide, and Gavriel as they try to find Aelin in Wendlyn. Chaol, Yrene, and the armies from Antica are in Anielle defending against attacks from Morath’s fleet. Dorian and Manon are traveling to get help from the Cochran witches. Finally Aelin and Fenrys are in Doranelle being tortured by Cairn.
Each team is fighting to return to Terrasen where Aedion and Lysandra along with armies up north are fighting back Morath’s fleet with everything they have. We follow along as each group finds their way back to each other.
Sarah J Maas completed this series in one of the most epic finales I have read in a long time. I laughed, cried, was horrified, and was made extremely happy with the conclusion of this series.
Reading Experience
The way we move about the world in this book is fantastic. We see our heroes meet up and battle their way through Erilea to close the Wyrdgate and defeat Maeve and Erawan. The world building is still absolutely fantastic as Sarah J Maas just sucks you right into the story.
In this book we return to some of our more favorite POV’s. Aelin, Rowan, Elide, Aedion, Dorian, Chaol, and Manon take center stage as we follow them from start to the very end.
I’ve never had a book cause full blown anxiety like this book. After the cliffhanger of Empire of Storms and then not finding out what is happening to Aelin through all of Tower of Dawn I was ready to see how our heroes would save her and Erilea.
With the chosen family, fate vs free will, and justice themes throughout the book I couldn’t put the book down. I highly recommend scheduling some time to dive into this book because once you start, stopping it is extremely hard.
Writing Style
At almost 1000 pages and 121 chapters this book is a chunky one. When you reach this amount of pages in a book it’s not unusual to have fluff or extreme details. That is not what happens in this book. Sarah J Maas is an expert with world building, necessary dialogue, and story telling where almost every scene is necessary to the plot.
She is also a master at causing emotional damage that sticks with you. I seriously ugly cried at least 3 or 4 times throughout the book. By ugly cry I mean I sobbed with snot for 15 minutes after putting the book down because I couldn’t read through my tears. About a month after reading this book I seriously still tear up when I think about certain scenes.
Kingdom of Ash Book Review
Again Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, and Lysandra make the top of my favorite characters for all the typical reasons. I want to note the loyalty of Rowan in this book and Aelin dealing with her trauma while getting ready to fight Erawan endeared both of them to me even more.
Aedion and Lysandra disagreeing about how to help Aelin but still both fiercely protecting her Kingdom was absolutely fantastic. These characters stayed true to who they are throughout the entire series and I absolutely love them.
I cry thinking about Fenrys and his connection with Aelin through this book. Even when he couldn’t protect her, he was still there for her. While I had a feeling I was going to live and die for Fenrys I didn’t realize just how emotionally attached I would be to his character because of his connection with Aelin.
Manon and the 13. Once again they are complete badasses. I love their fierceness and loyalty while never losing sight of who they are and what they stand for. I cannot go in further to how amazing they all are without spoiling a major plot point. Just know they will play heavily into this book.
In this final book I seriously have major hate for Maeve, Cairn, and Erawan. However, I don’t want to go deeply into their sadistic behavior because I don’t want to spoil what is going to happen.
This book ruined me. While I’m not a big fan of Chaol or Dorian, the ending with them did make me tear up. I felt that both these characters redeemed themselves a bit for me.
I enjoyed almost every single moment of this book and felt it was the perfect ending to this series. My only recommendation is to prepare for a book hangover when you are finished. I recommend either taking a break from reading, doing a reread of another book or series, or reading something light and easy.
My recommendation is based on the entire series. If you like flawed characters, the fae, mate romance, rebel and revolution stories, this series is for you.
Star Rating
Before I rate this book I want to give you a bit of background about what my rankings mean. I typically read books that I check out through the Libby app with my local library or through Kindle Unlimited.
I rarely buy ebooks unless they are cheaply priced or on sale. I also very rarely buy physical copies of books. I’m a bit of a minimalist so I have to absolutely adore a book to buy a physical copy that will be proudly displayed in my home.
So my ranking system is as follows:
- 5 Stars equals I am buying a physical copy of this book. I will read this book at least 10 more times, it is the best ever.
- 4 stars equals a great book. I might buy an ebook version when it’s on sale so that I can re-read it at least one more time.
- 3 stars equals a good book. I likely won’t read again but I appreciate the story.
- 2 stars equals “Meh.” I will not read this book again, it had a lot of problems and I did not care for it.
- 1 star equals a bad book. I barely finished this book and I will never recommend anyone waste valuable book reading time on this book.
- 0 stars is a did not finish book. I will never finish that book and it is banished.
Kingdom of Ash gets 5 stars. This book grabs on and doesn’t let go while bringing you through emotionally charged plots that will absolutely break you. The characters, the twists, and the ending are all perfect.
Likes:
- The heroism in this story is absolutely perfect and heartbreaking.
- The relationships and character growth was exactly what it needed to be.
- The final and complete ending provided a heartwarming closure
Dislikes:
- The Wrydgate scene was not what I was expecting and I didn’t totally care for it.
Final Thoughts on Kingdom of Ash
Regardless about how I feel about certain scenes I do feel that this was probably the best way to end the series. The book still wrecked me and also left me wondering if there might be a connection between all of Sarah J Maas’s series.
I will be buying a physical version of this series and likely be doing a reread at some point. As far as epic fantasy series go, this actually is somewhere near the top of the list for me. It may not have started out great but it was tied together and made perfect by the end.
Have you read Kingdom of Ash? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite book boards.
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInReddit