WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
I love fairy tales. Disney princesses were my favorite thing growing up, and even now, I hold on to dreams of “happily ever after” and my own fairy tale ending. For a long time, I thought those kinds of stories were the ones I needed to escape my own struggles and hope for something better.
As long as I have been able to read words on a page, fantasy fiction has been my absolute favorite genre, so when my best friend recommended I read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas, I was more than thrilled to enter a new world of mythical creatures and high fae.
The first book pulled me in instantly, and I was captivated by its unique retelling of the traditional “Beauty and the Beast” narrative. Feyre, the series’ protagonist, is a wonderfully complex female character with compelling strengths, flaws and desires. Tamlin, Feyre’s love interest in the first book, is also developed with his own multifaceted personality and motivations.
However, as much as I enjoyed reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, its sequel A Court of Mist and Fury overshadows its predecessor tenfold in all its immaculate perfection.
As an avid reader, not a whole lot tends to surprise me much anymore. I have seen a lot of tropes come and go, and I have read a lot of books that — although unique in their own ways — function as the same story as many others before them. One of my writing professors tells me constantly that good writing shows people something they have never seen before, or it takes something we see often and makes us see it in a completely different way. A Court of Mist and Fury did just that.
This refreshing sequel delves deeper into the common fantasy “they lived happily ever after” ending and instead asks the question: “but what if they didn’t?” After Feyre and Tamlin experience an overwhelming amount of trauma at the hands of the first book’s villain, they return to their home to live out the rest of their lives with hope that they may one day recover from the horrors they faced together. A Court of Mist and Fury looks at the serious after-effects that kind of trauma can create and writes the healing process and emotional catharsis Feyre deserves in a powerful way. However, part of that healing means realizing and accepting that Tamlin, the man she fought so hard for in the first book, is not right for her after all — someone else is instead.
Feyre’s love story with her second love interest, Rhys, explores the very real and relatable internal conflict of wanting to continue and value a relationship that is not right. Feyre fears that all she has fought for will have been for naught if she leaves Tamlin. While Tamlin was her protector and her savior, Rhys is first her friend and then her equal partner. Feyre’s love story with Rhys is one of shared respect and allows for time and space to heal first. Their story is one that acknowledges flaws while still encouraging growth. Most importantly, Feyre’s love story in A Court of Mist and Fury is her own journey of — even after all she has been through and after all the mistakes she has made — learning to love herself again, and that what she has been through makes her no less worthy of love.
Now that is the love story I needed.