Review: Kingdom of Ash

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m going to be honest and say I went into Kingdom of Ash with the fear I would not be crazy about the book. Since my first Maas book, my feelings towards her work have changed a lot. However, I wanted to finish the series and went in with an open mind and hopes of being surprised.

Unfortunately, my initial view was correct. I wasn’t crazy about Kingdom of Ash.

Kingdom of Ash is a big book, and yet I feel as though nothing happened. I’m no stranger to books of nearly one thousand pages – have read plenty that are longer – yet when a book is this long I want a lot to happen. With Kingdom of Ash, I feel as though we spent a lot of time with nothing happening. The book could have easily been cut in half. A part of me fears Maas has reached the point where she is going for quantity over quality – with each new book she releases, the books are getting longer and my enjoyment has been lessening. There is a lot of repetition, a lot of reiterating things known from the prior books and prior scenes, and not enough focus on what is actually happening.

In fact, I feel as though when things did happen, things were over much quicker and much more easily than they could have been. I could rant and rave for a while, but my feelings towards this one are just a heavier version of my feelings towards A Court of Wings and Ruin. Things were too easy, things ended too nicely, and it did not reflect what you would expect of something so big.

Many label this epic fantasy, which to me means big fighting scenes. There should be a lot of action, there should be death and destruction, and there should be shocking moments. These things did not happen. The action was weak, the death and destruction was replaced by rainbows and butterflies as everyone gets their happily ever after, and there was nothing shocking.

I’d hoped all the five-star ratings were a sign this one would be a great ending, but it was not an ending I enjoyed. There were too many words for too little happening, and everything was too neat with a bow on top. I’d said with my last couple of Maas books that I wouldn’t be reading any more of her books, and Kingdom of Ash has confirmed that.

Of course, I’m in the minority. Most of the world seems to be obsessed with Sarah J. Maas and will rave over every word she writes, but what once interested me with her work seems to have vanished.

If we want brutal honesty, I spent more of this book cringing at missing question marks than I did enjoying what was happening. Seriously, I feel as though Sarah J. Maas is allergic to question marks – to the point where questions would end with a full stop followed by words such as ‘asked’ or ‘questioned’. How was this not picked up?

So yeah, I think it is safe for me to say I’m glad I’m finally finished with this series. It was fun to start with, but I’m so glad I’m done.

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