Kingdom of Ash - Book Review

This post contains spoilers for the entire Throne of Glass book series. 

Um. So it’s over. I was very surprised when I finished this book last night. But the ending was cool. No huge plot twists, really.

Honestly I wasn’t that connected with this book series, like in comparison to others. Maybe it’s because I read it really slow (if you look back, my Assassin’s Blade review was in September 2021). I’m still kinda in the denial phase though. I can’t believe I’ve finished. I’m so used to having another book in this long series hahaha. 

I think the way that the book finished was good and effective though. The last few sentences of the book were really good. 

I’m actually so surprised about how happy-ending-ish the series was. Like, the book series has come so far. It was so much sadder at the start of Throne of Glass than it was at the end. And sometimes I feel like it was a bit unrealistic that so many of the characters ended up being secret queens or something. It was cool, but unrealistic. But then again, it is high fantasy. 

Ugh. I have so much to say yet so little. 

I also kinda think (and this is going to sound horrible) more people should have died. 3/4 of the way through the book, I was worried that Kingdom of Ash would end up being like Breaking Dawn, with no casualties except for the “bad guys”. And, yeah that’s right, I have read Twilight. But then the Thirteen died, which was sad. Then GAVRIEL DIED. That was sadder. The thing about these deaths, though, was that I wasn’t really that connected with these characters as a reader. 

Usually the final book of a series is the most brutal, but I actually think that The Assassin’s Blade and Crown of Midnight were so much more sad. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining that Kingdom of Ash didn’t break my soul. It’s just that I kinda thought that this really popular book series would… mean more to me. Obviously it really impacted other readers, but I just wasn’t one of those people. I do think that the happy ending was well-deserved. 

Ok I feel like I’m being overly critical of this book/series. Now I am going to stop hating on it. 

The world was actually so cool. I remember my dad saying something like “as a book series continues, the world expands” (that didn’t make sense) but that really applied to the Throne of Glass series. It was kinda satisfying and cool to see different parts of the world slowly becoming important. If that makes sense. 

My favourite character was Abraxos but I feel like we didn’t see enough of him in Kingdom of Ash. Same with Fleetfoot earlier in the series. BUT. At least they didn’t die. 

I think Aelin and Rowan are really good together. At points the fae mating thing was kinda creepy. But I think they truly cared about one another. 

I still ship Dorian and Chaol. I still ship Fenrys and Gavriel. Even though one of them is dead. 

I literally haven’t written that much in this review, yet the book was like nearly 1000 pages. Ugh. Maybe it’s because I’m in denial. 

Lysandra was underrated. She literally did so much and pushed herself to her limits countless times, yet she got almost no recognition. She is definitely one of my favourite characters. I’m still so proud of her for killing Arobynn Hamel. 

I really liked how Yrene was kinda the hero at the end too. I like her character, and it was super cool to see her again after reading The Assassin's Blade.

Lorcan Lochan. Need I say more? I remember thinking “hahaha what if he ended up taking Elide’s surname that’d be funny” and HE DID. That makes me happy. He and Elide were good together. 

Again, I think it was a little unrealistic how everyone ended up with everyone. They were literally doing war and political stuff yet somehow they also found time to fall in love with people. Hmmmmm. 

Yeah I think the ending was slightly underwhelming. I have a stupid heart of stone so books barely make me cry even when super sad things happen. I DID ALMOST CRY THOUGH WHEN I FINISHED. Just because the journey was so long and it was over. Yep. I’m still in denial. When Yrene and Aelin were like “we’re a long way from Innish” that was sad. And when I put the book back on my shelf finally (it fits really beautifully and it very satisfying, see photo) I felt emotional. 

Again, it was so cool how heaps of characters from The Assassin’s Blade appeared in later books. Yrene, Ansel (still unsure about how I feel about her), Rolfe, the Silent Assassins, etc. The Assassin’s Blade was a really good book — or collection of short stories. I still think it ended up being the saddest in the series. 

Not gonna lie, I think I preferred some of the earlier books over some of the others, especially the ones in the middle. I liked the darkness of them. I’m not saying that later books weren’t dark, but Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight especially are definitely up there for me. I liked the mystery aspects of them, plus the medieval old castle vibes and the disturbing fantasy stuff. It almost feels like ToG and CoM were a completely different series. 

I have written quite a bit in this review, but not as much as I usually do after reading a series. This series was good, and I’m glad I read it, but it’s definitely not one of my favourites. I don’t know if that’s just because of me and the pace at which I read it, or because it actually wasn’t as good as other serieses. I couldn't really relate to too many characters (fair enough, high fantasy can be hard like that), which is usually an important thing for me when I read books.

I think I’m gonna conclude my blog post here. I am still in denial. It still hasn’t fully hit me that this was the last book of the series. I feel kinda bad because I was actually pretty tired when I finished reading the book, so I don’t think my reaction was to its full potential (that doesn’t make sense). But reading the Throne of Glass series was definitely an experience. It may have taken me almost six months, which is scary. But I enjoyed it. 

Now I’m gonna go find a pronunciation guide for the series and find out how wrong I’ve been saying everything. Goodbye. 

Wait. I want to say that I silently laughed very hard when, at the beginning of the book, everyone went to rescue Aelin but she got out herself. That was funny. Do not underestimate Aelin Galathynius.

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas, 15+* ★★★★

*This age recommendation is only my opinion. Some younger people might feel comfortable reading this book, and some older people might not. That's fine, either way. Warning for potentially upsetting themes, weird kissing stuff and worse, violence, gore, fantasy-type disturbing stuff, sexual references/themes/scenes, torture and swearing.