Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas - ADULT

 

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7) by Sarah J. Maas, 984 pages. Bloomsbury, 2018. $14. 

Content: Language: R (100+ swears); Mature Content: R; Violence: R.  

BUYING ADVISORY: ADULT  

Aelin has been captured and is being ruthlessly tortured by the horrible evil Queen of the Fae, Maeve.  Aelin refuses to swear allegiance to Maeve because she knows it would mean to sacrifice all of the people and land that Aelin is trying to save. Meanwhile, Aelin’s friends and allies are gathering to fight against the equally horrible and powerful, Erawan, while passing off Aelin’s shapeshifting friend as Aelin, so the armies will still fight the war.  Aelin has to stay strong and her friends have to keep hope and keep fighting as the book builds to the epic climax that has been coming for seven books.  

I have read thousands of pages in this series, following Aelin from the beginning to the end and I’m satisfied with the ending-it is well done.  There are a ton of characters to keep track of and side stories within the larger story, so you have to have a pretty deep understanding of the world to follow what is going on. Much like all of Maas’ books, they are in no way appropriate for young adult readers because they have a lot of adult content.  The violence is prolonged torture, which is manipulative, graphic and upsetting.  The mature content is multiple on page sex scenes and the swear count is way above 100. I’m completely confused that this publisher is advertising this for teens.  

Reviewer, C. Peterson