Crown of Midnight
Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)
By: Sarah J. Maas
[Fulfilled ‘A book with an assassination’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
“‘There was a time when people valued honor and loyalty— when serving a ruler wasn’t about obedience and fear… Do you think another court like that could ever rise again?’”
As I suspected I would, I enjoyed this book much better than the first (Throne of Glass)! The first book felt introductory, and this one felt more settled in. This one makes it more clear who the good guys and bad guys are.
We also get a better idea of where we’re going in the story. Throne of Glass sets up the reason for Celaena to be in the castle and have the assassin skills she does. But the plot there is around the competition of becoming the king’s assassin. It’s a conflict that it is limited in scope.
With Crown of Midnight we see the overarching conflict: an evil king using dark magic and taking over more and more for his kingdom, but there is a rebel group and talk of the princess Aelin, lost Queen of Terrasen, who could get an army big enough to rise against the king. It’s no longer just a competition within the courts of the castle but a problem that affects all the people in the land.
My question at the end of Throne of Glass after Celaena had been named the King’s Champion was how Celaena would be able to do her job as the king’s assassin when she actually hated him and wanted to help the people? We find out pretty early on in this book that she has been staging the assassin jobs she’s been given— allowing them to escape and using bodies from the sick ward to make the killings look real.
“If the king ever learned the truth, if he found out what she was doing… He’d destroy her.”
The bulk of this book is spent on these stagings (which she has kept secret from everyone) and Celaena catching wind of potential uprisings against the king and trying to figure out who the king’s enemies are.
There is also more time spent on Celaena and Chaol’s relationship. Dorian appears to be friend-zoned, but it’s clear there are still some sort of feelings there on both sides, especially when the two of them find something very important they have in common.
The conflict between Celaena and Chaol revolves around his perception of the killings he thinks she’s been carrying out and his seemingly unwavering loyalty to the king. Do each of them have their own bigger allegiance than they do for each other?
Towards the end of the book, the resolution to the conflict— or the ‘what Celaena must do to save the people’ kind of thing— is revealed. I provide this big quote (I don’t think it is a spoiler to anything that happens in the book) because it’s a good summary of what lies ahead and will remind me by the time I get to the next book where we left off. Celaena is told more about the Wyrd:
“‘The Wyrd governs and forms the foundation of this world. Not just Erilea, but all life. There are worlds that exist beyond your knowledge… The Wyrd keeps these realms apart… There are gates— black areas in the Wyrd that allow for life to pass between the worlds… Long ago, before humans overran this miserable world, a different sort of evil broke through the gates: the Valg. Demons from another realm, bent on the conquest of Erilea, and the force of an endless army behind them… The Fae learned that the Valg had done something unforgivable. They had taken a piece of a Wyrdgate with their dark magic, and split it into three slivers, three keys. One key for each of their kings. Using all three at once, the Valg Kings were able to open the Wyrdgate at will, to manipulate its power to strengthen their forces.’”
The Fae were able to get the slivers back but couldn’t replace or destroy them, so they were sent away and hidden so no one could find them and use their power.
In her covert activities and visits to the tomb beneath the castle, Celaena has discovered that the king must have found at least one of these keys. It’s now her mission to find the keys and keep the king from being able to open the Wyrdgate.
Looks like a lot more danger and magic ahead for us!
Thought not all my questions from book one were answered, some were, and I added some new ones to my list.
We find out more about the death of Celaena’s parents which is a pretty significant plot point.
Nehemia is a major part of this book and a catalyst for everything that happens next. She even says to Celaena- “When will you say enough, Celaena? What will make you stop running and face what is before you? If Endovier and the plight of my people cannot move you, what will?”
Kaltain also resurfaces and is teed up to be a sneaky player in what is to come.
Dorian’s brother ended up not being a major plot point but rather Dorian’s cousin, Roland. Roland appears to be in step with Dorian and taking his side against his father, but I suspect that Roland is just trying to gain trust so he can maneuver a way to usurp Dorian’s spot in the court and have the king depend on Roland more than Dorian. We shall see.
We find out a little bit more about Sam, but still don’t know the full story of Celaena’s betrayal yet.
I may be wrong about Phillippa because she was pretty absent in this book, but I’m still holding out that she gets to play a big role somewhere down the line.
Fleetfoot is ever the loyal dog and did display some heroism in this book, but I would just really love for him to get magicked-up soon and transform into some sort of flying dragon or something. Or maybe we find out all along he is some sort of shape-shifting Fae that’s been there to protect Celaena this whole time.
New questions: What will happen in Erilea while Celaena is gone? Is Chaol going to help Celaena find the Wyrd keys? How will Dorian harness and hide his magic? To what degree will the Fae show up in the next book? Can Celaena fake her next mission or will she have to follow through with the king’s directive to assassinate?
We have a lot of clarity going into the next book about what Celaena is going to try to do in regards to the overarching conflict, but there is still some uncertainty in terms of the romance aspect of the book. The book ends with Chaol’s reaction to some news about Celaena and I couldn’t figure out if his reaction was one of love but confusion on how to protect Celaena or if was just fear and not knowing how to come against Celaena. He is aware of the evilness of the king and you sense that Chaol is disturbed as the book closes, but I couldn’t determine what’s really driving him.
I am interested to see how Celaena’s character develops in the next book because there are parts of this book that make you like her a little less. It’s a little bit of the trope: she hates someone for what they did/didn’t do but didn’t have all the information about what really happened and won’t hear anything other than what she believes happened and has decided that she can never trust that person ever again. Classic ‘misunderstanding.’
You just want to be like: Okay, I get the thing that happened was devastating and you feel betrayed, but if you would just actually listen maybe the relationship you want to be done with, might actually be more than salvageable and you’re mad at the wrong people.
Hopefully she can do some maturing in the next book and realize who her real friends and enemies are and be willing to see the truth of what happened and be willing to forgive the small grievance.
If I am supposed to be Team Chaol or Team Dorian for Celaena, I cannot pick a team yet. But I also don’t know enough about the series and maybe there’s a third guy that pops up and overtakes the other two. Celaena is a bit busy at the moment, I can wait.
[Reminder: see my Throne of Glass review for a pronunciation guide and link to the proper reading order for this series.]
Recommendation
I was unsure how to recommend this series based on book one, but after this book, my recommendation gets stronger. I really enjoyed this book, especially the second half, and am excited to continue the adventure alongside Celaena as we see what the fate of Erilea is and how they can defeat a king with dark magic.
I do still think the best is yet to come and don’t think this book will be my favorite one of the series, but everything is trending in the right direction.
I will add, this series reminds me a lot of Taheri Mafi’s This Woven Kingdom series which I’m also reading and would recommend you check those out as well!
[Content Advisory: 2 s-words, a handful of b-words, a couple closed door romance scenes]
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