Realm of faeries -- Review 

“A Court of Mist and Fury” is the sequel to “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas. Both books are set in a world where the realm of the faeries is divided from the realm of the humans. The series follows Feyre, a human girl barely scraping by in the human realm. Her family, which was once rich, now lives in squalor after her father made poor business decisions forcing Feyre to become the sole provider for her family. So Feyre spends her time reluctantly hunting in the woods, which fall on the border between the two realms.

It is on one of these hunts that her life is forever changed. When she kills a wolf for its pelt, she inadvertently plunges herself into the world of the Fae. Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court, takes her in as recompense for the life of the wolf, and she must try to accept her new life.

These Fae are not like the ones readers have become accustomed to reading about. There are no Tinkerbells or the like in the story. They are a fierce, warrior race of people with several different courts in which each clan resides. The two main courts that the reader visits are the Spring Court where Tamlin is High Lord and is the main locale of the first book, and the Night court which is the location of the second book. The first book follows Feyre as she tries to adjust to her life in the Faerie realm. She is forced to wrestle with centuries of deep seated hatred for the Fae and where she now fits in her new life. She soon grows to love and appreciate both the Fae and Tamlin.

The second book is better than the first. It takes place in the Night Court where Feyre is forced to spend one week a month with its High Lord, Rhysand, due to events in the previous book. She begins to question everything she had come to accept about herself and the Fae she had come to love. And now, she must contend with the war that is brewing between the Fae and the humans. The reason this book is superior to the original is that Feyre really begins to develop as a character. In the first one, she is basically just a pawn in the schemes of the Faeries, but in the second, she begins to realize her own powers.

The series is filled with wonderful characters and the descriptions that Maas writes for the various Fae courts are beautifully written, especially the descriptions of the Night Court, which make the reader terribly disappointed that it is not a real place. Again, the sequel is the better novel, so please give the series a fair chance. There is a third installment set to come out in May, which is still an annoyingly long time away for such a good series, but it will be well-worth the wait.

Kaity Moore is a circulation assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kmoore@alamancelibraries.org or 336-229-3588.