Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)

Sarah J. Maas

“A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend.”

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena’s world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie… and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for. 

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

(4 / 5) Celaena is now the King’s Champion. She is tasked with killing many men the king deems necessary. I mean, she’s an assassin and all but to have to do it for the king she hates? The king that caused her family’s murders? Deplorable. But that’s what makes it so exciting! Don’t expect Celaena to bend to his will.

There is excitement around each corner. Secret doors, scary monsters, ancient libraries, creepy demons and such big secrets! It definitely kept me interested, like only Maas can. I don’t like the love triangle but she still does it well. I’m enjoying each character and am exciting to keep reading.  How could I not with betrayal, jealousy, and so much more is around every corner?

Content Summary: Language is a bit high but no F words. The intimacy is higher because they are sleeping together in this book. However, there are not a lot of details. Violence is high with bloody details and intense images of gore in some scenes.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***-

H***- 26

S***- 2

A**- 8

B****- 4

D***- 21

Bas****- 8

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**-

L***-

Derogatory terms and cursing unique to the book etc-

Gods

By the Wyrd

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A man and young woman drink wine. 

A man pours wine for a few people including a teen girl. 

A man and young woman drink wine. 

Someone placed a cloth doused in poison to a man’s mouth and nose, he falls unconscious. 

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*No LGBTQ+ aspects included* 

A man is a prostitute. At 17, his virginity was bid on. At the present, he asks a young woman to come inside and she asks if he wants a night off? He explained it’s different when it’s his choice. 

A man rips open an unconscious young woman’s dress to find her wounds. 

A man kisses a young woman. They moan and touch as he kisses her ear and neck. They go to her room… “skin against skin”… “nothing more between them”… “gave him everything she had.” (Sex is implied but few details.) She notes later that it was her first time and that she will have to find a contraceptive tonic. He notes later that he was gentle but when her eyes welled with tears of pain, he stopped but she kissed him again and again. 

A man and young woman sneak into a hall closet for sex telling each other to be quiet. 

A man untangles his legs from a sleeping young woman and puts his pants on. (Sex implied.)

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young woman throws a severed head (somewhat decayed) onto the floor for others to see. She also pulls out a hand. Then another hand. The parts belong to a man and his wife. 

Previously, a man is found impaled on a fence. There was enough blood to suggest he was alive when doing so. 

A young woman has bruises around her wrists from a man. 

A man slices a young woman’s arm with a poisoned knife. She knocks him down and holds a knife to his throat but he pins her to the ground as the poison starts to paralyze her. She kicks him and grabs the poisoned dagger, slitting his throat as blood sprays all over her. 

A man beheads a man, his blood soaking the block. His blood trickles down a drain. A woman recites many who have died brutally when the axe falls on her, beheading her. 

Previously, a young woman took a pickax to a to a man’s gut. He gurgled blood, then she hit his face with it as blood sprayed over her. A woman is whipped and bloody and unconscious from the iron-tipped whip. She killed two more, blood covering her. She kills two more with the pickax to their necks, she kills many more with an ax, sword and blades. 

A man is taken captive. He has bruises on his face and ribs. A young woman throws daggers at archers, killing them. Arrows are shot at her. She uses two swords to cut many men down. Her swords drip with blood and her face and body are covered with it. She kills many more. A man is hit with an arrow. 

A young woman opens a door. Blood is everywhere. Guards throats have been cut and their organs spilling out. A woman is dead. “Artfully mutilated” so much that the bed is black with blood. 

A young woman scratches a man’s face as blood slides down his neck. He forces her to the ground and she punches his jaw. She holds a knife to his heart. A man hits her in the back of the head. 

A young woman swings her ax into a man’s gut. 

A man and young woman fight with swords and knives. She slices his shins, he falls in agony, not being able to move his legs. She pinned him to the wall with two daggers. She stabs each of his thighs, pinning him to the wall. Then cuts off his head and gives it to a man. 

Old witches are rumored to eat people, leaving only the bones. 

A woman hits a young woman with a chain and she falls unconscious. Blood runs down her as the woman tied her up. The young woman head butts her, and kicks her away. She threatens the woman with an axe, the woman knocks her off her feet, they fight back and forth until the young woman chops her head off with the axe. The woman had been trying to tie her up and eat her. She places her body in the large oven to get rid of the evidence. 

A young woman slices at a creature’s chest with a sword. It slammed her face with its hand, her nose gushing blood. It chases a man and young woman, clawing the young woman so blood runs down her arm. A man cuts the hand off. The young woman uses her blood to write on the wall. They hack the creatures head off. Blood sprays. She cuts apart it’s body. 

A young woman stabs a man in the shoulder. A demon slams her head into a wall. The demon claws a man, a man throws it against the wall. The young woman and demon fight. 

A young woman uses a man’s blood to do magic. 

A young woman and man fight with swords. She stabs a dagger up into the bottom of his heart and twisting it as he falls onto her, dead. His blood pools on the ground and it tinges the bottom of her hair. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A man-like creature is seen.

A man speaks with a spirit in his dreams. 

A young woman calls to a spirit in the afterlife through symbols using her own blood and words. 

Demon: tall, sinewy with claws, white skin, distended jaw, fish-like teeth and blueish milky eyes. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advance copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.