Crown of Midnight Review

Chapters 42-49

I must say that this book is even better than the last one. And I LOVED Throne of Glass. In many series, the second book isn't as good as the first but, for COM that is not the case. I'm currently 6 chapters away from the end of this book which means 2 things: a) I'm at the climax of the novel so, of course, everything is super exciting, and b) I have only one more update for this book.

Alright on to what actually happened in the story. First of all, Celaena decides to go through the Iron door in the catacombs underneath the library. They turn out to be the cells that King Gavin probably used when he first rose to power. Interestingly there are six hallways of cells and the number of cells in each one has to mean something. Hallway one has 99, hallway two has 66, three has, 33, four has 22, the fourth has 11, the fifth has 9, and the sixth has 3. did Gavin have a thing for double digit number that contains the same number twice or does it have a symbolic meaning? Celaena continues through the seventh hallway until she reaches the eighth door which only has a spiral staircase leading upwards. At this point her head started to throb and low and behold, the spiral staircase is inside the Clocktower that doubles as portal to the realm of the dead. After reading these chapter I stopped for a moment to think about the correlation between the clock tower, the rings, the Wyrdgate keys and the riddle. Here's what I figure.

1) The rings are made out of the obsidian from the clock tower, that much at least was obvious.

2) The clock tower must have been made with the Key that the king has and as for which key that is, it was confirmed in chapter 46 to be the one in Elena's tomb.

3) Also confirmed in chapter 46 is that, the king could use the keys to stifle all magic but his own but he would most likely need two keys to do that. So now Celaena batting 0-2; she has to get that third key before the king gets it.

4) Does obsidian stifle magic? The riddle says Obsidian the gods forbade. Could that be because obsidian puts a damper on magic? Could the clock tower have been built with the same material as the Wyrdgates in order to stifle all magic in Erilea? We know that Celaena, Kaltain, and Roland have all gotten headaches thanks to the stone. Kaltain is part of the Rompier line which happens to have had a lot of magic and Roland shares Dorian's blood, which we also know has magic. I now really, really want to see if someone who has no magic is affected by the stone.

5) What if the king hid the two keys he has in the clock tower. I mean at this point of the story all things either lead back to Elena's tomb or that clock tower.

Another thing found in the dungeons was that human-like creature that attacked Celaena. When she finally killed it, she found a human heart in its chest cavity. Did the king use that key or the obsidian in the clock tower to change that creature from human to other? Are he and Perrington planning on doing the same to Kaltain and Roland? Are they attempting to make an army out of them?

One good thing came out of that adventure into the catacombs; Celaena confirmed that Dorian has magic. Celaena, in turn, shares some stuff with Dorian but not enough to really make too much of a difference. Regardless at least some stuff is out in the open.

After that, Celaena rushed to the tomb where she finally figures out where in the tomb the key was hidden. Sadly, the king already found that key years ago. That's just great. then to add on to all the unfortunate events that have already occurred, Celaena decides to do the stupidest thing she has ever done; open a portal into an Otherworld so that she could talk to Nehemia. I could see how this could be useful there is a lot of things Nehemia could answer, but has Celaena forgotten all the evil nasty creatures that can come out of the portals? Has she completely lost her mind? Well apparently so, because she just GOES AND DOES IT! SHE OPENS A PORTAL! CELAENA YOU FOOL! Thank God Gavin appears to Dorian in a dream and tells him to stop Celaena. Dorian, in turn, goes to get Chaol. At least one of them has their head on straight. Anyways, Nehemia actually does appear which is good considering what else could've come out of that portal, and tells Celaena to close the portal and never open one again. Celaena being the fool she was only looked up how to open the portal but not how to close it. So of course as she tries to erase the marks to no avail, Archer comes in and distracts her with his shocking confession.

Archer was the one who ordered Grave to kill Nehemia! WHAT!?!? I didn't see that one coming. Ooh, I hope Celaena kills that asshole. He learned from Arobynn who Celaena actually is and has wanted her to join the movement ever since he ran into her outside of the Willows, so he decides that he had to isolate her from everyone she cared about, Nehemia and Chaol. He captured Chaol to guarantee that she'd be out of the Castle while Grave killed Nehemia and so that she'd find out Chaol knew something about Nehemia's death threats in hopes that she'd would no longer trust him. I want to be really mad at Archer for this, but then I remember that this was precisely what I thought Queen Elena was going for and I was ok with that so, I can't justifiably be that pissed at Archer. But for ordering Nehemia to be killed, that I can be pissed at him about, and I most certainly am. Another thing I can be pissed at Archer for is the fact that he's a freaking mini king. Archer knows about the key's but instead of wanting to destroy them as Nehemia wanted, Archer wants to use the keys against the king. Archer is just as corrupted as the king. And worst of all when another creature comes through the portal because Celaena didn't close it in time, Archer gets away. He just runs away with The Walking Dead! Now not only will Celaena have to watch out for the king, but now she has to watch out for Archer and his rebel movement as well.

The last thing that happens in these sets of chapters is that CELAENA TURNS INTO A FREAKING FAE. When Chaol goes into the portal to get Fleetfoot from the evil creature, Celaena escapes from Dorian and runs in after them, letting loose on all the restraints that she kept on her true self and power. This could change everything. Is she only Fae because she's the portal? Will she be Fae when she is outside the portal, because if she is then that will be fairly hard to hide from the king. Also, now that Chaol has done this, will he and Celaena start talking again? Will Celaena forgive him? I can't wait to see what happens in the rest of this book!