Review: State of Sorrow - Melinda Salisbury

Genre: YA Fantasy

Published: 1st March 2018

Length: 452 pages

My rating: 8/10

Overview: Sorrow was born on the day of her older's brothers death, and since then her kingdom has been sentenced to eternal mourning. Her father, the leader of the kingdom is in no fit state to rule, so Sorrow must decide what is best for the country...whilst trying not to let her own life fall apart.

I got this book in the Fairyloot March 2018 box and it is absolutely beautiful! The blurb mentioned something about the 'Court of Tears' so I was preparing myself for an ACOTAR rip off but this phrase was only ever mentioned once in the book. The first few chapters I actually really didn't like. The whole idea that a ruler would ban any kind of happiness from his kingdom because his son died eighteen years ago...nooo. I didn't like it! As the book progresses I just kind of accepted it and then it was quite fun to see the kingdom trying to heal itself. I also love how so many people rebelled from the oppressive rule in their own tiny ways. I've read other reviews and the thing most people seem to have a problem with was that the plot twists were too predictable, and maybe I'm just dumb, but apart from the first plot twists, I didn't foresee any of it to be honest. Now I know these are supposed to be non-spoiler reviews, but it is impossible for me to talk about the book without mentioning the first spoiler, so if you haven't read it, leave now! So Mael is alive. Duh. If a body is not found, that! character! is! not! dead! I like how we never did find out if Mael was an imposter or not...but I really hope we find out in the next book!

Sorrow was not my favourite protagonist but I grew to like her more as the story progressed. My favourite scene of hers was when she went into the mines! I can totally understand why she makes the decisions that she does, and I hope she gets a happy ending (but please don't let her end up with Rasmus). Honestly Rasmus just reminded me so much of Gale from the Hunger Games...that annoying guy you've been friends with forever who is secretly in love with you??? Ughhhhhh. The last time they had sex, I was sure Sorrow was going to get pregnant, because the last time they had sex they mentioned birth control, and Charon mentioned it too, and it didn't seem like Rasmus took the potion in this scene. I literally convinced myself that Sorrow would have a baby that would unite the two kingdoms but guess I was wrong there haha. Apart from Sorrow I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters except from (SPOILER again sorry) my smol child Dain who deserved so much better! In her death scene I was literally sobbing my heart out, whereas all Sorrow thought was 'poor Dain' and just moved on without another thought. Wow bitch.

The ending reminded me very much of Lord of Shadows, as in the protagonist has a solid plan to take down the enemy and then in the last one or two chapters everything just falls to pieces! It was pretty crushing and made me excited to see how everything would play out in the next book, although I heard this series is gonna be a duology which makes me kinda sad, I don't know, just having two books in a series feels like there is just not enough story!

It was pretty cool to read a fantasy book about politics and campaigning (which may sound boring but it's not) and I highly recomend!

#review #melindasalisbury