Audiobook

Recorded Books

2/5/2016

9781490640723

Audiobook (Danish)

Gyldendal

16/10/17

9788702212372

Audio CD

Recorded Books

2/5/2016

9781490638218

Audible Audio

Recorded Books

2/5/2016

B01DYO4MVG

Audible Audio (German)

4/8/2017

B0741BK6S3

Bulgarian: Двор от мъгла и ярост [Dvor ot m'gla i ârost], trans. Cvetelina Tenekedzhieva, Egmont, 2016.

Dutch: Hof van mist en woede, trans. Valérie Janssen, Unieboek Spectrum, 2016.

Portuguese: Corte de Névoa e Fúria, trans. Mariana Kohnert, Galera Record, 2016.

Spanish: Una corte de niebla y furia (Una corte de rosas y espinas, #2), trans. Márgara Averbach, Editorial Planeta, 2016.

Czech: Dvůr mlhy a hněvu, trans. Ivana Svobodová, CooBoo, 2017.

Danish: Et rige af tåge og vrede, trans. Maria Roslev and Nana Baaner Klitgaard, Gyldendal, 2017.

German: Flammen und Finsternis (Das Reich der sieben Höfe, #2), trans. Alexandra Ernst, dtv, 2017.

Hungarian: Köd és harag udvara (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2), trans. Hetesy Szilvia, Könyvmolyképző, 2017.

Lithuanian: Įkalinta tamsoje (Užkerėtas dvaras, #2), trans. Gabrielė Gailiūtė-Bernotienė, Alma littera, 2017.

Polish: Dwór mgieł i furii, trans. Jakub Radzimiński, Uroboros, 2017.

Romanian: Regatul ceții și al furiei (Regatul spinilor și al trandafirilor, #2), trans. Andra Elena Agafiţei, Rao, 2017.

Russian: Королевство гнева и тумана [Korolestvo gneva i tumana], trans. Igor' Ivanov, Azbuka, 2017.

Slovak: Na dvore z hmly a besu, trans. Miriam Fulmeková, Slovart, 2017.

Turkish: Sis ve Öfke Sarayı, trans. Meriç Keleş, DEX, 2017.

Slovak: Na dvore z hmly a besu (Na dvore z tŕňov a ruží, #2), trans. Miriam Fulmeková, Martinus, 2018.

Sarah J Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses #1, New York: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2015, 416 pp.

Sarah J Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin #3, New York: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2017, 699 pp.

Sarah J Maas, A Court of Frost and Starlight #3.1, New York: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2018, 229 pp.

Sarah J Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses Coloring Book, New York: Bloomsbury USA Children, 2017, 96 pp.

A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) is book two of a high fantasy series in which each book takes inspiration from well-known myths or fairytales, with book two being described by the author as influenced by the myth of Hades and Persephone. The novel is published as New Adult in America, a category that explores similar themes to Young Adult, but often with more explicit sexual themes and violence. This impacts the retelling by centring the protagonist’s attraction to the Hades figure, at the expense of other aspects of the myth.

A Court of Mist and Fury follows 19-year-old Feyre on her quest to protect the human world from the destructive King of Hybern. After her death at the end of A Court of Thorns and Roses, Feyre was brought back to life (“Remade”) as a member of the Fae, due in part to Rhysand, the recently-freed High Lord of the Night Court. In exchange for his aid while she underwent the Trials, Feyre agreed to a bargain to spend one week of every month in his Court, the deal sealed by a tattoo on her left hand. Rhysand is known as a fearsome warrior and a womaniser, but very little is known about his Court. Due to Rhysand’s reputation, it is popularly believed to be akin to hell.

Part One: The House of Beasts

Feyre and Tamlin are engaged, but their relationship is strained by Feyre’s PTSD from the events Under the Mountain and Tamlin’s lack of care. Tamlin informs her that there is no position of ‘High Lady’ at the Spring Court, and that after they are married, she will retain the title “consort”. Feyre’s confidant, the High Priestess Ianthe, plans their wedding; but on the day, Feyre discovers the aisle is decorated with red (and white) flower petals, violating her request for no red to be present. Sensing Feyre’s panic attack and desire to be ‘saved’, Rhysand calls in his bargain to take Feyre to his Court, infuriating Tamlin. Rhysand insists that Feyre use the week to learn to read, and when she returns to the Spring Court, Tamlin instructs her to spy on Rhysand. Their relationship worsens as Tamlin tries to control Feyre further, and Rhysand worries while training Feyre to protect her mind from manipulation. Upon one return from Rhysand’s, Tamlin uses his magic to place Feyre under house arrest, triggering a severe panic attack that Rhysand senses. Rhysand sends Morrigan to bring Feyre to the Night Court. Rhysand gives her the option of returning to the Spring Court, or staying with him, and two depart for the hidden capital city of Velaris.

Part Two: The House of Wind

Rhysand introduces Feyre to his Inner Circle, consisting of Morrigan, Amren, Azriel, and Cassian. They discuss the King of Hybern’s plot to revive Jurian, a formidable old general, and start a war with the human kingdom of Prythian. Rhysand and Feyre visit an ancient creature called The Bone Carver and learn the King is searching for the Cauldron: the most powerful object in their world, lost millennia ago. It can only be neutralised by The Book of Breathings, which was halved and shared between the human and Fae realms as part of a treaty long ago. As Feyre was “Remade” with a mortal soul in an immortal body, she can locate the book and destroy the Cauldron with it. Rhysand tests Feyre’s Fae abilities by asking her to retrieve an item from the cottage of The Weaver, a cannibalistic witch who built her house from the remains of her victims. Feyre succeeds, and Rhysand agrees to train her in combat, mind protection, and telepathy. He reveals that the High Priestess Ianthe is corrupt and power-seeking, destroying Feyre’s opinion of her. Feyre visits her sisters, Nesta and Elaine, for the first time since she was Remade and they reluctantly agree to let Feyre use the family home to meet with the six Queens of the human world, to negotiate the return of the human-owned half of the Book of Breathings. Upon her return to Velaris, Feyre writes to Tamlin to say she left his Court of her own free will. 

The Inner Circle visit the Summer Court under the premise of forming an alliance with its High Lord, and Feyre steals the Fae-half of the Book of Breathings from his vault, despite her guilt. They meet with five human queens (the sixth being “ill”) but they refuse to share the human half of the Book, knowing Rhysand’s false reputation. Rhysand states he can prove the goodness of the Night Court by revealing the existence of the city of Velaris. The Inner Circle retrieve a magical orb from Morrigan’s family from The Court of Nightmares, a hellish sub-set of the Night Court, to do this. They travel to the Illyrian war-camp where Rhysand was raised, and Feyre learns that Rhysand spared Tamlin during an assassination led by his father, only for Tamlin to kill his father. Tamlin’s friend Lucien arrives and tries to convince Feyre to return to the Spring Court, but Feyre scares him away using her Fae powers. Feyre and Rhysand are attacked and Rhysand is fatally wounded with poisoned arrows. Feyre locates the all-knowing creature the Suriel and discovers her blood will cure Rhysand, as they are Mates. Feyre is furious Rhysand knew, and after she heals him, she asks Morrigan to take her somewhere he cannot find her.

Part Three: The House of Mist

Feyre recovers in a mountain cabin and paints for the first time since she went Under the Mountain. Rhysand finds her and Feyre accepts him as her Mate. Upon learning this, the Inner Circle pledge themselves to Feyre as the High Lady of the Night Court, the only kingdom that allows its female rulers a status equal to the males. The Inner Circle meet with two human queens and Morrigan reveals the city of Velaris using the truth-telling orb from the Court of Nightmares. They refuse to share the book, but after they have left Feyre discovers a hidden box containing the book and a letter from the younger queen, who considers the other queens untrustworthy. The King of Hybern’s army attacks Velaris, having been informed of its existence by the older human queen. The Inner Circle defend the city and Feyre slays The Attor, then travel Hybern to destroy the Cauldron with the Book, but are captured by the revived Jurian.

The King of Hybern arrives and summons his accomplices: Tamlin and Lucien, who agreed to work with him to get Feyre back. Escape attempts are thwarted when Nesta and Elaine are brought forward as captives, betrayed by Ianthe. The two sisters are forced into the Cauldron and transformed into Fae, and each receives different powers. As Rhysand prepares to bargain with the King of Hybern, Feyre fakes freeing herself from Rhysand’s ‘mind control’, tricking everyone into believing that she still loves Tamlin. The King uses the Cauldron to break the bond created by their bargain Under the Mountain, but their Mating bond remains untouched and unknown to Tamlin. Rhysand and his Inner Circle escape with Feyre’s sisters and The Book of Breathings, and Tamlin and Feyre return to the Spring Court. Feyre pretends to remember nothing of her time in the Night Court. Tamlin is pleased but Lucien suspects she is lying. Feyre swears to destroy everything – Tamlin, Ianthe, and the entire Spring Court – from within.

Feyre’s bargain with Rhysand in the first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses, establishes the premise for the second novel. In exchange for his assistance with the Trials set by Aramantha in her hellish Court known as Under the Mountain, Feyre agrees to spend one week of every month in Rhysand’s Night Court. As Feyre is unable to complete the Trials alone, being illiterate and physically unwell, she agrees out of desperation – and subsequently spends much of the remaining book, and the opening of the sequel, fearing when he will come for her. The “bargain” of time being spent in the Underworld, and the manipulation used to achieve Rhysand’s desired outcome, strongly parallels Hades’ infamous trickery of Persephone with pomegranate seeds. One week from every month of the year totals 12 weeks, or 3 months – the same amount of time that Persephone was required to spend in the Underworld in earlier versions of the myth.

The two Courts that Feyre lives in also pay homage to the original myth. In the beginning, Feyre is preparing to marry Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court. The only inhabited areas of the Court are Tamlin’s manor and a nearby village, with the rest covered by forest. Tamlin’s estate is decorated with roses and ivy in a nod to Beauty and the Beast. On the day she was to marry Tamlin, it is the red flower petals that trigger Feyre’s panic attack, as the colour reminds her of the bloody sights she witnessed Under the Mountain. Through their telepathic connection, Rhysand hears her frantic state and calls in his bargain to take her to the Night Court. In this way, Feyre is literally taken from the “springtime” to be held in the Court with the most sinister, mysterious reputation. Worse, she is under the care of Rhysand, a High Lord known for his cruelty and sadism. Though Feyre will eventually learn that this is a calculated act used to discourage other Courts from attacking, it is not until Part II of the novel that this illusion is revealed. 

The seasonal imagery extends to the human world/Underworld parallels in the slow disintegration of the Spring Court during Feyre’s absences, much like the original myth, in which the human world suffered Winter during Persephone’s time in the Underworld. Instead of the cause being her mother, the Demeter figure is played by Tamlin, who, as High Lord, has a psychic connection to his Court. Each of the three times Feyre leaves and returns to the Spring Court (including the final instance in the last chapter of the book), she finds it, and its High Lord, in a significantly worsened state. Originally Tamlin’s behaviour becomes hostile, however upon her second return, the environment around her becomes dangerous as he destroys whole rooms in his anger, before trapping her in his manor using his magic. Instead of the Court providing Feyre with love and sustenance, she is subject to abuse and starvation. While in the Night Court, Feyre learns that Tamlin has closed the borders to his land. Upon her third and final return to the Spring Court, this ‘disrepair’ is completed with the loss of trust among the subjects of the Spring Court in the form of Lucien, a former friend and close ally of Tamlin’s, who has lost respect for both Feyre and Tamlin and seeks to be with his newly Remade Mate in the Night Court instead. Thus, every departure Feyre (Persephone) made from the Spring Court degraded the kingdom due to its psychological link with Tamlin (Demeter). 

Edition used for entry: Sarah J Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2016, 626 pp.

E-book edition (Australian publisher): www.bloomsbury.com/au, accessed 15/7/18

E-book edition (American Publisher): www.bloomsbury.com/us, accessed 15/7/18