In the fourth novella, The Assassin and the Underworld, we see Celaena put in a rough position as she needs to decide what she truly wants while also trying to break free of Arobynn’s hold on her. Faced with the slave trade once again, Celaena and Sam team up once more to see if they can solve her problems together.
I really enjoyed this one! We finally got to see Sam as more than just an annoying brat like Celaena which made me really like him because it made me see him as more than someone equally as annoying as Chaol. Plus the way his feelings and Celaena’s came out felt a lot more natural than the majority of the other flirtations Celaena has had.
Although thinking of Chaol, I legitimately squealed with joy when he and Dorian so obviously showed up at the party. The way Dorian and Celaena flirted was beautiful and – as much as I’ve come to love Rowan – I’m still sad that they aren’t together in the current timeline of the story.
Honestly, the only thing that made me uncomfortable in this story is how SJM conveys the consorts. The way these girls idolize having their virginity auctioned off and have no issue with old men falling over them makes my skin crawl. There’s nothing wrong with sex work, but in the YA context of the story and the way something so dangerous is held to such a high position feels wrong. But maybe that’s just me. Regardless, an aspect of this that I did like was that is accentuated how gross Arobynn is so that’s a plus because he’s gross.
We have one more story left which I get the feeling will end up being about when Sam is killed and Celaena gets shipped off to Endovier. I hope I’m wrong because I honestly feel that that point in her life is brought up so often that to include it seems redundant. But we shall see.
In the meantime, The Assassin and the Underworld gets 5 out of 5 for me because the parts that made me uncomfortable were seriously outweighed and overshadowed by the cameo from Dorian.
[This post first appeared on Lucien's blog.]