Melanie's Reviews > The Assassin's Blade

1.) Throne of Glass ★★
2.) Crown of Midnight ★★★★

[2024 reread] ★★★
this is an anthology, short story collection, of five tales set prior to the events in throne of glass. they are told in chronological order, with each one building off the previous one, and ultimately showing us how celaena ended up in the salt mines when we meet her for the very first time. we also get introduced to a lot of characters who we will meet in this universe, with some backstory on how celaena met them for the very first time.

ultimately, i did enjoy this, and i truly just enjoy the project of this - i wish more authors would give me short stories set in worlds, with characters, that i already am established with and love. yet, i don't think they add too much to the throne of glass world. sometimes it felt like they were really just showcasing how celaena is a good person and sjm really, really just wants the reader to know that, but i still had a fun time reading these. i do think they add to the overall series, and i do recommend you read these, but the enjoyment is for sure going to vary from reader to reader - more than most reading experiences, i feel.

down below i break down each short story in this anthology, give them individual star ratings, and list their trigger and content warnings! (my favorite being the assassin and the healer, because i am a yrene fangirl, and my least favorite probably being the assassin and the underworld, because celaena was just being too annoying in it for me lol.)

━━♡ 0.1) The Assassin and the Pirate Lord ★★★

this first short story starts off in an assassin’s guild, two years before the events of tog, and where an emergency meeting is being held by the king of assassins himself, arobynn. someone is murdering assassins, and celaena and sam are tasked with a mission to go to skulls bay, have a meeting with the pirate lord, and give him a sealed letter from arobynn himself. yet, when they get to skulls bay, they realize there is a much more heartbreaking situation going on, and sam and celaena decide to do something about it all on their own, regardless of the costs.

i really liked seeing sam and celaena start to get to know each other, and start to figure out the people they want to be together, too. i also loved seeing the skulls bay setting, and why the location is the way it is currently in the book series, because of the actions in this novella. i wont lie, this read a little too white savior in 2024, but i still enjoyed reading this opener in this anthology collection, and it setting the tone for what is to come.

tw/cw: death, loss of a friend, grief, slavery, human trafficking (with an emphasis on children, as well), captivity, fighting/battle, explosions, violence, blood

━━♡ 0.2) The Assassin and the Healer ★★★★

please know i am truly screaming at my 2016 review for this short story because i was fully like “this is filler, who is this girl?” lol. oh sweet summer, me shipping celaena and chaol, so hard i didn’t see the dots were dotting right before my eyes, child.

this short story takes place obviously after the first, but we get to see how arobynn punished celaena for her actions in skulls bay, and continuing to punish her by sending her to train in the red desert. but while she is waiting for her boat, she is staying at an inn where she helps a worker. And that worker? ends up playing a very big role in the rest of the series. yrene towers is a healer, stuck in a small port town, while hiding her magic that is now outlawed. this story switches povs between the two women, and it was just really heartwarming. i really do love yrene, and just seeing her really want to master her gift that was passed down from all the women in her family at a healer academy, and just really want to heal and make the world a better place - it just gave me all the feels. i for sure appreciated this novella more in 2024.

tw/cw: extreme physical abuse in past, abusive relationships / unhealthy power dynamics, loss of mother in past, insinuation / threat of sexual assault, assault - unwanted touching, blood, vomit

━━♡ 0.3) The Assassin and the Desert ★★★

i truly am giving sarah a lot of credit for plotting and planning her overarching universe way back in the day, back before she sold millions of books and became the phenomenon in the book community that she is today. this novella had so many easter eggs in it, that i felt like i was taking notes for a full length sjm book.

this one picks up right after the second story in this anthology, where we are following celaena going through the desert to find the oasis where assassins are training. this is her punishment for the events in the 1st story in this anthology, where she is supposed to train with a very powerful assassin who makes you prove yourself before he will offer to train you, and then she is supposed to bring back a letter with his approval. it has taken her one month of travel to get to this desert, she is required to train for one month, and then travel back to arobynn and the assassin’s guild in rifthold - therefore she is going to be away for three months, which also held her birthday!

while at this training facility, and while trying to catch the eye of the assassin trainer she wants, she befriends a girl named ansel. in this story, they get very close and realize they have a lot of the same sadness held within their hearts. celaena also learns a lot about witches, and spidersilk, and she even makes a promise that will lead her on another mission that she will attempt to fulfill one day.

again, i loved seeing so many nods at things to come in the story - but for some reason this felt so long to read, and i found myself bored a lot of the time. maybe it is because I remembered the twist, so it was less impactful. But yeah, the reread of this one felt very middle of the road for me.

tw/cw: mention of slavery, physical abuse in past, abusive relationships / unhealthy power dynamics, mention of uncomfortable age gap romance where the mc is underage (15), fighting/battle, violence, torture, blood, poison, fire, talk of debt, brief mention of child death, spiders, snakes, talk of colonization, loss of father and sibling in past

━━♡ 0.4) The Assassin and the Underworld ★★★

i mean this in the nicest way possible, but celaena is so annoying in this short story. she is finally back in rifthold, after being gone training for three months, and arobynn apologies and sends her on a mission to make up for the abuse that came after the first story in this anthology. celaena starts following the clues about the slave trade and safe houses during her mission and (painfully slowly) starts to figure out maybe not all is what it seems.

we also get introduced to lyssandra in this story, and it really did make my heart hurt to read. this story really emphasizes how arobynn is a gross predatory man, who is grooming and abusing these young adults in many different ways. celaena and sam actually do become a thing in this installment, after a lot of push and pull, but it did taste rather bittersweet because the reader knows what is to come. but the spidersilk really was a sweet twist and made me smile.

tw/cw: extreme physical abuse in past, abusive relationships / unhealthy power dynamics, grooming (and its very uncomfortable to read), predatory men, gaslighting, manipulation, slavery, battle/violence, blood, vomit, mention of loss of mother in past, sex work shaming, drowning, suicide/sacrificing one’s life

━━♡ 0.5) The Assassin and the Empire ★★★

this last story opens up with celaena shacked in the back of a wagon, leading her to where we first meet her in throne of glass. but then, the story goes back eleven days to how she got in this wagon, after things felt so happy at the end of the fourth short story.

celaena and sam are living together, but sam feels like they need more money so he is doing paid fights. jobs are a little bit more hard to come by, because arobynn has essentially blacklisted them in the assassins market. so sam feels like the only thing that he and celaena can do, is leave rifthold for good, but before they sail away on that ship they need to do one last big job each. yet, we as the reader know this is not going to end well because this story opens up with celaena in captivity of the king’s men.

this one was obviously sad, but i feel like celaena just couldn’t connect a dot, even when the dots were right in front of her practically connecting themselves. but there's a lot of betrayal and a lot events that make celaena who she is when we meet her in throne of glass. Yet, i just didn’t love this one and i even closed this book during this reread just really not liking sam, which i really think is not intended lol.

tw/cw: extreme physical abuse in past, abusive relationships / unhealthy power dynamics, grooming (and its very uncomfortable to read), predatory men, gaslighting, manipulation, slavery, battle/violence, blood, torture, missing loved one, loss of a loved one / partner, grief, depressing, drugging, sexual assault threat insinuations

[2016 first read] ★★★
♡ old review on my blog

blog | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon

1.) A Court of Thorns and Roses ★★★★
2.) A Court of Mist and Fury ★★★
3.) A Court of Wings and Ruin ★★★
3.1) A Court of Frost and Starlight ★★★
4) A ​Court of Silver Flames ★★★★

1.) House of Earth and Blood ★★★
2.) House of Sky and Breath ★★★
3.) House of Flame and Shadow ★★★