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I don’t think I’ll be able to properly describe how much I loved this book. It meant so much to me.

The thrilling conclusion to the Mask of Shadows duology that weaves a tale of magic, shadows, and most importantly, revenge.
As one of the Queen’s elite assassins, Sal finally has the power, prestige, and permission to hunt down the lords who killed their family. But Sal still has to figure out who the culprits are. They must enlist the help of some old friends and enemies while ignoring a growing distaste for the queen and that the charming Elise is being held prisoner by her father.
But there’s something terribly wrong in the north. Talk of the return of shadows, missing children, and magic abounds. As Sal takes out the people responsible for their ruined homeland, Sal learns secrets and truths that can’t be forgotten.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

Content warnings include: graphic violence and gore, torture, death, murder, panic attack, trauma/PTSD, graphic descriptions of corpses, queerphobia, xenophobia, misogyny, sex off-page, public executions, human experiments, child abduction; mentions of: genocide, death of family.

Ruin of Stars is quite a bit different to its prequel, Mask of Shadows. In some ways I want to say I liked it even more (which I didn’t think was possible), but I’m not sure that would be true due to how vastly different – and heavier – the topic matters are.
While it would be true, if a gross simplification, to say Mask of Shadows is a book about killing people, Ruin of Stars cannot be summed up quite that easily.

First of all it plays on a much grander scale. While the prequel focussed entirely on the auditions for Opal, one of Our Queen’s assassins, and took place on the palace grounds, now events happen all over several cities and countries and have major political and world-changing consequences.
On the smaller scale, Sal can finally execute their revenge on the people who ordered the murder of their people, but even that is closely intertwined with the war that broke out and is tearing the country apart.

I already loved how Sal’s being genderfluid was handled before, but here their gender identity is not only discussed more in depth, but conversations about queerness take a prominent role. My heart ached not only because these queer characters were fighting for their right to exist in peace and acceptance in the face of a queerphobic power trying to take over, but also for Sal on a personal scale. Thanks to their new position as Honorable Opal they meet a wide varity of people, many of them queer, and their almost desperate eagerness to have someone to talk to, to share experiences with, to be able to ask questions and seeing queer elders thrive brought me so much joy but also sadness due to the surrounding circumstances.
Non-cis and often non-binary gender identity was often the focus of discussion about queer identities, but there was also a fair bit about asexuality. In contrast, bi- and homosexuality is discussed less in depth, which I found a refreshing change to most other books with similar topics that I’ve encountered so far – I feel like those two are often the most prominently handled ones, with a-spectrum or gender identities often pushed to the side or not mentioned at all.

Another big topic of Ruin of Stars was xenophobia and the genocide that was already brought up before. Sal’s country Nacea and their entire people were erradicated ten years ago – or so they thought. They have never met another surviving Nacean and they were a child when the shadows decimated their family and everyone else living in Nacea.
There are many conversations about their self-doubt whether they are truly Nacean when they can barely remember their culture, and about what it means to go against what their culture teaches as a means of survival in a world that barely acknowledges or remembers its existence or that it was willfully destroyed.

Tied up in the revenge plot and the conversations about queer and cultural identity is also a lot of self-discovery. Sal has to reflect on who they really are, what they want, where they want to be and what they are willing to do and give up to achieve their goals. There is a lot of growth and character development woven between the more action-heavy plot, and most of it is not driven by gentle self-exploration. Instead, brutal tragedy, well-placed lies and shocking discoveries continuously force Sal to reevaluate their priorities, their loyalties and their motivations.

Despite being very plot-driven, the characters are extremely important as well, and there are much more that play an important role than in book 1. Maud and Elise are obviously important figures – even if not always in the roles you’d expect. I was also happy to find Rath in the foreground again, and Dimas was a pleasant surprise. There are some new additions to the cast as well, but I will not spoil them.

I cannot repeat enough how much I loved this book. It had everything I loved and possibly even a bit too much in some of the darker corners – it definitely doesn’t go light on the tragedies. But there is also so much healing, caring, open-armed welcomes and found families. The action is breath-taking and heart-stopping and the stakes are even higher than before, and I cannot wait to reread this absolutely stunning series and experience it all over again.

You can read my review of book1 in the series, Mask of Shadows, here.

You can buy the book here.

~iam