A Court of Thorns and Roses

So this book was awful. It was slow and shallow, the main female protagonist was not strong and independent, and the characters were just boring and flat, and issues of nonconsent were swept under the rug (or the Mountain, ha).

First off, Feyre is a terrible protagonist, and I’m so mad that this book is touted as having a strong, badass female protagonist. Okay, she’s “cool and strong” because she hunts for food for her family, who are so much of a caricature it’s infuriating. I still don’t know why you’d write a “strong, badass, independent” woman who, after being taken away to a literal castle, pines after her deadbeat, abusive family for half the book. Then, whenever she is not scheming to return to her family or show more actively needing to provide for her family, she has no purpose. She literally sits around not knowing what to do with her life. I think it’s supposed to be implied that she would be a painter, but she has no other interests.

Then to top it all off, she could not complete a single trial Under the Mountain without the help of a man. At no point while Under the Mountain did she do anything with her own wit and strength. In fact, she only went to save a man! Not even to save the rest of the Spring Court, who we pretty much never get to meet anyway because we’re not supposed to feel sympathy for their curse and subjugation, apparently. Only poor Tamlin who sits quietly and watches The Love of His Life be abused while she has the very real potential to die for 3 months straight.

Second, it was full of toxic behavior which was excused and even romanticized. I will not excuse Tamlin sexually assaulting Feyre simply because they were supposed to be attracted to each other and he was giving in to "animal instincts." It was very plainly presented as victim blaming, because Feyre went outside after being told not to and then Tamlin attacks her. She said stop, and he, as the main love interest, did not stop. And then they joked about it the next morning like it was Feyre’s fault. This could have been an opportunity for Tamlin to apologize, and to recognize the situation for the actual assault that it was, but that didn't happen. It was not cute.

And then there's Rhys… who literally drugged Feyre, pimped her out, groped and kissed her without consent, and played it off like it was for her own good. Because scheming in a dungeon is worse then being drugged and danced around a party every night for entertainment with no memory of it the next morning. Maybe if she had been stuck in the dungeon for three months she wouldn’t need a man to win her trials like the strong, independent woman she is. Just a thought. And do you think they confronted this assault that Feyre was subjected to by Rhys? Nope. Rhys did her a favor and now she owes him. What the hell is wrong with Sarah J. Maas?

I gave it two stars because I actually was interested when reading about the time Under the Mountain. It was a little dragged out but it was suspenseful. Rhys had the makings of being a good villain. An actual villain and not whatever joke Amarantha was supposed to be. show less

DNF @ 56%.

Yikes.
Warning: this review will not be positive.

Book content warnings:
dubious consent
slavery mention

I'm completely shocked this book made it this far, that it has so many fans, and that it even got published in the first place. It reads like bad fanfiction: it's messy, it doesn't have a plot, and the protagonist is the most reactive protagonist I've ever read. This is like an example of what not to do in fiction. And yet, and yet, and yet . . .

Feyre (pronounced Fay-ruh ??? awful, awful) is the only provider of her once-wealthy family, struggling to get her disabled father and two sisters fed through the harsh winters. One day out on the hunt, she accidentally kills a faerie in the shape of a wolf, and when a High Fae comes show more for her in exchange for the wolf's life to take her back to his world, her life is changed forever.

Again, I only read halfway, but it was enough. I couldn't go on, and even getting this far was a struggle.

I think the plot is actually not about Feyre struggling to fit into this new life in faerie world, but actually about this magical blight affecting the faerie world and the faerie courts, etc. But if that's the case . . . it's the most lazy and un-immediate plot? It's only ever mentioned about every other chapter in passing, it never seems to affect Feyre (the protagonist!) personally, and the stakes aren't high. The plot is supposed to drive everything! It made this book a meandering mess. The plot's structure can be defined as

dangerous faerie land thing; High Faerie (Tamlin) warns Fayre not to be involved; Feyre does it anyway; bad thing happens.

and repeat.
Over and over and over and over and over.

That's it. Except after each repeat, Tamlin and Feyre become more attracted to each other. Hence the comparison to bad fanfiction.

But no, the comparison doesn't end there, because it also has dubious consent in the form of romance! Here for young adults to consume and be influenced by. :// In this case, their very first kiss was when Feyre was incredibly drunk on wine. But no! It's romantic. Plus there's some random Spring festival where Tamlin becomes crazed and animalistic (.... why ?) and """mates""" with "females" to bring in Spring, and he warns Feyre to stay in her room so he won't "smell" her and want to sexually attack her. What does she do? Leave her room. And he finds her and nearly sexually assaults her. What's worse? She likes it. While knowing he has no control of himself. I really don't know which is worse.

In any case, I couldn't stand this book. There's more, but I've said enough and I don't want to spend any more energy on this. There's better books to read. show less

I decided to reread this series since it has been a couple years and I read them before I really started my reviewing journey. I am glad I decided to reread because I forgot just how addictive this series is. I adore Feyre she is a very strong willed character who will do anything for the ones she loves. I adore that this one starts off pretty strong, like we don't get bogged down with all the lore of the world. Instead, we get Feyre out hunting and then bam she's now stuck in Prythian with Tamlin. I think Maas does a phenomenal job of creating vastly different characters. Feyre and her sisters are all so different and I love watching how that dynamic plays out.

Once in Prythian we learn a little more about the faeries and High Fae but show more it's done in an amazing way, so that it doesn't feel overwhelming. I have to admit that the first time I read this I was really supporting a Feyre and Lucien romance. I mean it's hard not to want it. They have this amazing banter and Lucien is just a fantastic character. It's not that I hate Tamlin in this one... I just don't think he does a lot to earn Feyre. Sure Lucien doesn't really like her for most of it... but like that's fine. Naturally though everything changes with the introduction of Rhysand... who clearly has some tension with Tamlin.

I'll admit I instantly fell in love with Rhysand. I love the dynamic between Feyre and him Under the Mountain. It makes for this fantastic story. I love the bits and pieces of the history of Prythian we get slowly throughout the last half of the story. I think Under the Mountain really changes the tone of the story and sets up this intense struggle that is going to take place in future novels. Also, I'm still shook with the scream. It hit's as hard the second time as it does the first. What I absolutely loved though was how much of the book I got to rediscover doing the reread. show less

Me to Sarah J Maas:

"Do you lie awake at night to come up with all your witty replies for the following day?"

Oh dear, this is awful.

The Writing

The title of this book is stupid. It's stupid and flashy and unrelated to the actual content of the book. It's solely for the ~wow~ factor. The quotable line, "I love you... Thorns and all" is wholely ineffective because "thorns" had not been established as a motif and was only used in that context in that very scene, more than halfway through the book. The word "thorn" was only used a grand total of 9 times in this book. The original Beauty and the Beast story had established rose motifs—you can't borrow good writing, even for a retelling. That's just lazy.

The writing itself was inconsistent show more and poorly done.

I pushed and pulled, but the mud was too slick, and held fast.

Are you aware of the definition of "slick", Sarah J Maas? I do not think it means what you think it means.

Besides that, Amarantha's hair drastically changed color after about 90 pages:

Her red-gold hair

Her black hair

Which is it, Maas? It can't be both unless she has unmentioned magical hair dyeing abilities.

The atmosphere and the opening chapter were excellent and I was intrigued by the idea that was offered me, but the actual book did not deliver at all.

This next point is a spoiler, but because I am disgusted with Sarah J Maas for including this, I am not going to mark it as such, since everyone should know what kind of morals this book is supporting before they read it especially when they are as filthy and vulgar as this was.

The attempted rape of Feyre by Tamlin was brushed off as no more than a mere romantic, steamy encounter to further their lukewarm love story. The only conclusions I can logically draw from this are all rather victim blamey, tbh—she was warned several times to stay inside with the doors locked until dawn, but she leaves her room not once but twice before dawn because she ~wants to go to the party~ and then later, after she almost gets gang-raped and is saved and then creeped out by Rhysand the sociopath, she thinks she is totally safe to go eat a bunch of cookies because, well the drums stopped, so it's probably okay now, and then she gets sexually assaulted by Tamlin, who was still high with lust magic.

I was about to pass out when he grabbed me, so fast I didn't see anything until he had me pinned against the wall.

"Let go," I said as evenly as I could.

I [pushed] him away. He grabbed my hands again and bit my neck. I cried out as his teeth clamped onto the tender spot where my neck met my shoulder. I couldn't move—I couldn't think.

Before, during and after the attack, she's thinking, Wow, he's really hot. I'm kinda uncomfortable with this, but I guess it's okay that he's drunk on lust magic, because I wanted to sleep with him anyway. That is a very wrong and dangerous way of thinking. No matter what, it is never okay for anyone to make someone else sexually uncomfortable or afraid, especially when they've given verbal disapproval. This entire scene left a bad taste in my mouth.

And then there's Rhysand's behavior. He repeatedly violates her personal space and comfort, drugging her and forcing her to "dance" for him in front of a large crowd for weeks on end after stripping her all but naked. Like all Fae males, apparently, he using brute force to get her to comply with his sexual wishes.

"But he didn't actually touch her; he kept his hands just on her waist!" you say. Yeah, but did she say he could touch her at all? Did she actively encourage him to touch her? No, she did not.

I pulled away, but his hands were like shackles.

I would not have such an issue with this if Sarah J Maas didn't give the impression that she supports such behavior. That is what I find unconsciable.

Besides that, the plot made no sense, even after exposition-Alis gave us the lowdown—in fact, it almost made less sense then. It was cheesy and cliché and frankly, boring. The "riddle" was extremely easy and only proved that Feyre is an absolute idiot with no logical abilities, as I was able to figure it out before Amarantha had even finished saying it, and I'm notoriously bad at riddles.

The sex scenes were almost Empire of Storms levels of bad, cringey, and gross. I think Sarah J Maas doesn't know what YA means and isn't aware she's actually writing for NA.

The Worldbuilding

The Fae were, for one thing, almost exactly the same (primarily in appearance and personality) to the ones in the Throne of Glass series, and tbh I was disappointed. They're not even cleverly unique faeries. They're just Tolkien-esque elves that are actually vampires: fangs and biting, immortality, aetherial beauty, animalistic tendencies, superiority complex. They don't have any distinct differences from humans in their thought processes or emotional capacities—only the same degree of variety that exists in humans.

The religious system and creation story was very interesting and I really liked that aspect.

The Characters

Faerie aka Belle: Sarah J Maas decided to try something new and have a first person fixed perspective, but it didn't really work, because Feyre was a bland complacent character without much substance passed the surface level, and most of the interesting action took place where she couldn't see it. She suffered, like Celaena did in Crown of Midnight, from what I call Nehemia syndrome: the character that the MC has grown to trust, despite obvious suspicious behavior, turns out to be manipulative, and yet the MC completely overlooks that fact in favor of idolization of their lying friend. In this case, everyone in Prythian is keeping secrets from her and after almost getting her questions answered by the Suriel, Feyre decides to "Stay with the High Lord. He will keep you safe," and just completely forgets that she wants answers about the blight. Also, whereas Belle left the Beast in the original story because her father was in mortal danger, in this book, Feyre leaves because Tamlin impies that she's gonna get ganked by Rhys or Amarantha, the evil Faerie Queen. She is not an active protagonist. Also, her painting skills aren't a part of her characterization; it just feels tacked on to make her ~cool~ and ~unique~

Tampon aka the Beast: I don't even care about this guy tbh. He's a confusing character who just feels like a Chaol-Rowan merge on steroids. He's violent, obsessive, and abusive, but also sweet, understanding, and caring, because that's not a contradiction. There's a difference between a complex character and a poorly written character.

Lucien aka Lumiere/Cogsworth (his steampunk eye suggests Cogsworth but his personality suggests Lumiere): So apparently he "hates" Feyre even though I almost shipped them more since they consistently had better chemistry than her and Tammy, and that's saying a lot, because they didn't have chemistry.

exposition-Alis aka Mrs Potts: She was okay. Just okay. She was fine.

Reese's Cups aka also the Beast and kinda Gaston too: Is he supposed to be her love interest for the rest of the series or something, because the fan art definitely suggests that, but, uh, did everyone forget that he's a dangerous sociopath with a history of violence?? He has no regard for her emotional well-being and sees her body as literally nothing passed a sexual plaything. He's a horrible person.

Amarantha: Why did there have to be a "big bad evil Faerie Queen" in this at all? There's already one in the Throne of Glass series and I can only take so much female-against-female hate from a supposedly feminist fantasy writer. Amarantha was bland and predictable, and her motivations were extremely surface-level.

Her fam: Nesta was like, supposed to have some kind of implied character arc but lol it wasn't very good. Elain was nice and I liked her. The dad was okay, I guess. Pretty forgettable tbh

Isaac Hale aka fake-out Gaston: This character wasn't important at all, but I just wanted to say that I think this is the dumbest name choice in a high fantasy book that I've ever seen. Isaac Hale?? Really, Sarah J Maas? Really? That's the Jason of fantasy names. This is a the-guy-who-went-to-high-school-with-my-older-sister kind of name. It's not a fantasy name.

Conclusion

While I managed to read it fairly quickly, I had to dnf it for several days before deciding to trudge through. It was horrendous. I may pick up the sequel at some point, idk, but for now, from what I predict and understand from various spoilers I've encountered on the internet, I don't really care about this series very much. Frankly, it's not good. show less

Now I understand why it's so popular. It's just a romance novel; clunky, repetitive, and lacking in real heat from my limited reading of that genre, but interesting worldbuilding.

..ACoTaR did feel very juvenile, and apparently got shelved in YA / also a brief attempt to popularize 'New Adult' as a genre to bridge the simplicity of YA prose with the explicit smut available in adult fiction. I'm willing to forgive it some flaws in that context.

However, as a child who devoured mythology and folktales.

Still can't say I'm impressed by the resolution for / take on Beauty and the Beast. It's largely just trauma bonding --and maybe that's addressed in later books-- but framing it as True Love Conquers All made the back half or third kind of a show more slog. Claiming it as an interpretation of Tam Lin is rather generous.

The fae we see the most of aren't particularly flavorful, they largely seem just petty, controlling humans rather than truly alien.

But ew, adding in the problematic "teen infatuated with an immortal." (But she's nineteen and not a virgin, it's totally okay.) I do not like that power dynamic on the tin, but it gets worse. Different aspects of rape culture just get a pass or frame toxic masculinity as desirable. But I digress.

The climax resolution was an irritating, Twilight-esque Mary Sue glowup right at the end. That puts me off Feyre even more strongly as a protagonist, and defangs the Tam Lin allusion; it strikes me as performative agency.

Subtle and blatant nastiness in a book that's squarely YA-diction, smutty Beauty and the Beast.

Though I am interested in seeing more of the other Courts. show less

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: This novel was a perfect blend of humor, romance, and suspense. A truly engaging, gorgeous book.

Opening Sentence: The forest had become a labyrinth of snow and ice.

The Review:

Feyre takes care of her family. She’s the only one that can. She can hunt, but in the cold of winter, it’s not often to come across game or anything of value, so when she comes across an usually large wolf prowling the forest, she takes her oppurtunity. She is unaware that the wolf was a shape-changing faerie from the other side of the huge wall that seperates the fae from the humans, built after the Treaty. A wolflike creature, a High Fae, comes to demand retribution: a life for a life. She must come live out show more the remainder of her days with him on his estate, in the dangerous faerie lands she’s heard so many stories about. But all is not well on the faerie side of the land either. A blight is taking over, draining magic, and there are evil plots in the making that Tamin won’t explain to her. There are things she doesn’t understand, and they just might kill her. As she spends time with Tamin, she uncovers deadly secrets and realizes her feelings for Tamin might have grown beyond a friendship.

A Court of Thorns and Roses has been a favorite of many bloggers ever since advance copies appeared in the wild. I have to admit, their strong feelings about it made me envious that they had a copy. But thanks to Kelly at Mysterious Galaxy (to whom I’m eternally grateful) I was able to get my hands on this novel and devour it in a day. And let me tell you, this book was not overhyped. I loved it so much, so dearly, for so many reasons. S. J. Maas is an absolute artist in her words and the way she describes things — she can pinpoint the exact, perfect words to complement each other in any given sentence. The characters were all strong, all with clear motives and unique personalities. The voice was fresh and relatable, with the perfect mix of strength and weakness that made Feyre seem perfectly human. The setting was lush, the world-building amazing. This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and I could see definite similarities, but at the same time it was its own story. It was artfully crafted and the plot was complex and powerful. It’s the first in a series, but to be honest, I could also imagine it being a standalone. It left us with a few questions to be answered, but for the most part, the novel was wrapped up in a bow.

Feyre was the character whom told the story. She was a human, and often, in the land of faeries, that made her the weaker one. It pained her oftentimes that she had so many shortcomings compared to majesty of the magical beasts. I felt for her, and she was often more self-councious than she let on. But make no mistake, she was also extremely strong. She knew how to stand up for herself and was very competent. She was also bold, especially with Tamlin (the love interest) and Lucien (Tamlin’s friend). She cracked jokes that I found hilarious. At one point, she caught a faerie that has to tell you whatever you wish if you can snare it. Tamlin asks her what the faerie said to her, and she snarkily replies: “He said that you like being brushed, and if I’m a clever girl, I might train you with treats.” (Get it? Because Tamlin’s animal form is a wolflike dog?) But she was also human enough to remain vulnerable, willing to love. I loved this mix of emotions that made her a realistic character and a perfect representation of the human race.

The love with Tamlin was paced perfectly, as was the entire book’s plotline. She didn’t fall instantly in love with him, as so many books do these days: insta-love is the bane of my existence. Instead, their relationship developed at a believable pace. At first, she hates him, then she warms to him. As she gets to know him, gets to understand his motivations better, she finds she enjoys his company. And eventually, after a while, her love for him blossoms. It’s beautiful and engaging, and though their relationship was not the most prominent part of the book, it was still an important one.

Sarah J. Maas creates a lush, lifelike world in A Court of Thorns and Roses. The human side of the wall is obviously less exciting than the faerie’s is, but just as amazingly described. She weaves words together and builds a high fantasy world that you can sink into easily. I cannot get enough of it. There are thousands of species of fae, and she touches on quite a few that made my spine tingle. For instance, the bogge, which whispers into your ear. It tells you to look at it, and casts a sort of eerie spell that makes you want to, but when you look at it, than it can become corporeal and kill you. Then there’s the puca. It creates a form that would call to you, such as a lover or a family member, and lures you away until it can attack. There were also more familiar ones, like will o’ the wisps. I also enjoyed the various faerie customs along the course of the story — the parties, the dances. You got to see firsthand into the world of their politics, as well, and got a few history lessons, with thankfully no notable info-dump. You basically got a taste of everything in the faerie world so that you felt satisfied and like you understood it.

Altogether, I obviously was a fan of this novel. There was nothing that I didn’t adore. The writing style flowed well, the main character was a strong point of view, the world-building and romance were done perfectly. I can pinpoint the exact moment when I just fell in love, about sixty pages in. The book is at no point boring, but it speeds up to a million climaxes after you pass the middle point of this four hundred page story. The amount of emotionally powerful or action-packed scenes after that half point kept me hooked. I was a tad bit emotionally traumatized after I finished. By a tad bit, I mean that I was sobbing hysterically while I laughed and spun around my room. Not my proudest hour. I would encourage everyone to read this book, not just those who loved Thrown of Glass. I wasn’t a huge fan of that series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrible, but I prefer A Court of Thorns and Roses a thousand times over. When you get the chance to pick this up, savor every word. I promise that the experience will be a worthwhile one. And even if you don’t enjoy it (which is almost impossible) you still have that beautiful red cover to display on your bookshelf.

Notable Scene:

The cold thing whispered past, circling. I could see nothing, but I could feel it. And in the back of my mind, an ancient, hollow voice whispered:

I will grind your bones between my claws; I will drink your marrow; I will feast on your flesh. I am what you fear; I am what you dread . . . look at me. Look at me.

I tried to swallow, but my throat had closed up. I kept my eyes on the trees, on the canopy, an anything but the cold mass circling us again and again.

Look at me.

FTC Advisory: Bloomsbury provided me with a copy of A Court of Thorns and Roses. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. show less

Setting aside at page 82. I really wanted to enjoy this, because Ms Maas is so popular and it's fun to be excited by/about things. But unfortunately, it's just not happening for me.

I think it's mostly lack of details that's stopping me from really engaging with this. I'm not feeling any sense of peril for Feyre because she tells us that the faerie are terrible marauders, but we've seen and heard little first-hand confirmation (the tales of one highly suspicious mercenary aside) and all her own experience seems pretty cushy, frankly. And I'm not feeling any urgency about her family's situation because (in true fairytale style) they're all horrible people and she's better off without them. (Perhaps the promise to her mother to look after show more them is supposed to be compelling, but everything she's said about her mother didn't suggest a strong relationship there, so it lacks punch for me.)

I found the lack of detail particularly problematic with conveying the splendour of Faerie to us. We get mountains of food, told there's a lot and it's varied, but we get no sumptuous details. And those are the sorts of buried-in-the-world details that I really enjoy about fantastical worlds.

So no. Not for me. Onwards to other things. show less