Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

486 reviews

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I am now a very firm and ardent lover of the Maasverse! I can’t believe I’ve had this book for 9 years and just now read it! I loved every bit of it and cannot wait to continue with these characters and fall even more in love with this world! 

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

2/5 First half of the Book was slow. 
Put it down a cupple of times because I was anoyed by Feyra.

4,5/5 Second half of the book was more interesting. Couldn‘t stop reading and listening for the last 30% of the Book.

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Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

I think one of the reasons that this book reads so easy, and why I didn’t love it, is that everything seems a little too convenient. Everything goes according to plan. Feyre, no matter how stupid she acts—and she does some TRULY inexplicable and delusional things—always manages to come out on top. She gives us no reason to believe that she is capable of the things she pulls off, and yet, it just happens for her. It’s simultaneously not really believable and hugely predictable. I think this is the pitfall of writing an “badass” female MC without fleshing out any systemic failures. Sure, she can kick ass, and that’s hot to every gorgeous man she comes across, but at what cost? We don’t get to see any character development. Even in moments where she struggles, it’s hard to reach any depth of emotion about it, because you know that everything is going to magically work out. And speaking of magic, SJM threw out everything interesting about fae stories, everything that makes them complex, and decided to emphasize the boringest parts of them (sexy, immortal, maybe evil? but probably not). Another area that SJM decided to abandon complexity is the worldbuilding. It’s flimsy. Functional at surface level but if you look ANY deeper it crumbles. I think that plot-driven stories are always at risk of this because they can fail to really examine character motivations, but this one also just feels like a lack of forethought on the author’s part. All in all, the story is fine. I don’t particularly like Beauty and Beast or retellings, and I especially don’t like beauty and the beast retellings, but despite that, the story did move along. Maybe if you read it fast enough, you can just glide past all the issues. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

There are a lot of moments that are promising in this book but it is overshadowed by a poor writing style that is repetitive and full of cliches. The best moments are when there is action or intensity with little dialogue. The characters fall flat most of the time. The end of the book is promising and shows a hint of character progression that could lead to a much better reading experience in future books. 

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adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a very mixed review - I started it as a hate read, so I could properly roast it. But I wound up devouring the book, really. It is essentially beauty and the beast meets twilight, with a double scoop of toxic relationships on top. 

The MC is incredibly bland and at first none of the plot or relationships made any sense. I had a LOT of eye rolling and it wasn't until the end that I realized that MC is bland for a REASON. Having  a blank canvas character allows the reader to project themselves into the story more easily...which is probably why people like it so much. Yearning, romance, sex - its all much more fun when you can imagine your self as the recipient. 

And for that the book did its job. Its a wonderful YA y/n self insert self indulgent book. The spice level is pretty low - the 1.5 scenes were short, laced with metaphors and not particularly racy. But I come from the land AO3. 

The plot was kind of weird, especially the last third with the trials. It seems the second and third books are better BUT i will not be reading them because there are more compelling love stories with muh better sex, slow burn and enemies to lovers. 

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