Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

192 reviews

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. 

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

Oh no! I wanted to like this so badly 🫣 gained a star since the plot finally ramped up in the last third of the book!

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really expected this book to be garbage. I generally cannot stand first person narration so I listened to the audiobook which helps me focus on the plot and not the writing. It was enjoyable! Definitely worth the read if you like an easy fun fantasy romance. Sometimes things are popular for a reason! I had only ever heard these books described as ā€œfairy pornā€ but the sex scenes were only a step or two above fade-to-black. There is a lot of icky sex used as a policial ploy and a lot of coercion and objectification of the main character. Despite it technically being YA, I would not recommend to young people who still fall into the trap of romanticizing that, because I don’t think the book does enough to condemn the abuse of power dynamics like that. Also it barely passes the bechdel test, and is definitely a Stockholm syndrome scenario. But in a world where game of thrones is the gold standard, I think this book deserves a fraction of the flack it receives. Let women enjoy things. 

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

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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

4.25ā­ļø1šŸŒ¶ļø(mostly closed door, very few sex scenes, several tension-filled scenes)
This had been on my TBR for 4 years and idk what took me so long. People either love or hate this book and this series in general and I liked it a lot! I will say the beginning 20% is pretty slow, it took me a couple weeks to get through that and then I read the last 80% in less than 24hrs. I read along with the graphic audiobook and that version shuffles some inner monologue and dialogue around to make conversations flow, so I’d suggest the regular audiobook first and the graphic audio for a reread. I really didn’t find the book spicy at all, I think this could be appropriate for YA readers, but I’ve heard the rest of the series is spicier. Another thing: why does everyone hate tamlin?? He’s a pretty decent guy and takes care of FMC and her family when he doesn’t need to. I can see the rhys hype, he’s the misunderstood villain bad boy who I predict will be an enemies to lovers in the future and his fan art is🄵. Some of the book is gory and graphic, I would classify this as a dark romantasy with plenty of fluff. I would definitely reread in the future and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series!

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adventurous dark tense medium-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

It’s okay but I don’t get the buzz. It was just so many awful things happening over and over. Didn’t really buy into the motivations of the FMC. Will keep going with the series but was very meh as a book to me 

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

Some books are like a comforting bowl of spaghetti and red sauce. Some are like sushi. This is more like a bag of chips you keep eating while low key respecting yourself less with every bite. 

It’s marketed as violent and sexy - the violence was definitely there, a lot more than I expected actually. Sexy scenes were few and far in between, unless you count sexual violence as sexy, which I very much don’t. I thought Feyre was an idiot most of the time, but she was feisty and loyal. To me, Tamlin didn’t have that much personality. Lucien was a little better and Rhys was the most fleshed out, which is still not saying much.

On one hand I would like to get to know these characters better in the next books, on the other hand the violence, especially the sexual violence, is really turning me off

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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings