Reviews with content warning for Vomit - A Court of Thorns and Roses

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

624 reviews

latsin's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

yeidi's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Consider me hooked!

If this ever gets adapted, I hope it's an animated series like Netflix Castlevania.

Interesting world building.
A visceral type of writing.
Nitpick: a bit too rushed in some parts (ex. spoiler:
family reuniting, arguably understandably
) and a bit too slow in others. But not enough to really bother me.
I've seen people say the 2nd is better and I'm looking forward to it.

Content Warnings

thehoziest's review against another edition

2.5

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

I’ve been reading this book on and off since April last year. I never disliked it enough to want to DNR it but I also never liked it enough to prioritise it. It’s not great. It’s enjoyable enough, but doesn’t have the heart of something like twilight, which I find *charmingly* not great - it’s just not great.

It’s very badly written. Her way with words is very lacking and the plot is incredibly stupid and poorly justified. The main character is insufferable, the stupidest character in any story I’ve ever read - just reliably has the stupidest possible responses and reactions to literally every situation, and the climax of the book is that she takes three months to solve the most basic, obvious riddle I’ve ever read. I solved it in two minutes. The first 50% of the book is like she just looked at all the dumbest parts of Beauty and the Beast and thought, what if it was even worse? The second half has some action and an actual plot so it’s a little better, but still quite bad.

I know there are cultural appropriation and representation issues about Ireland in this series and they don’t come up much in this first one, (making a country named after, and inspired by, Ireland and then making it the coloniser was a pretty wild choice though) but although they aren’t the most egregious issues in the world, basically the book isn’t good enough to make you want to excuse even that much.

I wouldn’t recommend. I think these are only popular because too many women are starved for romance in their real lives. If you have any amount of good sex in your life, I don’t think this has anything for you. There’s also actually barely any sex depicted in it, and when there is a sex scene, she shrinks away from describing it with the most uncomfortably cowardly innuendo-filled nonsense. (If you can’t bring yourself to be normal about sex, maybe just don’t write a book about it?)

I still might read more of them though. It has a sort of soap-opera / chewing gum for your brain vibe where it’s shallow and explicitly not good but it’s sort of pleasant to consume it?

Content Warnings

andysanzz_'s review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging tense medium-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

Content Warnings

rosamaria's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

booksthoughtsandtea's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I was impressed by the pacing and overall story. I don't understand why some people are so opposed to this book.

Content Warnings

finozbleck's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional 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

This book was a decent read/listen. It could have been a stronger first book in the series. It wasn't an amazing enough book for me to want to continue reading the rest of the series, but the general plot and pacing of the story was enjoyable. It felt a little bit too predictable at times. The enemies to lovers trope didn't feel as believable as it could've been, especially as the enemies to lovers trope can sometimes be hard to write well. Tamlin felt very two dimensional and could've used some extra attention in the character development area. With all the hype about the *spiciness*, I was hoping it would be spicy, but it really wasn't all that spicy. As much as I would like to continue, the second half of the book and the ending didn't convince me enough to continue reading the rest of the series.

Content Warnings

celestihel's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

yyes's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Page turner but also some gaps in the plot pivots.

Content Warnings

myrthevaes's review against another edition

1.5

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I found ACOTAR very hard to get through. Feyre, the main character, is insufferable and being in her head is annoying. She definitely suffers from "main character syndrome" and that made me not really care for her.

Maas has a tendency to repeat the same things over and over again, in different ways. Some chapters were completely unnecessary. The first half of the book felt like it was going nowhere.

I think the "spice" in this book is still quite mellow, thankfully. However, consent being an important part in healthy and meaningful relationships... I think none of the characters pass as someone respecting boundaries. Tamlin and Rhys (not going to call them love interests because why would you call your kidnapper and a literal demon who makes a deal to own you that?) are both examples of thirst traps with a bit of personality and background scribbled around them to eventually try to "redeem" their behavior.

The 'ritual(s)' and acts of these characters are, again, seen by the fans of these books as something morally grey (or just 'hot'). But I cannot in good concience say anything positive about it. The lack of consent in this book is utterly disgusting, and I am wondering how people are not only ok with it, but actively defending it. I have seen cosplayers of these characters really pushing boundaries, which is concerning. The 'primal' thing really is too much for me, I find it incredibly cringe and makes me feel sick. Also, please stop purring.
The whole "mating" thing (which is only a thing we hear about from Tamlins parents) is gonna play a big part in the next books (my friend told me because I was appalled and needed to rant), and it is not only super problematic but also just plain vile in my opinion. The uncontrollable urge to mate, all respect and consent feel like a side issue... no thanks.

Needless to say this is probably my #1 reason I am not going to read any further. This does not set up realistic expectations for a healthy and responsible relationship.
I feel like this book is glorifying rape and that just doesn't sit well with me.

Also, what about lgbtqia+ people? They seem to be non-existant in this world.

I honestly do not understand why people like this book so much. It feels like a bad judge of character and justifying bad deeds just for the sake of a sexy scene doesn't turn this book into something 'good'. Why is it do popular? Don't people usually have standards? If you think this is normal I'm genuinely asking you to question your real life relationships...

I loved the concept of the curse fusing the masks to peoples faces, the courts sound absolutely magical and there is a lot of potential there, but we didn't see much of it apart from the spring court. I guess Maas will touch upon more in other books and I hope she doesn't turn them into empty shells of what could have been. She has a masters degree in creative writing, but honestly I found the "world building" and the writing in this book average at best.
The creatures in this world are definitely scary and I would have loved to see more of them. However, that is basically all I really enjoyed about this world Sarah J Maas created, most of it sadly fell flat in the end. The creatures felt like they only appeared just to fill chapters. You could say it's world building, but they are mentioned once or twice and then never spoken of again. And even then- it didn't push the story forward.

Finally, do NOT get me started on the premise of the curse. Its whole premise was stupid and clearly written to fit the story. The backstory of Amarantha and her sister had potential, but turned into somethings lame and laughable. She felt like a cartoon villain whose only character traits were: 'evil' and 'sexually frustrated'. She didn't even feel like a smart character.
No, I don't think it was a good plot. No, I don't think the story made sense. No, I wasn't emerged in the world like I am in other books. No, I don't feel like the villain was villainous and the hero was heroic. It was all very generic and I found it, quite frankly, disappointing.

I give this book 1,5 out of 5 stars. Because Lucien was a character I cared about (still feel like he was unintentionally written to be a closeted gay and I just want to tell him everything will be ok), the creatures and world still have potential and I liked the description in some (yes, some) chapters. However, I don't think I'll finish the series as this was so underwhelming I feel like I would prefer to spend my time with other books I know I will enjoy more.

Content Warnings

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