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Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content
The characters don't really stand out either. They just don't feel real to me. I will say, I love the banter between Lucien and Feyre. Their little conversations are always fun! Those bits of dialogue are the highlight of my reading experience for the first part.
After chapter 31 things are great. The last part of the book is engaging and suspenseful. There were certain points where I didn't want to put it down so I ended up reading longer then I expected. I think the pacing in this section was better, it didn't drag on like the earlier section.
Graphic: Animal death, Death
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, War
Minor: Death of parent
Graphic: Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief
Minor: Genocide, Slavery, Vomit, Death of parent
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Torture, War, Classism
Feyre, the novel’s protagonist, kills a wolf and is taken by a beast (Tamlin) to his estate in the faerie world of Prythian. He holds her there for killing his wolf friend, who was actually a faerie. Throughout the book, we find out about a twisted labyrinth of treaties, curses, and creatures who complicate things for our protagonist, for Tamlin, and for a host of supporting characters. In the end, Feyre travels Under the Mountain to save Tamlin (and his friend Lucien) and break the curse.
This book gave off definite Beauty and the Beast vibes - kidnapping a girl, holding her at a massive estate, a cursed beastly creature. I thought the main and secondary characters were generally well-written and I enjoyed the overall plot, but HOLY COW it took some time to get there. Feyre killed the wolf, was kidnapped, and was at Tamlin’s estate by chapter 6. She then lallygagged around for about 20 chapters. A few excursions into the forest, a quick intro to Rhysand, and a solstice party, sure, but very little happened again plot-wise until chapter 26. The book coasted on the relationship development and sexual tension between Feyre and Tamlin for the bulk of chapters 7-25. Don’t get me wrong, I was HERE for that, but Maas absolutely could have condensed that information from 180 pages to about 60.
My other issue with ACOTAR was the lack of anger toward Feyre by Tamlin. You’re telling me a human girl kills your friend, who you sent in an attempt to break this curse, and you’re going to just bring her to your estate and let her hang out while you hope she falls in love with you? I get that Tamlin had an ulterior motive and a timeline, but it read to me like he loved her from the jump instead of falling in love with her, which seemed odd. I think a Beauty-and-the-Beast type romance where they both started out angry and gradually fell in love would have made for a better plot.
Once the pace picked up, and once I (sort of) accepted the love story/timeline between Feyre and Tamlin, I really enjoyed the remainder of the book. Maas is a skilled fantasy writer; she had me hooked during Feyre’s entire time Under the Mountain. There were SO MANY good twists in the last 100 pages!
Overall, did ACOTAR knock my socks off? No. Will I read the next book in the series because I want to see how these relationships play out? Yes. Recommend? Sure, especially if you’re into fantasy.
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Alcohol
Minor: Vomit