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dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
I had heard mixed reviews about this book going in. I am a huge fantasy fan and was excited seeing as this book is a major bestseller. More like a major let down. I don't even want to get into how disappointed I was, there were multiple times where I had to drag my eyeballs down from the back of my head. The writing level was very YA which is understandable, seeing as my library has it catalogued that way. However there is some very intense gore, and a few sex scenes-but it was the descriptive violence that got me.
Thematic events were WAY over-explained, does the author think that we are so stupid that we didn't understand what she had lain out? Or is it that she thinks she's so clever that readers couldn't possibly keep up? This happened more than once, and had me vibrating with irritation.
The story seemed very slow for the first 3/4 of the book, then at the end had everything happen at once, I felt like I was waiting and waiting for something to happen. The "love" story was developping in the earlier half of the book, but I couldn't see any chemistry or romance between the leads. It just felt very obvious (along with so many other parts of the story) and I didn't feel any connection to the characters at ALL.
Once finishing this book I let out a "FINALLY!!!" and told myself I would not continue the series. But apparently I am a masochist because I just checked out the next book to see if maaaybe it gets any better. Or because I have nothing better to do. Putting my prediction for future books here without knowing anything about them- there is definitely going to be a love triangle between the lead and the two fae high-lords. I can see it already, and don't like it! UGH!!
PS I am so sorry if anyone reads this review, I am just tracking my reading for myself and don't know if this is public or not.
Thematic events were WAY over-explained, does the author think that we are so stupid that we didn't understand what she had lain out? Or is it that she thinks she's so clever that readers couldn't possibly keep up? This happened more than once, and had me vibrating with irritation.
The story seemed very slow for the first 3/4 of the book, then at the end had everything happen at once, I felt like I was waiting and waiting for something to happen. The "love" story was developping in the earlier half of the book, but I couldn't see any chemistry or romance between the leads. It just felt very obvious (along with so many other parts of the story) and I didn't feel any connection to the characters at ALL.
Once finishing this book I let out a "FINALLY!!!" and told myself I would not continue the series. But apparently I am a masochist because I just checked out the next book to see if maaaybe it gets any better. Or because I have nothing better to do. Putting my prediction for future books here without knowing anything about them- there is definitely going to be a love triangle between the lead and the two fae high-lords. I can see it already, and don't like it! UGH!!
PS I am so sorry if anyone reads this review, I am just tracking my reading for myself and don't know if this is public or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence
Moderate: Blood, Murder
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoiler review below:
I struggle to be genuinely mean to this book because at the end of the day I was turning pages, I was laughing, I was groaning, and I finished it without too much struggle, but I have…. Issues lol.
First I’ll start with the nice. The world building was actually decently interesting to me. I liked the variety of creepy faeries that Feyre encountered. I appreciated how, despite her weakness and vulnerability as a human she found ways particularly early on in the book to not only survive certain encounters but to get the upper hand in them (will return to this later though because that was not always the case….). I appreciated Nesta’s development later in the story although it seemed a little too much like the book wanted me to forgive how nasty she’d been before too quickly. I thought the pacing of the scenes was enjoyable for an easy read, it never lingered too long on something that bored me or cringed me out. The story also did a decent job of building dread for the first half.
But. This book was verrrrry tropey and predictable. At times it seemed like it was using its darkness and its goriness as a shield against its simplicity instead of trying to be more creative. I can understand that for a first book in a series with (at least?) five others, this one may not have the strongest writing or the most compelling plot, but there were some things I felt were rather unforgivable.
Firstly, the book wastes all of its built up dread on a villainess that inspires exactly zero emotion in me. She comes off as a bratty wannabe evil person. She gushes about how much she loves torturing and killing people but it’s all just /explained/ to me. “Perhaps my darling Clare had to die in order for me to have some true amusement with you.” And lines of this variety were so shallow. Hee hee look at me and how much I love torturing WHEEEEE!!! She was nothing but this distant figure that was visited for scenes where Feyre had to do something. Amarantha never had a moment alone with Feyre to really be nasty, maybe because Maas was just avoiding having to write Feyre out of situations her human body clearly wouldn’t have been able to handle, which leads me to my next gripe.
Early in the book, although it’s made clear how out of her depth she is, Feyre is able to survive and in some ways dominate parts of the faerie world. It didn’t seem Mary Sue to me at all that she caught the Suriel or that she was able to take out a few of those faeries because based on her history she /is/ a very skilled hunter and she shows it. But later on in the book she is constantly being bailed out by other characters which I’m less inclined to forgive the more and more and more it happens. Whether it was Tamlin saving her or Alis just explaining everything to her instead of her figuring out what happened on her own or the Attor leading her straight to the throne room she was never going to find or Lucien and Rhysand both healing her or Lucien’s mom helping with the water bucket. These are all things which I understand functionally serve to show she can’t do this all on her own and her actions and tenacity which caught the attention of allies are the reason she’s made it so far, but this was all for me at the cost of a lot of her agency and it didn’t start when she was a captive under the mountain. I felt as though this character was supposed to be having glorious breakthroughs but they always fell flat because she never really made them on her own. The worm fight was the only saving grace at the end.
The end… like. What was that. I knew the answer to the riddle the second it was said… she did ALL of that for nothing. I mean come on it was on theme for the entire book 😭 the existence of the riddle at all just saps so much out of the gravity of the stakes. I’m supposed to feel terrible that she’s going through all this torture when I literally have the answer to the riddle that would end it all in my head? Just get rid of the riddle entirely!! This is also what makes Amarantha such a lame villain in my eyes, why would she risk SO much on such a simple question? It seems out of character from what I’m /told/ (again, not shown) about her. She even gives Feyre the answer? A cop out defense would be that she assumes all humans are stupid beasts who don’t know anything, but again. To risk SO much on that knowing just how many of the people in that room would want to rip her to shreds? Unbelievable. I would be more willing to believe in these fallible traits of hers if we spent any modicum of time alone with her to reveal herself beyond the mask she puts on in her throne room and even just to have Feyre interact with another goddamn woman alone for more than one page.
There are more things I could mention but it’s almost 3am and I’ve expelled most of my thoughts.
All in all, not terrible. The dialogue was a bit clunky (god they say WHORE a lot) and literally everything was predictable, but sometimes there’s something about a simple and predictable book that scratches a kind of “ha I knew it” itch. So not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes you want the predictable thing to happen and can’t imagine it being anything else without being terrible, but that would have been an excellent time to subvert my low expectations and deliver something truly great. I wonder how the next book in the series will fare.
Edit: there wasn’t a good place for me to add this but I had to mention
It also just isn’t a good premise curse-wise. If you have to explain everything about the curse to me in 3 straight pages of non stop explanatory dialogues from a character who, by the very bounds of the curse, shouldn’t even be able to say anything about it, then maybe it’s not a good curse, or maybe you just needed to think of a more creative way to deliver the truth because man… even from the start it was just so bizarre which doesn’t have to mean bad of course, but I want the explanation to be way more satisfying than hurriedly explained so the plot can move forward to the next thing.
I struggle to be genuinely mean to this book because at the end of the day I was turning pages, I was laughing, I was groaning, and I finished it without too much struggle, but I have…. Issues lol.
First I’ll start with the nice. The world building was actually decently interesting to me. I liked the variety of creepy faeries that Feyre encountered. I appreciated how, despite her weakness and vulnerability as a human she found ways particularly early on in the book to not only survive certain encounters but to get the upper hand in them (will return to this later though because that was not always the case….). I appreciated Nesta’s development later in the story although it seemed a little too much like the book wanted me to forgive how nasty she’d been before too quickly. I thought the pacing of the scenes was enjoyable for an easy read, it never lingered too long on something that bored me or cringed me out. The story also did a decent job of building dread for the first half.
But. This book was verrrrry tropey and predictable. At times it seemed like it was using its darkness and its goriness as a shield against its simplicity instead of trying to be more creative. I can understand that for a first book in a series with (at least?) five others, this one may not have the strongest writing or the most compelling plot, but there were some things I felt were rather unforgivable.
Firstly, the book wastes all of its built up dread on a villainess that inspires exactly zero emotion in me. She comes off as a bratty wannabe evil person. She gushes about how much she loves torturing and killing people but it’s all just /explained/ to me. “Perhaps my darling Clare had to die in order for me to have some true amusement with you.” And lines of this variety were so shallow. Hee hee look at me and how much I love torturing WHEEEEE!!! She was nothing but this distant figure that was visited for scenes where Feyre had to do something. Amarantha never had a moment alone with Feyre to really be nasty, maybe because Maas was just avoiding having to write Feyre out of situations her human body clearly wouldn’t have been able to handle, which leads me to my next gripe.
Early in the book, although it’s made clear how out of her depth she is, Feyre is able to survive and in some ways dominate parts of the faerie world. It didn’t seem Mary Sue to me at all that she caught the Suriel or that she was able to take out a few of those faeries because based on her history she /is/ a very skilled hunter and she shows it. But later on in the book she is constantly being bailed out by other characters which I’m less inclined to forgive the more and more and more it happens. Whether it was Tamlin saving her or Alis just explaining everything to her instead of her figuring out what happened on her own or the Attor leading her straight to the throne room she was never going to find or Lucien and Rhysand both healing her or Lucien’s mom helping with the water bucket. These are all things which I understand functionally serve to show she can’t do this all on her own and her actions and tenacity which caught the attention of allies are the reason she’s made it so far, but this was all for me at the cost of a lot of her agency and it didn’t start when she was a captive under the mountain. I felt as though this character was supposed to be having glorious breakthroughs but they always fell flat because she never really made them on her own. The worm fight was the only saving grace at the end.
The end… like. What was that. I knew the answer to the riddle the second it was said… she did ALL of that for nothing. I mean come on it was on theme for the entire book 😭 the existence of the riddle at all just saps so much out of the gravity of the stakes. I’m supposed to feel terrible that she’s going through all this torture when I literally have the answer to the riddle that would end it all in my head? Just get rid of the riddle entirely!! This is also what makes Amarantha such a lame villain in my eyes, why would she risk SO much on such a simple question? It seems out of character from what I’m /told/ (again, not shown) about her. She even gives Feyre the answer? A cop out defense would be that she assumes all humans are stupid beasts who don’t know anything, but again. To risk SO much on that knowing just how many of the people in that room would want to rip her to shreds? Unbelievable. I would be more willing to believe in these fallible traits of hers if we spent any modicum of time alone with her to reveal herself beyond the mask she puts on in her throne room and even just to have Feyre interact with another goddamn woman alone for more than one page.
There are more things I could mention but it’s almost 3am and I’ve expelled most of my thoughts.
All in all, not terrible. The dialogue was a bit clunky (god they say WHORE a lot) and literally everything was predictable, but sometimes there’s something about a simple and predictable book that scratches a kind of “ha I knew it” itch. So not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes you want the predictable thing to happen and can’t imagine it being anything else without being terrible, but that would have been an excellent time to subvert my low expectations and deliver something truly great. I wonder how the next book in the series will fare.
Edit: there wasn’t a good place for me to add this but I had to mention
It also just isn’t a good premise curse-wise. If you have to explain everything about the curse to me in 3 straight pages of non stop explanatory dialogues from a character who, by the very bounds of the curse, shouldn’t even be able to say anything about it, then maybe it’s not a good curse, or maybe you just needed to think of a more creative way to deliver the truth because man… even from the start it was just so bizarre which doesn’t have to mean bad of course, but I want the explanation to be way more satisfying than hurriedly explained so the plot can move forward to the next thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexism, Torture, Sexual harassment
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-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
The first half of the book was a bit slow for me, but the second half picked up, and I enjoyed the ending. Some characters I have mixed feelings about, so it will be interesting to see how they develop in the next books, to see which way my feelings solidify.
SJM writing was overall decent. I did get a little annoyed with the ways she tended to describe Feyres feelings or reactions to things. Such as “my bowels turned watery” and various forms of that. But it can be overlooked 🤷🏻♀️
Overall, it didn’t live up to the hype that I expected it to, but it wasn’t terrible. It was still a fun read, and I plan to read the next one soon!
SJM writing was overall decent. I did get a little annoyed with the ways she tended to describe Feyres feelings or reactions to things. Such as “my bowels turned watery” and various forms of that. But it can be overlooked 🤷🏻♀️
Overall, it didn’t live up to the hype that I expected it to, but it wasn’t terrible. It was still a fun read, and I plan to read the next one soon!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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:
Complicated
A Court of Thorn and Roses is one of those books on the "how have you not read this yet" list that everyone seems to judge readers by. It was far better than I was expecting, based on my last few experiences reading total duds, recommended by BookTok. It's not a romance novel by any means, and it's not a Beauty and the Beast adaptation, not really. The elements are there, but there is way more than the Belle et Bete story. I enjoyed it, and I like that it didn't end on a cliffhanger. I'll probably read the next book in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
dark
hopeful
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
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:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Murder
Minor: Animal death, Slavery, Death of parent, Alcohol
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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:
Yes
Loved this book. Intro to fantasy. VERY violent. I’d prefer less violence and no more torture please.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Classism
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief