Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

312 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense 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: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious slow-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: Complicated

Just meh! This series is so hyped up. I have been hearing about it for years and years. I guess I was expecting too much, but for me, it was just on the side of not bad. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts I didn't much care for. I mostly read rom-coms, so let's just take these things through that lens.

1) It was remarkably violent. I've skimmed the reviews of others where they said they wish it was more gruesome and gory. Obviously these people must read some hardcore violent books, because to me, this almost put me over the edge of what I was able to tolerate. A couple descriptions that happeed while I was eating a snack made me literally spit out my food and stop eating because they grossed me out so badly.

2) It wasn't really original...clearly meant to be Beauty and the Beast like, I didn't get the chemistry from our mains at all. I have no real reason to believe that Tamlin and Feyre would have fallen for one another, let alone been "in love".

3) I do think she did a good job with some of the mystery of things. At least, I didn't guess where stuff was going on some of those major plot points.

4) The cruelty and different social conventions of the fairies was well written I feel like. It didn't feel like they were just slightly mean humans to me. I did gather that they had an entirely different set of morals governing them.

5) Let's just talk about the spice for a minute. I've seen people slam this book as basically just erotica or porn. Did I accidentally read an abridged version that only left out the "erotic" scenes? Again, I mostly read stuff in the romance realm and this book was as vanilla as it gets. I barely noticed that their were (2) sex scenes in it at all. In what world is this considered spicy? Is it appropriate for young adults, where I have heard it has been shelved? No, absolutely not. But to call it erotica would indicate to me that you are incredibly prudish in your view of literature.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to continue on with the series. But it never ceases to amaze me which mediocre books become rock stars while absolute fantastic pieces go by unnoticed.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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

Though slow at times, i found this book really enjoyable and i look forward to continuing the series. :)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny 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: Complicated

Bad summaries: 
500+ y/o guy falls for a 19 year old with an educational disability who doesnt know what to do with her life and then introduces her to royalty hell and forces her to save him from his eternal doom at the hands of a sadistic evil woman who kills for fun 🤷🏽‍♂️

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

A really great read! Very easy to immerse into the story and the settings with the characters. A lovely book to read after having not read for a very long time!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

I understand why so many people have told me this got them back into reading. It’s Y/A enough to be accessible but then gets sufficiently dark (without getting too grotesque). Though, if I have to read “my bowels turned watery” one more time I’m gonna throw something. Why is that Maas’s favorite phrase? So gross.
It’s funny that the only other contemporary “romantacy” book I’ve read (For The Wolf) had almost the exact same plot structure. Idk if they’re all exactly like this, I have to imagine the genre has some variance. I preferred this much more to that book though.
I greatly enjoyed the end of this book. I thought the trials under the mountain with Rhysand was where it really started to shine. I really like him as a character and was intrigued by the thought of
a potential love triangle
. I found the ending pretty satisfying, though I can’t decide if I would’ve liked it more if
Feyre stayed dead. A noble sacrifice. I guess the story must go on.

While this book wasn’t, like, life changing, I did really enjoy it and I do plan on reading the rest.

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

While I enjoyed the world building in the first half, I just really didn’t like or feel a connection to the main characters. The graphic violence was excessive (maybe a matter of taste but I skimmed several passages). 

 I found myself waiting the whole time to finally connect with the story. I never really did! The plot just didn’t track for me, the logic of the treaties and curses felt weak.

Feyre is reckless and fickle and just…unlikeable? I clearly just did not like this book 😅

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

I liked the story i just couldn’t handle how dumb the MC was being in the beginning so i switch to the audio book to get around that part. I’m glad i listened to the audio book as this is a very descriptive book and - even when listening - i got a little lost in what was going on by how much description was going on. but the story itself is really good, definitely ramps up near the end, which makes sense given it’s a series (i don’t usually read series books). I grew to like the MC although I still think she’s a little slow (could be argued as stubbornness instead, i haven’t quite yet decided). 

but the plots great, story building is great and weird thing to pick up on but the names of the characters are great too. Gonna listen to the next audio book in the series soon!

Also Jennifer Ikeda is a great narrator! Her at x1.35 speed was the perfect reading pace for me!!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

very slow start if you can make it to chapter 30 its worth it smooth sailing from there 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings