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

I am now a very firm and ardent lover of the Maasverse! I can’t believe I’ve had this book for 9 years and just now read it! I loved every bit of it and cannot wait to continue with these characters and fall even more in love with this world!

Content Warnings

arson_9's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

**spoiler alert** i swore to the good lord above i wouldnt read this book BUT then i got attached to a character while watching a plot summary of the holiday novella

I have encountered SJM before by reading her Throne of Glass series which i have… opinions of thats for sure. Ive put way to much thought into this book so this will be quite a critical review

The positives first. It wasn’t the worst book ive ever read. The writing was sarah J mass but i don’t mind her style. The stakes were there and Feyre is a female main character i do like. in the first book.

Now the fun
I cant tell exactly what folk/myth sjm was basing this one off. Its marketed as vague beauty and the beast which yes! theres b&tb references and such but i also picked up on Eros and Psyche (the three trials under the mountain) Hades and Persephone (stealing the ‘naive’ or ‘innocent’ maiden. but acomf is also supposed to be H and P so??) The ballad of Tam Lin (this one is obvious) and Cinderella (picking the lentils out of the fireplace) so my brain was kinda going all over the place. I read acotar knowing what happens in the rest of the series so i was keeping eyes on Tamlin this read really solidified that idk WHY tamlin became the villain in the later books. Ive written many a essay about this on tumblr so i wont go too in detail but i feel his vilification very personally as sjm used anger issues to make him an antag (again. i have opinions on this) Also what was the point of Rhysand in this book??? By itself him in acotar makes sense but in acomf and on i just don’t get it. As a reader i can understand his motives and why he did some of the stuff he did but some i again don’t understand at all. We are supposed to forgive rhysand in the 2nd book for the downright gross stuff he did to feyre. The SA (yes thats SA. It wasn’t consensual end of it) was unnecessary as well as the sympathy i know sjm was trying to make me feel. I acknowledge the sexual abuse rhysand went through because of amarantha and its horrific and i feel for him but that does not excuse his gross actions to feyre and the random stuff he tells her. It didnt feel a natural way to gain support from readers.
Acotar could have been a standalone if you take out the hints of the mating bond between rhysand and feyre (again. why?) and i would have given it at least a 3.5 but no sjm does god knows what and why in acomf and beyond. I am not a poor reader who doesn’t understand nuance, i’ve been reading for years the last like 30% of this book just doesn’t make sense. I wont actually be reading acomf just making highlights for the Tamlin fix it fic i plan to make because the character dissolving just doesn’t make sense.

Content Warnings

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

alisegrace's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

lizziaha's review against another edition

Go to review page

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

I think one of the reasons that this book reads so easy, and why I didn’t love it, is that everything seems a little too convenient. Everything goes according to plan. Feyre, no matter how stupid she acts—and she does some TRULY inexplicable and delusional things—always manages to come out on top. She gives us no reason to believe that she is capable of the things she pulls off, and yet, it just happens for her. It’s simultaneously not really believable and hugely predictable. I think this is the pitfall of writing an “badass” female MC without fleshing out any systemic failures. Sure, she can kick ass, and that’s hot to every gorgeous man she comes across, but at what cost? We don’t get to see any character development. Even in moments where she struggles, it’s hard to reach any depth of emotion about it, because you know that everything is going to magically work out. And speaking of magic, SJM threw out everything interesting about fae stories, everything that makes them complex, and decided to emphasize the boringest parts of them (sexy, immortal, maybe evil? but probably not). Another area that SJM decided to abandon complexity is the worldbuilding. It’s flimsy. Functional at surface level but if you look ANY deeper it crumbles. I think that plot-driven stories are always at risk of this because they can fail to really examine character motivations, but this one also just feels like a lack of forethought on the author’s part. All in all, the story is fine. I don’t particularly like Beauty and Beast or retellings, and I especially don’t like beauty and the beast retellings, but despite that, the story did move along. Maybe if you read it fast enough, you can just glide past all the issues.

Content Warnings

stephtoriz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

4.75

Content Warnings

nlosievski's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

readyforit's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

4.25⭐️1🌶️(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!

Content Warnings

More...