Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

75 reviews

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Whew! Well that was fun! 

I felt like this book was trope city and reminded me of a bunch of other YA books from my highschool years. We have the competition of the hunger games, the love triangle of twilight, the royal prince having a crush on the poor girl from the selection series. Felt very nostalgic even though I’d never read it. 

It was a very easy read and the story was sweet and very easy to follow but I’m excited for it to get more interesting cause it felt very surface. I liked seeing the connection to Crescent City though with the mention of  my girl, Wyrd (Urd!)

And…. I’ve seen tik toks hating him so I know he’s probably about to flip a switch and be a D-bag that I loathe, but if I’m being honest….. right now…. I’m team KA-CHAOL! 

Idk Dorian is a little too full of himself for my liking. But also seriously how TF did ka-Chaol get the job of Captain of the Guard at 22 having never killed a man????? UNREALISTIC IF YOU ASK ME! 

Anywho, CROWN OF MIDNIGHT, YOURE UP, BABYCAKES!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

I read this a few years ago and refused to read the rest of the series because the ending upset me so much. And while it obviously didn’t change over the years I was interested to see how my views of the book changed.

To start, the prose has moments of being less than great, but overall I think read pretty well. Which was an interesting contrast to ACOTAR. I definitely think to narrator was a big help with that as she had a great performance and I felt like she added a lot of personality to it. Her skill as a narrator also really elevated the characters and helped them stand out a bit more to me. Finally, Celaena and Dorian’s dynamic is amazing. While between the two love interest options I think he’s the BEST, I’m not mad about them remaining friends.

However, the book had its flaws that I had a hard time looking past. The biggest was the POV changes. I was frequently lost on what POV we were in as they all sounded very similar and there was no clear marker for the change in POV. It also felt unnecessary, like SJM didn’t know how to deliver all the information from one POV and was compensating with these POV changes. I also wasn’t a fan of the love triangle and it felt HEAVILY skewed towards Dorian. Which wasn’t helped by Chaol and Celaena’s dynamic changing so quickly and feeling unearned in the shift to friendship. Also both the guys were kinda sexist and it was hard to get behind either one of them being with Celaena.

Overall the book was just okay. I enjoyed it more than I thought which was a nice surprise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, and Racism

angelreads_13's review against another edition

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

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I devoured this book! Every page, every chapter, had me holding my breath! One of the absolute BEST books I've read!
 I'm afraid it would take forever for me to compose a review that would be half as good enough as I would like, and even then, it wouldn't do this book or this series justice. Till then, let me just sa...WOW.
 If you're still on the fence about reading this series, I'd tell you stop being a flaming idiot and pick up the first book YESTERDAY!!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and Death

Minor: Grief, Slavery, Drug use, and Violence

lqne's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit

Moderate: Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

_rubytallulah_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Blood, and Gore

Minor: Death of parent, Confinement, and Drug use

mandiemarie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.25

I love this book. The majority of it is world building, as is the beginning of most fantasy books. So lots of focus on aesthetics, description of characters and clothes. Due to this, it starts slow. But once the world is adequately built, it starts to pick up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Torture

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Slavery, and Racism

nnylelocin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, Genocide, Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death, Slavery, and Drug use

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

A solid fantasy debut that is mainly consistent with its worldbuilding, although some of the characters' choices feel inconsistent.

Does a great job of introducing its characters and setting the scene for the saga ahead.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Torture, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: War and Slavery

Minor: Animal death

ladypalutena's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

I tried to read this book a few years ago, and got maybe 3 chapters in before I gave up. And now I'm not too sure why I gave up on it then - maybe I wasn't in the mood for the type of story it was going to tell. 

Is this book ground-breaking? No. A teen who, by all rights, should never have gotten to where they are in life is the "chosen one" picked up by a plucky crown prince and made to fight a ton of grown men to win the right to become an official assassin. 

To which I say,

obviously the king has issues, and most likely he wasn't even looking for an assassin to begin with, and I'm not too sure if this whole thing wasn't just a plot to pull our main character, Celaena, back into the open.

The biggest issue I found is that I never felt afraid for Celaena at any point. She is proven over and over again, in every situation, that she is better than everyone else. She's not only beautiful, but she's deadlier than everyone, and oh by the way, did you know she's only 18?

It is also so painfully obvious where this book is going to go. There's a weak attempt at misdirection with Celaena believing that one specific person is the champion-murderer, which made me roll my eyes. Maas all but crams it down your throat early on, and then dances around the lumpy blanket on the ground just to whip off the cover late in the book and go "Surprise!" But by then, it's not a surprise and the real villain has been super obvious for way too long. 

The world is interesting, and while our MC Celaena can be thorny at times, she's an assassin and this is the only way she knows she can't be hurt. 

So far, so good. I'm interested in where this is going to lead, and even more interested in how I'm going to juggle my Libby holds for this series when every one of them has a vastly different wait time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: War, Violence, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Drug use, and Drug abuse

merrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.0

It’sa good story with characters who are enjoyable to read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Vomit, War, Blood, Gore, Murder, Body horror, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Genocide