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adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
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
Great book! I love fantasy stories and this one was perfect. It had just the right amount of romance and humor to balance out the intense story line. Sometimes I could guess what was going to happen next but there were some very good plot twists!
I really wish the show didn’t get scrapped- I’d kill to see what Tamlin would look like!
I really wish the show didn’t get scrapped- I’d kill to see what Tamlin would look like!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Classism
Minor: Death of parent
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Abandonment, War, Classism
Minor: Infertility
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A slog to get through, kind of beauty and the beast/Stockholm’s syndrome love story but boring besides the pretty descriptions of the nice locations. Also I didn’t find any of the characters likeable
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
mysterious
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Things I liked: the fantastic World itself, it's not too complicated to understand, the concept of the courts is interesting and enticing; you won't get bombarded with tons of different characters and place names and whatnot at once; the character Lucien and his platonic bond with Tamlin
Things I didn’t like: I think my biggest criticism of this book is how dull, obstinate, fatuous and arbitrary the female Protagonist acts and thinks. Her reaction to things that happen to her or how she gets treated made me often times roll my eyes. This is very much linked to her two male love interest. Horrible characters. I don’t want to write an essay, so I’ll keep it short. One of them assaults her and then tries to gaslight her the following day by saying “I […] told you to stay in your room”. She also thanks him for not enslaving her although he kidnapped and assaulted her. It’s later revealed that he kept her at his court out of specific reasons, but these reasons do in no way excuse his behavior towards her. The other one sexually assaults her while pinning her down and basically makes her choose between her death or having to spend one week every month at his court. Which in my opinion also accounts as a form of kidnapping and blackmail. There’s a lot of talk about “owning someone” when it comes to the romantic relationships between the female lead and her two love interests, which I absolutely hated; The characters are not diverse at all, the male characters are basically the same handsome guy but with a different hair and eye color. I also really didn’t like how all the main female characters were described as thin and the only thicker woman, who was described as plump, appeared in a couple of sentences and has no further mention. The only character of color was killed within two pages. There are no queer characters either. The story is very much built on gender essentialism which I find very boring and irritating.
If you like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and/or Selection by Kiera Cass chances are high you might like this one as well. If you like The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare and/or Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, chances are high you WONT like this one.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
i don't read much fantasy at all, so i would say i have nothing to compare this novel to, but i honestly had a blast reading this. will keep reading this series just for fun
(tw: mentions of sexual assault) i'm glad i first read it as an adult, because i feel like a lot of its themes wouldn't mean as much to me if i had been younger. while i can acknowledge that fiction is separate from reality, i find the author's depictions of sexual assault to be less than ideal.how she depicts feyre's experiences with tamlin and rhysand excuse their behaviors if not outright say that feyre wanted and/or deserved the sa. for this reason, i would strongly advise younger readers to steer clear, or at least go in knowing that maas' depictions are severely detached from actual real lived experiences. none of the romantic/sexual relationships depicted in this book are healthy and/or normal.
yes i read mid in between peak lit it's called a guilty pleasure
(tw: mentions of sexual assault) i'm glad i first read it as an adult, because i feel like a lot of its themes wouldn't mean as much to me if i had been younger. while i can acknowledge that fiction is separate from reality, i find the author's depictions of sexual assault to be less than ideal.
yes i read mid in between peak lit it's called a guilty pleasure
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Vomit
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Classism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Murder
Minor: Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Classism
Minor: Excrement, Death of parent
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence
trigger warning - sexual assault/harassment that isn't tagged at all in the book (multiple instances, including with the main love interests)
*sigh* That was the first and last time I take any recommendations from romantasy BookTok without checking goodreads or something first.
Let’s start with the writing. I've heard this book/series be constantly specifically praised for it’s writing (particularly against Fourth Wing), but it really isn't good. In fact, it was bad enough to break my immersion several times (which RARELY happens with me, I was raised by Wattpad, I have low standards).
Feyre was a boring and dumb MC, the plot was predictable, the worldbuilding was the only somewhat interesting part for me, but there was barely any of it.
Even the title was poorly chosen - this was a very bad "retelling" of Beauty and the Beast, and has barely anything to do with the original theme/messaging, it’s obvious this decision was made for marketing and aesthetic purposes only.
The first half of the book bored me to death, almost DNFed at 40% but I pushed through because so many people praise this series to heaven and back and said the ending/other books would be worth it, after that it (finally) started picking up.
The borderline abusive behaviour from Tamlin being completely glossed over made me roll my eyes, but since I knew he wouldn’t be endgame, it didn’t bother me much and I continued. But then I got to the Midsummer party scene. That scene includes clear SH/SA in it. It got completely glossed over by everyone including the MC. The book itself has no trigger/content warning and I never heard anyone mention it when recommending the book.
I couldn't make it farther without researching spoilers to know if there were going to be any other scenes like this, or worse ones, there are:
Spoiler
Later on in the book, Rhysand literally admits that he would have taken Feyre when she was under the effects of those drugs (aka, non-consentually, duh) if it weren’t for the fact that Tamlin would want to battle him if he did:
"Feyre, for Cauldron's sake. I drug you, but you don't wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms?"
Until tonight-until that damned kiss. I gritted my teeth, but even as my anger rose, a picture cleared.
"It's the only claim I have to innocence," he said, "the only thing that will make Tamlin think twice before entering into a battle with me that would cause a catastrophic loss of innocent life. It's the only way I can convince him I was on your side. Believe me, I would have liked nothing more than to enjoy you-but there are bigger things at stake than taking a human woman to my bed.”
on top of that (which was more than enough), he continuously harasses and objectifies Feyre:
- encourages to rub her tattooed eye on “certain body parts” to summon him faster
- literally admits to using the eye to spy on her when she was naked
- makes references to her breasts to other powerful male fae
I wish people who love this series (and the author herself) didn't completely gloss over the sexual harassment and abusive behaviour in it / pretend there isn't any / try to justify the characters' behaviour / claim this is good representation of SA victims (don’t even want to get into that last one jfc
*sigh* That was the first and last time I take any recommendations from romantasy BookTok without checking goodreads or something first.
Let’s start with the writing. I've heard this book/series be constantly specifically praised for it’s writing (particularly against Fourth Wing), but it really isn't good. In fact, it was bad enough to break my immersion several times (which RARELY happens with me, I was raised by Wattpad, I have low standards).
Feyre was a boring and dumb MC, the plot was predictable, the worldbuilding was the only somewhat interesting part for me, but there was barely any of it.
Even the title was poorly chosen - this was a very bad "retelling" of Beauty and the Beast, and has barely anything to do with the original theme/messaging, it’s obvious this decision was made for marketing and aesthetic purposes only.
The first half of the book bored me to death, almost DNFed at 40% but I pushed through because so many people praise this series to heaven and back and said the ending/other books would be worth it, after that it (finally) started picking up.
The borderline abusive behaviour from Tamlin being completely glossed over made me roll my eyes, but since I knew he wouldn’t be endgame, it didn’t bother me much and I continued. But then I got to the Midsummer party scene. That scene includes clear SH/SA in it. It got completely glossed over by everyone including the MC. The book itself has no trigger/content warning and I never heard anyone mention it when recommending the book.
I couldn't make it farther without researching spoilers to know if there were going to be any other scenes like this, or worse ones, there are:
Spoiler
Later on in the book, Rhysand literally admits that he would have taken Feyre when she was under the effects of those drugs (aka, non-consentually, duh) if it weren’t for the fact that Tamlin would want to battle him if he did:
"Feyre, for Cauldron's sake. I drug you, but you don't wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms?"
Until tonight-until that damned kiss. I gritted my teeth, but even as my anger rose, a picture cleared.
"It's the only claim I have to innocence," he said, "the only thing that will make Tamlin think twice before entering into a battle with me that would cause a catastrophic loss of innocent life. It's the only way I can convince him I was on your side. Believe me, I would have liked nothing more than to enjoy you-but there are bigger things at stake than taking a human woman to my bed.”
on top of that (which was more than enough), he continuously harasses and objectifies Feyre:
- encourages to rub her tattooed eye on “certain body parts” to summon him faster
- literally admits to using the eye to spy on her when she was naked
- makes references to her breasts to other powerful male fae
I wish people who love this series (and the author herself) didn't completely gloss over the sexual harassment and abusive behaviour in it / pretend there isn't any / try to justify the characters' behaviour / claim this is good representation of SA victims (don’t even want to get into that last one jfc
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
fast-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
It's just not that deep.
The author was a great writer but not so great of a storyteller.
The author was a great writer but not so great of a storyteller.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Toxic relationship
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment