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xcelesteva 's review for:
A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J. Maas
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i initially didn't want to write an in-depth review about this book but i love to whine so figured why the hell not.
i have so many issues with this book. for starters, i found it impossible to get through it. the majority of this book was incredibly boring and repetitive. if i had to guess i'd say the final 20-25% of the book is slightly interesting, but i honestly almost stopped reading multiple times.
then there is the writing style. this seemed like a cheap wattpad fic. maas ends over half of the sentences she writes with "...", to the point where it just gets annoying. a lot of her lines are written with a lot of "-" halfway through sentences, making it complicated and difficult to read, but somehow cheesy at the same time. she kept reusing the same sentences ("his mouth was a thin line", "my bowels turned watery"), which just got annoying as well.
let's talk about feyre too. feyre is the main character of the book, but she annoyed the hell out of me. feyre was whiny, didn't listen to anything she was told, went against every well meant advice and then acted surprised when she got kicked in the face because of it. looking at her background, her character definitely potential, but it was wasted. part of that is definitely attributable to maas' writing.
i read somewhere this book was supposed to be a beauty and the beast retelling, but maas removed every element that gave beauty and the beast its specialty. in beauty and the beast, belle falls in love with the beast despite his ugly exterior, because it's what's inside that really matters. however, tamlin ('the beast'), is never ugly to begin with, and it seemed a lot like that was one of the reasons why feyre ('belle') fell for him in the first place. (and if i'm honest, tamlin did not have a likable personality throughout the majority of this book at all.)
//tw sexual assault for the next paragraph
but by far my biggest issue with this book, is the way this book deals with sexual assault. somewhere halfway through the book tamlin comes home, high on magic, and runs into feyre in a hallway where he very angrily pretty much assaults her. this did not get dealt with properly at all. "if feyre cant be bothered to listen to orders, then i can't be held accountable for the consequences" is an actual quote from this book. i'm sorry, what are we doing here? well, he did in fact not get held accountable for his actions, because 'it was out of his control and he couldn't help it'. something similar happened with rhysand, who later in the book makes feyre blackout drunk on some sort of fearie special wine every single night and lets her give him lapdances and touches her even though she isn't at all aware of what she's doing. in front of EVERYONE ELSE. but in the end he's supposed to be forgiven because he did it to stand up to amarantha, and he never touched her below her waist? i'm sorry but what kind of reasoning is that? honestly, rhysand was a pig and a horrible person. i hate that we're supposed to feel bad for him in the end.
finally, let's talk about amarantha and the whole 'finale' of the book. amarantha is the main villain, and although not badly written (her reasoning for her actions seems somewhat reasonable?), i still do not think she was a well written villain. to me it seemed a lot like maas just tried to put as much cruelty into one character. amarantha had no limits and feyre's life during her months in amarantha's captivity just kept getting worse and worse every time you turned a page. it bugged me a little. if you need to put THAT much cruelty and gore into a character and her storyline to make her a good main villain, maybe she wasn't a good villain to begin with.
i have a lot more issues but these were my main ones. i do not recommend this book.
i have so many issues with this book. for starters, i found it impossible to get through it. the majority of this book was incredibly boring and repetitive. if i had to guess i'd say the final 20-25% of the book is slightly interesting, but i honestly almost stopped reading multiple times.
then there is the writing style. this seemed like a cheap wattpad fic. maas ends over half of the sentences she writes with "...", to the point where it just gets annoying. a lot of her lines are written with a lot of "-" halfway through sentences, making it complicated and difficult to read, but somehow cheesy at the same time. she kept reusing the same sentences ("his mouth was a thin line", "my bowels turned watery"), which just got annoying as well.
let's talk about feyre too. feyre is the main character of the book, but she annoyed the hell out of me. feyre was whiny, didn't listen to anything she was told, went against every well meant advice and then acted surprised when she got kicked in the face because of it. looking at her background, her character definitely potential, but it was wasted. part of that is definitely attributable to maas' writing.
i read somewhere this book was supposed to be a beauty and the beast retelling, but maas removed every element that gave beauty and the beast its specialty. in beauty and the beast, belle falls in love with the beast despite his ugly exterior, because it's what's inside that really matters. however, tamlin ('the beast'), is never ugly to begin with, and it seemed a lot like that was one of the reasons why feyre ('belle') fell for him in the first place. (and if i'm honest, tamlin did not have a likable personality throughout the majority of this book at all.)
but by far my biggest issue with this book, is the way this book deals with sexual assault. somewhere halfway through the book tamlin comes home, high on magic, and runs into feyre in a hallway where he very angrily pretty much assaults her. this did not get dealt with properly at all. "if feyre cant be bothered to listen to orders, then i can't be held accountable for the consequences" is an actual quote from this book. i'm sorry, what are we doing here? well, he did in fact not get held accountable for his actions, because 'it was out of his control and he couldn't help it'. something similar happened with rhysand, who later in the book makes feyre blackout drunk on some sort of fearie special wine every single night and lets her give him lapdances and touches her even though she isn't at all aware of what she's doing. in front of EVERYONE ELSE. but in the end he's supposed to be forgiven because he did it to stand up to amarantha, and he never touched her below her waist? i'm sorry but what kind of reasoning is that? honestly, rhysand was a pig and a horrible person. i hate that we're supposed to feel bad for him in the end.
finally, let's talk about amarantha and the whole 'finale' of the book. amarantha is the main villain, and although not badly written (her reasoning for her actions seems somewhat reasonable?), i still do not think she was a well written villain. to me it seemed a lot like maas just tried to put as much cruelty into one character. amarantha had no limits and feyre's life during her months in amarantha's captivity just kept getting worse and worse every time you turned a page. it bugged me a little. if you need to put THAT much cruelty and gore into a character and her storyline to make her a good main villain, maybe she wasn't a good villain to begin with.
i have a lot more issues but these were my main ones. i do not recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery