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A review by jeanneerin
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
3.0
Alright. I read A Court of Thorns and Roses because I kept being told the editing was much better, and it was, but coming from the Maas books I had already read that isn't saying a whole lot. It's really good up until the midpoint. It feels like the editor has a good hand on the reins, aside from the stilted dialogue which will suddenly turn from "girl you got balls" to ridiculous almost High Cant.
But then you hit a "thrice" like a stone in the road and you feel the editor lose control and the horse lose it's nerve.
The inner monologue starts getting worse and the main character starts "painting" (she was doing this before, but suddenly it becomes EVERYTHING). She talks about the "colors" she couldn't possibly render and how she'll never be able to paint a certain person, as if that's proof she's afraid of them. I don't understand what Mass thinks "painting" is, or if she knows how difficult it is to paint from memory, but either way "painting" really shouldn't be a substitute for a personality or inner monologue.
Suddenly we start hearing about how MC cried after killing her first rabbit because her family was starving. As if killing meat to survive is so much worse than eating the meat someone else killed. Given where this thought comes in the story, it's upsetting, because there's this "this is killing my soul" mentality that suddenly you realize is okay for the lower class, and once you see it you can't unsee it in the whole narrative.
The whole "Beauty and the Beast" retelling is pretty fun, but when you get into the Maas nonsense it's Maas nonsense: weird descriptions of sex (using the word shattering as a synonym for climaxing and then using it a few pages later for being tortured is weird), weird descriptions of people and elves, weird understand of how painting works, weird "code switching" when talking with the same group of people... if you can deal with all that, and the length of this review, I think I might go so far as to recommend it.
To be fair: I think Maas is a fantastic writer of stories. I think she needs a better editor, EXCEPT that there are young girls as well as many women my age who LOVE this writing. So she’s doing something other people love and I just can’t stand, but I’m really interested in where she’ll take a story so I need to slog through it. I also find it hilarious to pay attention to when she gets into … a mood? Like in the other series where she discovered the word “thrice” and used it something like 12 times in 15 pages. It isn’t fair to tell people who love her books that they should be written in a way I can enjoy them more. On the same hand, it isn’t fair that everyone keeps telling me they’re AMAZING when they have the same problems I was complaining about.
I really have an issue with the way gender is rendered in this book and in the others I’ve read. This character fits the “not like other girls” trope in a disturbing way. And the description of her mother made me want to vomit. And the use of “male” and “female” will always grate on my nerves, but it was better here than in the other series. When Maas is able to write decent male friendships, it hurts that she fails at female friendships. Having gotten into more romances lately, I know it’s possible to maintain a female relationship while still focusing on the love story.
Okay, sorry for pop-pooing a book I know a lot of people like. Especially because I’m pretty sure I won’t stop reading her books.
But then you hit a "thrice" like a stone in the road and you feel the editor lose control and the horse lose it's nerve.
The inner monologue starts getting worse and the main character starts "painting" (she was doing this before, but suddenly it becomes EVERYTHING). She talks about the "colors" she couldn't possibly render and how she'll never be able to paint a certain person, as if that's proof she's afraid of them. I don't understand what Mass thinks "painting" is, or if she knows how difficult it is to paint from memory, but either way "painting" really shouldn't be a substitute for a personality or inner monologue.
Suddenly we start hearing about how MC cried after killing her first rabbit because her family was starving. As if killing meat to survive is so much worse than eating the meat someone else killed. Given where this thought comes in the story, it's upsetting, because there's this "this is killing my soul" mentality that suddenly you realize is okay for the lower class, and once you see it you can't unsee it in the whole narrative.
The whole "Beauty and the Beast" retelling is pretty fun, but when you get into the Maas nonsense it's Maas nonsense: weird descriptions of sex (using the word shattering as a synonym for climaxing and then using it a few pages later for being tortured is weird), weird descriptions of people and elves, weird understand of how painting works, weird "code switching" when talking with the same group of people... if you can deal with all that, and the length of this review, I think I might go so far as to recommend it.
To be fair: I think Maas is a fantastic writer of stories. I think she needs a better editor, EXCEPT that there are young girls as well as many women my age who LOVE this writing. So she’s doing something other people love and I just can’t stand, but I’m really interested in where she’ll take a story so I need to slog through it. I also find it hilarious to pay attention to when she gets into … a mood? Like in the other series where she discovered the word “thrice” and used it something like 12 times in 15 pages. It isn’t fair to tell people who love her books that they should be written in a way I can enjoy them more. On the same hand, it isn’t fair that everyone keeps telling me they’re AMAZING when they have the same problems I was complaining about.
I really have an issue with the way gender is rendered in this book and in the others I’ve read. This character fits the “not like other girls” trope in a disturbing way. And the description of her mother made me want to vomit. And the use of “male” and “female” will always grate on my nerves, but it was better here than in the other series. When Maas is able to write decent male friendships, it hurts that she fails at female friendships. Having gotten into more romances lately, I know it’s possible to maintain a female relationship while still focusing on the love story.
Okay, sorry for pop-pooing a book I know a lot of people like. Especially because I’m pretty sure I won’t stop reading her books.