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A review by sspaghettiboness
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I know that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything. But. Wow.
This was the most predictable mess of a knock off fairytale I’ve ever read. This was “Why buy Beauty and the Beast at the store? We have it at home”. All of the interesting characters were ancillary and painted as villains. The main character never takes any shred of responsibility for her actions, nor does she have any actual struggle. I kept reading, hoping to find some modicum of a fully realised person, but nothing emerged. She felt more like a lackluster plot device than anything else. Feyre was only cunning when she had to be, only resourceful when she had to be, only fearful when she had to be. There was no consistency to her emotions or reactions. At times, she was this emboldened warrior and provider, yet when trouble came around, she tucked her tail between her legs (save hurling dumb insults their way) - unless she tried to stand up against a struggle, and ultimately was saved by a man. Every. Single. Time.
The concept of the faerie courts was interesting, and never well explained. If only the author hadn’t wasted so many paragraphs describing which flowers grew where, we might’ve spent some time learning more about the fae world and how it works. The different kinds of fae and creatures, again, seemed so cool. Yet we only focused on the “hot” ones. Boring.
The author seems to cling to certain words and motifs, not in a stylistic way, but in a “this is the only way I can describe that, but isn’t this word great!” way. Additionally, the use of - and … was so - so… overdone. Words such as: growl, snarl, hissed, crunched underfoot, feral. I have a list, but brevity is the soul of wit (and I’m not very witty, judging by how long this review has become).
Oh! And there’s a great blink and you miss it moment where Feyre points out there’s both men and women at the fire party, and implies with a flustered blush that the possibility of men having sex with men existed. Her fears were quickly righted by Lucien basically saying the guys would have sex with the girls. Not each other. Because, Cauldron forbid, anything outside of heteronormativity would be an affront to their precious court. I assume. Based on how it was presented.
I’m unsure if these are real spoilers, but: the whole thing about Feyre being illiterate was so insensitive and dumb. The way they mocked her for wanting to learn (I guess Tamlin didn’t, but he also wasn’t really nice about it), and how she beat herself up for being illiterate, I found to be excessive and elitist. But, luckily for our precious MC, not even being illiterate is her fault! Because Mummy died and no one had the time to teach her.
I solved that riddle as soon as I read it. It wasn’t hard or groundbreaking or special. It was LITERALLY the same thing she’d made Tamlin suffer over for years. Was that supposed to be a twist? Awful.
I’m just gonna stop here. This was terrible. I was spurned on to keep reading the same way I can’t help but rubberneck a car crash. In fact, I can’t wait to get the next book and eviscerate that too.
This was the most predictable mess of a knock off fairytale I’ve ever read. This was “Why buy Beauty and the Beast at the store? We have it at home”. All of the interesting characters were ancillary and painted as villains. The main character never takes any shred of responsibility for her actions, nor does she have any actual struggle. I kept reading, hoping to find some modicum of a fully realised person, but nothing emerged. She felt more like a lackluster plot device than anything else. Feyre was only cunning when she had to be, only resourceful when she had to be, only fearful when she had to be. There was no consistency to her emotions or reactions. At times, she was this emboldened warrior and provider, yet when trouble came around, she tucked her tail between her legs (save hurling dumb insults their way) - unless she tried to stand up against a struggle, and ultimately was saved by a man. Every. Single. Time.
The concept of the faerie courts was interesting, and never well explained. If only the author hadn’t wasted so many paragraphs describing which flowers grew where, we might’ve spent some time learning more about the fae world and how it works. The different kinds of fae and creatures, again, seemed so cool. Yet we only focused on the “hot” ones. Boring.
The author seems to cling to certain words and motifs, not in a stylistic way, but in a “this is the only way I can describe that, but isn’t this word great!” way. Additionally, the use of - and … was so - so… overdone. Words such as: growl, snarl, hissed, crunched underfoot, feral. I have a list, but brevity is the soul of wit (and I’m not very witty, judging by how long this review has become).
Oh! And there’s a great blink and you miss it moment where Feyre points out there’s both men and women at the fire party, and implies with a flustered blush that the possibility of men having sex with men existed. Her fears were quickly righted by Lucien basically saying the guys would have sex with the girls. Not each other. Because, Cauldron forbid, anything outside of heteronormativity would be an affront to their precious court. I assume. Based on how it was presented.
I’m unsure if these are real spoilers, but:
I solved that riddle as soon as I read it. It wasn’t hard or groundbreaking or special. It was LITERALLY the same thing she’d made Tamlin suffer over for years. Was that supposed to be a twist? Awful.
I’m just gonna stop here. This was terrible. I was spurned on to keep reading the same way I can’t help but rubberneck a car crash. In fact, I can’t wait to get the next book and eviscerate that too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Ableism, Murder, Vomit, Blood, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture