Review by annadelreads - The Assassin's Blade

annadelreads 's review for:

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

3.5

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

“You want to hear something ridiculous? Whenever I’m scared out of my wits, I tell myself: My name is Sam Cortland … and I will not be afraid. I’ve been doing it for years.”

First comment when I finished the book: I miss Sam (Oct. 5, 2024)

Okay, on to the actual review:

I researched hard before I started the series and what I found out is that people are choosing to advise people to read this book first before starting the series - so as a gullible person, that's exactly what I did. This book is a collection of short stories that focuses on the backstory of Calaena, the one and only Adarlan's assassin. Apparently this is the story of what happened before Throne of Glass so if I would like to read the series in a chronological way, this is the best book to start it with.

It started out so slow as what new reads usually are and there are from what I can remember, 5 short stories included. As for story-building, it's not that heavily discussed and I had to assume what had happened although it was implied. Celaena as a the main character of the story is so intense. Her whole personality is her being so bad ass so I'm a little amazed. It's not a first for me to have a killer main character but it's a first for me to see someone who really did not want to be THE main character - someone who's "selfish and don't want to save everyone" type of person. It's also in a third person perspective so it's something new for me but something I got used to fast.

The only reason why it's an okay book for me is because it's really just a prologue of what's about to happen. It's really the last story that really pulled me in and actually made me feel and think like this is going to be a good series. So yes, I loved it by the end but the first few stories are really just a prologue and "backstory". Nonetheless, it made me excited for what's to come!

When I finished Throne of Glass, the book, I was so glad I actually did because it the SJM kept mentioning specific parts explained in ASB that was mentioned in TOG. So if I had read TOG first without knowing anything about TAB, I would have been clueless or simply filling in the blanks and assuming what had happened based on the context given.

Content Warnings