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novellaofmon 's review for:
A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I think 3 stars is still being generous but somehow the last 10 chapters of the book made up for the shitty writing and absolute trudge-fest it took me to get through this one.
Disappointed is not a strong enough word when I had every Tom, Dick and Jane hyping up this "#1 New York Bestseller".
"Oh, but it gets good!" everyone told me, and I hate to admit that they were right. It did get good.
But hell! Did it take fUCKING FOREVER TO GET THERE!
(This took me a month to read. That's insanity)
Maas' quirky writing style literally made my eye twitch. I physically groaned every second page because of her writing. It sucked. it literally fucking sucked. Reading ACOTAR right after reading Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe made me feel like I lost brain cells in the process. I swear to god if I have to read the sentence 'she loosed a breath' or 'she loosed a sigh' one more fucking time--I'm better off ripping my eyes out and calling it a day.
Maas' writing lacked showing and felt like a poor retelling with heavy descriptions scattered in all the wrong places. Some areas felt repetitive and tell me why, please, did we have to spend 1-2 pages describing the fucking sky or the fucking lake or the fucking grass. Like we get it. Its magical--let's move on.
Another part of Maas' writing that rubbed me wrong was how all of a sudden Feyre's a painter one third into the book. All of a sudden she's narrating everything through a painter's eye like a film student just discovering Dutch Angles.
I have 2 things to note here:
1) This should have been a recurring theme since the beginning. You can't just introduce her "passion" (especially when it has such a massive impact on the writing and perspective) halfway through the novel and go yep! she's a painter now. this is how she looks at the world
2) It was so, so, so, so incredibly over-fucking-done. Like I'm sorry but, you're holding the hand of a dying Faerie who's wings had been ripped off with an axe and you're disappointed at the fact you'll never been able recreate its blood or its skin in a painting?
Like girlll, get a grip! Which leads me into my next point:
The main characters areeee...hmm...not very memorable...to say the least. Feyre is so unlikeable, there was not a single trait about her I admired. She was foolish, unkind and her morals were all over the place. She's just so angry at the world and everyone, and it reminds me of a naive, silly little tweenager. This would have been so fine if we had a little bit of character development. But no :)
Tamlin, on the other hand, our MMC, just had no fucking personality. Literally none. I ended up falling in love with Lucien faster than our MMC because at least Lucien was funny. :') I need more of Rhysand. Rhys was great. He was brooding, he was cocky, he was arrogant, he had personality!! This is Maas' opportunity to change my mind in the second book, fuck Tamlin off, and get with Rhys.
I honestly sighed with relief when Rhys was introduced in the book. I was so ready for a love triangle, it just needed something! The romance was just romancing too hard and it lacked that one thing about true love: overcoming challenges, the arguments, the fights, the running back to each other because you realised its you and him over everything else in the world. It just lacked so much conflict in the romance half of the book.
Now this book was very evenly split down the middle of romance and fantasy. Now, don't get me wrong, I liked the plot. I could get around the premise of the book. I enjoyed the plot. The reason why I was able to read the last quarter in one sitting was because this is where Maas' writing skills started to shine. There are two things I can commend: 1) Dialogue, and 2) Action.
Maas is really good at writing dialogue. It feels natural, it feels human. It flows like a normal conversation and it has those small characteristics that really help shape the tone of the conversation. Well done. Brownie points.
Secondly, Maas is really really fucking good at writing action pieces. I was actually quite surprised at how much I enjoyed the last quarter of the book. It was written well, it was gripping, it was thrilling. I could easily follow along the action scenes, the plot became more interesting...and yes the final riddle was super predictable on what the answer was going to be--however, the plot unravelled itself beautifully. And this is where Maas bumped my review up to 3 stars.
Am I in a rush to pick up the second book? No. Could this book be a stand alone? Yup!
Honestly, I'm going to look for spoilers, and if we're not getting with Rhys in the second book, I don't think I'll bother reading on.
Disappointed is not a strong enough word when I had every Tom, Dick and Jane hyping up this "#1 New York Bestseller".
"Oh, but it gets good!" everyone told me, and I hate to admit that they were right. It did get good.
But hell! Did it take fUCKING FOREVER TO GET THERE!
(This took me a month to read. That's insanity)
Maas' quirky writing style literally made my eye twitch. I physically groaned every second page because of her writing. It sucked. it literally fucking sucked. Reading ACOTAR right after reading Trent Dalton's Boy Swallows Universe made me feel like I lost brain cells in the process. I swear to god if I have to read the sentence 'she loosed a breath' or 'she loosed a sigh' one more fucking time--I'm better off ripping my eyes out and calling it a day.
Maas' writing lacked showing and felt like a poor retelling with heavy descriptions scattered in all the wrong places. Some areas felt repetitive and tell me why, please, did we have to spend 1-2 pages describing the fucking sky or the fucking lake or the fucking grass. Like we get it. Its magical--let's move on.
Another part of Maas' writing that rubbed me wrong was how all of a sudden Feyre's a painter one third into the book. All of a sudden she's narrating everything through a painter's eye like a film student just discovering Dutch Angles.
I have 2 things to note here:
1) This should have been a recurring theme since the beginning. You can't just introduce her "passion" (especially when it has such a massive impact on the writing and perspective) halfway through the novel and go yep! she's a painter now. this is how she looks at the world
2) It was so, so, so, so incredibly over-fucking-done. Like I'm sorry but, you're holding the hand of a dying Faerie who's wings had been ripped off with an axe and you're disappointed at the fact you'll never been able recreate its blood or its skin in a painting?
Like girlll, get a grip! Which leads me into my next point:
The main characters areeee...hmm...not very memorable...to say the least. Feyre is so unlikeable, there was not a single trait about her I admired. She was foolish, unkind and her morals were all over the place. She's just so angry at the world and everyone, and it reminds me of a naive, silly little tweenager. This would have been so fine if we had a little bit of character development. But no :)
Tamlin, on the other hand, our MMC, just had no fucking personality. Literally none. I ended up falling in love with Lucien faster than our MMC because at least Lucien was funny. :') I need more of Rhysand. Rhys was great. He was brooding, he was cocky, he was arrogant, he had personality!! This is Maas' opportunity to change my mind in the second book, fuck Tamlin off, and get with Rhys.
I honestly sighed with relief when Rhys was introduced in the book. I was so ready for a love triangle, it just needed something! The romance was just romancing too hard and it lacked that one thing about true love: overcoming challenges, the arguments, the fights, the running back to each other because you realised its you and him over everything else in the world. It just lacked so much conflict in the romance half of the book.
Now this book was very evenly split down the middle of romance and fantasy. Now, don't get me wrong, I liked the plot. I could get around the premise of the book. I enjoyed the plot. The reason why I was able to read the last quarter in one sitting was because this is where Maas' writing skills started to shine. There are two things I can commend: 1) Dialogue, and 2) Action.
Maas is really good at writing dialogue. It feels natural, it feels human. It flows like a normal conversation and it has those small characteristics that really help shape the tone of the conversation. Well done. Brownie points.
Secondly, Maas is really really fucking good at writing action pieces. I was actually quite surprised at how much I enjoyed the last quarter of the book. It was written well, it was gripping, it was thrilling. I could easily follow along the action scenes, the plot became more interesting...and yes the final riddle was super predictable on what the answer was going to be--however, the plot unravelled itself beautifully. And this is where Maas bumped my review up to 3 stars.
Am I in a rush to pick up the second book? No. Could this book be a stand alone? Yup!
Honestly, I'm going to look for spoilers, and if we're not getting with Rhys in the second book, I don't think I'll bother reading on.