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A review by tanukino
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
1.25
I had so many thoughts about this book as I read it.. I should have just written it down as I went.
This book was largely disappointing to me, with a few small perks that were enjoyable. I think I'll start with the cons and then talk about the pros, which are spoiler-free.
Where do I start with the writing? I felt so appalled off the bat by the poor writing and characterization of everyone in the story, from the FL to her sisters to the ML to the villainess to the maid to the clearly set up second ML... none of them felt well written, and in fact were constantly contradicting themselves in trait and personality. My biggest gripe was that Feyre was SO INSANELY STUPID like not even normal levels of dumb or clueless like THIS HAS TO BE INTENTIONAL HOW GENUINELY BAD AT SELF PRESERVATION AND CRITICAL THINKING SHE IS. From not listening to literally a single thing that Lucien and Tamlin warn her of to falling for the dumbest traps to that last stupid riddle (more on that later), Feyre is so utterly unlikeable to me that it ruins the concept of romance. It also really doesn't help that she's so blatantly ableist about her father's DEBILITATING INJURIES.
This is combined with Maas's apparent misunderstanding of how to use grammar and vocabulary... Mentioning watery bowels multiple times without realizing that this literally means diarrhea... Saying that mud was too slick to slip out of and she got stuck because mud was too slick?? Do you know what slick means????? Maas even forgets the color of Amarantha's hair and describes it as red once and then black later.. There was just a lot of really bad writing, and usually I can salvage some enjoyment from a badly written story through well described romance or well fleshed out characters. ACOTAR unfortunately did not deliver either.
I will say that I thought the curse twist was fun and I was excited to see something new with the villainess who supposedly was clever and vicious enough to trap an entire kingdom of faeries to her will. Thus, her ending was by far the biggest disappointment to me in the book, as I was finally starting to get interested despite the writing. What kind of stupid riddle was that??? And why couldn't Feyre rub two brain cells together to get it? It just doesn't make any sense for someone as vindictive and hateful and violent as Amarantha to give Feyre such an easy out when she intended to kill her anyways even after she completed the three tasks. Genuinely I have nothing to say other than it was the dumbest way out and it shouldn't have happened and Feyre shouldn't have taken so long to get it and absolutely shouldn't have made it out to be a Huge Deep Revelation.
If we are continuing to complain about plot points, what the hell were those plots about sexual assault and harassment??? Why did SJM think that could be sexy? Why did Feyre act like that wasn't a problem and why did everyone conveniently forget that Rhysand drugged her and forced her to do sexual acts in public to make Tamlin angry? Why is that so excusable and forgettable to everyone because he's a "bad boy with a heart of gold?" It feels a lot like SJM has a certain problematic fetish and while I think it's fine to express in writing and clearly it speaks to a large audience, it was personally very uncomfortable for me to read -- maybe because it was not described as sexy but was clearly meant to be sexy and not appalling.
My final complaint is that the romance felt just.. empty to me personally. This was meant to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling apparently, but none of the actual themes of BatB were present. The Beast wasn't even ugly?? He wasn't marred or unappealing in any way, and from the start, Feyre admitted he was beautiful and randomly decided she had a crush somewhere in there.
Ok, moving into the pros -- I'll make these quick and short because I've wasted too much time already thinking about this book.. First, I felt that for a romance with really poor writing, the sex scenes were relatively sexy! Good work, Maas! I won't say my loins were aflame or anything but I didn't cringe as much as I have with other books. In conjunction with this pro, there was a certain elegance in the way Maas described intimacy and it actually appeared in her descriptions of music and art as well. I liked that and enjoyed the imagery she conjured for serene and emotional scenes. Lastly, I liked Lucien. He is probably the only character I found likeable and with a believable and consistently written personality.
Ok, that's everything. Despite my low rating, I think I will try the second book to give Maas a chance at redemption. I've heard her books improve considerably, and hope this to be true!
This book was largely disappointing to me, with a few small perks that were enjoyable. I think I'll start with the cons and then talk about the pros, which are spoiler-free.
Where do I start with the writing? I felt so appalled off the bat by the poor writing and characterization of everyone in the story, from the FL to her sisters to the ML to the villainess to the maid to the clearly set up second ML... none of them felt well written, and in fact were constantly contradicting themselves in trait and personality. My biggest gripe was that Feyre was SO INSANELY STUPID like not even normal levels of dumb or clueless like THIS HAS TO BE INTENTIONAL HOW GENUINELY BAD AT SELF PRESERVATION AND CRITICAL THINKING SHE IS. From not listening to literally a single thing that Lucien and Tamlin warn her of to falling for the dumbest traps to that last stupid riddle (more on that later), Feyre is so utterly unlikeable to me that it ruins the concept of romance. It also really doesn't help that she's so blatantly ableist about her father's DEBILITATING INJURIES.
This is combined with Maas's apparent misunderstanding of how to use grammar and vocabulary... Mentioning watery bowels multiple times without realizing that this literally means diarrhea... Saying that mud was too slick to slip out of and she got stuck because mud was too slick?? Do you know what slick means????? Maas even forgets the color of Amarantha's hair and describes it as red once and then black later.. There was just a lot of really bad writing, and usually I can salvage some enjoyment from a badly written story through well described romance or well fleshed out characters. ACOTAR unfortunately did not deliver either.
I will say that I thought the curse twist was fun and I was excited to see something new with the villainess who supposedly was clever and vicious enough to trap an entire kingdom of faeries to her will. Thus, her ending was by far the biggest disappointment to me in the book, as I was finally starting to get interested despite the writing. What kind of stupid riddle was that??? And why couldn't Feyre rub two brain cells together to get it? It just doesn't make any sense for someone as vindictive and hateful and violent as Amarantha to give Feyre such an easy out when she intended to kill her anyways even after she completed the three tasks. Genuinely I have nothing to say other than it was the dumbest way out and it shouldn't have happened and Feyre shouldn't have taken so long to get it and absolutely shouldn't have made it out to be a Huge Deep Revelation.
If we are continuing to complain about plot points, what the hell were those plots about sexual assault and harassment??? Why did SJM think that could be sexy? Why did Feyre act like that wasn't a problem and why did everyone conveniently forget that Rhysand drugged her and forced her to do sexual acts in public to make Tamlin angry? Why is that so excusable and forgettable to everyone because he's a "bad boy with a heart of gold?" It feels a lot like SJM has a certain problematic fetish and while I think it's fine to express in writing and clearly it speaks to a large audience, it was personally very uncomfortable for me to read -- maybe because it was not described as sexy but was clearly meant to be sexy and not appalling.
My final complaint is that the romance felt just.. empty to me personally. This was meant to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling apparently, but none of the actual themes of BatB were present. The Beast wasn't even ugly?? He wasn't marred or unappealing in any way, and from the start, Feyre admitted he was beautiful and randomly decided she had a crush somewhere in there.
Ok, moving into the pros -- I'll make these quick and short because I've wasted too much time already thinking about this book.. First, I felt that for a romance with really poor writing, the sex scenes were relatively sexy! Good work, Maas! I won't say my loins were aflame or anything but I didn't cringe as much as I have with other books. In conjunction with this pro, there was a certain elegance in the way Maas described intimacy and it actually appeared in her descriptions of music and art as well. I liked that and enjoyed the imagery she conjured for serene and emotional scenes. Lastly, I liked Lucien. He is probably the only character I found likeable and with a believable and consistently written personality.
Ok, that's everything. Despite my low rating, I think I will try the second book to give Maas a chance at redemption. I've heard her books improve considerably, and hope this to be true!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Ableism