Review: A Court of Thorns & Roses (ACOTAR) – Sarah J. Maas

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

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ALL HAIL QUEEN MAAS!

Because my god, she’s done it again…

I want to start off by saying that Throne of Glass is probably my favourite fantasy series after Harry Potter. I love it. So freaking much. But for some reason, I just never got around to reading her second series.

WHAT THE HELL WAS I PLAYING AT?!

With the release of A Court of Wings And Ruin last week, I decided it was finally time to pull this book off my shelf after buying it an entire year ago. A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first in the trilogy, and follows Feyre, a human, as she is taken to the Fae realm of Prythian as punishment for killing a wolf. But not just any ordinary wolf, oh no…

I’ll stop there, I don’t want to give away spoilers for those of you who, like me, are slow of the bat for reading this.

So anyway, as her journey unfolds, there are dramas, there are romances (but not the “love at first sight” trope, thank god, because I can’t be dealing with that crap… no, none of that), and there are terrifying creatures. Seriously, I would not want to run into any of those on a stroll through the forest.

Maas just has this way of describing demon creature things that paints a picture so vivid, it’s as though they could jump out at you in the comfort of your reading nook at any possible minute, and I think that’s my favourite thing about her writing. It’s her ability to create a world so vivid that you just get totally wrapped up in it and CANT PUT DOWN THE FREAKING BOOK until you’ve devoured it in just a few hours…

Dare I say it, I think I may prefer this, so far, to Throne of Glass. Which really is saying something.

I’m not going to lie, it does have it’s issues. There is a hint of a slightly abusive relationship within the plot. I use “slightly” because it’s not so much physical abuse, but rather a very assertive male character who loses his temper when the female doesn’t do as she’s told… But I mean, that happens in real life, so people losing their minds over it and saying that it’s “problematic” need to take a step back and realise that this happens in real life, and therefore should be written about. If every problematic issue was erased from all books then our attention wouldn’t be drawn towards it. It’s the same as pretending it doesn’t exist, which is equally as bad. Obviously, there comes a point when it does become too much of a serious issue in a book, if it’s unnecessary to be in there, but I don’t feel like this is the case here.

There is also, however, a definitive lack of diversity amongst the characters. All of the characters seem to be white and straight, and I am aware that some people have found it offensive and have been hurt by various things within this series, and generally feel un-represented in any of Maas’ works. For this I apologise – I feel bad for loving it despite all of this! But I do… I’m sorry.

I felt like the characters in this series are already more well rounded that those in TOG, although I have to say, Feyre’s family annoyed the hell out of me! Her sisters in the opening chapters are so shallow it’s unreal, and her DAD?! Well, let’s just say I’m glad he’s not mine. I can’t believe how little he cares for his children, especially after their mother died. I get it, people grieve in different ways, but he’s practically abandoned his children to wallow in his own self pity.

That aside, I really bloody loved this book. The relationships were cute, Feyre is just the right amount feisty yet also caring and loyal, Tamlin and Lucien (besides being my future husbands) have their hidden demons which make them incredibly interesting as well as being bloody sexy… And there are twists and turns aplenty!

I can’t wait to get stuck into ACOMAF this weekend – I’ve heard it’s even better?!

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View A Court of Thorns and Roses on Goodreads