Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Assassin's Blade

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

33 reviews

lilywolf's review against another edition

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4.0

Read anytime in the serie but do it before Queen of Shadows!

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ameydireads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it–to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger."

This book is divided into five short stories centering on Celaena. Each story is a new adventure or life lesson for her. She meets so many new characters, each of whom she influences in her own unique way. I hope to see some of these interesting characters return in later books. One notably memorable character is the Mute Master, leader of the Silent Assassins. He was a refreshing character in the sense that he’s in stark contrast to Arobynn. Whilst Arobynn rules through punishment and ruthlessness, the Mute Master leads with unity and compassion. When the first story begins, Celaena is still very young and somewhat naive. Her strong sense of morality and justice pushes her to liberate slaves–a choice that sets off a cascade of events leading to her downfall.

The five stories are linked by an overarching plot that tells the love story of Celaena and Sam. If you’re reading this book after Crown of Midnight like me, you already know how this story will end.

Everything inevitably leads to Sam’s death and Celaena’s imprisonment in Endovier. I couldn’t get this thought out of my head as I read, making the moments when Sam and Celaena speak of their hopes and future together especially heartbreaking. They believed they would have all the time in the world, but we readers know better.

I do feel I understand Celaena better after reading this book. No wonder this girl is no walking sunshine.

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annadelreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

“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.

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rivkah519's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed learning about Celaena's past after getting to know her character in the other books. I really enjoyed the Assassin and the Healer and I love that she helped that healer to make a better life for herself. I kind of saw that coming. I also really loved the Assassin and the Desert. I was so saddened to see what happened between her and Ansel and I truly hope to see Ansel in the other books in the series. I hope she will get another shot at a redemption arc. And after reading the last little story,...well let's just say I really, really can't stand Arobynn!! And after finding out about Sam......🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭 The last little novella gave me chills.... This whole book is soo good and I felt so emotional for most of it!!! What a roller coaster!!

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lilylaflair's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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shadow_summit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The Assassin and The Pirate King - 4.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Healer - 5 🌟
The Assassin and the Desert - 4.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Underworld - 3.5 🌟
The Assassin and the Empire - 3 🌟

Tbh the first few novellas featured in this book are pretty fun and show a lot of growth for our FL, Celaena, but of course it was more difficult to get through the last two books.
The main reason is for the silly decisions of Celaena and her blindness to obvious clues.
At the end of The Assassin and the Desert, you think you've reached a point of realisation and clarity of path for Celaena, but the next novella almost casts us back to the very beginning in terms of Celaena's personal growth, though thanks to our boi, Sam, she doesn't go back completely.
Now Celaena does have some redeeming reasons behind these blind moments, she's young, traumatized and she's obviously been groomed into the life she lives, but ultimately some of her slips of wisdom and blind trust/obedience could have been avoided if she was actually trained to be as cautious as she claims, and took a second to think through what's happening around her and pick up on patterns set by her enemies...
There's a lot of dark topics and scummy topics covered in this book (we are dealing with criminals, assassins and the underworld so it shouldn't be too surprising but still be forewarned).

Also, took a whole star off the overall rating because of an event in the last novella,

i.e. main lad, best lad, Sam deserved better. Should have fled away together with the clothes on their back. A little stealing would have been easy enough to achieve along the way and hardly a big no-no compared to all they'd done so far.

and while perhaps petty, since its my review I'm allowed to and will.

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tabea1409's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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barbarianmissy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

THE ASSASSIN AND THE EMPIRE:

ouch…. I knew exactly what was gonna happen but it STILL. HURT. ME!

I loooooooove that “My name is Celaena Sardothien and I will not be afraid” is from the one person she had left in her life that truly loved and cared for her. I gasped when he said it the first time and needed a moment to cope! Rip Sam, you were one sweet pea.

Arobynn, I hope you get brutally murdered in later books, I said what I said, and what I said is that you’re a stupid skank.

AS FOR THE BOOK AS A WHOLE!

I really enjoyed reading this prequel! It made me understand Celaena a lot more and appreciate her as a character and where she comes from. Dorian and Chaol better step up their game cause Team Sam alllllll the way, baby!

One small thing I did notice though was that, for the world’s greatest assassin, Celaena sure does get betrayed and captured a lot in these novellas. But it made for a fun time!

ONTO THE NEXT!

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allydoessomereading's review against another edition

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adventurous sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A great series of adventurous short stories to add some depth and backstory to the characters of celaena sardothien and arobynn Hamel. The first few stories feel more like separate adventures, lower stakes. Then the last two chapters/short stories are much higher stakes, impacting the wider story. A lot of fun to read.

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shlymiller's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

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