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A Court of Thorns and Roses (Parts 1 & 2) [Dramatized Adaptation], by Sarah J. Maas

264 reviews

alliejm00's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

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cescanatalia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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

3.5

First time reading Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorn & Roses and let's just say, it makes me have this mixed feeling about this book.

BOOK COVER :

Love the red colour; it definitely attention grabbing and I think it allures people to read it. There's also another version of cover; it's a female clad in black dress with red background but my personal preference is for sure, the red cover with intricate painting of wolf in it.

CHAPTER 1 :

Sarah introduces Feyre right away as main character. She has this stubborn, reliable,strong-willed character due to her background as the one who has to provide for her family. In my opinion, Feyre doesn't have this strong "right in your face" moment or charisma to be main character; She provides for her family, yes that's good but she did out of promise to her deceased mother who made her swore to protect them on her death bed. There is this wild thoughts in my head that say, if Feyre doesn't swore or make promise, I bet she'll be the one who left and find adventures out there after her family went poor.

Chapter 1 is bit intriguing though it's easily guessable where the plot is going; Feyre, out of desperation and hatred, accidentally killed a wolf she saw on the forest. Later though, the wolf's friend, which is a Fae, came and demand Feyre to exchange her life in place for his friend. From there, we don't need Einstein to guess what will happened next to Feyre.

CHARACTERS :

Besides Feyre, later we were introduced to Tamlin, the one who demand Feyre to go to Spring Court in place for his deceased friend, later we known as Andras. Tamlin is a High Lord for Spring Court which like governor in real life and he has this mysterious, aloof, cold and rigid aura. His cold and unapproachable aspect kind of create this invisible bridge with Feyre; they have this awkward tension & their stubborness clash with each other.

Now for Tamlin, I do admire his leadership and responsibilities towards his court. He's a man of words, protecting and trying his best to make Feyre feel at home. One thing I don't find interesting in Tamlin is how half of the books, Sarah doesn't explore his expression more; as far as I read, Tamlin, if he's not growling, he's snarling, clenching his teeth or flexing his claws or fangs (which is still absurd to me, 'cause at one point, the claws came from his knuckles and Wolverine's the only thing that came to my mind 'stead of Fairies).

And we also introduced to Lucien, Tamlin's emissary and act like his second-in-command slash best friend for centuries. Lucien, contradict to Tamlin, has this bright and glowing spirit, approachable, yet sarcastic traits, which make him as my number one lovable character. Especially after I learn more about his past, the urge to protect this ginger haired baby is getting stronger (Sarah was so wrong for putting him in death chair as Amarantha's second challenge for Feyre 😑)

Later, we also introduces to Ryhsand or Rhys, this dark mysterious yet cunning High Lord of Night Court. A literal definition of red flag, that's my first impression of him. Now when I say earlier, that I have this mixed feeling about ACOTAR, Rhysand is on my top five; that man or Fae, even though he's giving this dangerous and full of threat especially towards Thamlin & Feyre's relationship, but he's a loyal and caring inside; he willing to be servant for Amarantha as long as he could protect his court, kind of giving this Slytherin's traits for me (sorry for HP reference there xD).
I admire him for helping Feyre indirectly but also dislikes his meddling with Feyre's love life.

And our villain, Amarantha. Evil, cunning, sinister High Queen who obsessively in lust with Tamlin. She apperead later in the books, torturing Fae left and right while trying to make Tamlin hers. Now, from the introduction of her to discussion of her past and what she is as Fae, I could say, our villain is villaining. She came for blood and gore, she doesn't afraid to kill anyone whose in her path.

But towards the end, when she realize she's lost, there's this tiny bit speck of moment where she's afraid of Tamlin who regains his consciousness and plead for her life. Kind of bit funny to me, cause girl's not as powerful as she tought she is yet she dare to manipulate and keep half of High Fae's magic and when it backfired on her, she's scared. Like why you play gamble for your life, Amarantha? Such a high risk taken for a villain who doesn't think further of the consequences of her action.

Now, Feyre.. Our main character which for me, fail to do her job properly. First of all, I appreciate her for being brave and ready to fight Amarantha to save Tamlin even though there is this unbalance scales of power between them. She's giving hope and optimism and I just love it. The only thing I don't find her interesting is her ability for being stupid and make bad decision. I swear, this girl just testing my patience everytime she's being stubborn specifically when Tamlin had advised her to stay inside his home or Lucien warned her to not look for Suriel. Later, she almost sacrifice Lucien's life due to her slowpoke brain ( I literally holding my breath when this happened; girl just so fuckin' clueless)

Between these four characters, I like Lucien-Feyre's interaction the most; they have this longtime bestfriend kind of chemistry which makes their conversation and banter fun to read. Thamlin-Feyre fall on the second place; they start slow and hard to read but later in the chapters, the ice between them melt down and create this sexual tension which lead us to top notch smut; it's a nice plot development for both of them.

Talking about development, sadly I don't think our MC has prominent character development. What I don't expect is Nesta, Feyre's older sister. She, from a cold, cynical, spoiled girl turn into tough & reliable older sister. It's surprise me, like a lot because you can't see any of these trait from her in the beginning, not even a glimpse and then suddenly, you have this information of Nesta's went to the Wall just to take Feyre's back and she understand what Feyre's going through and makes her realize about her feelings and push her to go back to Spring Court. Like, come thru protecting older sister! Nesta is representation of tough love first children has to give to their siblings and I live for that 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

PLOT :

Now, everyone who's read this could easily guess ACOTAR is literally a re-endition of Beauty and The Beast but with magical being; later though, it's a mixed of Beauty & the Beast meet Twilight with a bit of sprinkle of Hunger Games; and Feyre, instead of being a nerd, she couldn't read to save her life. Tamlin, instead of curse that turn him into Beast, there is this Blight or some kind of curse upon his land which makes him wear mask 24/7.

It's hard for me to say this but ACOTAR has drain my will to read. I even pause it for at least weeks just because the pace is like a roller coaster; in the beginning, it's so slow with no prominent character or events happened (besides Feyre moving to Spring Court) and then it goes fast with Tamlin-Feyre making progress but it slowed down again until mid story almost to the end and it goes fast again in the end. It's torturing to read especially if your main character are Feyre with her inability of thinking logically and making right decision.

Sadly, I don't vibes well with the pace. It's slow, stagnant and unengaging and I think, for opening a series, ACOTAR has done its job properly but not well done. She doesn't have this kick which I thought will make readers curious enough to read the next series. But for me, the possibility exist. I probably will read the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury.

ENDING :

When I say there's bit of Twilight happened, I refer to the ending here. Predictable, that's all I could say.

SUMMARY :

ACOTAR has been put on my list of "BOOKTOK/BOOKSTAGRAM THAT DOESN'T WORTH THE HYPE".

It's good, I love how the world building introduces us to Fairies and their separate Courts also Mortal Realm where human resides. It's not easy to create a fantasy world and I give applause for Sarah J Maas for creating this world building nice and proper. I'm still at first book so I couldn't say much about it, maybe later though when I finish the series.

Though it's good, I find her characterization of Fae is a bit off. It's really different from Fae per usual, it has claws and fangs and it's more animal look alike rather than graceful, elegant, glowing Fae. I think Sarah's Fae is more vampire than what she meant to.

That's why I say I have mixed feeling because at one point, I don't vibes well with what she trying to say through her character but at the same time, I admire her creativity and strong willed to make different characters in a book.

I give ACOTAR three stars out of five 😊

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kat_rowlen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Spoiler

Feyre was an idiot and thus hard to root for. There’s no way her family depended solely on her. Amarantha was the only person who even had a personality beyond one dimension. The plot was good but the characters were not.

Spoiler

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madde_shay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

3.75

I’ve known about this book for years and I finally picked it up once half of TikTok started raving about it. I actually ended up really enjoying the book! This is one of your regular in-depth fantasy stories about the fae. It’s very world-building heavy, which is necessary when introducing a completely new world and concept. However, the main characters may take a blow in their development because of it, and the book will seem slow at first. I personally love world building and I think SJM did a great job handling it as I was completely taken by Prythian. Character development did start to recover by the end of the book, which was nice. Overall, I recommend this book to lovers of dark and magical high-fantasies, romance, and detailed world building.

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