Reviews with content warning for Torture - Throne of Glass

“We all bear scars, Dorian. Mine just happen to be more visible than most.”

My very first Sarah J. Maas book and I have to say it was good. This book gives us a proper introduction to the main characters and to an interesting new world: a world where magic is forbidden. I instantly liked Dorian because of his sweet nature, and Nehemia. She commands respect, is smart enough to lay low when she needs to, and knows magic!

The overall plot was also enjoyable. An assassin (Celaena), locked up in a death prison, gets a chance to win back her freedom. The only thing she has to do is win the King’s Champion Tournament and be his champion for the next four years. Easier said than done. One would expect that a ruthless assassin would do anything to win this competition, especially when there’s so much at stake, but it seems Celaena has an altruistic side as well. She's also a woman of many talents. When some of the champions turn up dead during the tournament, she uses her investigation skills to find the killer. I'm all in for a good murder mystery, so I loved that!

I'm yet to be convinced of her skills as an assassin though. So far, she only thinks about the different ways of disarming and killing the guards, which I found really annoying. We don't see her actually use her abilities. Even when there is something big going on, she has people around that help her. I hope we'll learn more about Celaena as an assassin in the next books. There are many hints to Celaena’s past and I guess that will be covered in the prequel (Assassin’s Blade iirc).

Oh, and the love triangle… nope.

Why is she leading on Dorian only to drop him at the end? She says there's no hope for them now that she's Champion, but how did she not think about that beforehand. Her aim was always to become Champion, right? It might be just me being fed up with love triangles after having read so many of them already.

For a first book in a series, it's pretty good. There’s so much more to this world & I’m eager to explore it.

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tori2799's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-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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jls6283's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Like many people, I got to this book after reading ACoTaR. Here are my takeaways…

The beginning of this book does have its annoyances. It took me a while to get into this style. It’s in 3rd person, but it’s like SJM wanted to show us some of those deep, inner-thought insights like she did in ACoTaR. They seem a little off or forced in some places because we’re NOT inside the character’s head…

With that being said, once you do get through some of the world building I actually found this book to move FASTER than the ACoTaR series because it is a little more plot driven without those long inner monologues. It does feel like it takes longer as a reader to feel connected to Celaena without her thoughts - especially if you read this book first. In hindsight, I wish I had started with Assassins Blade!

There are definitely parts where the writing seems… a little unedited…? I know it’s her first series/book so maybe it’s just that? (The rest of the series doesn’t come off that way to me- just this book.)

There are a lot of loveable characters in here - and of course a few you love to hate! I’m excited to read book 2 😁

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