A review by vader
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

“Grunting against the weight, I grasped the legs of the deer and spared a final glance at the steaming carcass of the wolf. His remaining golden eye now stared at the snow-heavy sky, and for a moment, I wished I had it in me to feel remorse for the dead thing.
But this was the forest, and it was winter.”

I’ve got to say, over the last few years, I’ve heard so many things about this series, both marvelous and terrible, that I was scared to read it. I finally decided that I should think for myself, instead of letting what others say make up my mind, and gave it a try. I went in with zero expectations, but I’ve got to say, while far from being perfect, it wasn’t as bad as I had feared.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, in which Belle is a human girl called Feyre from a disgraced family that lives in extreme poverty, hunts to provide food for her and her family, and could never learn how to read and write. The Beast is none other than Tamlin, a Fae High Lord of the Spring Court, able to shapeshift into… well… a beast.

One fateful winter day, Feyre goes looking for game deep into the forest, where she finds a doe that could feed her family for over a week being stalked by a giant wolf. Her first suspicion, which is also the truth, is that she has encountered a faerie that’s shifted into animal form. She doesn’t let her fear win, and shoots it anyway with an ash arrow, the only material capable of killing fae, so that she could get the doe and feed her sisters and father. Unfortunately, her actions have consequences in the form of an angry High Lord tracking her to her home, and demanding a price for the life of his friend: her death, or her presence at his court. Begrudgingly, she accepts the second offer.

For almost 200 pages after, absolutely nothing relevant happens in terms of plot. Everything is about Feyre adapting to life at the Spring Court, with almost next to no worldbuilding, since Tamlin keeps the truth of what’s happening in Prythia hidden from her and she spends most of her time inside or in the area sorrounding the High Lord’s residence. The only thing that made the reading more bearable was highlighting all the instances of dash abuse, badly used ellipses, and fragments. To name a few:

“…thought of what Tamlin had mentioned about how these estates should not have been his, and felt… sorry for him.” – chapter 12.

“The room was similar to mine in shape, but was bedecked in hues of orange and red and gold, with faint traces of green and brown. Like being in an autumn wood.” – chapter 13.

“…I would have refused to be so far from the wall, from him. That going back to my family was as far as I would allow to be sent from his side.” -chapter 28.

However, the story starts to pick up afterwards, fortunately, and takes us to the underground court where the tyrant fae queen rules. Here, we get reintroduced to my least favourite character in the book: Rhysand, aka Gaston, aka I-already-know-you’re-Feyre’s-future-love-interest, aka fucking-die-already.

The charming High Lord of the Night Court does nothing but piss me off. He tortures Feyre, sexually abuses her, and manipulates her into a deal with him when she’s in an extremely vulnerable position. I’ve browsed some of the Goodreads reviews, and I’m extremely surprised to find that a lot of fans find this guy -this hundreds-of-years-old immortal douche- to be swoon-worthy. I’d like to ask them why. Let me reiterate: he tortures the main character, sexually abuses her, and manipulates her for his own gain. The High Lord of the Summer Court (by the way, the only explicitly human-looking non-white character in the whole book, only there to be horribly humilliated and murdered) pisses himself in fear when he sees Rhysand.

This is not how you write a love interest, it’s not hot or sexy or “how a bad boy acts” (not even when he’s “pretending to be evil” because there is no pretence – this is straight-up malice). This is terrifying. This is how you write a villain. Hadn’t I already known about the existence of “Feysand,” I would’ve assumed that, once Amarantha was dead, Rhysand would’ve become the “big bad” of the next book.

I’ve got to admit, though, that his presence served to make the Under the Mountain arc more interesting. It served to make clear just how well over her head Feyre was, how impossible it would’ve been to survive on her own. I felt genuine sympathy for her during this time, and it was nice to see her sacrifice pay off in the end. Feyre the Faerie. Kinda like Hannibal the Cannibal. Heh.

All in all, there were things that I hated, and things that I liked. I’d love to hear more about Lucien, Nesta and the history of Prythia in the future books. I’d love to learn more about Fae and human culture in Maas’ world. It’d be lovely to be introduced to characters of color who are not there to be killed off, and, since I can’t make Feysand disappear from existence, I’d like to see Rhysand grovel a little a lot for what he did to Feyre. Maas getting another editor specifically for her fragments and ellipsis problem would be neat, too, but hey! We can’t have it all.

I think I’d like to see what else is out there, what a woman might do with a fortune and a good name.

trigger warning for graphic depictions of violence, explicit sex scenes, and sexual abuse.