A review by katie0528
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

For such a hyped up book, I was disappointed by ACOTAR. A pretty standard Beauty and the Beast retelling in the first half, Feyre is taken to the court of the fae High Lord of spring, Tamlin, after she kills one of his men who wandered into the human realm. Rather than being cursed to be a beast, Tamlin can shapeshift at will while he and hs court are cursed to have masks on their faces due to some unnamed blight. About halfway through the book, everything felt very resolved, until Feyre discovers the source of the blight, and finds herself on a quest to free Tamlin and the rest of the fairy world from a wrathful queen with a vendetta against humans. This felt like two books stitched together due to the weird pacing, and I wasn't super entralled by either one. Feyre has no reason to stay with Tamlin; he makes it clear to her from the start she is free to leave his land at her own will, and neither Tamlin or Feyre are particularly endearing characters. They both felt like stock figures being moved around by the plot to fit the BATB mold. Feyre read very much like a wanna be Katniss, scraping by to survive, rather than a woman who is desireable for her beauty or mind, but she's locked into the tropes required and they require she fall in love. The second half feels much more like the Hunger Games, with Feyre fighting
literally in an arena for entertainment
to save Tamlin and a new love interest there to stir drama. This was a slog to get through and I truly do not understand the hype.

TLDR: A stock characters with a variety of stock plots leads to an odd Frakenstein of a story and is too generic to get invested in.
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