Book Review | A Court of Thorns and Roses

 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J Maas

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 421 pages

Published May 5th 2015

2.5 stars

So am I kneeling at the altar of Sarah J. Maas along with the masses right now?
Well… no.
After starting and dnf-ing Throne of Glass about a bazillion times (that’s an approximation of course)… and then reading this book… I have resigned to the fact that … take out your pitchforks everyone … I just don’t like Maas’ writing.

There… I said it. Fight me ok!

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The Story

Feyre.

She’s a human girl
In a human wooorld
Life is tragic
Not fantastic

She likes to set up snares
Shoots wolves without a caaaaare
Dedication, keeps them from starvation

(Tamlin): Come on Feyre let’s go Feyre
(chorus): Ah ah aaah yeah
(Tamlin): Come on Feyre let’s go Feyre
(chorus): ooOoh ooOoh

…..Oh god what am I doing?!
Seriously…. If you picked up on that… I equally love and pity you.
So …. we will both pretend that never happened.

Feyre is a human, living in poverty on the small sliver of mortal land that borders the land of the Fae. The evil maniacal murderous Fae that is – at least that is what she has been led to believe. Soon, a series of unfortunate events bring her face to face with one of the dreaded folk and Feyre is forced to pay back a debt by traveling beyond the wall and into enemy lands.

(Goodreads synopsis)

“Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.”

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What I did not like

I’m going to start with the “Cons” on this one since the biggest con for me was basically the entire first half of this book. See, the problem with this story was not in the story at all, it was in the telling of it. Again (as I do with many books I don’t like), I found myself rewriting this book in my head as I read. The actual events kept me going, because I was genuinely interested, but the writing was meh.

Feyre is the MC and the narrator of this series and tbh, I couldn’t stand her. She was whiny, and weak, complaintive, repetitive, and ahhhhh! Because of my disdain for Feyre, I felt completely detached from the story and from the characters. As it turns out, it’s really hard to like a book when you despise the narrator. *shrugs*

The shallow characters and world building. I just didn’t see anything remarkable about any of it. I wanted MOOOOORE out of this world and these characters and I simply just didn’t get it.

The painfully persistent “clicking” of the tongue! No seriously. Read this book and you will know exactly what I mean here! Maas used this phrase so many times in the beginning of this book that I contemplated creating a drinking game. It’s that bad.

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What I did not like

What I really liked about this book was the story. It was creative and intricate and dark and sexy and suspenseful. And when ignoring all of the blaring issues I had with this book and the writing … I actually enjoyed the read.

Honestly, the second half of this book was kind of fantastic! I seriously felt like it was written by a completely different person. This part of the book is where Maas really redeemed herself for me and gained me as an ACOTAR series fan.

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In Conclusion

Unfortunately, I psyched myself up for awesome-ness… and with so many awesome books out there … this one just fell flat. I was never able to really connect with Feyre, and with her being the narrator of the story, that really screwed up my connection to the book as a whole. I didn’t love Tamlin either in this and I hope to see a better connection to him in the next book along with some of the characters I did love (Lucien and Rhys!!!)

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This review was originally posted on my Goodreads account December, 2016

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