Book Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses By Sarah J Maas

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Synopsis:

Feyre is a huntress.

She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price…

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy’s kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor’s body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked – but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre’s feeling for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she’s been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

Feyre must find a way to break a spell, or lose her heart forever.

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My Review:

A Court of Thorns and Roses swept me off my feet. This was one of those books that everyone in the book community raved about and I was uncertain whether to believe the hype.

There were many things I enjoyed about the novel. One of which was the way that the world was created and the different Fae’s were described. I loved how they all looked different depending on which court they came from, I also liked that we had different types of Fae creatures; the Sureel, Puca, Bogge, etc.

I liked how the novel was loosely based on Beauty and the Beast. I say loosely because though some key plot points are the same – “Beast” is cursed until “Beauty” loves him regardless of appearance. It does differ in many ways too. I believe their characters to be completely different from their counterparts, so don’t go into this novel expecting a straight-forward retelling of Beauty and the Beast; Feyre is not Belle, and Tamlin is not the Beast.

Where there are likes, there are dislikes and one such dislike is that I hated that information was dumped on Feyre by other characters. There’s a lot of exposition dumps that could’ve come out of the story more naturally if Feyre had discovered it, rather than been told it. I would’ve liked it if she found out some of it for herself like when she came across the map and she pieced it together. I don’t mind that some of the information was given to her but I wish that she could’ve discovered some of it for herself.

Onto the many different characters in this novel:

First, we have Feyre;  For a hunter who is supposed to have a strong survival instinct, she is constantly putting herself in danger. When she first arrives, she is constantly trying to escape despite knowing that she’d probably die if she does. And on Fire Night, the one thing she is told is not to leave her room, that it’s dangerous and what does she do, go out anyway. I’m not saying that she should’ve been attacked or anything like that but seriously she just keeps making stupid decisions. I loved the scene with the dying fairy and her not wanting them to die alone and the scenes with her Under The Mountain are quite strong. I just wish we could’ve seen that consistently through the book. I also do like that she does have some vulnerabilities, such as her literacy skills and her position in her family and how she feels about them. I also love that she’s a painter that she sees beauty in the mundane, that she tried to make her house homey through painting.

Tamlin is a little hot and cold. He’s inconsistent for 70% of the book, though the reader may have knowledge about the story of Beauty and the Beast, we did not know about the curse for most of the book therefore his behaviour didn’t make any sense. I am not a fan of nice guys who do bad things but it’s okay because he’s usually a nice guy. I know we’re supposed to like Tamlin but he just didn’t click with me.

Lucian is Tamlin’s best friend and I really liked him. He’s a great witty character and I loved that he is a loyal friend to Tamlin and his backstory is fascinating and tragic. I felt he stole the show in all his scenes. I wanted more of him. I just loved him as a character.

Rhysand, what can I say I adored him. I know he’s supposed to be the “villain” of this but I couldn’t help but connect to his character more than I could Tamlin’s. We got to see that he isn’t what everyone expected of him. He has his own motives and goals. He doesn’t want to be subservient to Amarantha regardless of what people think. He’s a complex character.

Alis and the other servants need fleshing out more. I wanted to know more about them, particularly Alis but we only find out she came from the Summer Court and why she left it towards the end of the book.

I loved Amarantha. I felt that the out with the riddle was a little weak. I don’t think that a villain who is as evil as she is would create a loophole. Regardless of that, I felt that Amarantha’s hate for humans was so well developed. We got to see why she hates them and how far she would go to torture and kill them, i.e. what she did to Jurial and Clare.

Tamlin and Feyre; their relationship was just meh to me. I found that she had more chemistry with Rhysand than she did with Tamlin so I wasn’t all that interested in their relationship at all.

I also thought that Maas did well with the creation of Feyre’s sisters. We got to see how they all differ from each other, they aren’t nasty mean characters they just have different ways of coping with the situations they’re in. I loved that their characters developed over the book, especially Nesta’s, I like that you get to see how she truly felt about Feyre and their father.

I liked how fast paced it moved and I liked how much it flowed. That last 20% the book, the Under the Mountain scenes I really enjoyed. The world-building is exquisite and the characters though need a little work are developing well. 

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