A Court of Thorns and Roses (Spoiler-free)
Author: Sarah J. Maas (SJM)
Overall Rating: ★★★★
Genre: YA fantasy and romance
POV: FPPT (for a list of abbreviations and their meanings, click here)
Stand alone or Series: ACOTAR is the first book in what has come to be known as the ACOTAR trilogy. It is followed by A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin.
Prose Proficiency: Good
Editing: Good
Steam and Smut: There is very little actual "smut" in ACOTAR; while the romantic overtones are present throughout the book, there is only one actual sexual encounter in the book, and the language pertaining to that scene is non-explicit. While it is obvious what is going on, the scene is by no means graphic.
Originality: B/B-
Review: ACOTAR was released in 2015 and has since, along with the rest of the series, become incredibly popular. That being said, there is all kinds of hype out there, both positive and negative, regarding not only this book, but the series as a whole. For myself, I have been a huge fan of this series since it first came out, and though I have now read ACOTAR several times--I just finished yet another re-read last night so as to have everything fresh in my mind for this review--I am going to attempt to write this review as if I haven't read the rest of the series, with as honest and unbiased an opinion as possible.
ACOTAR tells the story of nineteen year old Feyre (pronounced FAY-ruh) Archeron, a human girl tasked with the burden of providing for her impoverished family. In a cottage on the outskirts of a small village, Feyre lives with the daily fear of starvation and the distant but ever-looming threat of the evil, human-hating Fae who rule the lands north of the nearby Wall. When she unknowingly kills a High Fae disguised as a wolf while hunting, a mythic beast comes to claim her life as payment and offers her a choice: a quick death, or a life lived in Prythian, the deadly land of the Fae.
Feyre reluctantly accepts the beast's offer to spare her life. Leaving her father and two older sisters behind, she accompanies him north of the Wall to Prythian, to the Spring Court, one of seven courts ruled over by seven High Lords. It is here she learns her captor is Tamlin, High Lord of the Spring Court, and not all is well in the land of Prythian. A blight has taken hold of the land, not only depleting the faeries' magic but threatening their very lives. Tamlin, along with his emissary, Lucien, is one of the last bastions of strength holding out against the blight, and he's running out of time.
While Feyre unexpectedly finds peace, provisions, and comfort she's never known in the Spring Court--along with a strong attraction to this male she's been raised to fear and hate--her instincts urge her to fight against this poison raging against the land. And when Tamlin eventually succumbs to the blight, Feyre will have to dig deep within herself to find the strength to save him.
The thing I first remember hooking me about this was book was the imagery. SJM does an excellent job of painting pictures without having to over-describe a scene. She transports you to Feyre's world, where in the very first pages your belly clenches with hunger, your fingers go numb from the cold, and yet you can appreciate the beauty of a clean, unmarked blanket of snow while enjoying the type of deep and heavy quiet found only in the far off reaches unclaimed by today's society. Throughout the book, we're invited to step into the scenes, admire the colors, drink in the sights and sounds of never-ending spring. SJM's prose is a smooth balance of snappy dialogue, flowery descriptions, direct actions, and an overall flow that pulls you from paragraph to paragraph, page to page.
SJM does, like most authors, have a couple of descriptors or catch-phrases she tends to overuse. "Watery bowels" is probably the most critiqued phrase I've ever seen a fandom harp on. Any time Feyre faces a situation in which fear washes over her, her bowels turn watery. It's not a fun description, let's face it, and while I understand SJM's motivation behind it, there are other ways--and other bodily functions--to articulate one's level of fear.
She also makes WAY too much use of em dashes and ellipses. So many em dashes. One per page, minimum. For most people, this isn't a big deal. Many readers may not even notice it. But for me, as an author myself, it's a punctuational choice the editor should have caught and corrected. Commas and semi-colons are your friends, and much less likely to drag the reader out of their immersion.
Those flaws aside, I found ACOTAR to be an easy and enjoyable read. Feyre is a flawed character, which makes her relatable. She provides for her father and sisters, both out of love and a strong sense of obligation, but that doesn't stop her from admittedly feeling anger and bitterness at their lack of understanding and gratitude for what she does. She resents her father for not trying harder to be a better provider and disdains her sisters for not making an effort to move past their lost fortune and living in the present like she must.
She also lacks any real sense of self-worth. Despite knowing her family's survival is strictly because of her and her efforts, she tends to focus more on her lack of grace, her inability to read and write, her tactlessness and vindictive nature. Her "shortcomings," she calls them. She sees herself as nothing but a useless, worthless human. She sees herself as less.
Because of her experiences with her family and her skewed sense of self, Feyre has a tendency to build walls around herself. She struggles to let people in, believing they will view her in the same ways she views herself. As not enough. As less.
Tamlin, for all his handsomeness and grace and forgiveness, does little to convince Feyre otherwise. While he is the MMC and Feyre obviously falls in love with him, I found there were several red flags about Tamlin. He is an extremely possessive character, with several overtones of narcissism.
"I want you here, where I can look after you--where I can come home and know you're here, painting and safe."
"What I have to face, what I endure, Feyre ... you would not survive."
"Don't ever disobey me again."
"I claimed Lucien as my own."
On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal. He just wants to take care of her, right? Meh ... Throughout the book, Tamlin falls in love with Feyre. But he never trusts her. Never believes in her. Never truly fights for her. Rather, his actions seem to support the idea he feels entitled to her.
That's not to say Tamlin doesn't have his good qualities. He cares deeply about the members of his court and is extremely weighed down by his inability to help protect them from the blight. He admits to Feyre that he was never meant to be High Lord; that title was supposed to go to one of his brothers, who were murdered. He never learned the necessary skills to be a leader; rather, he's a warrior, trained on the battlefield, and now he must try to shift his behaviors to suit a different role.
He has strong protective instincts, and while that often manifests in possessive toxicity, I do believe it comes from good intentions on Tamlin's part. He wants to protect Lucien. He wants to protect Feyre. He ends up damning his entire court for the sake of protecting Feyre. Unfortunately, this indicates his total lack of understanding who Feyre is as a person.
Besides the interpersonal relationships that make up the majority of the story, I feel like SJM does a sound job of developing the world of Prythian. Other than the main groups of humans and High Fae, we're introduced to a wonderful array of faerie characters, both good and bad, including the puca, the naga, the Suriel, the Bogge, the Attor, etc. The mythology surrounding the Fae is vast and varied, and SJM makes use of that in the world of Prythian.
As for the plot, while I enjoyed the entirety of the story--the developing romance between Feyre and Tamlin, the ever-looming threat of the blight, the brief snippets of Fae history interspersed throughout--my favorite part of the book is the last hundred pages or so when Feyre is Under the Mountain. Interestingly enough, this ending quarter of the book features little to no interaction between Feyre and Tamlin and instead focuses on Feyre's attempt to defeat the blight that threatens all of Prythian. It is here we really get a sense of the lengths Feyre is willing to go to save the man she loves; how willing she is to destroy herself for the sake of another. It is here we see the catalyst that will catapult Feyre's growth throughout the rest of the series.
All that aside, ACOTAR is worthy of its high praise. Its well-written, well-paced, the characters are well-developed, the world is inviting. There is a solid balance between character drive and plot drive. Does it have it's flaws? Sure. Every book does. Is it a bit trope-y in places? It can be. It definitely has the sense of a Beauty and the Beast retelling, though that's not necessarily a knock against it. Who doesn't love the re-imagining of a classic fairy tale?
My final note would be, though I said I would try to review this as if I hadn't read the rest of the series, ACOTAR is the set-up for a much larger story. It is well worth the read if only to get to the following book, A Court of Mist and Fury. There's a lot of hate out there for SJM and her work, especially ACOTAR. There's also a whole lot of love and obsession. I fall into the second category. I love it. I hope--if you haven't already--that you give ACOTAR a chance and love it as much as I do.
Keep turning pages. Until next time ...
MR
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