A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Synopsis

 

A ragingly famous fantasy series. Our main character, Feyre, is your typical rebellious ‘strong’ female lead who doesn’t need a man. She goes off to the woods and kills a wolf for the sake of her starving family, only to realise after she is kidnapped and brought to a magical land that she had in fact killed a faerie. She’s mortal, captured by immortal faeries, the lead faerie of faerieland (Prythian) falls in love with her and we have our dark antagonist complicating everything. 

 

I did in fact say the last sentence in a bored tone.

 

Review

 

The acotar series has been all the rage in Book World for a while now. Although it took me a while to succumb to the temptation of reading a ragingly famous series, here we are. I finished the first book today, and I must say it was a little better than I had expected it to be from the get-go.

 

Sarah's writing is immaculately detailed. Her diction, although oft repetitive (unfamiliar words and pretty idioms used more than twice tend to lose their initial charm - which got annoying sometimes in the book), is actually not bad at all. Overall, quite stimulating for someone looking to broaden their vocabulary a little.

 

In the beginning, I was utterly rapt by the book. It's been a while since an author's scene setting created such vivid images in my head. It made me wonder why I stayed away from fantasy books since the Fallen series (which I read very late). I thought I liked Fallen, but acotar is otherworldly. Quite literally too. Sarah did a good job at clothing her characters with personality. I could feel their essence, as if they were real beings. And I guess for that one week it took me to get through the book, they were real. Except for Tamlin maybe. Somehow it felt like Lucien and Rhysand had more of a personality than he did. His character was a bit underdeveloped in my most humble opinion. Although we've heard of him and what he has been, gone through and done through other characters, it would've been nice to be more exposed to him from Feyre's point of view and somehow his own. Which is why the beginning stages of their love story felt ragged, slightly rushed (not in the good omg sexual tension way) and somehow, it was incomplete. I would've enjoyed it more if they had spent more time together prior to that first weird neck biting, just like she spent time getting to know Lucien in the woods (not in that way). It was an awkward jump to me, and even though Sarah reveals the whys of his advances later on in the book, does his "love" then not seem...artificial? I could understand that Feyre fell for this immortal, ethereal being for no good reason other than him being a High Lord, but Tamlin? C'mon man. Where's your depth?

 

Maybe I'm being too critical because we don't get much from Tamlin either verbally or otherwise and the story is told from Feyre's perspective. But still, it could've been more polished.

 

Anyway. I think it's safe to say there were few dull moments in the book. I seldom lost track of the story or read on blindly, seeing but not registering, as it often happens with other writings. 

 

I do feel like Amarantha, the antagonist, died too easily. Too fast, too soon. But it's perhaps just sadism to wish for her pain and torture despite all she's done. As for Rhysand, he's...intriguing. I sort of wished Feyre would have actually returned his kiss that one time, but that would've changed too much. And I guess Tamlin unfortunately remains her main guy, for now, I hope. Not that I have anything against Tam, but damn, the others are far more interesting. It's also a pity that Feyre’s father is also shadowed in that same coat of character shallowness. Can he even call himself a father? Oh well, we'd be debating for hours if I got into this aspect of the story right now. It's not that important anyway. 

 

Wrapping up, I quite liked the story, and I genuinely want to read the entire series. Usually, I lose interest in the first book itself, but I shall haply read the rest of the acotar series.

 

Toodles xoxo