A Court of Thorns and Roses

Today I finished reading the first book in the series by Sarah J Maas, “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” I’m a little late to the party in reading this, I discovered the young adult series on Instagam and everyone either loved it or hated it. The series is inspired by famous fairytales and myths. “A  Court of Thorns and Roses,” the first book in the series is inspired by Beauty and the Beast, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Tam Lin. On a cold winters day nineteen year old Feyre kills a wolf in the woods. That very night a terrifying creature comes and wants retribution. To save her father and sister’s Feyre agrees to go with the creature to Prythian the magical faerie world over the wall. Her captor is not a beast all the time and his name is Tamlin. Of course their relationship starts off with hostility but then their feelings turn into love. There’s a huge darkness growing threatening to destroy both Tamlin and Feyre’s worlds. It’s up to Feyre to stop it before it’s too late. Once in a while there is a gem in the young adult genre and I was very impressed with “A Court of Thorns and Roses.” I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in the series. I know I’m somewhat late to the party in reading this, but it has everything I like with magic and romance and I wanted to read it before the show starts streaming on Hulu.

Pros

The writing was descriptive and I could imagine the faerie world. The plot definitely grabbed you. While its inspired by the different fairytales I mentioned above, it’s very loosely adapted. Think of Ella Enchanted it has bits in there that show it has Cinderella but it’s a totally different story. The characters are very likeable. Feyre, Tamlin, Lucien and even Rhysand are my favorites. Rhysand is a morally grey character who I thought was evil but you don’t know why he does everything he does.  Feyre learns every bad thing she’s heard about faeries is not true and she matures throughout the novel. Lucien is the best friend that warms up to Feyre and is a best friend. Tamlin grew on me too.

Cons

For a young adult book, there was a lot of violence in it. I know many complained about there being a lot of sex for a young adult book and there was sex but there was more violence I feel.. Amarantha herself was a forgettable villain and her reasons for why she is evil is a cookie cutter “A human killed someone I love so I hate humans” and “I wanted Tamlin for myself so that’s why I cursed him”. Anymore villains have a sob story as to why they are evil. At least Amarantha was power mad so she’s not a hundred percent a villain with a sob story but she’s still forgettable. I also didn’t like that a friend of Feyre who was murdered, the corpse was desecrated in such a way. In my head I was thinking, “Did I really need to see this?”

Overall

Overall while it’s not perfect, it’s a good start to a series. I can only hope the series gets better and not worse. I also can’t wait to see the show come on Hulu. The director of the popular Starz  Outlander, is directing the show alongside author Sarah J Maas. I will say I recommend this to anyone ages 17 and up due to the violence and sex.