Hello everyone!
Today’s post is going to be over “A Court of Thorns and
Roses” by Sarah J. Maas. The first part of this post will be spoiler free but I
will have a spoiler filled section toward the bottom. I will give warning and
tab down a ways to help you avoid spoilers.
“A Court of Thorns and Roses” (ACOTAR) takes place in the
world of Prythian which has been separated into mortal lands and faerie lands.
We learn that there was a war that ended in a truce between fae and humans that
put in place this separation. The two parts are separated by a wall that the
humans believe there is no way to get through it, but we learn that there is a
way through the wall. The humans have been told stories of the faerie lands
that are meant to scare them into not being curious enough to venture through this
wall.
The book opens up with our main character, a 19 year old
girl Feyre, hunting for her family in the woods in the dead of winter. Though
she is the youngest of the family she had promised her mother that she would
take care of them. While hunting she comes across a wolf that is after the doe
she was about shoot. She ends up killing both the oversized wolf and the doe,
taking what she can to sell. That night
a beast shows up at their house demanding to know who killed the wolf. This is
when we learn that the oversized wolf was in fact fae. The beast, Tamlin,
informs the family that it is in the treaty that was made hundreds of years ago
that humans must pay for killing a faerie. He ends up giving Feyre the choice
of being killed on the spot or going to live in the faerie lands, with him, for
the remainder of his life. Feyre chooses to go with him and our story truly begins.
This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling so we do see
aspects of Beauty and the Beast (BATB). I enjoy fairy tale retellings because
it gives us a different aspect of the fairy tales we have all grown to love.
BATB is one of my favorites and Sarah J. Maas did it justice. While reading
there were little hints for fans of BATB, such as Feyre drinking out of a
chipped tea cup, a giant library in Tamlin’s home, and even Feyre putting on a golden
gown. There were also more dramatic changes to fit the story and the world. These
changes were so well done and I loved every moment of it. I will get into these
changes more in depth in the spoiler section of this post.
The characters in this book are fantastic and I pretty much
loved every single one of them. There were a few exceptions for very obvious
reasons but even those characters I really enjoyed their contribution to the
story. Obviously we have Feyre and Tamlin who we would classify as Belle and
the Beast but we also get to see a bit of Feyres family, her dad and two older
sisters. These characters were interesting to say the least. I enjoyed seeing
into Feyre’s past and getting an idea of why her family acts like they do.
While they aren’t the most likeable characters their story is intriguing. Her
sister, Nesta, did have some redeeming elements and I am thrilled that we are
going to be seeing more of her in the future.
We also have the wide variety of fae. One of my favorite
characters was Lucien, who is Tamlin’s right hand man and possibly even his
best friend. I really loved his sarcasm and his sas. He started off a bit rude
and unrelatable but as you get to know him you start seeing his charm and how
great of a character he is. I greatly enjoyed his and Feyre’s. Lucien’s back
story is also interesting and I can’t wait to see more of him. Then we have
Alis, who is put in charge of helping Feyre throughout her stay. I love Alis
and hopefully we will be able to see more of her and her story.
The last character I want to discuss is Rhysand, or Rhys. At
first Rhys was creepy and I didn’t really know what to think of him. As the
story goes on his character is shown to be rude and villainous but once we know
more of his background and get insight into why he is acting the way he is he
becomes quite likable.
Over all Sarah has done a fantastic job of building up this
world and her characters. Though we mainly stayed within the Spring Court of
the faerie lands we got a glimpse at the Night Court and I can’t wait to see
what the other courts will bring to the story. Sarah does such a great job of
writing in this world that the words disappear from the page and you are left
with a movie. The visualization was crystal clear for me and I didn't want to
put this book down.
I’m now going to go
into spoilers, so please if you have not read ACOTAR and do not wish to be
spoiled please stop reading. Thank you.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
WARNING: SPOILERS
AHEAD
-
-
-
-
-
-
I really enjoyed the aspect of the curse in this book.
Instead of turning the fae into inanimate objects they are cursed with their
magic being weakened and masks of animals stuck to their faces. Having masks
being their ‘beast’ was a fantastic element that I quite enjoyed. We still got
that element of not being able to see the true form of our beast without it
being inappropriate and strange. I also loved the fact that Tamlin knew who he
was and tried to make Feyre fall in love with him for who he is instead of her
having to change him for the better.
Another switch I liked from the original fairy tale and this
book was the fact that Feyre was illiterate and Tamlin wanted to help her learn
to read. At first I didn’t like that Fayre was illiterate because Belle being a
reader is a huge part of why I love BATB, but it worked and I can’t wait to see
where Sarah goes with that element of the story. Instead of using books as her
outlet, Feyre used painting. I loved that she was able to paint the things she
was feeling and the beautiful things she saw throughout the fae lands.
Now let’s talk about Rhysand. Oh my lanta. I don’t know how
I feel about him completely yet. It’s pretty clear that there may be a love
triangle later into the series and idk how I like it. I really enjoy Tamlin and
Feyre together but I can see maybe likeing Rys and Feyre in the future, but for
now I’m on ship Feylin!
I didn’t really like Rys at first, he was a jerk and very
villainous but once we learned that he was doing everything he could to help
Feyre I started to like him more. Yeah maybe he was helping her just so he,
himself, could be free, but he was helping her nonetheless. I wasn’t
anticipating to like him as much as I do and it will be very interesting to
learn more about the Night Court and what he is going to have Feyre do each
week she is with him.
I also really enjoyed the trials; it was such a unique and
unexpected way for Feyre to break the curse since she missed the deadline of
falling in love with Tamlin. I could not stop reading through the trials and
I’m pretty sure my face showed pure disgust while reading about the giant worm
and the mud. That was horrible! And the visuals were so well done that I could
clearly see the disgusting giant worm coming after her as she tried to find a
way out of the pit.
I also loved the fact that all of the High Fae came together
to help Tamlin keep Feyre alive by putting their powers through her, ultimately
turning her fae. I am so thrilled that this happened in the first book rather
than making us wait the entire series for the inevitable to happen (I’m looking
at you Twilight.) It is going to be such
a long wait for the second book to see what happens in this magical world that
Sarah has given us but I’m looking forward to the next book already.
That is all I have for you at the moment. Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have
finished this book let me know in the comments. One thing I’m most interested
in knowing, are you shipping Feyre with Tamlin, or Ryhs? J
Until next time,
G
No comments:
Post a Comment