The first time I came across A Court of Thorns and Roses, the first book in this amazing action-packed, romance fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas, I completely ignored it.
I was in my sophomore year of high school, and it had popped up on my Goodreads New Releases feed. I hate to say it, but I judged the book by its cover. I assumed that it would be just like any other fantasy novel I had read (and I had read a lot), which normally wouldn’t have mattered to me since I loved fantasy books. But, for some strange reason, I was particularly adverse to the cover of this book (though I would come to absolutely love it), and was under the misguided impression that this book was a retelling of a classic fairy tale: Alice in Wonderland, from the Queen of Hearts perspective (plus, at the time, I wanted a break from retellings). I had never been more wrong in my life.
Now, before I get into this amazing series (with as little spoilers as possible), you should know that it was not this series that started the finding of my favorite author. It was her Throne of Glass series. I fell in love with the story of Maas’s sassy and mysterious main character, Celaena Sardothien, and the world of magic and intrigue that she weaved her into. I got through five of the eight book series before realizing that A Court of Thorns and Roses was written by this amazing storyteller as well. I immediately shifted my focus to A Court of Thorns and Roses (which worked out since the next installment of Throne of Glass had not come out yet), and fell into a new world of the Fae, the world that Feyre Archeron found herself suddenly thrust into.
The first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, introduces our female protagonist, Feyre, who finds herself embroiled in the powerplay of the world of Fae after shooting one with an ash arrow, one of the few weapons lethal enough to protect humans from the beautifully dangerous creatures from myth. As the price for killing the wolf, a friend of the High Lord of Spring Tamlin, she must go and live on the other side of the wall that separates humans and the Fae, in Prythian. However, the world of the Fae is not what it seems, and Maas delivers a winding tale, in which Feyre, a mere human, must now save all of the Fae, and Prythian itself.
The story of Feyre’s bravery and determination to save this land that has now become hers flows through the second book of the series, A Court and Mist and Fury, where a major plot twist will have readers rooting for new love, and healing of broken characters. The story culminates in A Court of Wings and Ruin, where Maas proceeds to rip our hearts out, then sew them right back in with a beautiful ending (don’t worry; I promised to keep spoilers out). She introduces new characters in every book of the series, and keeps us wanting more each time they end. In the novella conclusion of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, A Court of Frost and Starlight, she promises her readers that more is to come in the story of Prythian, and I, for one, welcome it.
Now, this series is an amazing retelling of the classic fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. However, a great struggle of reading the entire series will be trying to figure out: Who is really Beauty? And who is actually the Beast? I am still trying to figure that out, even after re-reading the series six times (I own the entirety of both A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass, including the coloring books).
What really draws the Maas’s stories into a new light is her predilection to draw strong characters, male and female, and manages to make them human, even in a fantasy-driven world. She doesn’t just put out their stories from the beginning. No, Maas delivers them piece by piece, little by little, throughout the entire series, bringing up serious issues like sexual assault, self-esteem, abuse, loss, and depression. She doesn’t give time for her character’s to be shamed by what they’re going through — something that is often seen in society today. What is even more awe-inspiring, and the same can be said of the characters in the Throne of Glass series, is that Maas doesn’t simply have them get through the issues. She has them break down from them, become them, face them. If her preference of writing with strong, independent female characters wasn’t enough, it was her having them come to peace with them, and then turning around and doing the same for her male characters.
Only you can decide what breaks you.
A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
Recommended Reading:
If you like YA retellings of fairy tales:
- The Diamond Secret by Suzanne Weyn
- Violet Eyes by Debbie Viguie
- The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
- Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
- Splintered Trilogy by A.G. Howard
- Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
If you like YA fantasy:
- The Sweetest Spell by Suzanne Selfors
- Witch and Wizard Series by James Patterson
- Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
- The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
- The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
- Frostblood Saga by Elly Blake
- Three Dark Crowns Series by Kendare Blake
- Red Queen Series by Victoria Aveyard
- Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
- The Witchlands Series by Susan Dennard
- The Dark Artifices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare
- The Young Elites Trilogy by Marie Lu
- Penryn and the End of Days Trilogy by Susan Ee
Deborah Afolabi 