In Summary

Rating: ★★

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Fiction

Publication date: 05/05/2015

Number of pages: 419

Keywords: fantasy, romance, young adult, fairy tale

Content warnings: some mild sexual content

Format: paperback, e-book, audiobook

The Review: #BookTok made me read it, should you?

Sarah J Maas is the darling of the Readers of Social Media right now. With three fantasy series to her name and a total of 15 books published so far, she’s certainly got a lot of content out there for people to be obsessed with. At just 35, Maas is an impressive writer: having started writing at 16; publishing on FictionPress.com; gathering popularity online and gaining enough acclaim to get her books published. Even Stephen King hadn’t written that much by 35 (he had a total of 12 books, which is still impressive).

These aren’t just fantasy books; they’re fantasy romance, heavy on the romance. Maas has based two of her series on classic fairy tales: The Throne of Glass series is an alternate version of Cinderella and ACOTAR is inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Now, I’m a big Disney fan and Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourites which is why I chose to start my Maas reading with ACOTAR.

This series crosses a bridge between Young Adult fiction and standard fiction for us grown ups. I’ve had mixed views of YA fiction before - I love the Hunger Games novels, reading the most recent prequel in a single day but the Twilight series wasn’t for me. I still pick up any new novels in the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, having first read Sabriel as a teenager but I wouldn’t go out of my way to read new YA series unless they were heavily recommended to me now.

ACOTAR's protagonist of this novel, Feyre, is 19 years old, so I can see why she would appeal as a character to both young adults and teen readers but maybe, as a woman in her 30s, this is why the book didn’t amaze me.

The basic plot revolves around Feyre, a human girl who lives in the walled off Mortal Lands. Beyond these lands, across the wall is Prythian, the Faerie Realms. Throughout the novel the reader is fed snippets of information about Prythian and from the start we know that Feyre’s perspective is that Faeries are the enemy who had previously enslaved humanity; with the human’s freedom granted following a great war and the construction of the Wall.

Feyre’s family are down on their luck: they were previously a wealthy family living in a large mansion, however, they lost their money through some bad investments; their house was repossessed and her father’s legs were broken by bailiffs. Feyre, her now disabled father and two sisters now live in a tiny cottage in the local village, living hand to mouth in poverty. Although she is the youngest child, Feyre is the hero of the family; the only one who has been able to get up and provide for the family, rolling her eyes at the other sisters who haven’t been able to do the same as her. Her glorious selflessness in doing this for them is the first thing that is unbearable about her.

One day Feyre goes out hunting and whilst tracking a deer, an enormous wolf appears. The wolf kills the deer she was tracking and she makes the decision to kill the wolf to retain the venison; save her own life and make money from the wolf pelt. What she doesn’t realise is that the wolf was actually a faerie in the form of a wolf and there are serious consequences to fae murder. After returning home, a terrifying faerie creature bursts in and offers her three options: to live out her life in exile in Prythian; never to return to the mortal realm or to face death. She obviously takes the exile option and goes with the creature back to Prythian, to the Spring Court.

The beast she is taken by is actually a High Fae called Tamlin, who rules the Spring Court and this is where the Beauty and the Beast connection really comes to light, as the Court has been put under a curse! The residents of the court are all masked, and the magic powers are limited by the curse…I wonder how our hero Feyre (Belle) will be a part of lifting this curse…

At first Feyre naturally fights being at the court: she steals a knife; thinks of ways she can get away and seeks more information that will help her get back to her family, which is all perfectly normal for someone who has been captured. However, this is the second thing that makes her an unbearable character- she quickly changes her mind about being there and all it takes is being fed some sympathetic information about Tamlin; some paints and a day trip to a faerie hot spring to turn her opinion around.

As a Beauty and the Beast fan, I get it’s a contradiction to complain about this when the same thing happens with Belle but there just isn’t the same magic and connection with ACOTAR. A lot of this is down to the pacing; it's unclear how long Feyre is at the court, but to me it didn’t feel like she’d been there long before changing her opinion.

The third thing I found unbearable about Feyre is her inability to follow instructions and protect herself. She is well aware of the dangers outside of the court, having experienced them for herself first hand and when she’s told specifically to lock herself in her room for the night for her own safety, she ends up leaving because she was bored and puts herself in danger yet again. I wonder to myself if I find this irritating as a sensible adult and so maybe as a tearaway teen it would have more appeal.

The Young People of BookTok love this series, but it’s not for me. The story is pretty basic and superficial- there’s so much focus on how people look and physical appearance that it is incredibly shallow. It’s also difficult to gauge how much time has passed between events in the book and a lot of characters come and go. Don’t get me wrong, I love an easy read with limited substance, but this doesn’t do it for me. I think from this first book it’s pretty predictable where the next books would go, with more big-bads already teased and future conflicts already obviously laid out.

There’s so many people who love this book, that you should still make your own mind up about it, but this reader’s opinion is a thumbs down on this one!

Coming next in the BookTok made me read it: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

Standout Quote: “‘I love you’. I said, and then stabbed him.”

Read if: you enjoy young adult fiction and fantasy romance.

Similar books: The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas, Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

Last impressions: Overall I found this lacking in substance; with a shallow and annoying main character at the centre of it. I fought through it in order to write this review and would have otherwise quit reading about a third of the way through in all honesty. I’m not going to read the rest of this series and I can’t see the Throne of Glass series being for me either. Maas' newest series, Crescent City, however has more appeal. It’s specifically written for adults rather than YA and so I may visit this at some point if I ever have space on my TBR pile. For now, the young people of social media can keep these books for themselves.

Written by Louise Mortimer

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