A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: A Book Review
Genre: Fantasy
Author’s Note: I was encouraged to read the first of Maas’s Court series after expressing interest in her Crescent City series. Being told that A Court of Thorns and Roses was geared towards a more adult audience while Crescent City was more for the young adult crowd, interested me into looking at the similarities and differences. What exactly makes a book more for young adults than adults and vice versa? Therefore, more on this book will be coming. Until then, I present just my regular review.
Author’s Note: Shout out to Lunar & Lake Book Market for suggesting this book. Check them on on their website found here!
Maas definitely creates an intriguing world in A Court of Thorns and Roses. An off-beat retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Maas focuses around a human girl and a magical fairy able to turn into a beast at whim. Just like Beauty and the Beast, there is a curse, one that only the human girl can break, yadda yadda. It followed Disney’s version pretty well with a very tweaks: Art and painting rather than books; Actual lover rather than creepy Gaston; supernatural fairy creatures rather than wolves; pants rather than dresses. The list could probably go on, but the similarities are not really my point. While I love Belle (I mean she’s basically a perfect version of a book lover), she does not really have any depth and I don’t think Maas created any with her character. I think she tried. Unfortunately, I also think she fell back on old cliches and awe factors in the end.
For example, Maas’s Belle was made illiterate. It worked with the story and did work as a Chekhov’s gun towards the end, but ultimately that was all that it did. For another example, while having no training, Maas’s Belle was also able to figure things out faster than to be expected to the point of some times it was just dumb luck she lived. My biggest problem, however, lays in the end.
Forced to complete trials to show loyalty, I couldn’t help but feel that Maas’s Belle was flat and that the romantic side of the novel was being forced as much as the character was to do the challenges. Without giving too much away, I feel that another character showed themselves to be a better match.
I will give out a spoiler though, so here we go: Maas’s Belle is the one that dies and comes back to life. Honestly, it was one of the most cliché things done at the end. She dies after completing the challenges because of the antagonist’s anger (that she completed them of course) and is brought back to life as a fairy to live forever with “the one she loves”. (While awe, also yuck. Been there, done that sort of thing.) It just cheapened the story. I strongly believe that if you plan on killing a character you need to have a good reason why (which she did), but you don’t bring them back unless it is absolutely needed for the story. I understand that Maas might have already been planning the sequel for the series, but the “death” would have had more impact if she either stayed dead or lost in some void. If Maas really wanted to bring her back, she should have made it hard to do as well. Have the start of the sequel having the fairy figure out how to bring her back. Have him ask favors to restore her life. Have her go through some time being dead and experiencing the void or dislocation. Honestly, I feel things like this would add more to the story and give the characters more depth rather than having just a bland tweaked retelling.
My last issue would be that with the antagonist. The antagonist was just there for conflict. There was no flesh and bones. No in depth reason. No connection. And then said conflict is gone and antagonist is defeated. Again it cheapened the story. There wasn’t even a big fight scene in which you don’t know if good will win or not. Maas made the antagonist look pathetic and small leading to the question of how could they have even been the villain in the first place. If the love interest was so powerful, why was there even a person verses person conflict any way?
Even with all this being said, though, I did enjoy the actual reading of the book. It was quick and easy to read, easy to guess what came next, and plot driven enough that the story wasn’t exactly boring. Would I recommend it to people? Yes, most likely. If you enjoy retellings of classic fairy tales or want a quick light read in the fantasy genre, this book is for you. If you are more into twists and turns though, with deep story lines embedded throughout and more conflict or character driven plot, you might want to look elsewhere.
Overall, I would rank the book at average. I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it, but for people looking for a quick read after a hard, confusing story, Maas does provide a nice little break.
Plot: 9/10
Characters: 8/10
Writing: 8/10
Editor: 10/10
Total: 35/40
Title: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2020 (originally published 2015)
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781635575569
If you want to get it: Amazon; Barnes&Noble
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