#author: Sarah J. Maas

[misireads]

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

[ physical book, read in english ]

set on a fantasy continent where a tyrannical king has conquered and oppressed nearly all the regions, he sets up a game of survival for several candidates who compete and duel against each other and the winner is set to become his "champion" for four years. the main character is a notorious young assassin who's been imprisoned to work as a slave at salt mines for the rest of her life, and the king's son decides to make her his candidate in his father's competition. the girl moves to the royal castle that's made of glass and starts training in order to win. mysterious things start happening in the castle when some of her competition starts dropping dead, as if attacked by a wild animal.

➕ i like high fantasy, it's my favourite genre. a world with many different countries, there's kings and princes and fairies and forbidden magic, nice nice. i also liked the details about the religion of this place. imaginary religions are the best

➕ i think the premise is kind of a banger, i don't dislike hunger games kind of competition settings. and the concept of a glass castle is so beautiful i might just steal that to some piece of mine tbh

➕ this was very easy, effortless, and fast to read. i wasn't like, super inspired by the writing itself, but occasionally the author dropped some killer line that stood out. just here and there.

➕ kaltain is the best character because first of all "kaltain rompier" what a name, secondly she was by far the most interesting one, probably because she's a female character clearly created to be unlikable. which means she is the best

➖ alright, now… where do i even start with everything i kind of hated about this book. maybe the most blaring problem of them all to me: the main character, celaena. i know it's become like socially unacceptable to talk negatively about "mary sues" but she is one if i ever fucking saw one in literature. there are basically no flaws -- definitely no BELIEVABLE flaws -- to her character. she's beautiful (blonde, of course) and sexy, the two main boys immediately fall for her. she's "an assassin" so she has like superhuman powers and speed and dexterity and every skill possible, yet she's perpetually presented as a pure-hearted and innocent, sweet girl, so lovely, could do no wrong (which leads me to wonder what on earth assassins really are in this universe, she's called the deadliest assassin in the world yet there's very little detail of whom she actually killed and for what, how, when. there's a line of the princess of eyllweldfssdfjk telling her that the "most important thing is that endovier[the mines] didn't make her cruel" SO SHE'S A GOOD LITTLE CINNAMON ROLL AND ASSASSINS AREN'T CRUEL? ALTHOUGH THEY KILL PEOPLE FOR MONEY? i'm…….. it feels like an accessory stamped on top of her character more than anything just to have a plot device that allows her to be skilled at everything possible) all the most powerful characters (on the GOOD side, of course, not evil ones!) immediately fall in love with her (evil ones hate her!), including some ancient fairy queen who only exists in some magic hallucination dimension which celaena of course has access to because she's also Super Special in some forbidden magical way. wow, what an unlikable, unrelatable, unconvincing character. she somewhat entertained me in the first couple of chapters when she was constantly thinking of how to kill anyone she met but that characteristic was dropped pretty fast when she became the princess type of character in the castle.

➖ when the two main guys were immediately set to fall for the girl i was like, alright this book is for children, the target audience here is heterosexual teenagers and not my queer 30-something ass, i'll try to read this from that perspective. but the thing is that i'm quite the shipper myself and this fucking book gave me nothing. the prince and the guard boy are first of all entirely uninteresting as characters (chaol got his only interesting trait at the very very end) and they both have the exact same dynamic with celaena, there's this peak heterosexual stupid banter tsundere chemistry thing going on with both. i guess i liked her with chaol marginally more if only for the reason that every scene she had with the prince was just that he walks to her bedroom and they have the most unnatural dumbass conversation ever that's clearly just sort of forced interaction between them from storytelling standpoint so that there would be some base for them to like each other. also his character was introduced as like a playboy who sleeps with all girls all the time but when he meets her he does a 180 and suddenly says oh i only like one woman and it's this one. what a bunch of botched nonsense, i can't even.

➖ the plot was so, so, so, so, so predictable. this may be for 13-year-olds but even harry potter and the philosopher's stone has more interesting development than this. there was pretty much only one thing that came as even a moderate surprise to me and that was [spoiler] chaol killing cain at the end, but then i felt like the consequences were veryyyyyy non-existent. i hope it shapes him more in the sequels because that truly was the only interesting thing about his character

➖ very weird to read about a love triangle where the characters don't seem to be aware they are in a love triangle. there were several occasions of the guys clearly being aware of the other also going to see celaena but there's no acknowledgement of either really feeling anything about it. and she never once addresses in any way that she's doing both boys simultaneously. it's like she's some fucking horny zombie who just switches to whichever boy is in front of her eyes at any given moment.

➖ a lot of this just read like a fic posted one chapter at a time tbh. as a fic writer i know very well how that's like. is this based on a fic? because sometimes the chapters just kinda feel stacked atop each other and the build-up feels thin at best. also the entire beginning of the book is just celaena's PoV but then all of a sudden at some point we start getting other characters out of nowhere.

➖ the most heterosexual nonsense line i ever read: "He didn't know why, but seeing her made him feel like a man."

➖ i could go on and on (i started doing daily notes while i read so i remember everything i thought along the way) but i think that's enough.

⭐ score: 2½ -- i would have gone three because i did in the end enjoy this enough to finish this very fast, but then i saw that this has a really high ranking on goodreads and decided that i hate this actually. so three is way too much but i reserve 2 for books that i kinda didn't even feel like finishing, and as nonsensical as this is, it's still fantasy romance garbo that's entertaining to read at the end of the day.

if i end up reading the rest of the throne of glass series, i'll make just one post for all of them together instead of each book separately. at this point though i think it would be like a hate-read

[sirenpearldust]

[lady-embers]

The Sunshine Couple

Elain is tuckered out from spending the day gardening and Lucien is doing some light reading while she sleeps as he wants to surprise her with an anniversary dinner 😴 💤

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A post shared by Margaret 🇱🇷 (@bookish_embers)

Characters belong to @sarahjmaas

Artist: b_astora on IG and Commissioner: Bookish_Embers

[whendidmythoughtsgocrazy]

Leave this world a better place than how you found it.

k.b. // a court of wings and ruin - sarah j. maas

[sluttypatrickstar]

there is actually no fucking way you are saying this about bestselling white piece of shit fantasy author sarah j maas. there is actually no way you are comparing sarah j maas, a woman who used breonna taylor’s murder to promote her book, to women of colour who are regularly and routinely sidelined in the publishing industry and who struggle to get marketing budgets or publishing contracts in the first place and whose work is often pigeonholed. there is simply no way

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

I get that some people think it's funny to call SJM books "faerie porn" and that's fine, but...

It's gotten to a point where, when people talk to non-SJM readers who ask about the books, SJM readers will say with their whole chest "oh they're faerie porn books haha it's literally just porn!"

And it's started to get really grating for me. I've been reading SJM since Throne of Glass came out. These books are SO much more than the sex scenes, or even the romance (tbf romance is a common thread in all of her books, though same with a lot of male-written fantasy and those books don't get called romantasy, but I digress).

These books are something utterly unique and magical within the fantasy genre. I've been reading fantasy since I was in first grade (I'm 29) and I can honestly say that I have not come across anything like these books. Yes, SJM has flaws. Her books, especially early ones, have flaws. But overall, they are feats of world building, master classes in plot pacing and foreshadowing, and filled with enthralling characters and worlds and histories.

Diminishing them to the few sex scenes (a few of which are admittedly wild), most of which are also very emotionally significant to the characters, is doing Sarah and all of her books a disservice. And honestly, it's doing other potential readers a disservice when they decide not to read SJM due to the internet referring to it as porn and not "real" fantasy.

No one says that about authors like Patrick Rothfuss, but the second book in his hit fantasy series spends a significant amount of time focusing on the main character learning all about sex from a random forest faerie (don't get me started). Many male adult fantasy authors include sex scenes, some of which are extremely graphic, but no one calls their work porn — no, it's often referred to as "real" fantasy.

[acotarfrustrations]

Honestly we could REALLY get into the fact that a lot of the insanity in Acotar is an excellent exercise in why you can't really separate the art from the author.

Sjm's zionism is OBVIOUS in the text. The ic destabilize governments to the detriment of people they will never have to care for, steal artifacts from other countries, displace people, cause invasions, commit war crimes for 50 years "for the greater good" all while their own people are living under unchecked brutality and poverty.

They are rich megalomaniacs that care for no one but themselves and their own emotional and material satisfaction and they are PRAISED for it. In fact anyone who even remotely disagrees with the IC is almost always one of the villains in the story (Beron, Tamlin, etc) as if to condition the reader that asking questions that are critical of the IC puts you on the wrong side of the narrative morally.

All of that sounds REALLL familiar huh?

[highladyofterrasen7]

Me when I’m dead but my favourite author just dropped another book

[hopelesslyhopeful11]

In Honor of the Dawn of May

It’s highly likely this month will lead to an exciting announcement from SJM (praying for tomorrow, knowing it’s likely May 8th). So I’d like to remember this iconic interview:

Sarah J Maas today show interview (dated January 30, 2024)

Because

And

we just love to see it and remember it (:

creds to @chrisfiction87

Live. Laugh. SJM.

[walterjuice]

[idowantfrieswiththat]

Female author alignment chart I made with @edgylord. Based purely on their writing and vibes.

Note a certain author is not mentioned at all. And she won't be at all. At. All.

[monicalins]

Hola, querido poeta! ¿108.3 es este el número de la pizzería?Quería decirte algunas cosas... Primero respóndeme: ¿a dónde vas cuando tienes miedo? Del ocio, de la soledad, del tiempo, de lo obvio, de lo indiscutible? ¿Cuál es la próxima parada? Por aquí sigo la rutina, después del largo viaje, tomo el café de siempre, leo algunas páginas más y vivo lo que durante años pensé que era inalcanzable. Siempre estoy buscando algo más que hacer. Durante los protocolos cotidianos te veo en la plataforma, finalmente entendí la canción. En los auriculares soundgarden se refleja a mí con un poco más de madurez. Los veinte y poco años son los más locos. Aprovecho y registro memoria concreta, es anestésico. Algunas tardes al sur de una de las 33, escucho experiencia, no hay tantos filtros, por ahí el aliento de vida está más desnudo de sí mismo. ¿Puedes sentir el silencio del caos? Pausa para descansar, me detuve en un amor sereno, capaz de detener mi inquietud, algunos fantasmas tuyos aparecían en las madrugadas advirtiendo que yo era un monstruo. Mis agitaciones eran como olas violentas y vivir lo común me acobarda. Y la cobardía mantiene la conciencia. Sabes bien. Consciente del libro de goldstein en concreto en el recorrido que hago todos los días, señalo la próxima estación, bailo al son de ese antiguo vals y sigo...

(Trechos de um livro inacabado)

Autora: H. Frank

[lady-embers]

Sarah can turn around relationships/buildup for couples pretty fast, despite any amount of buildup for them.

Look at Chaol and Aelin.

Look at Feyre and Tamlin.

Look at Dorian and Aelin/Sorscha.

Look at Azriel and Mor.

Sarah can introduce a couple meant for endgame and tell their story in one book.

Look at Chaol and Yrene. Yrene was a very minor character at one point yet became a bigger character in just one book with Chaol and helped significantly in the end of the series.

Look at Nesyrn and Sartaq. This relationship was built upon in just one book as more background but they still stood out on their own.

The other side might say they have 3 books of buildup but do they really when you look at the scenes and context within?

Also look at these facts:

Sarah introduced Gwyn to us in ACOSF. A new character who she made equal to Azriel.

Sarah wrote potential for Gwyn and Azriel in ACOSF. If you want to deny it, that's fine, but it's there.

Sarah has the typical endgame banter, shared history, competitive behavior between Gwyn and Azriel.

Sarah spent ONE book and ONE bonus chapter dismantling any "potential" buildup of previous characters to make way for a new endgame couple. The true endgame of Gwyn and Azriel.

[wingsdippedingold]

The Cassian girlies already got to Roman Reigns BUT NOW THE BOOKTOK GIRLIES ARE GETTING TO FREYA ALLEN

“you need to play Aelin!”

NO SHE DOES NOT

SHES MINE

GET OUT OF HERE

AWAY I SAY 🤺🤺

Don’t even get me started in the random girlies. Commenting random characters under multiples posts of a random conventionally attractive guy with black hair and tattoos

and then they play into it because it gets them attention? ICKY

[elrielffs]

I need people in the fandom to realize that just because they don't like a pairing doesn't mean the pairing doesn't have chemistry or they need to break up.

And for all the Tamlin suck fest that goes on people sure like to use that as a brush to paint an MC they don't like as Not Good.

Rhysand=As bad as Tamlin to Feyre

Cassian=Nesta's Tamlin

Azriel=Elain's Tamlin

Like get a grip, Tamlin was written to be abusive and we are supposed to take it that way. Rhysand, Cassian, Azriel are not written that way intentionally not matter what YOU think. I don't see why mate bonds are even considered the end all be all by antis since according to them EVERYONE is gonna have a rejection plotline BUT Elucien.

In what world are we considering Eris and Tamlin himself better love interest than the protagonist?

You don't like the characters? You don't like the couples? You don't like the plot? Then for fucks sake go to a fandom or read a book YOU do like instead of spoiling it for people who DO genuinely enjoy ACOTAR just as it is and intended instead of trying to rewrite the series into a narrative you enjoy.

Idk, I wouldn't care so much if people just stated they didn't like something cause they don't like it. Don't like the IC? Don't like Feysand, Nessian, Elriel? Fine but don't get on a soap box and start talking about how actually, they are Bad (TM) cause you've twisted the narrative to back up your dislike to feel morally superior and back up your crack theories rather than just admit this series is not for you.

[boundtoletters]

📖 books i read in 2023: a court of thorns and roses by sarah j maas

“I love you,” he whispered, and kissed my brow. “Thorns and all.”