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theshybooknerd · 4 years

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Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

“We all bear scars, [...] mine just happen to be more visible than most.”

2/5? Honestly, some parts were a 3 and some a 0... Also: spoilers ahead, the opinions I express are purely personal and if you like the book that’s cool too, yadda yadda yadda.

I heard of Throne of Glass as the first instalment of an amazing YA series, and a friend of mine recommended it to me. I was at Comic Con, saw it, read the back cover and thought “well why not?”. The plot sounded awesome: an enslaved girl who’s also the most famous assassin of the known world? check; a to-the-death competition to gain freedom? check; a complex set of magic/laws/creatures? check. Unfortunately, NONE OF IT WAS IN THE BOOK.

Setting

The story is set in Erilea, this not-so-well-defined continent. All we know is that the King of Adarlan, a “really bad” king, is conquering all the territories, apart from Eyllwe (not sure why he wants them as allies), and is outlawing magic. To be fair, the entire story takes place in Endovier and its salt mines, then the Glass Castle in Rifthold (Adarlan), and nowhere else so the only info we have about the other places come from either a couple of characters, or the (perfectly useless) map at the beginning. Also, the names are an obvious mixture of LOTR and The Elder Scrolls.

Plot

If you’ve read the book skip to the next part, I’m not going to say anything new.

I’m going to keep it short, especially because there is no plot whatsoever in 3/4 of the book. Celaena Sardothien is the most famous assassin of Erilea and has been imprisoned for about a year in Endovier. All of a sudden, the Crown Prince of Adarlan (Dorian Havillard) gives her the chance to fight as his proposed Champion-wannabe in a to-the-death tournament. If she wins, she’ll be the Champion of Adarlan and, after serving for four years, she’ll be free. She is escorted to Rifthold by Dorian, the Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall, and a bunch of people.

Celaena accepts (not that she had a choice). The competition, it turns out, is not really to-the-death especially because all of the tests before the final trial look like middle-school PE lessons, with a touch of fantasy. Of course, since every YA needs that, there is the love triangle developing (Celaena-Dorian-Chaol). While she is training and attending the tests, she stays in the castle, reads a lot, is sent a bazillion precious dresses and meets a princess from Eyllwe, Nehemia, who we understand that will do something important at the end but for the rest she’s a plant.

The Champions start being killed in a terrible way (dismembered/eaten) and of course Celaena wants to find the culprit. She finds a passageway conveniently placed in her room (?), which leads to corridors and doors. Long story short, she is contacted in her sleep or in a sort of weird dream by the first Queen of Adarlan, Elena, who tells her that the clock tower of the castle is a portal to other dimensions, and someone wants to open it to summon evil. No real reason behind it. Celaena also gets this “magical” necklace from Elena. No one is suspicious.

Celaena continues her investigations, finds out that Cain, the obviously bad and suspicious Champion, has been summoning the ridderak (the creature that killed the Champions). She destroys the ridderak, then the story continues, she gets to the final stage of the tournament (in which, lo and behold, the Champions fighting cannot kill each other but just submit the other competitors). She has a final fight with Cain, her drink is spiked, she hallucinates, she gets in a weird dimension, Cain summons evil creatures, Nehemia does some hocus-pocus and summons Elena in Celaena’s dream, all the creatures are pushed back to their dimension and Celaena wins.

That’s it. Action packed eh? 400 pages in four paragraphs.

My opinion

Well done, you’re in the part where I express my salt opinions.

First of all: the characters are all incredibly dumb and naïve. Especially Celaena. She is not the stereotypical YA main character, she is worse. Emotionally unstable, awfully stupid, with the wisdom of a 6-year old kid. I expected a deadly assassin (have I already said that “she’s the most famous assassin of all Erilea”?) and got a pampered princess.

The writing style is awful. I am really surprised that someone can actually write this description and still be published: “in short, Celaena Sardothien was blessed with a handful of attractive features that compensated for the majority of average ones [...]”. The descriptions are all very plain or too long, and also, in some parts, reminded me of the descriptions of clothes in My Immortal. Yes, that bad. And what about the fight scenes? The main character is an assassin (the most famous assassin in Erilea, pt. 372) and all the action scenes are... bland. She either cannot recollect what happened, or some superior force helps her, or they are just not described. I’m sorry Sarah J Maas, but if you cannot write a good action scene, stick to love stories!

My expectations were clearly not met. What is the point in saying that the tournament is to-the-death and then making people just wrestle? Too violent? What about the gutted people and the very vivid descriptions of the blood spattered everywhere? Also I hoped for a main character that is strong, witty, maybe slightly damaged. I got a pampered princess who likes good dresses and thinks about her appearance at least fifteen times a day. After the terrible worldbuilding, I thought that, at least, there would be a fully developed magic/fantasy lore. Nope, magic is mentioned but not described, then there is other creatures called Fae that are utterly useless and appear once never to be seen again, no detailed religion, no detailed politics. Just love triangle and some pseudo-fights.

The plot holes are devastating, and are so deep that the Mariana Trench is a puddle in comparison. I’ll just say this: why did they take away all the knives but not the forks or the cue sticks? Why is she treated like a princess but not allowed at parties/balls?

Final remarks

Ok so, it’s not the worst book I have ever read. I enjoyed some parts, they were mildly entertaining. I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t 100% dislike it, either... It’s certainly among the lowest rated books though. It is an easy read, I finished it in about a week (as a side book, not the main book I was reading). Perfect for turning off your brain, maybe on holiday. I refuse to support the marketing of this book as “feminist YA novel”, because the idea of Celaena as a feminist icon makes me shiver. Let’s say that the idea behind it was good and the execution was incredibly poor. There were incredibly unnecessary parts, like the love triangle. I will probably read the other ones in the series, but just because I am a self-destructive reader who enjoys a good dose of cringeworthy trash (or trashy cringe) every now and then.

#throne of glass #sarah j maas #celaena #young adult #why #book #book review #fantasy #novel #novella #why did i read this #cringe #not good not bad

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