Goodreads rating: 4.2/5
My rating: 3/5
Well, I actually got around to it. The debut series from YA queen Sarah J Maas is loved throughout the bookish community, and it seems every book-blogger with an ounce of self respect should be reading it.
After a fruitful christmas, I finally had the first book in the series just waiting for me to pick it up: so I did, and back down I put it after only 3 days. Like Maas's other faerie series, A Court of Thornes and Roses, TOG is easy to read, a page turner and not too long. The characters are loveable yet flawed, and I can well enough see how Maas has ensnared the younger readers of the YA community.
As for me, a strong 3 star review is the best I can find it in me to give. I find it obvious that TOG was written as Maas's first publication, as compared to ACOTAR, the flaws here are hard to overlook, even at the most exciting plottwists - which are easy to see coming. Maas tries hard to be inconspicuous about her small hints along the way, but the way the reader is pushed to constantly be reminded of little things, sure to be significant later on, takes away from the actual plot, and instead becomes an annoyance at both the characters inability to connect threads and the authors incessant pushing and feeding of plotstrings.
The characters in TOG are delightfully flawed, and it is refreshing to read through the eyes of an 18-year-old girl who actually thinks the world revolves around her. I find in many YA books that the characters are disproportionately mature for their age, and the older I get the more it bothers me. Celaena is annoying, stubborn and full of herself, to the point I myself wanted to scream, but it feels realistic of a young girl who became the most feared assassin in the lands at only 14.
Dorian, only a year older, but realistic as an educated princeling, politically engaged and forward with the ladies. Chaol as well, older and more mature, fits the bill of a captain of the guard, estranged from his family and distrustful of any new face to his surroundings.
I know I have problems with reading books which assume the readers inability to pick up hints rather than the opposite, and I was worried about this even before starting, as even her later books have tended along the same lines. But as the story builds, the plot becomes more interesting and characters like Celaena, Dorian and Chaol develop flesh and minds of their own, the book still does a decent job of keeping it entertaining. The backdrop of a an ancient magic gone missing, a corrupt tyrant king and the appearance of ancient languages, dead queens and the promise of faeries, makes the Throne of Glass series a promising one. And although the romance has yet to steal me away and for now is closer to an annoying distraction for both the characters and myself, I have no doubt Maas has yet to surprise me with new characters to steal away my love and affections.
I look forward to keep reading and seeing how the series, character and especially Maas's writing develops along the way. As I go along, I don't think there will be any more reviews for the single books, but I will probably do a full review of the whole series when I'm done.
What was your first impression of TOG?
