Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I took an unusually long time to read this new dark and delightful tale from Sarah J. Maas, and good thing I did too. A Court of Thorns and Roses really depends on being savored and ruminated on in your brain for a while, like most dark things (coffee, chocolate, bloodthirsty gothic fantasy.)

One thing I liked about the faerie world presented in this story was its division into multiple courts, some of them split by season like in Snow Like Ashes. In this case, though, the Spring Court isn't the bad guys, but the good guys...after a fashion, anyway. After all, Tamlin is this story's equivalent of the Beast, with Feyre as the Beauty. Speaking of Feyre, I loved the way she was a more Katniss-like Beauty (the whole reason why she gets captured by the faeries to begin with is because she goes into the woods to hunt for her family and shoots a wolf, unaware that the wolf is really a faerie), and how she has a great passion for painting, not unlike Belle's love of reading. I imagine her paintings are as beautiful as Rapunzel's, too. :)



As for Tamlin, naturally, he was the guy I wished would just get nice already. But character development, you know...it wouldn't be the same if he didn't start out getting this reaction from me:



And eventually getting this:



Oh, but Rhysand. Dear God, Rhysand. I admit, I liked him at first, 'cause he was Night Court (darkness incarnate can't be too bad, right?) and he reminded me a lot of the cat from Coraline for some reason too.



Eventually, though, once his true colors were revealed, he became a little more like this:



And he wasn't even the true Big Bad, either. Ugh, the darkness around him is so thick, it tastes like tar. My reaction when he ended up being basically in the Big Bad's pocket:



But that still pales in comparison to my reaction to the twist at the very end of the book, which will go unspoiled here. Trust me, though, if you're anything like me, it'll leave you whispering something like this:



So, don't just take my word for it - go ahead and read the book. :) And when you're done, wonder, as I am, what the hell the sequel will have in store, 'cause if it was this dark in Book One... *shudders*

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