Thoughts on A Court of Thorns and Roses: Part 1

So I will say that this book is what really drove me to make my blog. Not because it's some riveting piece of literature that inspired me to tell people about it's amazing-ness, but just because I had to get stuff out about this novel that has been consuming my thoughts entirely since I finished reading it two days ago.

Not even kidding. I finished reading the book in school. Got home, and immediately went to go order the second book off of Amazon.

So we're definitely going into spoilers on this post. I might even make numerous posts on this book alone or just put all my thoughts about this series in this one. We'll find out later. For now though, a quick summary of the book.

Feyre is a poor girl, who is hunting in the forest far from her home in search of food for her family. She spies a ridiculously large wolf about to snag a deer. The deer is a valuable food source that could feed her family of 4 for at least 2 weeks. Knowing the beast could be a faerie, who are invulnerable to everything but ash trees and iron (lol), she kills the beast in cold blood. Even if it was a faerie, she feels little to no remorse about the beast. Later though, Tamlin, a high fae, roars into her home to claim the life she took with her own. She had killed his friend, and now she is either to die or be forced to live in Prythian with Tamlin for the rest of her life.

Intense stuff huh? Murder in the first few pages.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a retelling of the fairy tale, beauty and the beast. I didn't know this before I began reading it, but it was so very obvious only a little ways into the book. Although I personally didn't like the beginning because it was leaving me with so many questions and so little answers, they were all answered by the end of the book where the story really picks up anyways.

No joke though, for me, it felt like there wasn't a clear plot for at least 280 pages. I mean that specifically.

(Okay, warning. Spoilers from here on out. You've been warned.)

The budding romance between Tamlin and Feyre was the obvious focal point of the story for at the very least, the first 280 pages of the book. Her family was quickly cast as a second thing and you heard nothing about them other than 'they're cared for' from Tamlin for over 280 pages. Most likely more. 

Not to mention the exposition character there for telling you everything about everyone whenever deemed most convenient. *Cough* Alis *cough*. There was a ton of things left standing in the wind that I felt would never get answered, but were sure damn well brought up like they were the most important things and should be focused on. Things like the blight, why the borders were failing because of this blight, the monsters being sent over from other courts, the 'her' who just turned out to be a love sick, revenge stricken, older sister. 

What really irritated me was that the entire ruse about the blight turned out to be a complete lie anyway! With a good reason, but still. Despite all of the question being answered in the second half of the story (even though a lot of them told by our sweet and always there exposition character I couldn't care less about, Alis) it doesn't excuse the fruitless search for plot I found myself doing in the first half of the book. Hell, no one was even given a legitimate reason as to why they didn't just kill Feyre that night, despite her having murdered their friend. Not to mention how Feyre never really questioned it either. Although I love Tamlin and Lucien, they were shady as heck for a very, very long time.

But if I give Maas anything at all from this first half, it's the romance. If she does anything well, it's romance. (we can talk about Rowaleana later..) The romance was enticing and so adorable to read about. A lot better than trashy love triangles that don't go anywhere or an out of nowhere, no development bad boy that falls for the main girl because.....plot?

As always, though, she killed the romance between Tamlina and Feyre. Albeit, following a little too closely to the characters of her last story's, Chaol and Celeana, but different enough as it later developed to be something of it's own. (yaaay smut!)

Despite all of the bleak/blandness of the first half, the second half of the book is where it really gets good. Plot pops out of nowhere and it brings meaning and purpose to my life and Feyre's. Her sisters get the (limited) screen time they were warranted, and Feyre gets a little more development in the second half than the first. Weird considering she was wandering around, brooding and breaking rules for the entirety of the first half. You'd think she'd have time to think about her sisters and what living like that did to them. How she really felt about killing all those animals and people. The fact that she was the only one forced to grow up in an unfortunate situation. Hell, the emotional and psychological impact that her relationship with Isaac should've have been more fleshed out as well!

But we are only giving glimmers of what could've been hundreds of pages of extreme, well fleshed out character growth. Somehow, Maas summed up the most poignant parts of their true character in a small revelation from Feyre in about maaaaybe a paragraph. Rysand doesn't count because he has the whole next book to be talked about. Plus her dad wasn't even talked about at all. Especially that thing he said before she left the first time. Can we address this? Please?

Even with taking care of the climax and wrapping up all of the loose ends (everything, everything was loose ends) in the second half of the book, we were introduced to another (let's face it, it's true) love interest. I leave this to another post though. I digress.

Back to Feyre. Feyre really blossomed in the second half with her risk it all attitude, but still scared for her life. The way she ran back to Tamlin like that and faced up to Amarantha. Not to mention the amount of blood that she got on her hands to save Tamlin and her family. Frankly, if not for the whole Rysand thing (bullshit!) the story could've been wrapped up and saved under another fairy tale reboot with a strong main female lead and hot fae boys with a nice ending. 

But Sarah J. Maas doesn't run like that. She's out of the reboot story mode and into her own, wow look at that mountain of story that's going to be coming. The calm before the storm.

And I love it....Sadly.

Trust me, I have more to say about this book and Maas. Until the next post.