A Court of Thorns and Roses – A Blog of Books and Musicals (2024)

January 22, 2018 Audra Miller

See Also

At around the time the girl and her paranormal paramour meet, suspicious things start happening. People disappear. There’s an uptick in violent crime. Most people are alarmed, but the girl and her boyfriend are enveloped in True Love and aren’tthatconcerned.

The vampire/ghost/angel/dragon/etc. tells his girlfriend that there’s a group of rival paranormals that are trying to kill him and he is the only good one of the whole supernatural lot. The girl is worried only because she thinks her boyfriend might leave her or that he’ll get hurt. She knows he would never let anything hurt her. He’s always watching, after all. He appears from out of nowhere whenever she suffers the slightest inconvenience. There’s no way that the enemies could get through him to her.

It turns out that girl’s stalkerish supernatural boyfriend is the one who’s been killing everyone. It turns out that all those red flags were signs that he was a psychopath, not a romantic. Oops!

Seriously… I like YA as much as the next person (and probably a lot more), and there are even some paranormal romances that I unapologetically love, but let’s be real… if there’s a blight in YA it is the horrible, abusive “romantic” paranormal boyfriend.

gif credits here, here, and here

September 3, 2017April 25, 2018 Audra Miller

I wrote a more straightforward review forA Court of Thorns and Roseshere, if you’d rather read that. Feel free to use my discussion questions if you ever need to run your own book club on this book. And, as always, I’m always happy to have a discussion with you in the comments if you’d like.

These questions do cover the whole book, so beware spoilers.

Discussion Starters for A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

What stories and myths does the novel draw on for its structure? Consider the novel as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. What elements remain unchanged from the original story (girl taken to cursed castle that belongs to a beast; only her love can break the curse; girl’s father is unwell; girl steals a rose on pg 171; etc.)? What elements are altered (the beast figure is handsome; the girl is illiterate; the girl is a killer; the existence of fairies; etc.)? What does a recognizable story serving as a frame do for the novel? Consider also the elements of Cinderella and the legend of Hercules that exist in the novel: Feyre is given Herculean tasks that she must complete to save Tamlin, and between them she is asked to sift lentils from ash and to scrub floors. How do these compliment the base story?
Discuss the fae mythology present in the novel. Many fae tropes (don’t drink the wine, faerie revels, ancient beautiful beings) are used at face value but others (most notably that these fae can lie and aren’t bothered by iron, despite reports to the contrary) are referenced but rejected. What do you think of Maas’ faeries? Do you like the fresh take, or do you feel she was too free in messing with established mythology?
What do you think about Feyre and her connection to the fae? What is your reaction to her transformation at the end of the novel from human to high fae? Do you think that she deserved the honor? What do you think about the fact that her name even suggests the fae despite the fact that she grew up in a society that despised and feared them?
Discuss Feyre as a protagonist. Are you sympathetic to her? What do you think about the fact that her journey and her love story are prompted by her unprovoked murder? Did it change your mind when Alis explains that the man Feyre killed was one of those that “were willing…had begged [Tamlin] to go” to be sacrificed (286)? What about Feyre’s other murderous actions, such as when she sentenced Clare Beddor to death (269, 299) and when she murdered the two innocent faeries at Amarantha’s command during her final trial (390-393)? How does this reflect upon her position as the novel’s heroine? Or is she a heroine?
Discuss Rhysand as a character. What motivates him? Do you think he was fully on Feyre’s side, or Amarantha’s? Just his own? Would you designate him as more of a hero or a villain? Why do you think that he bothered to deal with Feyre? What do you expect the result of their arrangement will be?
Discuss Feyre’s relationship with her sisters, particularly with Nesta. Feyre calls herself and Nesta “two sides of the same coin” (36). In what ways is this an apt description? In what ways is it not? Were you surprised when Nesta failed to believe the fake story and followed Feyre to Prythian? How do you reconcile the Nesta that went searching with Feyre and was entrusted to keep the family safe from Amarantha’s attack with the Nesta at the beginning of the novel who refused to chop wood and took Feyre’s money without thanks?
Feyre promised her mother on her mother’s deathbed that she would take care of the family. She explains that “a promise was law; a promise was currency; a promise was your bond” (16). How do promises drive the story? How does Feyre’s promise to her mother spur the action of the novel? How does this promise, and others, affect Feyre as a person/character? Consider Tamlin’s assistance of the family, rendering Feyre’s promise fulfilled and leaving her feeling “hollow and empty” (100). What replaces the promise as Feyre’s driving force?
Discuss Tamlin’s rule. Why does he rule the way that he does? How does he keep his followers’ loyalty? Consider Lucien’s description of power: “You don’t hold on to power by being everyone’s friend. And among the faeries, lesser and High Fae alike, a firm hand is needed. We’re too powerful, and too bored with immortality, to be checked by anything else” (101). Later, Tamlin informs Rhysand that he does not “enforce rank in my court” (236). How are these two seemingly different styles reconcilable? Do you agree with Lucien’s definition of leadership? In what ways does rank play a role in Tamlin’s court, despite not being enforced? Or does it?
Discuss the theme of familial bonds in the novel. Feyre, of course, is loyal to her sisters despite the fact that she hardly seems to like them. Amarantha’s murderous reign is spurred by the betrayal and death of her sister (279), a motive which Feyre says she can understand. Tamlin’s kindness is spurred by his father’s cruelty and a desire not to be like him. Lucien’s father killed his beloved and his brothers keep trying to kill him. How does a person’s family determine who he or she is? How might the characters have turned out differently if their families had been different? Compare Amarantha’s reaction her sister’s death with Lucien’s reaction to his girlfriend’s death. How ought a person to grieve a family member?
1. Consider Feyre’s response to her mother’s death: “if anything, it left more food for us” (16).
2. Consider Nesta’s response to their father’s response to their mother’s death: “He let Mother die—he had a fleet of ships at his disposal to sail across the world for a cure, or he could have hired men to go into Prythian and beg them for help. But he let her waste away” (266-267). Is this a fair response? Is the reader supposed to agree with Nesta here? Remember Feyre uses these words later to convince herself to go after Amarantha to save Tamlin.
Discuss the wealth in the novel. Tamlin is insanely rich. Feyre’s family was wealthy before losing it all, and then Tamlin gave them enough to rejoin their old circles. Poverty forced Feyre into a lifestyle she hated, but wealthy society is distasteful to Nesta, who cannot forget that the rich who are now willing to throw parties in her honor once let her starve.
Discuss the religion in the novel: aside from the few odd Children of the Blessed who worship the faeries, the humans no longer have religion, although Feyre on occasion mentions the things that she would pray for if humans still kept gods (4); the faeries seem to worship a Cauldron from which life apparently sprung.
Feyre contrasts herself to Elain, saying, “She had looked at that cottagewith hope; I had looked at it with nothing but hatred. And I knew which one of us had been stronger” (260). In what other places in the novel are hope and hatred contrasted? In what ways does hope make a person stronger?
Discuss Lucien as a character. What do you think about his relationship with Tamlin? With Feyre? Consider his backstory (160).
The faerie-human conflict in the past basically boiled down to slavery. What does the novel have to say about slavery?
Why do you think Amarantha gave Feyre such an easy out with the obvious love poem riddle (313; solution on page 403)? There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet/And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet./ At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair,/ but I bless all those who are brave enough to dare./ By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,/ But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat./ For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,/ When I kill, I do it slow… Why was it so difficult for Feyre to figure out? In what ways is love like a disease (Feyre’s first instinct is to suspect the answer is some sort of illness)? Do you think there was a part of Amarantha that was offering mercy?
Feyre says of Tamlin, “He had put me before his entire court, before all Prythian” by letting her return home a few days early (288). What do you think of this action? Was it heroic? Cowardly? Is this something we should applaud? Discuss the balance of the love story and the fantasy adventure in this novel. Which has more weight? Which did you prefer? In what ways are we conditioned as readers to see giving it all up for love as a virtue?
Where do you think the story is going from here? Do you see Amarantha as the big bad? Rhysand, perhaps? The king that was mentioned but never appeared? Discuss.

September 3, 2017October 10, 2017 Audra Miller

I read A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas for book club. I’ve read other books by Maas before. I read most of the Throne of Glass series, which I really liked at the start. I thought it went downhill by around book four and I never got around to finishing the whole thing. I don’t know exactly when aCoTaR was written compared to the ToG books, but I was hesitant to read the book because I felt that, to some degree, it felt like Maas was running out of ideas. The first few books cover a lot of ground and have a lot going on. The last one I read was disappointing since it felt like a lot of of felt like spinning wheels. The point is, I didn’t pick this book and I wasn’t sure what I was going to get: exciting page turner or uneventful slog.

It was fine. I didn’t hate reading it or anything, but I also never got that must-keep-reading feeling. It is basically a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with fairies. Also more sex and murder. And with a bit of Cinderella and Hercules mixed in for good measure. Personally I think thatThrone of Glassis better, but again. There’s nothing specifically wrong withA Court of Thorns and Roses, except perhaps that it is largely a romance. The only real expectation I had before I started was that it was going to be a fantasy. It is a fantasy, sort of, but it is definitely a romance set in a fantasy rather than a fantasy with romantic elements.

The story follows Feyre, who is a human despite the name. She starts the novel as a kind of Katniss figure who hunts to keep her impoverished but previously wealthy family fed. One day she shoots what she thinks about a wolf. It turns out to be a fae, and as punishment she is taken to live in the world of the fae with Tamlin, a High Fae with the power to shapeshift. Naturally, Tamlin is super handsome and Feyre eventually falls in love with him even though there’s a magical “blight” that is sucking his powers and leaves him (and everyone else in his court) with a mask stuck to his face. In other words, Tamlin can turn into a beast but he’s still super hot. It makes the Beauty and the Beast thing easier since you don’t have to worry that the heroine is uncomfortably in love with something that doesn’t even resemble a human.

That’s the basic premise. The love story between Feyre and Tamlin, as usual, is the least interesting part of the book for me. It is pretty straightforward. If you have ever read any fantasy romance, you can probably guess exactly how it unfolds. Not everything in the book is paint-by-numbers, though. The secondary characters are awesome. Lucien, Tamlin’s second in command, is awesome. He has an interesting backstory, and his and repartee with Feyre is mocking but affectionate. Their love-hate relationship is a lot more dynamic than Feyre/Tamlin, in my opinion. That’s probably because they like each other most of the time, but at other times they sort of think that the other one is just the worst, and that’s a fun dynamic. Rhysand is also a fascinating character. I don’t want to talk too much about him, because I’m trying to avoid spoilers, but basically he has all the mystery and clouded motives you could want from a baddie.

It was frustrating to me that the whole story was centered around Feyre and Tamlin’s love story. There are times when romance is appropriate, and there are other times when I just want to shout at the main characters, “GUYS! PRIORITIES!” I also struggled with the fluctuating personalities of Feyre’s sisters.

A Court of Thorns and Roses – A Blog of Books and Musicals (13)

Themostfrustrating part of the book, though, is how stupid Feyre is. There are many instances that she makes things incredibly and unnecessarily difficult for everyone involved because she tossed herself into danger for no apparent reason or because she did exactly the wrong thing. And the fact that she failed to answer the easiest riddle in existence. I am terrible at riddles. Seriously, the worst. During my intenseLord of the RingsandThe Hobbitphase, I looked up lots of riddles for the fun of seeing if I could get through a Gollum encounter without dying. I couldn’t. For every twenty or so riddles I read, Imaaaaybegot one right. But the riddle that offers Feyre an immediate end to all her suffering and which would have shaved off nearly a hundred pages of pain and turmoil? That one, I got immediately. I asked a few of my book club ladies, and they didn’t have any trouble with it either. Conclusion: Feyre is literally the only one who couldn’t answer the darn thing.

I love fantasy. I love finding a new series to read. But I don’t think that this is one that I’ll keep reading. It just didn’t enough to keep me interested beyond the last page. That being said, I’ve heard a lot of enthusiasm for it and I didn’t actively dislike it or anything, so it’s possible I could be persuaded, provided I don’t find something better.