My Final Thoughts on The ACOTAR Book Series

A Court of Thorns and Roses. You know it, you love it. Or maybe you hate it.

Either way, this romance/fantasy series, as well as other series and works from author Sarah J. Maas, has become a pretty large phenomenon online. It definitely has a huge following of fans, some of them pretty die hard. In general, people seem to either love this series to death, or they tend to think it’s flat out overrated and even badly written.

After reading the first novel, I found myself in a strange in between of the two. About three months ago, I posted a story called ACOTAR: Is It Worth The Hype? and my takeaway was maybe, but not without several problems. The charm was there. The world building was there. The creativity was there. The dialogue was pretty intriguing, and the writing was detailed and easy to understand. But there were several drawbacks, and I immediately understood why people believed the book to be overrated. The entire romance, the reason I had heard people fawn over the series so much, was pretty bland and uninteresting to me, as was the male main character. The villain was also a bit mediocre, evil and threatening but lacking in originality, which would have been fine—if the plot twist surrounding her wasn’t also severely lacking. And this was all in the good part of the book; I won’t go back into complaining about the duller parts. I’ll link my first review down below!

That being said, I still had a fairly good time reading it. Even when I was annoyed, I was always pretty entertained, even if some of it came from my own frustration. I also loved the ending of the first novel a lot. I liked that Maas wasn’t afraid to get darker near the second half, delving into Feyre’s personal mental struggles with fear and guilt and deep-seated trauma from the entire experience of saving Tamlin from Amarantha.

So I’ve decided to recap my entire review and feelings about the rest of the series—wish me luck!

This brings us to our second book in the series, A Court of Mist and Fury. As I understand it, this is the famous fan favorite of all of the books. And while I don’t necessarily believe it is the best out of them, I do think I get why people like it so much.

In my opinion, this novel was absolutely a huge improvement from the previous book in terms of pacing and plot. Maas did exactly what I wanted her to do: she delved deep into Feyre’s recently developed trauma from Under the Mountain. She really makes us feel every emotion Feyre feels. The fear and dread and self doubt are palpable. Tamlin’s reactions to this trauma give him his own development in a way, showing readers a stiffer, less likable side of him. He desires to avoid conflict and problems and disguise things as okay when they are not. Feyre’s incapability to do this drives a wedge between them, as does Tamlin’s compulsive control and anger issues. (I would argue he has actually become way more interesting as more of an antagonist figure than a love interest—call me toxic but I’m a bit of a Tamlin fan now. It’s just such a realistic depiction of why a relationship can fall through due to the traumatic experiences one undergoes, and I find that intriguing. I also like that while it’s a sudden change from the Tamlin we know, he isn’t a complete and utter unforgivable asshole by the end.)

Feyre and Rhysand are cute together. I liked the descriptions of the Spring Court, but I loved reading about the Night Court. I appreciated that a lot of Rhysand’s previous douche activity was explained (although the weird wine and dancing stuff was never really clarified, at least not enough for me) and that you understand that while deeply flawed, he’s just selfishly loving and protective of his family and his people, while at the same time certainly not being morally perfect. His close knit group of friends are likable and amusing, and I like that we get to see Feyre develop her relationships with all of them. Though I would have loved to see a little more of that in such a long, long book.

Overall, Feyre’s development was wonderful. I liked seeing her gain confidence slowly over the period of the novel. I stated in my first review I’d like to see who she is beyond a love interest, and we definitely get… maybe not exactly that, since the whole book is about her getting with Rhys, but more of that than we got in the first book. She becomes more independent and confident and she really shines in this book, with Rhysand and without him too. (This, unfortunately and infuriatingly, will be kind of undone by a future book in the series—stay tuned for an angry rant about that.)

As for complaints—I have a few. One would be that while the pacing is better and there are less slow and rather boring moments compared to the first novel, this is a very long book, and it can feel its length at times. There’s a couple of moments of just wild infodumping as well which aren’t great, especially that random chapter about this couple, a human and a fairy (I think?) who escape from the previous war and are definitely going to be important in the next book but had absolutely no impact on this one. It could have waited. Jurian being resurrected was dumb and I don’t really understand why that needed to happen. He was a really strong commander, sure, but… why? And also, Elain and Nesta being turned into fae was such an asspull by the author. There is no way the queens didn’t understand that the Cauldron worked after the king had just brought back Jurian, who they knew, using it. That being said, it is an interesting plot twist, so I won’t complain about it too much. I’m an anime fan—I’m used to dumb plot twists for the sake of cool, mindless character development.

ACOMAF was a fairly good book overall. I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first. I’d rate it at about 3.5/5 as opposed to the 2.5/5 I granted the first one.

But guys—let’s really delve into the somewhat underrated gem that was A Court of Wings and Ruin.

This. Was. Great. Definitely my favorite book in the series overall, which is apparently somewhat of a hot take. There was lot of action, which I loved. The will they, won’t they and all the unspoken romantic tension in the previous novel between Feyre and Rhysand was fun and cute and all, but it got on my nerves a little bit, especially during the more boring parts. It had an element of shallowness to it, and it was also pretty dragged out—which was fine, but I think I prefer a faster paced, more action packed ACOTAR world. Because A Court of Wings and Ruin just did it for me.

This was, off the bat, the greatest start of any ACOTAR novel thus far. I absolutely loved Feyre going undercover with Tamlin to the Spring Court. I know some are not a fan of this, but I don’t care. I don’t care if people complain that Feyre was mean for tricking poor, innocent, clearly emotionally and arguably nearly physically (in this book) abusive Tamlin into thinking she still loves him because frankly, Tamlin was a fool for ever believing it—and I say this as a retired Tamlin hater turned Tamlin fan. She ran away from him and told him as much, and he chose to believe Rhysand abducted her—fine. Understandable. It also says a lot for him to never even have considered Feyre would choose to leave him, even though she was clearly very unhappy in the Spring Court, but alas. But it was his fault, albeit indirectly, that Nesta and Elain got shoved into the Cauldron. He should have known Feyre would blame him for that, and he should have known Feyre loved Rhysand by paying the slightest attention to them at any point during the end of the last novel. Either way, it was super interesting to see them interact again and to see how sharp and morally skewed Feyre was willing to be.

The other characters in the Court are great here too. Ianthe is a huge dick and a great antagonist. Lucien gets some development for the first time in a long time, which is cool. Nesta and Elain (despite the asspull of a plotline) are fae now, and their relationships with that fact are super intriguing and emotional.

Feyre gets a different level of depth here that is not as poignant as in the last novel; it’s not the forefront of the book, and it doesn’t have to be. She is finally happy and has found something worth fighting for, and risking everything for her home, happiness, and family are just as important. I really, really adored her newfound fierceness. (This will also be ruined about her character in a future novel. Stay tuned once again.)

The build up to the war and the actual war arc are super solid. The High Lord meeting was such a good chapter, I was living for the drama. Seeing new power couple Rhys and Feyre face a sour, angry, extremely petty Tamlin was nail-bitingly dramatic and absolutely riveting. The King of Hybern isn’t a great character—he’s actually pretty horrifically written. He’s a power hungry big-bad with some mild sass, so basically Amarantha 2.0. But I really didn’t mind this as much as I thought I would because the moments were so good. Amren’s sacrifice was awesome. If I didn’t like her character as much as I do, I would kind of wish she stayed dead so it would actually mean a little more, but alas—we know her intentions and that she believed she would die, so it’s still pretty poignant. The Nesta/Cassian scene was great. It gave Nesta some much needed redemption and capacity for emotion. Their father arriving was really sweet and emotional, and his death shows a willingness by Maas to take risks and finally have a fairly important permanent death in the series. I loved Rhysand’s death and resurrection as well. Tamlin’s “Be happy, Feyre” before he helps her bring him back was also sweet and very touching.

A couple of downsides—most notably, once again, the length. I firmly believe no fairy smut book needs to be this damn long. There’s a lot of bloat here, especially with the war 500 years ago and all the characters mentioned in that that don’t really matter in the end. Jurian is also pretty dumb and doesn’t really matter as a character. Him being a good guy was a very dull plot twist; Tamlin did it better. Also, an overarching problem (at least to me) but one that reigns true especially in this book: there are a LOT of characters. There are arguably too many characters. So many of the more minor ones are not fleshed out but rather defined by one key event or descriptive detail about them: an aspect of their physicality, one of their past actions, the person they love. They can be pretty hard to remember. Don’t ask me about any Mortal Queen is all I’m saying.

Overall, I really liked this book. There are a lot of great moments in this one, even if there is still a lot of bloat. It was a great reading experience. Sarah J. Maas, I get it. It’s got to be a 4/5 for me.

Now, onto the fourth novel: A Court of Frost and Starlight.

Meh.

I’m going to be as nice as I can about this one, because it’s not necessarily a plot driven book. It’s just a holiday break book. It was basically the novel equivalent of an anime filler episode. And I always skip filler episodes.

Unfortunately, I did not skip this book.

ACOFAS is, in a word, boring. It’s not fun or fresh or interesting. It’s not even sad and contemplative when it tries to be. Last book, my personal favorite, we have Feyre and her family fighting for their lives and their ideals on the battlefield. In this book, we have…

Feyre going for walks around town. Rhysand going for walks around town. Feyre shopping. Rhysand shopping. Feyre and Rhysand meeting people while shopping. Cassian and Mor doing literally who knows or cares. Feyre being sad about the war and how it affected things. Rhysand overworking himself, being cringe worthily sexually frustrated, and being douchey. The Winter Solstice party where Nesta is kind of an asshole, but also by far the most interesting part of the novel. Feyre and Rhysand being lovey dovey. Feyre and Rhysand having sex.

There. That’s the book.

It is that abrupt. It’s that surface level.

It’s just SO dull. And it’s not helped by the new format, where multiple characters speak from their perspectives rather than us just hearing from Feyre’s. Hey—we don’t need to do that. We don’t need multiple chapters from Mor or Cassian telling readers things we know about them already and have known for two whole books now. They’re good side characters but as they are now, they cannot carry a story enough for them to be given their own POV—especially not Mor, a character I have not mentioned because she just isn’t super important outside of having a tragic backstory that clearly has more to it and a very sudden, somewhat weird coming out scene that feels obligatory on Maas’s part for her past novels being so lacking in queer characters. You could basically replace her with “Feyre’s friend, Rhysand’s cousin” and her character would have the same impact. I do like her, but we don’t need multiple Mor chapters, we just don’t. Sorry, girl.

These characters needed to be developed more before their chance to lead in narration. Because we get nearly zero development for either of their characters in this novel when they are narrating. Sigh.

ACOFAS is a fish out of water, flopping desperately in order to find its meaning and its tone. And it hasn’t been successful in finding either. For a book that clearly tries to be about the struggles of rebuilding and coping emotionally after a war, it does it so incredibly poorly. There’s a couple of scenes where it does try, but it’s never the main focus. It wanted to be solemn and introspective while also being a fun, silly, sexy holiday story, and it was just a weird combination of the two in this weird middle ground since neither angle is done particularly well.

There’s some stuff I liked, I guess. Feyre’s POV was probably my favorite throughout, if I had to pick. Rhysand showing up to Tamlin and basically kicking him while he’s down was kind of funny while also being pretty sad. And then Rhys showing up again at the end and basically apologizing for it without apologizing for it was cute too. Nesta is clearly having a hard time, and her coldness and straight up selfishness is clearly an interesting and very real trauma response to the war. It is by far the best representation of real emotion in the entire book, and it hints at more to come during the next book, which is actually good. Most of the other content in this one feels vapid and insignificant.

I do feel bad giving this one star. It wasn’t abysmal. It was readable. It was actually the perfect length, if it had actually SAID anything. It had some cute moments. But I can’t in good faith give this novel the same score as the first one. I just can’t. Even with all I did dislike about the first ACOTAR and still dislike about Maas’s writing, it would be disgraceful to the originating novel to do so. It wipes the floor with this book.

All in all, I’m not mad at A Court of Frost and Starlight. I understand its placement in the series. But is it a good novel? No, it is not. Is it skippable? I would argue yes—spare yourself the headache. 1.5/5 on this one.

Now onto the fifth and last book, A Court of Silver Flames.

As far as I’ve heard, this is the most controversially reveived novel in the series. And I absolutely understand why.

One reason for this is because this book is no longer centered around Feyre. It is instead centered around her oldest sister, Nesta. Who, in the previous four novels, is kind of the worst. The first thing we learn about Nesta in the series is that she’s extremely mean-spirited and emotionally constipated, as well as vindictive. In this book, we really get to see why she is the way she is, and it makes her a much more sympathetic character while not fully absolving her of her sins. Readers get to know her and understand how her own self hatred and need to self sabotage herself results in her pushing everyone else away with her coldness and cruelty. Her emotional journey throughout this book is a really, really good one with a lot of good moments. It’s basically ACOMAF for her this time instead of Feyre, and it’s about as good.

The best parts of this book are absolutely the emotional parts, which is why I’m focusing on them so much. There’s a sort of main plot where Nesta has to track down four items that make up something called the Dread Trove in order to stop a very evil, very boring queen from tracking down the Cauldron and getting revenge on the Archeron sisters for making her an old lady—blah, blah, blah. She’s possibly the most dull, contrived antagonist in the entire series, and we barely see her at all in this nearly 800 page novel. The plot stinks.

There’s a lot of weird side plots in this book as well that I wasn’t a big fan of. One of them is Feyre’s famously disliked pregnancy plotline. Mostly because Feyre is still so young. We never see her crave a child before this book, but now all she wants to be is a mother. It’s a bit out of character. She’s immortal now; why can’t she take the first hundred or so years to actually enjoy her still teenage life instead of jumping to becoming a mother? And then of course there’s the fact that the baby is actually going to end her life by ripping her apart from the inside, and there’s how dislikable that makes Rhysand, who doesn’t want to tell Feyre the baby will kill her—for whatever reason—after he finds out. It was just frustrating and not very pleasant to read about. There’s also the weird tension between Nesta and Amren for the entire book, for a reason that we never end up finding out. 800 pages, guys. And we never find out why these two best friends hate each other and won’t speak for over half the book.

That being said, this was an enjoyable book overall. Again—way too long. God, how many times I must have said that in this huge review. This book could have been hundreds of pages shorter. But it was very compelling. The romance between Nesta and Cassian is extremely multifaceted, having a staggeringly intimate and beautiful complexity. It’s just as engaging as Feyre and Rhysand’s romance was; I would actually so it’s more so. And this book gets steamy, y’all. Goodness gracious. This was the first novel to really live up to the smutty hype I was expecting from the ACOTAR series from all I had heard about it. I’m kind of glad not all the books were this intense, because that would have been a bit much for me personally, but it actually worked out here with how long this novel was in order to keep things interesting and intense. The sexy scenes are very charming and well written, as well as boldly explicit while not being straight up gross.

Nesta is a great main character. She’s very interesting, even when she’s being the worst, when you get to know and understand her mindset and her hard-headedness. When she cracks and gets vulnerable the few times she does in the novel, it’s heartwrenching.

But while Nesta’s character development is great, the development of a lot of other characters, many of which readers are already familiar with and adore, is questionable. I would argue no character is ruined or tainted, but one can easily argue the opposite and I’d see where they’re coming from. The most critical hit has got to be Feyre. One character gaining autonomy and development, especially a female character, should not result in another character losing theirs. It was really not cool what was done to Feyre, resorting her to mother and wife and sister rather than the actual person we got to know over the first four books. That fierceness that I mentioned in ACOWAR? Gone straight out the window. Extremely disappointing in that regard.

But again, Nesta is a super strong character, to the point where the book doesn’t have to rely much on Feyre anymore. ACOSF has some of the best dislogue of the entire series, as well as some of the coolest moments. I also found it the most emotionally moving. The themes of love, strength, power in femininity, and sisterhood were so powerful. I was never a Nesta hater, and this book absolutely validated me for that. 3.5/5 for this one.

All in all, I think I’m glad I finished the series. I think.

Will I ever revisit it from the start? Probably not. But I enjoyed the silliness and the fantastical nature of it all. Turning my brain off to listen to hundreds of hours of audiobook readings about faeries these past few months was quite fun, and I will definitely tune in to the next book when it comes out.

Thanks for reading, guys! Leave a favorite book or two in the comments ♥️