"A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas — BOOK REVIEW

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

I had heard of this series for quite some time, but it seemed to be the marmite of the reading community. Readers either love or loathe it with equal passion. Curiosity finally got the best of me with the recently announced TV adaptations in the works at Hulu, and I decided to read it. The book, the first in a series by author Sarah J. Maas, is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a realm where fae and mortals are divided by a barrier. When huntress Feyre Archeron accidentally shoots a fae wolf, she's whisked away to the land of faerie by a powerful being who demands retribution.

To start with things I did like, I thought Jennifer Ikeda was a good casting choice for the narrator. Despite my frustration with the protagonist and plot, I enjoyed the narrator's performance as I switched between reading and listening on Kindle and Audible.

Aside from that, I honestly struggled to become invested in this story. On the surface, this book should have been right up my street. A dark Beauty and the Beast retelling with elements of the Tamlin folklore had so much potential, but I was sadly disappointed. There's enough in the narrative to recognise both stories in this book, but the pacing was painfully slow and did not do either story justice. The romance of Beauty and the Beast was non-existent between the two leads - which could be because the author seemed to switch ships of who's the male lead halfway through, and the entire storyline before this felt like such a waste. The same can be said for the sinister threat of the fairy queen from the Tamlin poem, who was such a disappointment when she made her debut on the page.

However, Feyre had to be one of the most infuriating elements of this book. As she is this story's Beauty counterpart and this is told strictly from her perspective, she has to be one of the worst heroines I've had the misfortune to read. As well as being a poor substitute for Beauty, she reminded me of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games - only without everything that made the latter such a complex and empathetic character. Cynical, bitter, stubborn and all-round ignorant of common sense, Feyre put herself in dangerous situations repeatedly, and her motivations made even less sense.

I believe the author wanted the reader to sympathise with her protagonist, but that was almost impossible when the said character made the ensemble cast much more enjoyable. Honestly, Feyre's sister Nesta was a much more compelling character, and this book probably would have been a million times better if written with her as the main character.

The same can be said for Tamlin, who is our Beast counterpart for the purposes of this story. I've read many versions of the tale as old as time, but I have certain expectations when the story is set in a fantasy setting. The main requirement is that the beast stays a beast till the curse is broken, and we see two characters fall in love despite their physical appearances. What we got here was the equivalent of Chris Hemsworth's Thor with a masquerade mask superglued to his face. Because we got paragraphs of Feyre gushing over Tamlin's emerald eyes, full lips and Greek god-like physique, their relationship is built on sexual attraction from the moment she sees him as a fae. That quickly became tedious, and I promptly became uninvested in this pairing.

Despite the temptation to give up on this book, I persevered. Feyre and Tamlin lacked the chemistry to make this an engaging romance, and the curse itself was one of the flimsiest plot points in the book. Honestly, the Disney animated version is infinitely better and not only did the curse make more sense, but Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson's characters had a way more believable chemistry.

I was surprised about halfway through when I heard this was a YA book because I assumed it was written for an older audience. The intimate scenes were not only uncomfortable to read, but they were also underwhelming and quite juvenile, given how explicit some of them got. The inconsistent arc did not justify these scenes because the back and forth between Feyre and Tamlin made these scenes feel underserved and written for spicy content rather than genuine character development.

As the book introduced the main villain, I was disappointed beyond belief when we suddenly had Hunger Games-esque trials for Feyre, despite her already fulfilling most of the tedious cure's ground rules to break them. Worst of all, we're introduced to Rhysand. After initially assuming he had a prior history with Tamlin, often speaking to Tamlin with words described as "a lover's caress", I soon realised he was the endgame for Feyre. I might have been OK with this if their relationship didn't start with such problematic elements. Given Rhysand's history, his treating Feyre similarly to how he has been treated by stripping her of her agency or consent made for a disturbing pairing.

Rhysand later tries to retcon this by assuring Feyre and the reader nothing happened while she was essentially magically drugged; it still made him a despicable character. As the book soon focused more on this pairing, it became pretty clear that Tamlin had become the third wheel, which was infuriating. I wouldn't say I liked Tamlin or Rhysand, but I had at least gotten used to the former as the male lead. Switching up so late made everything that had happened to that point feel pointless. I'd have at least waited till book two before swapping the fae boys around.

Feyre is given an out of her trials with a riddle I guessed correctly when I read it. I was right, but it took absolute chaos and tragedy for our leading lady to figure it out. The pacing of the last act dragged out a rather underwhelming finale, resulting in a happy ending no one deserved.

At the moment, I have no plans to read the rest of the series. If that changes, I'll be sure to review it here. But I am definitely on the latter end of the spectrum with the book. I went into this book hoping to enjoy it, but sadly, I felt the opposite. A Beauty and The Beast retelling I would recommend readers check out is A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer.

My rating for A Court of Thorns and Roses is ★.