I enjoyed this book very much and understand why so many readers love it. Personally, I have a few reservations and so would rate it a 4 out of 5.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it… or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
What I liked:
- World building. The world Sarah J. Maas has created is intricate and consistent in its wonderful details. When a book starts with a map, you’re usually in safe hands.
- Plot. Overall the plot is intriguing and well-paced. If I can find anything to criticize it’s the “exposition dump” once the curse has been lifted and everything can finally be explained to Feyre. However, I can understand why the author did this. It would have been very difficult to reveal this information earlier without undermining a crucial plot point.
- Characters and sexual politics. I give ACOTAR big points for giving us a heroine who is comfortable with sex and her sexuality. Also, she is never treated as less capable because she is a woman. Any discrimination is along species lines. Anyone looking down their nose at Feyre and sneering at her weakness does so because she’s human.
- Dialogue. Even though we’re in a world of faeries and magic and goodness knows what, the dialogue never sounds forced or clunky.
So… why couldn’t I give it a 5/5?
In recent years I’ve seen so many good movies which could have better (in my humble opinion!) by cutting 20-25 minutes. Similarly, I feel this book would have been better is 50-60 pages had been cut somewhere. Perhaps in the middle section, or in the final quarter of the book in the court Under the Mountain.
[SPOILERS AHEAD!] Coming back to that final quarter. I know it’s supposed to be incredibly dark and nasty (we’re under the mountain after all), but I would have appreciated a bit of relief. We are talking Game of Thrones levels of gory violence and sadistic cruelty sustained over a quarter of the book (I checked, it really is a quarter of the book). I can understand why the author wanted to make Feyre go through three tasks (power of three in fairy tales and myths and all that), but I could have done with just two!
And finally the core problem. To really fall in love with this book, I think you have to fall in love with Feyre’s love interest: Tamlin. And I didn’t. Perhaps this is because I’m a 33-year-old and not the book’s core audience, but I found him a bit dull and overly preoccupied with how damaged he is. I’d rather have his witty friend Lucien or his dastardly rival Rhysand (devil with a heart of gold – who can resist?). So when Feyre is going through some incredibly nasty stuff in the last quarter of the book to save Tamlin (and basically the whole world, but mainly Tamlin), I found it hard to get behind her.
That said, it’s a great book and if there’s more of Rhysand and Lucien in the sequel, I’ll be first in line to read it! 🙂
We’ve all gone on a bit too long here and there when trimming was the better route. Sometimes it’s when we can’t find the right words and sometimes it’s when we love our writing too much. Kill those darlings!
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I can certainly sympathize with the author. Hacking out your favourite bits can be hard but necessary…
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When I first read this book, I was kind of hoping that Feyre was going to fall in love with Lucien. I really loved Lucien and in the beginning I wasn’t a huge fan of Tamlin. I slowly started to like him more though as the book went on. Lucien is still my favorite though! 🙂 I gave this book a 4 out of 5 too. I did love this book, but like you mentioned…it probably could have lost 50 pages somewhere! When I thought back to other books I read and why I gave those 5 stars, I couldn’t give this one 5. I still really enjoyed the story, like you did. Great review!
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Thanks. I was a bit worried that the people who love it unconditionally were going to shoot me! I tried to say that I think it’s a terrific book, but not perfect for me. 🙂 Looking forward to the sequel and hopefully a lot more Lucien! 😉
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I really hope there is more about Lucien too! I felt like we weren’t given much about him!
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I really loved the book and Tamlin, but I totally understand what you’re saying here. I agree with you on Lucien though; I loved him! Really want to see more of him in the next book. And Rhysand!! ❤ I just find him so intriguing, and I'm excited to see him in the next book!!
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I think the second book could be even better. She’s laid a really solid foundation with the first and now she can take us off to see the Night Court and lots of other exciting places! Also looking forward to seeing what kind of powers Feyre has now…
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I really loved this book! I was feeling so conflicted about the romance as well. I wrote my review right after I finished reading the book but since then I have thought about the romance between Tamlin andFeyre and it really wasn’t that exciting. Did they ever actually have a conversation?? Lucien and Rhysand were much more interesting to me even though I did find some moments between Feyre and Tamlin to be really cute. I kind of hope Feyre ends up with Rhysand but I find myself wondering how that will happen because Sarah J. Maas spent the whole first book building a relationship between Feyre and Tamlin and Feyre sacrificed so much for him.
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I can only hope when she has to spend a week of every month with Rhysand she’ll appreciate how exciting he is! Although, to be fair, perhaps Tamlin will cheer up now the curse has lifted? Either way, the sequel should be great! 🙂
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