Hello friends! Welcome to another book review. Thank you for taking the time and visiting my blog. 🌸 Today’s book is long overdue, considering that the printed version of it has been with me since 2013. Ten years of not reading this particular one while I am in love with Maas’ other works. I remember trying to read it when it came out, hating the Turkish translation and eventually giving up. However, here I am, overcoming my prejudice over this book because I know I will love it and I am glad to tell that yes, yes I loved every single page of it. I am talking about the infamous queen of Terrasen (whoops, spoilers?), the infamous series by Maas, Throne of Glass’s first book. Let’s get into the review, shall we? ✨💜
I knew the gist of the entire series thanks to Bookstagram and my never-ending love of Sarah J. Maas, so I knew basic things and our characters, which in a way helped me a lot to picture them in my mind. The writing of this book was amazing and if you have read Maas’ books before, you know what I mean. Her language is straightforward and not overwritten while giving us enough background to imagine. When you are starting a fantasy series with a map in it, you may have a hard time remembering the details of the cities and countries given so I find it incredibly helpful to turn back the map and see everything I need to draw the picture in my mind. Again, the same happened with the Prythian map in the ACOTAR series and by the end of the second book, I had memorized everything but TOG’s map is more complex and well drawn, giving more space for the readers to discover.
I personally think that Maas’ books are not so unique in her own genre, everything she writes has some similar figures and this was no different than the rest. Pointy ears, tattooed and badass female main characters, morally grey male characters and so on. This doesn’t make the book any less great though, I still enjoyed the first book very much and I can see that the build-up will become better and better since I found Celaena (our main character also known as Aelin and many other names) as the best female main character she had ever written. I love Bryce from CC and Feyre, and Nesta from ACOTAR but something in Celaena was different. Her edginess, her way of speaking, and her thoughts were different from the rest and I can see why everyone is so hyped for her.
The story begins with Celaena being “freed” from Endovier, a place where they put the worst of the worst. She is the Assassin of Adarlan, the most feared being of all. When she is offered her freedom with only a few terms, she decides to accept it and her story begins. The book was incredibly quick to read because of how well the plots were written. The championship, the tests, the bigger plot with possible monsters and worlds, characters who are either from hell or heaven… It was deliciously written. I loved Chaol and Dorian as much as I loved Celaena, Nehemia was like fresh air and for the first time in a good while, I got excited for the villains of the story. Our tyrant king didn’t feel like a tyrant king at all and I don2t know what is he thinking but that last dialogue with that excuse of a Duke made me wonder: what if they are not who they seem to be? It reminded me of Witcher for some reason, the gore and horror were on point with all those action moments. It had the Wild Hunt vibes for some reason, and perhaps, this is why I devoured the book after a boring reading slump. I am trying my best to not read anything about the book because I am excited and I do not wish to spoil it for myself but overall, this was a great beginning to a series. Even better than my long love ACOTAR, seeing that this beautiful lady has more spine than all her other characters was quite good (and I love her characters besides Elain, we know that). The characters’ development was decent too, I loved seeing Chaol and Dorian get close to her little by little, building this friendship of sorts when you do not know who they are but see the good in them. I hope to see them more and more in the future.
I cannot wait to what happens in the next book because so many questions were left unanswered, and we got such a little glimpse of her past. I will continue with the second book without giving much of a break because I feel like even a month would cause me to lose a lot of details. Did you read the TOG series? Let me know your thoughts in the comments if you have any! See you in my next post! 💖
Luster of Books 