When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
REVIEW
This review contains three of the five books in the ACOTAR series. Spoilers might occur. If there are still spoilers available outside Booktok.
In full transparency... A Court of Thorns and Roses. We saw it. A lot. Bookstagram. Booktok. Everyone was hyped by the faeries. The legendary Rhysand, the famous Feyre Darling. Every corner of Bookstagram, Booktok and communities had one acronym on their tongue : ACOTAR.
So I gave it a shot. I was surprised by Fourth Wing, so I said to myself : try ACOTAR, what do you have to lose ?
Time. That's why I lost. My fucking time. The hype is not deserved. And I really don't understand why it is so popular.
Let's start at book one.
A Court of Thorns and Roses...
I understand why we can love the universe and I will read book 2, but the first book isn’t worth the hype and was… okay. I guess the whole Beauty and the Beast retelling intrigued people, but yeah.... no.
I don’t really like Feyre. For me, she’s the typical « not like every other girl » and her personality didn’t pop up. She was flat and I cared more about Nesta than her, even if we see Nesta, like, 10 minutes. She was more intriguing than Feyre, let's be honest. What didn’t help is Maas writing. The amount of « I didn’t know I was holding », « I didn’t know I was feeling », « I didn’t know this » and « I didn’t know that », like for real? It gives no personality whatsoever to her character. (Final thought : I just don't think Maas is the "great writer" people think she is.)
The worldbuilding was interesting and I’m curious about learning more about the seasonal and solar courts, the faes in general, etc. The only thing I did not like was that sometime, when Feyre and Tamlin were talking (even with Lucian), they talked like us, the readers, knew what they were talking about, from the faes rules, the wars, etc. It was mentioned like we were supposed to know?
As for the rhythm of the book, a big zero. The first 60% are slow and mostly boring, like chilling on a river and then, 60 to 70% bam you are falling a ravine, you survive, you’re trying to understand for a slow pace in 70 to 80 of things that are happening but didn’t really catch me? I’m sorry but the tension was inexistent and the emotions were flatter than a Pepsi on a summer day resting at the sun for hours. It wasn’t believable! And then the end just comes and is throwing us things to absorb before ending the first book there.
Like… I understand. It’s not extremely bad, I have a bit of hopes for book 2, but it wasn’t good either. The characters weren’t interesting for me and their lack of dept hasn’t helped me like them.
Maybe the series is worth it, but the first book isn’t. (spoiler alert : If only I knew...)
A Court of Disappointment... (book 2)
So if this is the best one of the series… maybe it’s not for me. (Nooo... for real ??) BUT I don’t know if it was the Graphic Audio that was the problem or the story itself (it was the story). Because I had so much trouble being focused and follow the story. There was a lot going on but at the same time it was running in circles. Again.
Feyre is still a pain in my ass. Okay, she’s more « badass » in this one, with her falling for Rhysand, helping him against the King and the whole politic shitstorm. But at the same time she’s still too much the damsel in distress. And I hate it. I hate her.
What saved the book is two things : the inner circle (obviously) and the ending. I was sure, after chapter 55, that I wouldn’t read the next book. But the ending gave me hope.
What I hated the most was the writing (it’s too… I don’t know… I don’t think it’s bad (it is... just admit it), but it isn’t good either?), the dump of information that made the story hard for me to follow and the useless smut.
Everyone was hyping chapter 55 and I was like, okay, it’s coming, let’s go! And I was SO happy to read Rhysand opening his heart like that, his soul, his vulnerability. It was cute, really. And then… sex scene. Okay they love each other and all and all, but it was pornographic. It just ruined everything emotional the scene gave me. I skipped it and all the smut after that. It gives NOTHING to the story. It’s lazy. I don’t understand the hype for that kind of scene ? I’m no prude, on the contrary, but it’s just weird and useless. If I want porn, I’ll go check porn. And ruining such a beautiful scene with that, it just turned me off.
In the end, I still don’t understand the hype for this series. The characters are okay, but not extraordinary. In fact, the MC are meh compared to their acolyte. Azriel, Cassian, Mor, Nesta. I want more of them ! Rhysand still have something interesting with him, I like his intelligence and his personality. But sadly for him, he’s stuck with freaking Feyre. And so are we.
I’ll read the next one because the ending intrigued me and because I want to know if the graphic audio ruined my experience. But if after that one I’m still snoozing on that story, that will be the end of it.
For now, I’m just glad AF I didn’t buy the box set.
A Court of Yeah that's the end for me... (book 3, the pink one, not the Christmas novella)
At this point you know I was over it, because my Goodreads review was this :
I tried with this series, but… I just don’t like it. Yes, the inner circle is fun and nice. Rhysand is sexy. Nesta is spicy. But Feyre… I don’t know. Even if she’s more badass in this book (I love the confrontation with Tamlin), it’s still not enough!
This series has nice characters but the storyline is full of holes and it is so fucking long. TOO long. It’s boring. There, I said it. It’s just plain boring for 90% of the story.
So I’m done. I’m not interested in the Fairy Porn in the next one and being more bored than I already am.
I really tried but this series isn’t worth 10% of the hype it got.
Sooooo, in the end, yes, I understand the memes, yes, Rhysand is sexy, yes, the inner circle is the only worth in the entire series, but everything else is not worth it. At all. I would have loved a book with only the inner circle, without Feyre. Feyre is the problem. Feyre is useless. Feyre should have died under the mountain at book one. With Tamlin. Let the good characters have some shine, because that... wasn't it.
And here, I'm going to say it and I'm going to fight for it....
Xaden > Rhysand.
Goodbye.
Opmerkingen