ok this is a lesbian romantasy with a butch MC that I picked up mostly for that latter reason - I know I'm not a big romancey reader, but I do like them sometimes, so...
first, the audiobook is......the narrator makes some quite notable acting choices, namely that the entire time she sounds like she's on the verge of tears. I can't really decide if I like the unique choice or if it's too overdramatic and distracting. Second thing that does annoy me: the love interest's voice is soo like......trying to be smooth and sexy and that doesn't work for me.
Speaking of the love interest. Yay butch, but I'm gonna be honest, at this point it's a little bit: wow an ethnically ambiguous, dangerous, overly protective, (and compared to an animal) love interest (and frustratingly naive, soft, quiet MC)? groundbreaking. She's a bit one dimensional. I think that makes sense for the first half when she's imprisoned, why would she show any vulnerability or humor - I suspect that'll change in the second half? but also, idk if I want to continue. Their connection is just kinda lust so far (which makes sense for the themes, but). Being lesbians doesn't make it enough Not like the things i dislike about heteromantasy, unfortunately....
The MC is a girl raised in strict heterosexuality and kept ignorant of...anything really. There's heavy religious trauma/guilt themes (especially regarding sexuality), and I get it being the central theme explored here, I enjoy it in some contexts? but my atheist ass has limited interest in characters who are 90% religious guilt and shame.
I know I'm right at the point where they escape and maybe are going to wherever the love interest is from? or something? I suspect there will be more about the characters and world and maybe the stuff I will like a bit more but idk if I care enough (I've sat on this for the last 3 weeks)
just a little too much not for me 👍
edit omg I forgot another thing. super early on her betrothed (man) is like, girl you know the Saints aren't real right lol? and she's like WHAT I've been LIED TO MY ENTIRE LIFE? THE SAINTS AREN'T REAL? EVERYTHING I BELIEVE IN? and something about the way this is presented and placed in the narrative is SO tonally weird? like at the most random nonsignificant time vs her overreaction. it made me laugh
Stereotypes, Flat Characters, and Zero Payoff – Why I Quit "Tell No One"
DNFed at 51%.
I started Tell No One excited to try a genre I don’t often read. I do love a good mystery, and honestly, the premise was really intriguing. But unfortunately, the book just doesn’t deliver on the potential of its idea.
Right from the start, everything felt painfully caricatured — the characters, the pacing, even the emotional beats. And what really started to grate on me were all the casual racial stereotypes. The pediatrician working in the suburbs who only sees “welfare cases.” The sketchy “ghetto” guys. The “evil” Asian martial artist. A character named Latisha who’s a drug addict. That bizarre line comparing a handshake between the FBI and the police to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?? It’s exhausting. Coben seems oddly obsessed with describing every character’s race — unless they’re white. It’s just such a weird racist tic, and it adds nothing but discomfort.
And don’t get me started on how queer characters, especially the lesbian couple, are portrayed — it just didn’t feel real or nuanced at all.
Around the halfway point, the suspense stopped working for me. The plot keeps stretching itself out without adding depth or stakes, and I found myself more bored than intrigued. So I DNF’d. And when I looked up the ending, it honestly felt convoluted and full of plot holes.
I know Coben is popular and this was a gifted book, but his style of mystery/thriller isn’t for me. At least that’s one more book I can donate without guilt. I gave it a fair chance.
Please keep in mind, if it’s in red, it’s a spoiler. You have been warned!
This book was almost immediately a DNF for me. I made it as far as chapter 15 (out of 49) before calling it quits.
I’m not entirely sure what genre this author wanted this book to be, but I would categorize it within the realm of thriller/horror. I am pretty sure that this was meant to be 3rd person limited, past tense. Randomly it will change to 2nd person or 3rd person omnipotent with no warning.
Trigger Warnings:
There are abusive relationships and a little further on we see lots of children dying through the eyes of their parents.
Protagonist:
Maggie is a housewife who is apparently perfect. Here is a passage describing her: “People who passed her on the street saw a Disney princess brought to life. Always loving and caring. A voice so soft, you’d think angels were playing music for you from the heavens. She had the features so many would kill for in a person, the skin, the hair, the eyes. She was too beautiful to be real.”
So aside from being perfect from the get go, her only real personality traits can be summed up to this: An abused (but otherwise perfect) 1950s housewife living in modern times.
Antagonists:
From what I could tell, the antagonists are her family, because despite being perfect and doting, her husband, daughter and son all hate her.
Favorite Character/Favorite Moment:
I didn’t have any moments or characters that I genuinely liked.
Criticism:
This book reads like a first draft. It it was just a first draft and not a published work, I would be much more lenient about it. There are editing mistakes almost every 2 sentences, making it clear that after writing the draft the author didn’t bother to hire an editor (or if he did he was seriously scammed) or bother to reread over his work.
Beyond that, there is evidence of little to no research done. One example of this is that the husband character apparently went to play in the NFL before college. Another example is how the therapy sessions are written and the dialouge between the two characters in these scenes. Breaking down the dialogue on its own leads to only 10-15 minutes (if that) which is way too short for a therapy session.
Some of the out of character descriptions are a bit creepy. At one point the author describes the feeling of chocking a small dog because it was barking and chasing you.
And if all of that doesn’t dissuade you, the plot is so disjointed that I wasn’t entirely sure what the protagonist is actually trying to accomplish with her actions. I mean, she spends each Halloween for 14 years before the book begins murdering children, but the police never realize that the events are connected, so she just keeps murdering these kids.
Does this story have a “Happily Ever After”?
I’m going to guess not, but I didn’t finish it.
TLDR:
This story follows a Mary Sue character who is abused by her family despite being perfect in nearly every way. She hardly does anything to escape this abuse except plaster fake smiles and bake until Halloween when she dresses up and kills a bunch of kids. After some creepy imagery and the fact that it reads like a first draft, I did not finish it and got a refund from Amazon. I give it a 1/10 and a recommendation to not waste your time.
My advice to writers out there who don’t want this to happen with their books:
1. Do your research.
2. Find critique partners. (Video about Critique Partners)
3. Find beta readers. (Video about Beta Readers) (Part 2)
4. Hire an editor! (Video about Editors)
If you want to read this book despite this review you can find it here.
It’s been six years and I still haven’t been able to finish this book.
I’ve finished books that were much, much worse than this one.
But there’s something about it that makes it impossible to finish for me personally and I’ll try to explain why, because I still have opinions.
(FYI, I got roughly 60% through the book before finally giving up, once and for all.)
I picked this book up, expecting a simple read with some whimsical worldbuilding and cheesy romance.
The worldbuilding, while deeply unoriginal, was enough to at least charm me, even if it didn’t impress me, and there were a couple of endearing and fun characters that I genuinely felt invested in.
The book was what I expected it to be for a little less than halfway into it, a light and generally inoffensive ... thing. But the coming storm was foreshadowed pretty early on by the main character’s extreme stupidity and weakness, which is never adressed and in fact is written as some sort of heroic kindness, becuase of course.
See, the protag’s little brother has been stolen by fairies and replaced with a changeling, and to get him back, the protag has to boil the changeling. Which, yeah, sounds pretty horrific, but the creature and its mother are implied to be Always Chaotic Evil, and HER BROTHER’S LIFE MIGHT DEPEND ON IT. In fact, the changeling doesn’t even have to die, they just have to threaten to boil it so the mother comes back to get him and return protag’s brother.
Protag doesn’t do this, because she’s just so gosh darn nice. Instead she risks her own life and the lives of others to get out into the fairy world and search for him, despite being a fucking dumbass who can’t hold her own in any situation and has to be saved over and over. It would’ve been far more interesting to have her boil the changeling and for that not to work, so she’d be forced to go out there and save her brother.
But this was ... fine. I could make myself forget the stupid premise for the sake of the two characters I enjoyed and the relatively well-written action sequences and worldbuilding stuff. The real problems start with the introduction of the
MYSTERIOUS DARK SEXY FAIRY PRINCE
which is an archetype I generally enjoy (surprise, surprise), but here, this dude literally tries to kill the protag and she still fucking pisses herself in excitement between almost getting murdered because of how cute and sexy he is.
Everything goes downhill once this guy is introduced. The protag seems even dumber because of how she swoons over a guy who literally has tried to murder her and expressed the wish to murder her over and over again (for reasons that, if explained, come too late), and the whole brother-saving stuff gets pushed into the background so we can worry about the protag and her father (who is a fairy king) and her new shiny boy toy.
It’s sad. It’s depressing as fuck to read. And the worst part?
The love interest is as interesting as soggy cardboard. There’s NOTHING to him. I know some of you might think that I didn’t read enough to know that, or that there’s more to him in the later chapters, but with character stuff, you need to hint at something deeper from the start.
Like. Ever since he’s introduced, most of the chapters with him are all about how he’s sexy and evil and wants to murder the protag. Everyone else from his court are sexy and evil as well so there’s nothing about him that suggests he’s different. There’s nothing hinting at an inner conflict or a struggle. The protag is convinced he wants to murder her (because he attempts it multiple times, so her last two braincells had enough to go on) but she’s also super into him for ... why? He’s cute and the plot demands it? Sounds about right.
It’s not so bad it’s good because the writing itself is perfectly fine, and so are the ideas and executions. But the plot, and the characters go from passable to just ... empty husks there to fill a role and nothing else.
So yeah. It’s. It’s a whole lot of missed opportunities and mediocre writing marred by terrible ideas and the slavish adherence to a formulaic structure.
The more I read the more disappointed I got.
(Also, there was a point where the LI and the Third Wheel were having a dick-measuring contest in the form of a fight, and the protag (who is a 16-year-old girl who’s done nothing but bumbling about and being in the way up until now) literally whines them into stopping, and it’s treated as this cool impressive thing she did because she’s a fairy princess and deep down she’s very powerful or headstrong or whatever. It’s super hilarious because this protag has been nothing but useless so far, and we’re supposed to believe that the guy who’s been trying to kill her this whole time and the guy who’s literally hundreds of years old would listen to and obey her? I can’t. Spare me.)
After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
Throne of Glass isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but it certainly was one of the most infuriating, which is why I was only able to read about 50% of it.
Since I didn’t finish it, I am only going to review the issues and things I disliked within the first half I read of it.
I also wanna note that I did read spoilers for the ending to confirm some thoughts I had and will be touching upon those.
Since this is my first DNF Review, I am gonna discuss why I picked up this book in the first place, the writing style (which is something that, for the most part, doesn’t really change from beginning to end), the premise (rather than the plot since I didn’t finish the book), the things I liked about the book, what I disliked about this book, and finally why I put it down.
Why I Picked Throne of Glass Up
So. A year or two ago I wanted to get back into reading. Due to a lot of issues and things in my personal life, I completely stopped reading for pleasure during my Sophomore year of high school, which meant I had stopped reading for... about 4 years? Which made me really upset as I had always been an avid reader! And since I was getting really passionate about writing, I figured I should get back into reading.
So I made a post on tumblr asking what YA books people recommended. I had been reading YA when I stopped reading (well... a mix of YA and MG, but mainly YA) so I figured that’d be the best place to start.
Numerous people recommended me different things, but one anon recced Throne of Glass to me. It was a fantasy (a genre I mentioned liking in my post) and they told me that though they hadn’t read it themselves, they had a friend who adored the series and that it was really popular so it was probably pretty good.
The. Really popular bit made me nervous, but nevertheless, I went onto Amazon. Bless me, actually, because I decided I’d try and read the little promo Amazon gives you before buying it.
I DNF’d it after half a page. I had never DNF’d a book so fast and so hard. The first time, what made me DNF this book was Celaena complaining about her looks while being in a prison. Like... girl...... priorities....
Months later, I started seeing people talking about this book a little as I got back into reading. Getting curious, I read some reviews, both bad and good, and decided to give this book another shot.
It was as bad as I thought it would be, if not worse.
The Premise (What was this?)
Honestly, I still don’t really know what I read. What even is Throne of Glass? What is life, in fact? What is the universe? I don’t know, but I feel like I’d figure out the latter two questions before I figured out the first.
So. The premise, or basic story idea of ToG is basically... Cinderella... mixed with Assassin’s Creed... mixed with the Hunger Games.... I dunno about anyone else but when people describe a piece of media to me as a mix of two or more random-ass things, I start getting nervous.
But honestly I have no idea how else to describe Throne of Glass. I couldn’t tell what this book wanted to be! And that was really what fucked me up. It wanted to be a big epic fantasy. It wanted to be a mystery. It wanted to be about girls in pretty dresses kissing pretty boys and having to choose between them. It wanted a princess aesthetic but with a character that has to be nasty to be an assassin. ToG, to me, is a long book of wants that didn’t deliver.
But said that, nothing was as poorly thought out as the plot. The plot is what confused me most, ground me to a halt, and said, “wait, what?”
Okay, the plot is basically Celaena joining this competition to win her freedom to become the king’s champion. Only issue is... a king’s champion is a real thing. And is something for mainly knights if I recall.
Back in the olden days of yore, when kings needed to fight against one another, or if someone wanted to challenge the king to a duel, they would have a champion to fight in their stead. If you’re a king, you don’t wanna fight your own duels, that’d be nuts! What if you died?! Then what would happen to your kingdom? That’s what a champion was for.
The champion is basically chosen/hired by the king. The thing is, what Celaena is... describing is well. Not a champion. Not really. I mean... I guess it’s kinda champion-like? It’s really vague in the book and it boils down to “you do dirty work for the king” so basically a hitman?
Thing is... the king is a king... why doesn’t he just hire an assassin? One who hasn’t been caught (looking at you, Celaena!). I mean, in the long run, that would be a lot cheaper than hosting a giant competition with a bunch of criminals who aren’t loyal to you, who will turn on you at any moment, and can’t be trusted? I mean, just ‘cause he has them swear to be loyal to him don’t mean jack shit, c’mon.
The entire plot of this novel falls directly apart as soon as you know what a king’s champion is! And honestly, the fix to this would be so easy. You could still have the competition, but instead make it between knights or wannabe knights or something. Have Celaena be a knight instead. She acts like it anyways; being all brash all the time and desiring the center of attention 24/7. Or if you really want her to be an assassin, fix her fugly personality and have her be an assassin pretending to be a knight.
And the king being “”crazy”” isn’t an excuse. Using crazy as an excuse is... one kinda insulting and gross and two, lazy. It means nothing and is a cop out at this point. Also, he did nothing in this book to seem crazy to me, really. He’s an asshole and abuses his kid but... besides that he’s basically nothing. He’s an evil king. He doesn’t even have an actual name. That’s how bland he is. There was no thought put into him at all. And again, this too could have had an easy fix. Rather than saying he’s crazy to excuse his nonsensical actions, all that had to be said was: he and his court want entertainment. That’s it. That would have given the competition the perfect excuse to exist in the first place. Sure, it’s not the most interesting of reasons or anything, but it’s better than the book being completely silent of why there’s a competition in the first place. Why does a king need a competition? Why between criminals who will stab him in the back? It’s never explained and it’s dumb.
God. There are SO many ways where ToG could’ve been better. Just. Better in general. There is so much lost potential here with the plot, which is where half my frustrations come from.
So. The premise falls apart after thinking about it for over .2 seconds. The second part of the actual plot of the novel (well, at least what’s described on the back of the book, not what I actually got) is a mystery. But... this mystery is really cliche. Someone taking out the competition. Wow. Never seen that before.
Also, I did spoil myself the ending to see if my guess of who it was was correct and welp. Winner winner, chicken dinner! It was indeed Cain. As soon as he swaggered on stage, and the narration hated him, and Celaena hated AND was a lil racist towards him, I knew it was him. His detailed magic ring and the fact he kept getting bigger apparently every time we saw him also clued us in. There was less foreshadowing in this book and more “beating you over the head with a Cain.”
Also, none of the other members of the competition really got... anything? Most were unnamed or Celaena dismissed them right away. Why even have these characters in the book if they aren’t even gonna be named? I get it’s a big cast, but still. Hunger Games was able to do the bare minimum of this, I mean at least all the tributes had names. Big casts are hard to write, so why not shrink it down a little? It won’t affect the story, in any case.
So instead of a cool mystery and badass competition, the premise of the competition fell apart, was mainly summarized and not seen from what I read, and in general the tasks were boring. No real fighting, nothing with a lot of tension or excitement. Just boredom. The mystery wasn’t even lukewarm. It was ice cold. I don’t even really know what the pages were filled up with... random bantering that told us nothing more about the characters than we already did. Celaena not knowing what guy to choose. Her wearing pretty dresses. Her reading and playing the piano. Her shittalking about girls with this other chick. Just. the most random stuff. It was fluff. Which is fine. I like fluff! I like pretty dresses and romance and all that!! But not in a book that promised me a MURDER MYSTERY and ACTION.
Maybe the action would’ve picked up if I kept reading. But something tells me... not so much. If excitement doesn’t happen before the rough halfway point of your book, something is wrong. At least, to me it is.
The Writing
A lot of people thought the writing was pretty it seemed. Numerous negative reviews praised the writing. I admit, there were some pretty quotes in there. But most of it was clunky and reminded me of Eragon (not good) or just. Laundry list. I can’t pull up the quote right now, I don’t have the book, but I remember when the library was shown to us, the narration just listed everything inside in a sentence with commas. The same was done in the king’s chamber besides a little extra detail on the fireplace. None of the descriptions of the settings were any good.... and neither were the pretty dresses! It was just “this dress is cut bad” “the fabric is ugly and feels bad” and such. What was the fabric made out of? What cut was the dress? There were so many little things like this that bothered me throughout the writing.
Lots of filler paragraphs that led to nothing were everywhere too. Sentences that danced around world building were common too. Again, don’t have the book, but at one point Chaol and Celaena were discussing books they liked and instead of name dropping some titles, giving us an idea of what sort of books these two like to read, it was just “Chaol listed some titles to Celaena. Celaena nodded approvingly” or something like that. Lazy. Boring. Pointless. Filler.
There was so much filler writing in this. And so much... passive writing. Especially when Celaena was traveling to the castle and beyond. “Celaena felt” was used so often that I nearly started counting how many sentences began with that. Sometimes, yes, telling is alright. But SHOW us how she feels! Don’t tell us she finds the castle breathtaking but daunting or whatever! Show us! What’s her expression look like? Her body language? What is she thinking? The moment she saw the castle was supposed to be powerful and tense but it wasn’t because the writing was passive when it shouldn’t have been. Passive writing isn’t the worst thing ever, but where the writing would’ve benefited from being active, it was passive instead, which also made the book a kinda bland read on a technical level. The writing stayed the same throughout. Sentence length wasn’t played around with much, sentence type didn’t change much. The only stand-out pieces were mainly dialogue.
I like active writing. I like an active writing style. Throne of Glass was passive. And you know what? I get it. I write in third person too. It’s hard.
But writing is hard. Publishing is even harder. This is a published book and I expected better, especially with how popular it is.
And yes, this is a debut novel. I kept telling myself that when I was reading this. But... I’ve read better debuts. I’ve read better fanfictions online. This is a New York Times best seller and a favorite of many. It should’ve been better.
The (little) Things I Liked
Gonna bullet point all this, hope none of you guys mind~
Celaena being feminine and proud of it. Haven’t really read a character like this yet and as someone who is writing several proud feminine characters, it was nice to see
Chaol. Just him in general. Best character and I loved him.
SOME of the banter was pretty fun.
That one scene with Celaena working out in her room was A Good TM
Some of the one-liner descriptions were pretty good and I enjoyed them.
I actually liked some of the traveling bits in the beginning. I thought it would skip straight to the castle but we got to savor a little in the journey there. It was nice (tho it went on too long and got annoying and boring to read)
The (many) Things I Disliked
A longer bullet point list, hope you all are ready! I’ll try and go in a somewhat chronological order
The plot made no fucking sense
Dorian. The only Dorian in my heart is Dorian Pavus and also he was so one-note that I almost cried.
The world building? The little world building that was like. Actually present was so bland... it read like Typical Fantasy. Listen. If I wanted Typical Fantasy I’d go play one of the many re-releases of Skyrim, okay??
Celaena was just unlikeable and her entire character was contradictory. She acted more like a mercenary for hire or a thug than an assassin. Assassins wouldn’t wanna be in the center of attention, people!
Also Celaena acted really dumb in parts and it made me cringe.
Chaol as the captain of the guard made no sense. He’s too young!
In fact, Celaena as the best assassin made no sense. She is also too young. Also, if she got captured and is KNOWN, she is hardly the best. The point of being an assassin is...... being unknown... c’mon.....
The tests. The back of the book made them sound really cool but they were just? Running around a track? Some softcore parkour? The archery contest actually made sense I guess but it would’ve been cooler if they were hitting like. Actual moving targets rather than just. Bulls-eyes.
Also most the tests were just kinda brushed over? At least The Hunger Games was.... well most the book took place DURING the Hunger Games so like.
The king had no fucking name what the shit who doesn’t name their fucking VILLAIN?!
Cain. Like. He was so stereotypical. I looked up to see if he would end up as the villain at the end and I was right, how disappointing. Also, naming your villain Cain is like.... idk... literally is there a single protagonist named Cain? Genuine question
The girl hate. Like, I get that girls are people and not all girls are gonna get along or anything but like. There were throwaway lines that just made me roll my eyes and scrunch up my nose.
THE FUCKING GLASS CASTLE MADE ME SO MAD OH MY GOD WHY WAS IT THERE. And if the castle looks the exact same on the inside in the glass part as the stone part, what’s the point then? How is this nation, which is at war, have a glass castle? That thing is gonna shatter. How did they make it? Why did the king make it? The most we get is the implication is that he’s crazy but that’s.... gross for one and two, lazy. You know what would’ve been cool tho? If the king was just a zealot who worshipped his human gods to the point where he wanted them to always see his victories and be able to see him wherever he went, so he created the glass portions of the castle so he could be seen by his gods the entire time. I thought of that idea in the span of 10 seconds. Sigh.
AND I AM STILL ON THE GLASS CASTLE SHIT listen. If this was a whimsical fantasy and everyone went with it, I wouldn’t have SUCH a huge problem with it, tho it would still be kinda dumb (mattering on context...) but legit. Having your characters point it out doesn’t make them look smart, it makes the author look silly. “It’s a dumb idea, I know it’s a dumb idea, but I am going to write it anyways. For The Aesthetic” listen. We’re past the age of aestheticism. Let’s get our heads outta the 1800s, k?
Honestly there were descriptions but I couldn’t ever get a good image on what was going on, which is weird. All the descriptions were for like. More finer details? But the overall look of the entire world was just blank in my mind. I dunno how else to explain it.
So. Much. Filler. Celaena! Get outta your room and let us explore some! I can sit alone in my room myself irl, I don’t wanna read some chick do the same!
Same with the book shit. Like we could’ve gotten some amazing world building just based on the books Celaena read but whatever that was brushed over too??
Honestly a lot of reading ToG was like reading a textbook where words go through my eyes and their meaning seeps from my ears and I find myself 20 pages in but no idea how I got there and don’t remember a single word of what I read.
The writing style for the fighting. When you write fight scenes or tense scenes, you want your writing to become choppier usually and sharp. It changes the mood and tone of the scene. The author just used the same flowing prose she had for the rest of the book, which was kinda dull.
I wish we had seen the murders. I mean, the book is in third person and does switch POV at times! I wanna read some good blood, guts, n gore!
L O V E T R I A N G L E O F H E L L
I thought Celaena was supposed to be sickly?? But like after a few chapters in the book that’s like, forgotten, besides her throwing up after running? Why only after running? Why doesn’t she worry about this or her health much? Seriously her physiology makes no sense.
Celaena’s mental health is also questionable. She’s completely fine after being tortured for a year and in a death camp and only has bad nightmares every once in a while?? That ain’t how PTSD works. Seriously what was going on in her head? What was the author trying to portray? You don’t do this shit half-assed. Either throw yourself into the research or go the Harry Potter route.
There is one character who is fat and he is ofc, a terrible person (I am talking about Dorian’s younger brother, ofc. Sigh. And yikes)
Celaena sometimes talked and acted like she was younger than what she actually was?? I think being childish was supposed to be part of her personality but it doesn’t mesh with her being an assassin. Unless she was doing it on purpose as an act. But she obv wasn’t so......
Yulemas. Honestly, I put the book down around when it was mentioned. It’s a dumb name and I can imagine what sort of celebration it is.
The timing and pacing of this book is weird. The king needs to learn what an itinerary is. I think it’d help him out.
Why I Put Throne of Glass Down
Mainly for two reasons: one I had just bought some books at the library and wanted to read those instead. I just wanted to read a good book again. The second reason is just as simple: I was incredibly bored.
There was just so much filler for me. Characters talking about random stuff, walking around, trying to figure out a mystery I figured out as soon as the first murder actually happened. It was all so boring to me.
And then... Celaena started suspecting Nehemia. Her only friend in the castle.
I dunno why that did it in for me. I think it’s because I didn’t wanna sit through at the very least 50 pages of one of the poorest red herrings I have ever stumbled across. I can (somewhat) deal with a book that promised me action and gave me bad romance with pretty girls and boys. I’ll complain a lot, give it a bad rating most likely, but I can finish books like those. What I can’t deal with is a clear waste of my fucking time. At that point, I was already 99.99% sure Cain was the bad guy. I was already tired of Celaena in general since she is such an unpleasant character for me to read. I did not wanna sit through a plot point that just insulted my intelligence and made the book all the more longer than it has to be. I have no idea how someone can make a book this bland and boring so long. I honestly cannot understand how I got pretty much 50% of the way in, and feel like I have moved nowhere when it comes to the characters and the plot. I don’t know how I could be pretty much halfway through this book and feel like not a SINGLE action scene has happened. (Yes, I know there have been actions scenes, but I didn’t like them or the way they were written. They weren’t exciting for me.)
All this realization just kinda came crashing down on me with Celaena suspecting Nehemia. And I was quite done with all of it.
Maybe the book would’ve picked up. Maybe the entire premise, story, characters, and writing style could’ve changed in a single page flip. But I seriously doubt that.
I’m tired of wasting my time with books I am not enjoying. If I’m gonna read a bad book, I at the very least want it to be entertaining.
And Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas wasn’t even that.
Going into this book knowing little other than that it’s called epic and comped to TPW & priory…….I was not expecting such a light and modern tone and writing style. It is easy to read, I’ll give it that, but also…..did not allow me to get invested.
It feels like an aimless cozy fantasy (which is something I do like in the right context!) with very young, modern dialogue and interactions, about investigating some missing kids in town and oh also my ex in this spooky castle and also we were in this traumatic war…..I was genuinely reading this like, is this being intentionally deceptive to lower my guard with the low stakes and light tone, and it’s going to drop some dramatic twist that recontextualises all this?
I got to the end of part one, and okay yes, there is that. But the writing style is still tonally odd and tbh it was just way too long and meandering to get there, and I think part 2 is even longer.
It’s also very nonlinear, with various flashbacks (and forward? one is an oracle), which definitely works with some of the themes explored here, it’s just that with the cozy light tone it felt a little confusing and directionless.
I can recognise that the style and structure is probably just me not being used to this kind of narrative and I think it could work for me if it were just one element but it's kinda everything. And the writing style especially....
The thing is there ARE so many interesting ideas in here - the different kinds of magic, the exploration of different cultures and the trauma of war and colonialism and in theory I like a post-plot narrative exploring the fallout of that, but the writing style and tone was just so informally jarring. (the tone/writing is a little more fitting in the war flashback parts, but not enough..). I love the concept, but I just can’t handle the execution. Also it’s long and I had limited Everand subscription.
There’s so many epithets - Chely is referred to as “the red-haired alchemist” I think 50 times (I searched it). I could deal just with ‘the alchemist’ but oh my god
I can’t believe I DNF-ed this at 55%. I loved Six Crimson Cranes, but this sequel let me down in so many ways. Honestly, the first book should’ve been a standalone.
So here’s a quick summary of why it didn’t work for me:
The dragon realm was disappointing: I love dragons and was really excited for this part—but gosh, the worldbuilding and the dragons felt flat and rushed. The plot was a mess here, too. The Dragon King was especially underwhelming: more of an arrogant bear than an ancient, majestic being. He lacked presence and depth. I wish the dragons had been more like Robin Hobb’s—arrogant and dismissive of humans, yes, but still wise and compelling.
Hated the fake love triangle with Seryu: I actually loved Seryu and Shiori’s friendship in the first book. Making him “crushy” on her in this one just made their dynamic awkward and unfun. Why can’t we please have a genuine male/female friendship in a YA book? Their goodbye scene in particular felt forced and weird—I would’ve found it much more touching if they had stayed just friends.
The plot makes no sense: It’s confusing, messy, and all over the place. There’s no clear direction and so much back and forth it’s exhausting. I stopped caring about what was going on.
The villain is weak compared to Raikama: I really missed Raikama’s presence. She had so much gravity in the first book, and I would’ve loved to see her in the main cast here. This new villain? Paper-thin and borderline laughable. Another reason why the plot felt so hollow.
Shiori’s “not like other girls” energy is worse here: In book one, it was subtle and made sense—growing up with six brothers, her tomboy energy felt natural, and her bond with Megari helped balance things. But in this book? All the new characters are men (Gen, Erlang), and Quinna’s possessed. So no meaningful female friendship to balance her out, and her personality leans hard into the “I’m different from other girls” trope in a way that feels grating—and honestly, a bit sexist.
“Main character must save the world alone” fatigue: Shiori suddenly develops this “I have to save the world alone because I’m the main character” syndrome. In the first book, she relied on her brothers, Takkan, and Seryu—it made her more grounded.
She constantly pushes Takkan away for no good reason, even though they had such a healthy, heartfelt relationship earlier. I DNF-ed at the betrothal rejection scene because it felt so forced and out of character. Just... why.
I still want to check out Elizabeth Lim’s other works (Spin the Dawn, you’re on my list), but I definitely need a break before diving in.
As far as I’m concerned, Six Crimson Cranes will remain a standalone in my headcanon.
