Throne of Glass

⭐ ⭐ ☆ ☆ ☆

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, Book 1) by Sarah J. Maas

The root of all YA’s problems. 🌱😈

(This might feel like a half-review since I will redirect you twice, but I promise, a lot of thought went into this.)

I was told I’d enjoy Throne of Glass more than A Court of Thorns & Roses, and that’s true. I did 👍. But is it actually good? Well… yes and no.

It’s more intriguing, has stronger characters, and a better-developed story. The problem is Sarah J. Maas herself, or rather, her influence. She’s a trendsetter, and unfortunately, some of her worst habits have become genre staples.

Bad Habit #1: The “badass” main character who never actually does anything badass. We’re constantly told how amazing they are, but rarely shown why. For me, this is one of the biggest failures in character development. I was going to explore this here, but the topic grew so much it became its own blog post, which will be coming soon.

Bad Habit #2: Making main characters teenagers solely so the book can be labeled as YA. Apparently that’s all it takes. Change the age and voilà, YA fiction.

The problem with this approach is that YA has become more mature over time, making this choice feel increasingly unrealistic. Celaena Sardothien (awesome name, btw) simply does not work as a teenager. I find it unbelievable that someone so young could have lived the amount of history and experience she supposedly has.

Rather than repeat myself here, I’ll point you to my Ignite the Stars review, which goes deeper into why this kind of age mismatch breaks immersion.