A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES Review: Beauty and the SortaBeast

Against slavery, against tyranny, I would gladly go to my death, no matter whose freedom I was defending.

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas, 2015

After my last post about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I feel like I’m on a roll with this whole Faerie lore and questionable sex-with-beasts thing, so let’s turn to a story that at least involves fewer issues around consent, shall we?

Sarah J. Maas titles sell like crazy at the bookstore where I work, so I’ve been curious to see what all the fuss is about. This is my first Sarah J. Maas novel and I enjoyed it. I love me some dark fairy tales, and I’m loving the dark faerie revival in YA fantasy. Faeries are clearly the new vampires in YA and I’m here for it — faerie lore feels much more varied and interesting than vampire lore, honestly. (How much can there be to vampire lore? They bite. They fight. They brood. Sometimes they sparkle.) Holly Black is one of my absolute favorite fantasy authors, Melissa Albert is another, and while the Gathering of Faerie books aren’t my favorite of Maggie Stiefvater’s novels (I’m ride or die for Scorpio Races and everything that’s come since, especially The Raven Cycle), they certainly stand head and shoulders above most fantasy books out there. A Court of Thorns and Roses is another fine entry in this genre, as well as a fresh new take on Beauty and the Beast.

And lordy lordy, So. Much. Happens. In this book.

the story

Folks, I just…there is an impressive amount of plot in this novel. So much that by the time I got to the part where most novels would be gearing up for the climactic finale, I was stunned to realize I still had quite a bit of book left to go. (Cue obligatory comparison to Return of the King‘s multiple endings, except that I’m a giant LOTR fan who will argue that each of those endings was dramatically necessary and that, furthermore, the book has even more endings, so really Peter Jackson cut us a break.)

Anyhoo. So. Our heroine is Belle Feyre, and she is a total badass huntress who lives on the edge of town, which lies on the border of Prythian, better known for all intents and purposes as the land of Faerie. In this universe, Faeries once ruled over humans and worked them as laborers before the humans revolted and formed an uneasy treaty many years ago. Feyre spends her days hunting, Katniss-style, to feed and take care of her ungrateful sisters and father. Her family used to be wealthy but times have changed – though she seems to be the only member of the family to have changed with the times.

One day she slays the wrong wolf on a hunt: it’s actually a Faerie warrior in wolf form. Soon that Faerie’s friend, in even bigger Beast form, breaks down her family’s door and steals her away with him to Prythian in retribution. Once in Prythian, she discovers that the Beast is one of the seven High Lords of Faerie, and also Lord of the Spring Court, which is to be her new home. Because this is a Beauty and the Beast adaptation, you know this story. Turns out the Beast/High Lord, name of Tamlin, isn’t all that beastly after all once you get to know him, they fall in love, etc.

[FROM HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. YE HAVE BEEN WARNED.]

But not too many spoilers, because seriously, trying to sum up this whole story would take me all day. Suffice it to say that Tamlin and his court are cursed, including Feyre’s attendant/ally/friend Mrs. Potts Alis; Tamlin needs the love of a human who hates faeries to break the curse; also there’s an evil High Queen of Prythian who loves Tamlin (?!) and that’s why she cursed him, which seems a bit much but whatever; and Feyre has to go through a lot of torture and trials before love can prevail. Oh, and also Feyre meets another hot High Lord who seems obsessed with her, and this one has dark hair instead of blonde hair, so you know there must be a love triangle on the way.

the babble

I love Maas’ lush writing style, her vivid descriptions, and the detailed world she’s created here. And damned if she doesn’t know how to write an action sequence. The lore of her particular brand of Faerie culture sounds fascinating, and I look forward to learning more about it in the rest of the books, which I plan to read at some point.

I also appreciated her twists on traditional fairy tale tropes. The strained family dynamics between Feyre and her sisters and her father were so compelling, like something straight out of the Brothers Grimm. And the “impossible tasks” she must complete once she’s imprisoned Under the Mountain — especially the moment when Lucien’s mother helps her with cleaning the floor — come straight from Rumplestiltskin or an old Baba Yaga tale. It’s delicious storytelling.

Here’s the slight problem: I cared way more about those things than I did about Feyre’s love story with Tamlin — or her budding connection with Rhysand, for that matter. (I’ve had multiple friends look like they’re about to explode from holding in spoilers when I talk about how unconvincing I found Feyre’s soulmate connection to Tamlin and YES I GET IT, GUYS, MAAS IS SETTING UP RHYSAND AS A SECOND LOVE INTEREST.) I would much rather have read more scenes between Feyre and her complicated sister Nesta, or Feyre and Lucien, or Feyre and Alis. Those relationships felt far more compelling to me than her conversations (verbal or physical, *ahem*) with either High Lord. Maybe I’m just getting old and jaded, or maybe it’s that the physical descriptions of Tamlin and Rhysand make them sound like a direct retread of the Rob/Gabriel love triangle from L.J. Smith’s Dark Visions trilogy, which I already read and adored back when I was the right age to believe that true love can bloom just because two people are pretty and because the author tells you it’s blooming. Regardless, while I care about both Feyre and Tamlin in their own right and I’m glad they’re happy (for now?), I don’t feel Maas gave them enough scenes to let their relationship grow naturally.

Also, could it be? Yes it could! A Court of Thorns and Roses brings us to this blog’s first encounter with the YA Green Eyed Love Interest phenomenon, in which YA love interests (usually male, sometimes female) disproportionately have green eyes. Which means this novel receives Bookshelves and Babble’s inaugural Green Eye Eye Roll:

rating

***ish out of 4, but mostly because this blog is public and I don’t want hordes of Maas fans to descend upon me

random babble

• The scene where Feyre kills that giant worm monster is harrowing and excellently plotted. Feyre is such a badass.
• I love that Feyre’s name plays on both “faerie” and “fair,” as in beautiful. Well done, Maas.
• Anyone else out there a Feyre/Lucien shipper, or is it just me? Lucien is the best. More Lucien, please.
• The structure of this story felt a little…lopsided. The first half or so took its time and was so rich in character development and detail, while the second half felt like a great rush of plot reveals and explanations. And not to be a grouch, but Amarantha’s curse on the Spring Court is oddly and conveniently specific…almost as if it was custom-tailored to suit Feyre and get us to exactly this point in the book! What are the chances.
• I enjoyed Feyre’s artistic passions and her love of painting. Art provided a great way for Maas to show us the ways in which Prythian has been good for Feyre: after witnessing how she strangled her talent to take care of her family back home, she can finally allow her art to grow and blossom in the Spring Court.
• Two facts about Teenage Kristin that might help put my reaction to this novel in perspective: (1) While I still enjoy these stories, I especially loved romantic fanstasy/sci fi when I was in middle school and high school. L.J. Smith was my favorite author at the time. I was all about cross-magical species soulmate stories, so if I were still a teen I would probably think this was the most brilliant book I’d ever read and give it 4 out of 4 stars. Except that (2) Teenage Kristin was also an insufferable, prudish Goody Two-Shoes, so those Feyre/Tamlin sex scenes would have made my skin crawl as a teen, just like similar scenes did when I read Stephen King and such. I’m not about to yuck anyone’s yum and I’m definitely about to date myself here, but I can’t help but remember people in my hometown raising eyebrows because a Christopher Pike YA novel described sex in a single sentence. Feyre and Tamlin get whole paragraphs that tell you exactly where he puts his hands and his mouth and his tongue and the like. It’s steamy AF (literally AF). I think he actually rips her literal bodice in beast form at some point. Damn, y’all. BUT. All that being said, I’m here for this new trend of YA sex scenes modeling very clear consent between both partners. (Though I would argue that their first encounter, after the Fire Night celebration, very much does not model consent and instead perpetuates the harmful stereotype of a woman being turned on after the man doesn’t listen to her saying “no” and continues his advances. The fact that he’s magically transformed by a ritual into beast form doesn’t entirely excuse that. So…a draw, then, on the consent issue?)

• Along the same lines, dear reader, what are your thoughts on this whole “new adult” marketing label in fiction? Do you have the same mixed feelings about it that I do? I understand not wanting to potentially restrict access by placing more mature YA books in the adult section, but…I didn’t have any trouble walking over to the adult fantasy/science fiction section when I was a kid, did you? I took a class related to this subject last semester in my MLIS program and it’s such a thorny discussion topic. (Points if you got my pun there.)