Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Throne of Glass is the first book in the popular eight book young adult fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas. It tells the story of an 18 year old world renowned assassin named Celaena. She’s been sentenced to a lifetime of working and dying in the mines, but has been given a chance at freedom. All she has to do is win a competition to become the King’s royal assassin. A King that she doesn’t like at all, but one step at a time.
Throughout her assassination competition trials, Celaena is accompanied by the prince who entered her into the competition, and her trainer/handler who happens to be the captain of the guard and the prince’s best friend. Things are going all fine and dandy, because she’s the best of the best (obviously), until her competition starts getting killed off one by one under the cloak of night.
This book gave clunky and very explanatory descriptions of magical elements. The main character always seemed to have to figure out exactly how and why something fantastical was happening and then spout off what she discovered. I don’t particularly enjoy when fantasy books try to explain magic. Magic is magic, there’s no need for an explanation for how it works. I do understand the need for foundational lore, but there are more effective ways of setting that up rather than a character reading something from a book or straight up being told something.
With how clunky the fantasy elements of the book were, there weren’t many of them. The setting takes place entirely within a glass castle, hence Throne of Glass, but nothing much happens there until people start randomly dying off. Huge fans of fantasy will find the minimal amounts of fantasy and magic disappointing, as well as the utterly confusing, unrealistic, and lackluster fight scenes.
Another disappointing factor of this book was how much it suffered from “typical strong female main character syndrome”. I’m all for a strong female main character. Ripley from Alien, Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, and Ellie from The Last of Us are some of my favorite characters of all time. The difference between those characters and Celaena is that they feel real and believable. They’ve earned the title of strong. I know it’s a fantasy novel, and you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief, but I can only suspend it so far. Throughout the competition trials we are given no real proof that she’s actually the best in the business aside from being told that she is. If they leaned more into the fact that she’s small and stealthy and is therefore better able to complete a job without getting caught, that would make more sense. Unfortunately though, the trials focused on strength and fighting skills which I just can’t be led to believe she’s better at than her behemoth competition. I’ll just leave it at that because the “strong female main character syndrome” is a topic for another day.
While I do have major qualms with this book, it wasn’t all bad. The story was relatively fast paced and easy to follow. I often get overwhelmed at the beginning of fantasy books. They usually have a million different characters with difficult names to keep track of, plus maps, plus monsters, plus magic….you get the point. Sarah J. Maas kept the writing style simple and only introduced about 4 different main characters throughout the book which I really appreciate. Having fewer characters allows for more relationship building. This could be seen as a detractor if you’re just reading it for the fantasy, but I prefer character dynamics over politics and I love a little romance thrown into the mix.
Speaking of romance, Sarah J. Maas clearly excels at writing it over writing fantasy. Without spoiling any of the book, I’ll just say that she wrote several scenes that were filled to the brim with yearning. Example A: “But he knew that her thoughts weren’t of him. She stopped and stared upward. Even from a distance, he could see the blush upon her cheeks. She seemed young - no, new. It made his chest ache. Still, he watched, watched until she sighed and went inside. She never bothered to look below.” I do love a good yearn.
The last major plus in this book was giving the main character a dog. I love dogs. That’s all.
All in all, the first book in the beloved Throne of Glass series fell flat for me. Started off bad with a small 18 year old “strongest female main character” and ended with a cop out “magic saves the day” final boss battle. Maas shines in scenes where she’s building relationships between two characters, rather than when she’s trying to develop lore. While I didn’t particularly like the book, I can see how it would be a good entry point into the genre, particularly for young women who want to get back into reading or want to move from the romance into the fantasy genre.
Star rating: 2/5