Summary: Throne of Glass is a young adult high fantasy novel series by American author Sarah J. Maas, beginning with the inaugural entry of the same name. The story follows the journey of Celaena Sardothien, a teenage assassin in a corrupted kingdom with a tyrannical ruler.
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Rating: ★
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General Thoughts: I don't feel like rating every single one of the books individually, because there would be a lot of repetition. A few years ago, I was actually really into this series for some reason, but then my eyes were opened when Empire of Storms was released.
The only reason I gave the series one star at all was because the first book wasn't awful, and I actually did like some parts of Heir of Fire.
Plot: The plot is extremely messy. It has diverged so far from the first book and seems to be just running around in random directions without a clue about how it will end. The worldbuilding is weak, too.
Writing: The writing is bad, to say the least. There are countless ellipses and em-dashes and semi-colons used correctly. I believe someone counted the number of em-dashes in QoS and came up with around 1000 of them (credit: throne-of-no on tumblr). As well, the sex scenes are cringe-worthy. Like, velvet-wrapped steel? Bursting into flames? It's all just badly-written fae porn.
Characters and Romance: The only two characters I liked the most in the beginning were Dorian and Chaol, and then later on Sorscha, as well. But Chaol was kind of butchered in Queen of Shadows and then was written off once he became disabled. Dorian wasn't himself in QoS for obvious reasons, but then he was nothing at all like himself in EoS. And Sorscha died to further the white plot, of course. Celaena and Aelin are completely different people. It's not character development, it's a whole new character. The narrative tries to paint Aelin as a better person than Celaena, but she's way worse. I somewhat liked our sassy assassin with a softer side, but now she's just a rude queen who thinks she's entitled to everything. I hate the new characters introduced in HoF and QoS, for the most part. They all just worship Aelin for no reason and aren't as cool characters as the original gang, Chaol and Dorian and Celaena. Most of all, though, I hate Rowan Whitethorn, or as my friends call him: Rowboat Whiteporn (credit: amanda on goodreads).
The romances are all as terrible as the characters, if not even worse. Every single one is forced hetero bs. It places unrealistic standards on younger girls that every guy that Aelin meets falls in love with her and she in love with them. The only Celaena/Aelin relationships I liked were her and Sam and briefly her and Chaol. Rowaelin was fine when they were just friends but their relationship is really toxic now that they're together. Everything is made out to be about the two of them. However, I hate Manorian even more. Both of their personalities had to change for it to work, and in QoS, Dorian was flirting with her because he wanted to die, ffs. I can't believe SJM actually made it a thing. Elide and Lorcan are forced, Lysandra and Aedion are forced, everyone is forced af. The only nonforced het couple in this entire series was Dorian and Sorscha, but they got less than a book. The books get very centered around romance as the series goes on, for some reason, so @ SJM if you're gonna do that can you at least write good romances, please?
Diversity: Not only is there just the bare minimum of diversity, it's all problematic and harmful rep. All the main characters are straight except for Aedion, who's bi but is known as the Whore of Adarlan. All the main characters are white, but if they are poc, they killed off to further the white plot (Nehemiah and Sorscha) or get written out of the largest book in the series so far (Nesryn). I could go on for a while about the lack of diversity in this series.
Do I Recommend?: No, please save yourself and don't waste your time with any SJM books, Instead, read some ownvoices books, please.
