I’m not one to begrudge people their preferences, in life or in their forms of escapism. If the works of Sarah J Maas provide you with a much needed reprieve or help you through dark times or help you see the beauty of the world, I am truly happy for you. Nothing I post here is meant to take away from or invalidate your experiences. That being said, I am not going to be saying anything nice about Maas, specifically her “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. If reading unfavorable opinions about your favorite author or favorite series is going to upset you, I do not recommend continuing. Thank you for understanding.
When I say that Sarah J Maas is lazy, I mean that the amount of effort she puts into her worlds feels rushed and haphazard. She clearly isn’t a purely lazy person. No one who can write as many books as she has is. She has achieved more than most of us ever will. But the lack of purposeful thought that she puts into constructing her fictional realities is the central core of my issues with ACOTAR. My many, many issues. I’ll begin with the more technical and work my way to the more specific. I’ll probably devolve in coherence as I go, I apologize.
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***PACING***
Books 1 and 3 are the perfect examples of poor pacing in this series. ACOTAR begins quickly enough; Feyre kills a faerie, gets taken from her ungrateful family, and is forced to live among the strange beings of the Fae. She plans to escape, using her skills as a hunter to her advantage. And then…nothing. For a couple hundred pages. Oh, I know, she meets the Suriel, she gets to know the Spring Court, she falls in love, but there is absolutely no urgency, no goal to work toward, NOTHING for her to accomplish to strive toward except to learn to live in luxury until the plot suddenly kicks back in and she has to go Under the Mountain after an exhaustive monologue from a minor character that explains LITERALLY EVERYTHING. No sprinkling of clues or details throughout the lull in the book, just a massive deluge of long-needed context and information that turns it all into a different story.
I am a patient reader. I got through all 15 books of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time and all 16 of Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings and LOVED them. I can wait for a good payoff. The problem is that Sarah gave us very little to go on (or outright misinformation, ie Amarantha IS the plague) for any of these revelations to feel like anything more than last minute plot points she forgot to include. But these aren’t just first book problems.
For all of the migraines Book 2 gave me, Book 3 was so much worse when it came to pacing. There is a war going on. This was established by the end of Book 2. And yet, there isn’t even the remotest sense of urgency about it until at least 200 pages into this tome. “War is here,” Sarah omniously declares, several weeks after the first shots were fired. It’s like declaring the house is on fire halfway into the fire fighters putting it out. Yeah, we know! But even once it begins, everything still moves at a snail’s pace with Feyre and her new family just talking in the Night Court about what they should do. That is when Rhys isn’t having sex with Feyre over the sounds of wounded soldiers crying out in agony.
Then, before we know it, the final battle is here. And then it’s done. What?
***PLOT***
There isn’t one. Well, I’ll clarify, there isn’t a thought out, overarching narrative. Feyre gets kidnapped, falls in love, PROVES that love, frees the entire magical land, and gets to ride off with her man. Neat and tidy ending. Except, no. Now there’s a massive clumsy shift in character for Tamlin so now he’s controlling and abusive (something other characters never get called out for) and so now she must be kidnapped – er, rescued – again.
(Tangent, skip if you want: I hate this trope so much. The feminine character gets kidnapped or rescued instead of making the choices and escaping/leaving on her own. Is it a trope? I have no idea, but it is EVERYWHERE. Twilight, Savage Lands, From Blood and Ash, and now ACOTAR, she’s just whisked away from one location to the next, a passanger in her own narrative. Absolutely no agency. Luckily, Feyre breaks out of this, but it is beyond infuriating for a work that is lauded as “Feminist” to completely remove the agency of the character that is supposed to be empowering! Rant over.)
The status quo essentially resets and now the REAL plot can begin; Feyre gets a *mate.* Because that is the plot. There are bones of a conflict with stakes but they’re not actually important. What’s important is Feyre getting a new boyfriend and an entire friend group (she can’t make her own friends, she needs them to be provided) and a big house and wealth and power and can you see how bone crushingly boring this is? It’s a self insert wish fulfilment checklist. There isn’t a PLOT, there is no actual CONFLICT because there was never a chance in hell that Feyre was ever going to lose any of the things she gained. That’d break the fantasy.
A Court of Silver Flames is the only story in the series that has a plot. There is a personal goal for Nesta, she grews personally and physically through her training, she makes her own friends (something Feyre could NEVER do), there are things happening! All of the background stuff about the trove and lake sorceror actively get in the way of the story being told. Even this story is ruined by SJM’s laziness but I’ll get to that later.
There is no story to tell, no conflict to occur beyond who will end up getting with who?
But, “What about Hybern?” you’ll ask. What about Hybern?
***WORLDBUILDING***
Hybern want to take over Prythian because they…want to enslave humans again? Because they’ve been poor since the last war 500 years ago? Because the king and his people are just straight up evil? All of the above, with essentially no elaboration. I know he gives an explanation to Rhys while they’re fighting (JUST FIGHT, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH TALKING!?) but it strains my believability. An entire country just sat there grumbling about how it wasn’t fair that they lost for 500 YEARS, lost more wealth, became more miserable and starved and somehow managed to get all of the soldiers, ships, and equipment needed to overwhelm Prythian? Seriously? It was better when it was just, “Yeah, they’re evil over there.” Don’t provide backstory that instantly conflicts with whats happening.
But honestly, that’s the most creative the worldbuilding actually gets. Name a mythology and Sarah took something from it and just threw it into her world. Oh, the High Lord of the Day Court is named Helion. She took Helios, changed a single letter, and them put him in charge of the Day Court because…SUN. I hate this.
There are seven Courts and we barely get to know any of them or what makes them unique. How do the politics between Courts work? They don’t they gather in one room and throw insults at each other. “Playing the games of the Courts is dangerous.” NO ONE PLAYS THE GAMES! THEY ALL LITERALLY SAY EXACTLY WHAT’S ON THEIR MINDS AND THEN LEAVE.
The most interesting one is the Night Court and even that falls apart at the slightest bit of probing. There’s the Court of Nightmares and the Court of Dreams. Why? Well, the Court of Nightmares is run by the evil, cruel people in the Night Court that live inside of a mountain but the REAL Court is the Court of Dreams with all of Rhys’ friends. The Court of Nightmares is just a front.
Ok, do policies from the CoN actually affect anything? Just the people in the mountain. Are the people in the mountain allowed to leave? No. Are they all evil? No, Mor actually grew up there abused by her parents.
So Rhys, the most powerful High Lord, King Feminism himself, is keeping an entire population of his people trapped inside of a mountain, more than likely suffering abuse from the other fae, and it’s all to protect this ONE city that he’s super proud of? Wow, Rhys kinda really sucks when you put it that way. Why does he even have this awful Court if he basically just keeps everyone out anyway? Oh, cause Sarah wanted to have scenes where he’s the villain cause that’s hot apparently. Sorry, priorities.
***CONSEQUENCES***
There aren’t any. Nothing has any real consequences, good or bad. They have the Weaver and her siblings for the final fight? Yeah, they’re gonna die almost instantly. Feyre looked into the mirror that drives people insane? She’ll get over it in less than a page and it won’t affect any of her behavior going forward. (We never learn what she saw. She tell all of the other Courts but we never get to know, because doing a psychodellic horror sequence of all of her main characters flaws would’ve been interesting and we can’t have that.) Feyre went to spy on Tamlin and Hybern? ALL OF THE INFORMATION SHE BROUGHT BACK CONFIRMED WHAT THEY ALREADY KNEW, IT WAS POINTLESS!
Velaris was attacked!? Oh, we’re chill, kids are already playing in the streets again. Ugh. I’m moving on.
Edit: No, I’m not! Amren sacrifices herself to save everyone but NOPE, SHE’S BACK! Yeah, she’s regular Fae now but functionally unchanged soooooo……
And that Rhys fakeout death? Really? Like that was ever going to be a consequence.
Immortals never die while mortals just bite it constantly. Only immortal Fae matter guys.
***WRITING/STYLE***
This is one of the most repetitive, tedious styles I’ve ever read. The word “mate” is used 202 times in book 3. I cannot tell you how many times male, female, purred, like calls to like, growling, and VULGAR GESTURE are used. No variety, no nuance, always, ALWAYS, the same descriptor!
I won’t let Robert Jordan off the hook with all of his “Folding her arms under her breasts,” and “Tugging her braid,” and “smoothing her skirts,” but here’s the thing; Robert wrote a complicated, amazing world full of complicated, amazing characters. There are other things to compensate. Sarah did not. There is only the frustration.
***CHARACTER***
These are not immortal 500 year old beings. They are petty teenagers. So many tongues sticking out, so much “banter,” not an adult conversation or interaction to be had. No one has hobbies, no one has any real personality beyond how they relate to Rhys or Feyre. Yes, Amren starts playing with puzzles, the most boring hobby on God’s green Earth. She missed intellectual challenges? Maybe she picks up linguistics, history, something she can work at and accomplish things. No? Fine, puzzles.
AH, but Feyre, she paints! No. No she doesn’t She looks at things happening in front of her and gives them cringey titles. If you’re going to give a character a hobby, it should be worked into the narrative somehow. Brandon Sanderson does this pretty well with Shallan in Stormlight Archive. Her ability to draw influences how she uses her powers and useful in the narrative. Feyre’s painting is more a narrative thermometer for us to gauge how depressed/happy she is. And not a very good one.
Rhys. I hate Rhys. I hated him when he showed up and drugged Feyre, I hated him when he revealed himself to be King Alpha Male, Champion of Feminism, and I hated him when he kept the dangers of Feyre’s pregnancy hidden and threatened to kill Nesta for telling her about it. He is not a character. He is a cardboard cutout for whatever traits Sarah thinks would be hot. OH, a bad boy villain! Oh no, wait, a dark and handsome proto feminist! Wait, a controlling dickhead! Oops.
My problem with him is that before A Court of Silver Flames, he has no flaws. He is the perfect gentleman, always gives Feyre a choice and just CARES so much about his COURT. It’s obnoxious. He’s such an overdone fantasy that he’s no longer appealing, he’s insulting. Rather than giving him edges (actual edges, not bad boy nonsense), Sarah settles for making him beyond perfect. No conflict to be had and no effort to be exerted.
***He Doesn’t Have a Name***
Here’s the detail that legitametly broke me. The only major character that wasn’t evil to die at the end of this trilogy was Feyre’s father. His interference changed the course of the battle. His death haunts Nesta and serves as her central internal conflict for her own book. The meaning behind his death and legacy is supposed to be profound.
What’s his name?
He doesn’t have one. HE DOESN’T HAVE A NAME!!!
HOW!? How do you create a character and actually USE them for such an impactful moment in the “narative” and NOT EVEN GIVE HIM A NAME?
Oh, but this feeds into so much more.
What’s the King of Hybern’s name? Hybern. His Country? Hybern. His people? Hybern. The Island the country is located on? Hybern.
The Human Queens! Names? Not till book 5! What nations do they rule? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I know she didn’t mean to, but I am beyond insulted at the audacity to not even bother.
***There is Only Maas***
My final point. If you stuck around this long, you are a trooper. Seriously, congrats. I am awful and you deserve an award for putting up with me.
Sarah only brings in her perspective. Now, that’s true of any author but what I mean by that is that her priorities are the only ones that matter.
The only characters that matter are the High Fae. Every named character of worth either starts out as or becomes one. Name me one human who matters. Jurian? That guy got resurrected and is basically immortal now. Name me a MORTAL human who matters to this story. What’s the name of Feyre’s village?
The rest of the Fae barely matter, either. If they’re not on a Court in the first 3 books, you won’t know a thing about them. Only the high class matters, only the Fae matter. Humans? Gross, who cares?
Even personal goals shift according to Maas’ will. Why, for the love of GOD, did Nesta physically alter her own body in order to have children? Something she has never expressed she wanted? Because Sarah wants her female characters to have babies. It’s fulfilling for her, so they all must want them. Nesta. The newly minted warrior Valkyrie. She can’t have ambitions of her own! Give her a baby!
There are only MALES and FEMALES in Maas’ world. You can’t escape it. STRICT GENDER ROLES FOR ALL! MATES! Oh, there’s one token queer character but she has the absolute worst backstory in the history of representation so does it really count? And she’s never actually happy or being herself so keep it to yourself, everyone!
Sarah offers us the straightest, whitest world possible. Where it’s fine for there to be slums in the cities while the ruler builds a sixth house for his new wife. Where the only people unhappy after a war are the widows, not the soldiers going through PTSD or injuries or anything. Where conflict only arrises because someone is being mean. No resources to worry about, no socio economic concerns, nope, not here!
***Conclusion***
If you couldn’t tell, I am miserable. Part of that is from reading these books. And I am being a little unfair. If I wanted Sarah to write her stories perfectly according to what I’ve complained about, then they wouldn’t be hers. She’s found an audience and success, and that’s wonderful. However, I find it troubling that she writes for an adult audience but doesn’t put in the work to make it hold up to basic adult scrutiny. I’m not saying I need her to write up what kind of tax forms the Night Court uses or anything, but just enough information that makes it make sense.
I have never met Sarah J Maas and probably never will. I can make no judgements on her as a person. I can make assumptions based on her work but I don’t think that’s entirely fair. All I can do is judge the work itself.
It is lazy. Characters without agency, worlds without coherence, no consequences for any actions, a work that has “First Draft” written all over it for me.
Oh, and the father doesn’t have a name.
by Weak-Juggernaut1669