Thone of Glass by Sarah J Maas - A review

Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas was a book that was gifted to me in Christmas 2016. I read it in 2017 and re read it in 2018 and it became one of my favourite books of all time. I did not really write book reviews back when I initially read this series, but I thought, why not write one now. I have always spoken about these books as a series rather than individually, since I was not quite experienced with writing book reviews at the time and was rather intimidated at the thought of writing a review for each of these books. But now its been about a year since I last finished this series, and I have written many book reviews since then. So here we are. And here are my thoughts on Throne of Glass.

Photo Credit: TheBandarBlog

Throne of Glass is a fantasy story about the assassin Celaena Sardothien, who is dragged out of a prison camp to compete to be the Kings Champion but the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian. We follow Celaena as she tried to overcome the consequences of spending a year of her life in the prison camp.  She goes through any tasks and competes against assassins, soldiers and criminals to win a contract which will ultimately gain her freedom.

There is little doubt that Celaena will win the competition, but she is shaken when the bodies of her competitors start appearing around the castle with organs missing and strange blood marks around them. What seems to be a straight forward story about assassins competing in a competition soon becomes a magical mystery; Celaena soon teams up with Chaol - the Captain of the Guard - to figure out what it killing off these competitors.

There are so many elements in this book that I really enjoyed. All three of our main characters are very likable. Celaena's youthful love life is a stark contrast to what she has been trained to do, and her interactions with the flirtations Dorian and the scowling Chaol seem to be very natural and relateable.

The writing style clearly appeals to young adults rather than older / younger readers. The pacing is fast and the emotions run high, but he book doesn't suffer from the flippancy of other young adult novels - with the exception of Celaena's growing affection for her two male counterparts. Speaking of the romance...

The one thing that lets this book down is the romance in the story - I did not like the pairing of Celaena and Chaol. However, unlike many other books in the YA Category, the romance did not overshadow the main plot and offered some nice light relief in contrast to the darker tones of the story. However, the romance did feel forced to me at times and I feel like Sarah J Maas was really playing on the love triangle trope in this book.

As a first in a series, Throne of Glass makes the reader long for more stories in the same world - which is always a bonus achievement for a book.  A lot has been set up for the sequel and the bad guys have been revealed to the reader (but not to the main characters), and you can sort of see where things may be going in the next couple of books.

I would recommend Throne of Glass to anyone who wants to see the Hunger Games and Game of Thrones combined. It is absolutely brilliant and a fantastic read. Keep your eyes out for reviews of further books in this series.