Wow it's been a while! I apologize it has taken me so long to get a new post up but I've been concentrating on school and college apps ('Tis the Season!).
Without further ado, here's a review of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.
Synopsis
Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.
In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, Celaena, an assassin, is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion.
The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.
Review
★★★★★
Throne of Glass is the 1st book of the Throne of Glass series. It is composed of 6 books in total: Crown of Midnight (book 2), Heir of Fire (book 3), Queen of Shadows (book 4), and two other books that have yet to earn a title.
I read this book after my friend, Jamelia (from Jamelia Blogging 24/7), recommended I read it.
I must admit the cover sort of threw me off as the character's representation is rather disturbing to me. I don't know what it is about her, maybe the silver-tinted skin, but it did not appeal to me. Despite this minor hiccup, I opened the book and I'm glad I did because I got hooked!
The narrative of this book alternates between three characters:
-Celaena Sardothien - pronounced Sell-lay-nah and not Celina as I'd thought, my bad - is the main character. She is one of the most bad-ass characters I've read about. I mean, she's a 17 year old assassin for crying out loud. Much more than the best-assassin in the land, she's also an avid reader and surprisingly sensitive at times.
-The Crown Prince, Dorian, is the son of the ruler. He is seen by many as a ladies' man. He is described as handsome, charming. He can do whatever he wants - unless his father tells him to do otherwise. Even he is afraid of the might king ruler, having more of a professional bond with him than a fatherly relationship.
-Chaol Westfall - pronounced Kay-all - is the Captain of the King's Guard. He's also handsome (yay) but less charming. For the most part, he does not show much emotion but, by reading parts of the story from his point of view, his character gains depth and I personally have become very attached to him.
As you might have suspected, love emerges despite the violence in this book. Now, I'm not a fan of love triangles for the simple reason that they often cause conflict. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy reading love stories. However, I like them better when their are only two people involved so I know who I root for. I struggle with picking sides but I ultimately tend to decide (like in The Hunger Games *Peeta4ever*).
This book has some very fast-paced action scenes that I would probably not recommend to younger readers but I'm no expert on such things. The scenes are sometimes rather graphic and I cringed when gruesome aspects were evoked (maybe that's just me...). They are very well described and I read the entire sections concerned despite my (bad?) habit of skimming over fight scenes from lack of easy visualization of what's going on.
In my opinion, magic was not the main focus of the book, despite its description. However, it gained more importance as the story went on and, considering the book's ending (OMG), I'm sure it will be prominent in the next book.
Overall, I would definitely recommend reading this book. I've been waiting about a month for the second book to become available at my local library and it's finally there! Off I go to my reading!
Thanks for sticking by, I have actually read a few books since this so keep your tabs - haha, get it? - open for them!
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