What if Cinderella was actually an Assassin? Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas – A Book Review

A story inspired by Cinderella, but not the Cinderella in the gif. Although, I do admit that I love the 2015 adaption of Cinderella. It was absolutely beautiful.

I'm quite nervous writing this actually as this is my first actual book review. I'm used to writing reviews on Japanese idol music but with this blog, I'm trying to.. how do I say it? Come out of my shell? The main point is that I want to try writing different reviews. I want to write a variety of entries. For example, I've written a miniature film review on Disney's Descendants. I've been wanting to write a book review so here it is! Today, I shall be sharing my opinion on Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass.

Warning: There will be spoilers in this review. Please read at your own discretion. Also, please bear with me in this entry as I ramble a lot and tend to get off-topic.

Two men love her.
The whole land fears her.
Only she can save them all.

In a word without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King's Champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a faraway land will befriend her. But something evil dwells in the castle–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.

So let me begin this review by getting this particular statement out of the way: I hated the book. Not that I used the past tense form of the verb so I don't necessarily hate it anymore. When I first began reading the book, I was absolutely irritated with Celaena. I've had a two main reasons to dislike her. The first was that I could not stand her egotistic personality. For the first.. I would say quarter of the book, she came off as being very cocky to me. Yes, I understand that she's an infamous assassin. I understand that most would interpret this as her being headstrong, courageous, or another better adjective. However, she's so arrogant and too confident in her abilities. I couldn't stand it and I struggled to get through that part of the novel.

Another reason why I disliked Celaena is because in novels nowadays, I've been noticing a very common trope that's constantly being recycled. I've noticed that (fantasy) novels that feature a female protagonist– the girls are always so headstrong, stubborn, courageous, unladylike.. yet at the same time, possess fairytale-like beauty. The girls seem to be strong and cold on the outside, yet on the inside – they have a heart of gold. Yes, this is a hasty generalization. I know that not all novels are like this. However, some novels I have read recently feature this common trope for their female protagonists. I can't stand it. I've come to think as these type of female protagonists as Mary Sues. A character that is seemingly perfect? At that point, there's no room for proper character development and eventually the book would become extremely boring and predictable.

There's nothing wrong with having a strong female character as a protagonist. I have no problem with that. However, there must be room for some character development. I do not want to see the same cliches recycled multiple times. Miniature rant over. Now let's get back to the review before I start rambling again.

After enduring the first quarter of the book, I began to actually enjoy the book. While Celaena still seemed retain some of her ego, she eventually loses some of that arrogance as the story progresses. I began to actually like her character. However, Celaena (ugh, she has such a pretty name) is not my favorite character. She's right in the middle. My favorite character(s) in the books are actually Crown Prince Dorian and Chaol, Captain of the Guard – her two main love interests. I like to refer to them as my sons because they're precious. Chaol is just an adorable tsundere while Dorian somehow reminds me of Adrian Agreste/Chat Noir from Miraculous Ladybug. Like Dorian tries to be smooth and charming, but he's just a puppy. WhileWhen they're alone or when they're with Celaena, they're very entertaining. I believe that those two carried the book for me.

Oh, and there's Nehemia too. She's also a really good character.

The character I ended up disliking the most is actually Kaltain Rompier. The main reason is that I just find her to be a very useless character in general. She was supposed the love rival of Celaena, also trying to win Crown Prince Dorian's heart. Although, she came off as kind of a gold digger for me. She doesn't love him – she just wants to be Queen. She came off to me as that. However, she and Celaena did not interact with each other much in the novel at all. Nor did she ever interact with Dorian much either. She was just there, she didn't do anything. I expected more from her. And all I get now is that she's addicted to Opium. I hope to see her more in the sequels and see her character grow. But for now, she's boring and quite useless. She barely did anything aside from drugging Celaena towards the near end.

So enough about the characters for a moment– let's just talk about the setting of the book and just the overall story. One thing I love about fantasy books is that each author is able to come up with their own original world for their stories. I love to indulge myself in reading about those worlds. They're so interesting and I just want to know everything – from the world's history, the different provinces, the nobility, houses. Maas does not touch a lot on the setting or its history, which I believe is normal for most authors as they want to focus on the characters and the current events. However, Maas' small details about the world of Throne of Glass are so interesting. I want more. I want to learn more about Adarlan, Terrasen, Eyllwe. So just to get the point, the setting is good. It's interesting. I want to read more and indulge myself more in that world.

Originally, I thought the general story was predictable. Celaena would become the Champion and she would fall in love with Crown Prince Dorian and she would friend-zone Chaol (oh, my precious son. You don't deserve to have your heart broken ;;). I was right for most of the book. However, there were still a few twists and turns that made me want to keep reading it. One of which was the introduction of wyrd magic towards the second half of the book, I believe. I originally thought the story would just focus on Celaena and her competition. The introduction of wyrd magic tied with the murders of her competitors made the story more compelling. It felt like a mystery book at a few moments and I wanted to know who (or what) was the murderer.

Also, Maas was able to write her cliche love triangle in a way that I was engaged. Originally, I have opted to have Celaena be with Chaol. The reason for that is because the two characters have actually interacted with each other in the book a lot – especially in the first half of the book. There were chemistry between the two characters. While their feelings were very very subtle, it was slowly growing. However, it was the suddenly revealed that Celaena has a growing infatuation with Dorian. I actually have no problem with this. The reason for that is because after it was revealed that Celaena and Dorian have a tiny crush on each other, Maas built on them and developed their relationship. The two characters began to interact more in the second half of the book.

The two characters interacted with each other.
There were developed chemistry between them.
They actually have some things in common.

This is good. I like this. Celaena can end up with Chaol or Dorian, I don't care. Maas was able to successfully build chemistry between Celaena and her love interests. Although (spoiler alert), at the end of the first book, Celaena decided to not be engaged in a romantic relationship while working for the King. Nice job, Celaena. I like this love triangle in the story. Maas was able to execute a cliche was quite nicely

... Unlike a certain author who tries to push the readers into supporting a relationship that has no chemistry at all. /cough; Red Queen /cough;

The book was inspired by Cinderella; however, to be honest, don't expect to see Cinderella references a lot. I honestly couldn't find a lot. The most significant Cinderella reference in the book would actually be the masquerade ball towards the last quarter-ish of the book. Celaena is described to be wearing a very silvery-gray gown and in the 1950's adaption of Cinderella, Cinderella's dress was actually white-silver-gray. It was afterwards that they made her color officially blue. So I like the silver gown reference in the book. Aside from that, the references are either very very very subtle (difficult to spot easily) or there are almost none at all.

So what else about the book? I discussed characters, settings, love triangle, story.. Hmm, what else should I talk about? Oh yeah, the pacing of the story. I believe that the pacing of the story was actually at a nice, moderate pace. It doesn't seem too slow and each chapter or even other chapter had an interesting moment. Of course, this depends on the reader themselves. This is just my personal opinion. Hmm..  Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would recommend this book. The book has its flaws but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless. And now I looking forward to reading the next book in the series~ To be honest, I find it slightly better than Red Queen.

Overall Rating: 3.8 / 5 ☆

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MUSIC; 屋上のスキマ 白いソラ / Rev.from DVL
MOOD; I'm finished! ｡ﾟ✶ฺ.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ.✶ฺﾟ｡