REVIEW: Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. 

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. 

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. 

Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

“We all bear scars,... Mine just happen to be more visible than most.”

Meet Celena Celana Celaena... the famous, dangerous, notorious assassin of... fuck I forgot the name of the place... of that whatver place...

Honestly, I can't get the hype. I couldn't get the hype. Again. Like The Darkest Minds, I felt really bad that I couldn't get to this book like the rest of the readers. The blurb from goodreads was really catchy. I mean who wouldn't want to read about a kickass female assassin, a gladiator-like competition where you'll either live or die, random killings of the champions, and a whole lot more. Those are enough to make me want to read it. It took me a long while because it wasn't available in my country, but I got it, and was so excited and then...

What a disappointment.

This was a Did Not Finish for me. I didn't want to waste my time reading about a book that I couldn't really get into. So I just dropped it, when the story stopped being interesting.

Let me tell give you a short summary of the book.

Celaena Sardothien was the most dangerous assassin in the kingdom of Adarlan there I remembered.

She was serving her time at the salt mines of Endovier. She has been charged and was sentenced to work there because of her crimes.

Price Dorian, the king's son, wanted her to be his champion. She will have to fight other champions, and if she wins, she gets her freedom. If she doesn't, she either dies in the hands of her opponents.

But someone's been killing the champions. One by one, they are being eliminated. Will she be next? She has to find out who's doing it, before she becomes the victim.

The Good

1. Celaena was both on my good and bad list. What I liked most about her is the way she talks. She has a lot of spirit in her. She wasn't boring at all. She was feisty. And I find her internal musings amusing... at least on the first part of the book. What happens later was a different story.

2. The supposed superb plot. Like I said initially, the elements that supposed to have made this book spectacular. The assassins. The magic. The prince. The princess. The killings. The challenge. The death. The reward. All of it was appealing. It made me want to read it. Too bad, it wasn't executed well enough for me.

THE BAD

I would have to say that when I say bad, it wasn't terrible okay? There were some that I couldn't stomach, like Celaena's perfection, but that's about it I guess.

1. Celaena's PERFECTION! I hated it. It was like she could do no wrong. She was the epitome of faultlessness. She was beautiful, charming, fierce, graceful, smart... and a reader... she was good at fighting. she was good at stealing. she was good at killing people. What else? I don't think there was ever a mention of her fault at all... except maybe her overconfidence, but that's just it. Too perfect to be true. There is no one, as perfect as she is. And that was a deal breaker for me. YEP. SHE'S DEFINIETLY A MARY SUE.

2. The writing style. I've always been a first person type of reader. I think I could have connected to this book better if it was in the first person. I feel disconnected to the wholes story because of the various shifts on the POV on the third person... it didn't work for me. I feel that I could have know her better and all the characters better if it was on the first person. Characterization for me was a little shallow. We don't know much about them at all. The author told us what they were like, she didn't really show us that. Sorry. Let me correct myself. There was two characters that I got to know and liked a little bit: Nehemia and Chaol. I feel that they were the only three dimensional character in the entire book. Dorian would have been good, but he was like paper, you only see the outside, not really the inside of who he is. The king. We only know him as that.. not really anything else aside from the fact that he was the king and that he was ruthless and all that jazz.

3. STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE. It didn't work. I didn't like the love triangle at all. I could be forgiving for triangles that make sense, but this didn't.

It could have just been Chaol. I like his character since the first time he was introduce. There could have been a good chemistry between Celaena and him, but unfortunately, I didn't get that far. I couldn't get that far even if I tried. I think the author was trying to make the story a little bit more complex by adding that love triangle. For me, it ruined it. This book, could do without the romance part. I think I would have appreciated it better if there as no romance at all. I can't believe I'm saying this. I love romance in my books, but it does not work for this one. No. No. No. I would have wanted to see a lot of the Celaena's badassery, her fierceness, her skills in killing peopl (that must sounded bad, but I wanted to read about it)... But instead we see her twirling around in dresses, enjoying every bit of lying in a soft bed, eating candies... LOL. Uhhhm.. No. Totally another bad.

4. This was not high fantasy. For fans of Game of Thrones and the Hunger Games? Give me a fucking break. There's none of that on here. Just because the setting of a book is not in the real world, doesn't make it a fantasy novel. It just doesn't.

5. Superficial story building. Like the characters, I feel that the story building wasn't too developed. The concept was fantastic, but execution not really. I didn't see much of the stuff I wanted to see, or what this book promised to show it's readers. Probably, it's just me, because a lot of people seem to see it.

6. Originality. I've read the review of the author of Poison Study , and she did confirm that there were a lot of similarities. She did admit as well that there were differences.

FINAL RAMBLINGS

I read Lord of the Rings and the first book of The Game of Thrones so... I had high expectations for this book being labeled as a High Fantasy. I didn't see the high fantasy part.

I don't think I've read any high fantasy books for YA so I thought this would be a good start. If you guys could recommend me some books that you think I might like, please do that below...

I cannot lie and say that I loved this book just like everyone. This book was supposed to have a kickass assassin, but we get a girly girl who loves frilly dresses. Where was all the gore and death and all that? If book was about an assassin... What does assassins do? They kill people! Where was that? It's nowhere to be found.

I so want to like this book. You guys have no idea how much I want to like it. It wasn't bad, just what I was expecting it too be.

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