Authors: Alicia Cole & Emma Johnston December Book of the Month - Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
“Libraries were full of ideas–perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.” Within a quote from her impressive and noteworthy fantasy novel, Throne of Glass, author Sarah J. Maas proudly embeds a respect and passion for reading within her lead character Celaena Sardothien, making the reader empathize with her immediately. The first book in an ongoing series, we found Throne of Glass especially unique and creative to read, and a very easy world to fall into. For these reasons, and many more, we wish to recommend it to you for the month of December! The story of the Throne of Glass begins in a salt mine in the fictional town of Endovier, where 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has been for a year, serving out hard labour as a result of her crimes. When visited by Crown Prince Dorian Havilliard of Adarlan, the last thing Celaena expects is to be offered freedom, although it comes with a price: she must compete in a gruelling competition to find the new royal assassin, acting as Dorian’s “champion”. Celaena agrees, although she knows she will face other thieves, assassins and warriors in the battle to serve the King of Adarlan for four years, and then be granted eternal freedom. Shortly after she arrives at the castle, and only a few challenges have commenced, things become a little more interesting as one of her fellow contestants turns up dead, shortly followed by another. With help from Prince Dorian, and her trainer, the Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall, Celaena aims to discover the killer of her fellow contestants before she becomes a victim herself, and as the novel progresses, she begins to discover a greater knowledge of herself, and her future destiny. One thing we really respected about the novel, and believe others will as well, was the immense depth of the characters. Unlike most novels, the main characters especially, in Throne of Glass are given detailed backstories, and distinct personalities, so much so that you feel as though you already know the characters when you read about them. Even when Sarah J. Maas deliberately makes a character’s background mysterious, you are still able to grow and admire them, she designs them in a way that you are still able to connect and sympathize with them even when they have something to hide. It makes the book especially riveting to slowly uncover a character’s history! As well, we enjoyed the novel due to its passionate and relatable heroine, Celaena. Although it seems odd we would refer to an assassin as relatable, Celaena Sardothien shares an unconditional love of reading, and well, food, that is particularly endearing. Although like all characters, she has some traits that are frustrating, her unwavering strength, passion, and independence throughout the story make her quite an amazing heroine. Although it was hard to find things that we did not like about the novel, as with every book there were a few aspects we had problems with. First of all, the novel is set in an older era in a time in a world different from ours. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does make it harder to connect with the setting as well as get grasp on how the world works as readers must figure out not only the plot, but the setting too. As well, it is never specified whether this world takes place within our own but in a different time period, or if it takes place within another world entirely, which can be frustrating for the reader to try to determine. Like most other novels, there were also some parts where the plot moved a little slow, and we felt that the story could have progressed at a better pace. All in all however, in regards to this novel, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives. In conclusion, we both really enjoyed reading Throne of Glass, not only for the plot but for the amazing and dynamic characters that Sarah J. Maas was able to create. The characters were so relatable, which we found very helpful, as at times it was difficult to relate to the world around them. We would suggest this book for readers who enjoy novels with strong female leads as well as those who love fantasy novels and the worlds created within them. We hope you enjoy this book as much as we did. Happy reading!
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