Throne of Glass

Alright, here we go.

Celaena, once an assassin, is now a slave in the kingdom of Adarlan. When the Crown Prince of Adarlan, Dorian, comes to collect her from the salt mines, though, he offers her a chance at freedom so long as she can beat 23 other criminals for a chance to be the King’s Champion.

This book wanted to be a lot more than it was. The relationships between Dorian and Celaena and Chaol and Celaena were…kind of annoying. She keeps having to remind herself that she hates the king, and therefore the prince and the captain of the guard, but the hot-cold thing gets old.

Also, the age differences bother me. Celaena’s supposed to be 18 in this book, and she has this weird relationship thing with Chaol, who’s like 25. I wouldn’t like it in our world, and I don’t like it in this world, because I don’t care how you were raise or what you’ve been through: 18 year olds always think they’re more mature than they really are. But you’re not.

IIRC, Celaena TURNS 18 in this book actually, which makes her relationship with Chaol that much more icky. Dorian is only a little better because I think he’s a year or two older than her AT THE MOST. I believe they’re the same age.

Anyway. For “Adarlan’s Best Assassin,” Celaena is very dumb. No wonder she was caught in the first place, Jesus. All these murders are happening around the castle, and it’s mentioned multiple times how this one guy is very off-putting and creepy and getting stronger with each death, but no one puts two and two together? I get that magic no longer exists, but it’s ridiculous. All of these characters are supposed to be ‘very smart,’ if Maas is to be believed.

There was a lot of focus on romance and the relationships between the characters more than the actual competition we were promised. I get that it’s a fantasy romance or whatever, but come on. I don’t care that she and Dorian are hanging out, I want to know how exactly she’s training for this damn competition.

I honestly think this is one of the most diverse Maas book I’ve read because holy shit! There is one straight up black character! We love Nehemia. I want a whole series (NOT written by Maas) for Nehemia. But also what I’m saying is that I’m tired of Maas books having a bunch of ‘golden’ or ‘tan’ characters, because that’s just dark white.

This book wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either? It was just meh. Since this is a reread, I know there’s better stuff in the future, but it’s tough slogging through all of this to get there.

Trigger warnings: violence, blood, death, slavery, death of parent, murder, vomit

⛈⛈🌧☁️☁️