This summer, I, like thousands of others, jumped on a bandwagon—I read the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas. ACOTAR infamously stands for A Court of Thorns and Roses, which is the title of the first book in the five-part series. I’m not going to lie—I did not have high hopes. Over the year, I had picked up and put down A Court of Thorns and Roses a handful of times. I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but I did not find any aspect of the novel intriguing. The series is in the fantasy genre which, when done right, can produce fantastic books filled with engaging worlds and endearing characters, or can come across as being rather immature. Initially, I had a difficult time getting through the first two chapters of A Court of Thorns and Roses and found the pace of the novel to be almost stagnant in nature. Fast forward to June, I found myself with a lot more downtime than I was used to and a desire to escape a lot of the thoughts in my head. While doom-scrolling on Instagram, I fell into the part of the algorithm in which thousands raved about ACOTAR and I figured “why not?”. This series is one of the few times that I’ll thank peer pressure for encouraging me to jump on a bandwagon. The novel did in fact pick up in pace and proved itself to be a bingeworthy summer read. By the end of July, I had read not only the first novel but had flown through A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Wings and Ruin, A Court of Frost and Starlight, and A Court of Silver Flames.
Out of the five novels in the series, I believe that A Court of Mist and Fury was by far the standout read—I finished the novel in less than three days; I literally could not put it down. With that said A Court of Frost and Starlight, although the shortest novel in the series, was the hardest to get through. It was supposed to be a lighthearted filler book between the rather gruesome events of A Court of Wings and Ruin and the heavier plotline of A Court of Silver Flames, however, I found it to be unfulfilling in comparison to its counterparts.
The series has been considered controversial due to the number of “spicy” scenes included, however, if you’re like me and into that sort of thing, then you’ll find these parts delightful. As for the actual plot and characters, I do think Sarah J. Maas created a breathtaking world for Feyre (the protagonist) and her readers to relish, and the dangers and conflicts present throughout the series were rather compelling. Without giving too much away, there were some characters that I felt were done a little dirty but these are truly such small complaints in the grand scheme of the overall story.
If you too have been pondering the question of whether the ACOTAR series is worth getting into, as a fellow once-doubter, I think if you give it one more chance, you just might come to love it as much as the rest of us.