'Throne of Glass' by Sarah Maas

Throne of Glass is about an 18 year old girl who is an assassin. To win her freedom, she must win a duel against another assassin. While all this is happening, there are strange murders occurring throughout the castle. The girl, while preparing for the duel and other tests, investigates these strange murders with help from an unexpected friend.

I recently finished the Throne of Glass (book one). There are so many things to say about this book. First, the character names: When I first started reading it, I thought the main female character's name was "normal." It was different, sure, but it didn't give me any associations to anything. Dorian—on the other hand—his name itself reminded me of Dorian from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray,and not only did the first name remind me of that, but his last name, too. It's like Maas took two main characters from Wilde's novel and put their names together to create a character.

Other than the strange names, the plot was a little weird. So much was happening all at once. The main girl was trying to do these "tests" that were procured by the king with the other assassins, meanwhile some creature was killing the assassins one by one. Then there was also a love triangle going on. There was just so much in such a short book.

Okay, in all fairness, the book wasn't that short, but it did seem short due to all the stuff Maas was trying to throw in, all in just the first book.

The character development was well done. I didn't think the main character would actually have a heart. I pictured her as a cold, ruthless person, but it actually turns out she's your average 18-year-old girl, aside from, well, her past struggles, kills, and hardships. There were two other women who played big roles in the book, both of which you believe to be good at first, but then as the story progresses, you notice the micro expressions. In this case, the subtle hints Maas throws in about these characters get you second guessing yourself.

There were plot twists, but they weren't as big as I thought they would be. Most were expected or very cliche. However, Maas did do a well enough job to keep me glued to the book, and at times not want to put it down.

I do have to say though, the book writing wise was indeed poorly written, in the sense that the writing style could have been better. There were no real tough words, the reading level was low for someone like me who's 18 and reads a heck of a lot. The reading wasn't challenging and the way the chapters were broken up was a little bothering. When there was something super important, the chapter would be maybe a maximum of four pages, but when it wasn't that important, it would tend to be longer. There were scenes in the book that could have been really drawn out, but instead Maas shortens them up quickly, not letting the readers really absorb it. JK Rowling did the same thing in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The other books built up to this epic battle, but instead we got just a few minutes of it when it should have lasted hours.

All in all, without spoiling so much of the book, I would give this four out of five stars, simply due to some of its flaws. It is a definite recommend for someone looking into fantasy and assassins or a different kind of read.

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Stay tuned for book review #2—this will not be the sequel to Throne of Glass, but a different book entirely!