Booktubeathon: Update 2 & Mini-Review

JUST FINISHED: A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

Wow. What to say about this? I’m actually a little bit speechless (not literally, of course). This is a retelling of Beauty & the Beast, a traditional fairytale originally recorded by the French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, and (probably most famously) retold by Disney. In Maas’ version, however, “Beauty” is a human called Feyre, who’s become a hunter in order to support her impoverished father and sisters; and the beast, Tamlin (presumably named after the Tam Lin who appears in Scottish folklore), is actually a faerie. When Feyre kills a faerie, thinking that it’s a wolf, she must pay for his life with her own – but instead of killing her, Tamlin takes her away to live with him in the faerie kingdom of Prythian, where nothing is as it seems.

I’ve read quite a few Beauty & the Beast retellings, but this one definitely stands out from the crowd, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, there’s a lot of political intrigue going on in Prythian beyond the curse that Tamlin and his household are (naturally) under, and it was really fascinating. Secondly, most retellings of this fairytale focus solely on the characters of Beauty & the Beast, but there is a whole host of compelling characters in A Court of Thorns & Roses. My particular favourites were probably Lucien and Rhysand, but Feyre was a really great, strong lead, and Tamlin made for an incredibly sweet love interest.

Obviously, I couldn’t help comparing this to Sarah J. Maas’ other books a little bit, and I didn’t like A Court of Thorns & Roses quite as much as I did the Throne of Glass series, but I definitely have high hopes for the rest of the trilogy. Here’s what I’m most hoping for from the sequel: Further exploration of the different faerie courts; more of Nesta and the rest of Feyre’s family; more about Hybern; and hopefully no love triangles!

CURRENT READATHON STATUS: Debating what to read next.

Books Completed: 2
Pages Read: 612
Challenges Completed: 4

Edit (30/12/2016): Changed rating from 4/5 to 3/5.

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