Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)

by Sarah J. Maas

[Ashley]

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

Okay I need to take a deep breath. Inside a paper bag. Because this book is like.. yeah. This was my single most highly anticipated novel of 2012. I'd been looking forward to it since.. well, maybe not that long compared to some people, but at least before the cover art was released! But the strange thing is, I wasn't worried about the hype. I never worried that the book wouldn't live up to it because I just knew it couldn't be anything short of amazing. Although, that didn't stop my hands from trembling when I turned to the first page! :D

Okay I'll start with Celaena because she is so deliciously and incredibly awesome! I want to be that woman! Imagine you're working as a slave, when all of a sudden some guards pull you out, throw a bag over your head, and start guiding you down various maze-like corridors and staircases. You'd probably be getting dizzy, feeling nauseous, wondering where the heck you're going, mentally going over all your actions to figure out what warranted this... not Celaena. She's too busy memorizing the building's layout, blindly familiarizing herself with her surroundings, and planning a million different escape/murder attempts... just in case. Yeah, she's freakin' awesome. She's so badass that she always has an escape plan. When she enters a room, the first thing she does is find all the exits, mentally calculate how long it would take to incapacitate the guards, and estimating the chance of success. Why the bloody hell can't I do that??

Celaena is a great character because she has such a broad personality. On the one hand she's a super kick-ass, deadly assassin. On the other hand, she's a hardened slave who has faced serious hardship and brutality. On yet another hand she's a sweet bubbly girl who lets a romantic thought slip through, but she never becomes one of the mindless shallow women of the court. I love how she's not just a kick-ass, but cold-hearted assassin. Celaena has depth. She has intense emotions, a past that haunts her, loves and passions... and she can kill you with her bare hands. Gentlemen, you should be swooning over her — doesn't she sound like the perfect woman??

In Throne of Glass we get to read from several different points of view, including: Celaena's, Captain Westfall's, Prince Dorian's, and Kaltain's. It was fabulous seeing through the eyes of all these characters — I actually didn't expect that before starting the book! By 'hearing' from all of them, we get to really understand all their personalities and motives. We have the colourful, slightly arrogant, but charming Prince Dorian; the silent and more withdrawn—but still mysteriously sexy—Captain Westfall; and we have Kaltain — the manipulative, scheming, "pretending to be your friend but actually hating your guts and plotting to humiliate/crush/expose you" woman of court.

This book was often compared to A Game of Thrones, but I wouldn't say that's really true, and I mean that in a positive way. I'm probably in the minority by saying this, but I don't like A Game of Thrones all that much. I love the overall story but find the books to be too slow, drawn out, way too descriptive, and have too many characters that I frankly don't give a shit about. NONE of this was the case in Throne of Glass! Throne of Glass was constantly on the move, with characters that you either adore or love to hate, had incredible world-building that will suck you in and make you want to live in that land, and every moment of reading was pure bliss.

I got completely wrapped up in this book's fascinating world-building, court intrigue, scheming, mystery, action, and romance. Throne of Glass has it all, and it combines all these elements brilliantly. I was never bored, I was never dreading reading from a certain character's point of view, and I got completely invested. I was invested in the characters, the plot, and every single event. When I wasn't reading, I was thinking about the book. I thought about it on my daily walks, in the shower, and before I went to bed. I mulled over the plot in my brain again and again. I made predictions, I thought about the characters, and I replayed my favourite parts of the story. I think I purposely drew out my reading because I wanted to savour and enjoy the experience. I was dreading the last few pages because I didn't want the book to end!

I'm so thrilled that Throne of Glass exceeded every single one of my expectations! I LOVE looking forward to a book and I love it when you finally read it and it goes above and beyond. There is no better feeling in the entire world!