Hey guys, so if you know me or have read any of my previous posts you may have gathered that I’m not the biggest fan of Sarah J Maas, I’m not one to constantly speak ill of someones work and not justify my reasons why, so I thought I’d make this post. DISCLAIMER: I’m really sarcastic and awful when I’m talking about something I dislike, please don’t take offence to this, its just the way I am, if you love Sarah, good for you! I’m glad your experience with her novels has worked out better than mine did, everything i discuss in this post is simply an opinion. Now lets get in to the fun stuff.
Just a heads up: I have not read the Court of blah and blah series, so whenever I bring that up, it’s because I’ve found some info online.
Problem number one with SJM is the major turn the Throne of Glass series took, listen up, authors YOU CANNOT CHANGE EVERYTHING IN YOUR BOOK SERIES AND COMPLETELY CHANGE IT AND THEN STILL EXPECT PEOPLE TO LIKE IT. oKAY? Like, I’m sorry but does anyone else look back on when it was Celeana, (not Aelin, Fireheart and whatever other crap we call her now) Dorian, Chaol and that Kaltain bitch or whatever her name was? THAT WAS GOOD, Celeana’s character? Good. The love triangle? Surprisingly good. This girl *points at face*? Happy with her new book series.
And then Aelin happened??????? From Heir of Fire//Queen of Shadows the series turned into a new series, everything else that happened? Irrelevant. SJM made a amazingly idiotic moove and changed all the things that gave her a successful series, great job, reeeeeeeealy great job.
- Once Celeana was revealed to be ~Aelin~ she just completely changed, she went from badass assassin who was pretty useless, but had morals to some crazy bitch who had zero clue what she was doing yet still thought she could be a Queen? Nope, you’re just a twat, go and write in your diary about how perfect Rowan the fae male is and never speak or do anything again
- Rowan, there is so much to say, so I decided to just throw my two cents in on some quotes:
“Gods, he was brilliant. Cunning and wicked and brilliant. Even when he beat the hell out of her. Every. Damn. Day.” (Heir of Fire)
uhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmm…. what? This bitch (Aelin, Fireheart, bitch queen etc) was literally pining over him while he PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED HER. This is what teenagers are viewing as goals, thanks SJM, great thing to show impressionable teens.
“It turned out that the ‘submission’ part of a blood oath was something Rowan liked to interpret as it suited him. […] He bossed Celaena around even more- seeming to believe that now he was a part of her court, it entitled him to certain nonnegotiable rights regarding her safety, her movement, and her plans.”
Ahhh there’s nothing like a shop between a controlling, abusive, possessive man and an ‘independent’ woman being shown as desirable.
AND DO NOT EVEN TRY AND PULL THE ‘he’s fae, thats how they are’ BS with me, I’ve read a lot of books with fae, and they aren’t all as terrible as Rowan *cough* THE CRUEL PRINCE BY HOLLY BLACK *cough*, also, what the triggered Rowan stans seem to be forgetting is that, this is FANTASY, SJM could do whatever she wanted, but she didn’t, she thought this nasty relationship was cuuuuute.
- Literally every character in this book ignores the fact that Aelin is a dumbass bitch, the only person to ever question her was my boiiiii Aedion, and even he took it back, like, i’m perfectly okay with a bitchy character who is pretty cruel and makes some pretty stupid decisions, I do not, however, like it when everyone still worships said character and acts like there is nothing wrong with them
- The character assassination of Dorian will never be forgotten. ‘Nuff said.
- Also what is with the 2643549651965327 relationships? This woman is obsessed.
ONE MORE THING, SJM HAS THIS THING WHERE SHE WON’T LET READERS MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS REGARDING THEIR OPINIONS, YOU DON’T LIKE ROWAN? SHAME, SHE JUST MADE THE OTHER LOVE INTERESTS A) A DOUCHE B) UNAVAILABLE. IT’S LIKE SHES JUST SHOVING MORE AND MORE ROWAN INTO MY THROAT AND I HATE IT. *deep breath* But anyways, lets move on.
- In every book, there is a point where we all think everything is about to go wrong, And at the end of every book, the bitch queen had a plan. Sarah, sweetie, it’s getting old.
- She just recycles content from her other books, there are a ton of examples online, SJM can’t write more than one book otherwise she plagiarises her own work, that is so lazy.
- She knows about six words: ‘growled’ ‘snarled’ ‘gods’ ‘velvet’ ‘steel’ and ‘fire’, I’m sick of hearing them.
- Her writing is decent fanfiction at BEST
- SJM just changes her mind on where her books are going and makes awful, and very obvious attempts to ‘seamlessly’ cover this up and its awful
Okaaay so I’m sorry if this post is a mess but I’m sick of SJM fans trying to convert me, its not gonna happen, and at the end of the day Sarah has my money and I have like 8 crap books, so I’m allowed to be a tad harsh. Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear what you think! Talk to you next time, when I (hopefully) wont be as mad 🙂
Between the pages 
I am honestly so upset with the Throne of Glass series. I’m currently in the middle of Heir of Fire and it’s such a struggle to get through because it’s nothing like the first two books. I loved the start to the series but now half of the Celaena scenes are just very problematic Rowan descriptions and that’s literally all I can focus on. If that’s how the rest of the series is going to be though… yikes
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I completely agree with you!! HoF is where most people fall out of love w the series and it only ever gets worse tbh, Empire of Stormas made me so angry I’ll probably do a rant review on it, SJM is only ever writing about how gorgeous Rowan is and I’m so done with it 😴 Thanks for reading ❤️
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**Empire of Storms
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I honestly completely disagree with you but I think everyone has their own opinions
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I loved this series so much, but I only read the first two books (and the prequel) and didn’t have a chance to get the rest so I just kind of forgot about them. I’ve been meaning to catch up, but I’ve been so much anger directed toward the author. This explains it really well and I think I’ll shelf the idea of getting the rest of the series. Just one question: what about Manon?
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I loved Manon a lot but in Empire of Storms she was ruined for me too, she was a great chance for a lesbian//bi character and I really shipped her w another character (literally everyone did) but SJM put her in a completely random relationship and ruined both of the people’s characters for me 🙄🙄 honestly I think you’re far better off spending your time reading better and more enjoyable books, thank you so much for reading and leaving a comment ❤️❤️
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Thank you for explaining what happened to the series so I don’t end up wasting those hours! Manon’s fate is heartbreaking to hear. I’ll just have to find my witchy goodness elsewhere.
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Yes!! If you want a good female mc, The Cruel Prince is definitely a good book, I’m glad I saved you some very painful hours of reading 😖❤️
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True. I liked The Cruel Prince. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t go downhill like Throne of Glass!
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She literally didn’t do anything LMAGSJSBDJDBDJDJDB y’all- gen z needs help
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literally im reading EoS rn and its so good I think ppl just don’t like her books and that’s completely okay but to call her problematic over it? that’s fucking stupid. Im apart of gen-z btw
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*lies on the floor laughing* oh my god you honestly slayed that, so I am very much in love with ToG and I prefer it to the Court blah blah series 😉 but I dunno, I see some of your points here. It’s been a while since I read the series, I need to do a reread. I do remember loving it when Celaena was revealed to be Alein though xD Yet, I am not a Rowan fan *scowls* my heart was set on Dorian and Celeana
My mum had read all of ToG that are currently out and loved them, she also read Cruel Prince by Holly Black (I’ve not read it yet) but she didn’t like it at all which I found super interesting. I always find it interesting seeing other people’s views. Loved this post tho! Even tho I love her books 😉
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Aww thank you so much!! Honestly I think this post is such a mess because I can never type as fast as I’m thinking of things + I made the most desperate attempt at putting in subheadings 😂 I didn’t completely despise the series and I won’t pretend I never enjoyed it but there was A LOT of problems that I can’t pretend to ignore😬😬
I adored the Cruel Prince and I really thought I’d hate it (which may have made me like it more) I just thing the writing + execution were so much better (for me at least).
Thanks for not telling me I’m stupid and a butthurt reader like the majority of people I’ve said this to have 😂😂 I’m glad you enjoyed her books more than I did ❤️
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AMEN GIRL
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Considering I’ve enjoyed all her book, I can still see where you’re coming from. Aelin’s story did sort of happen very quickly I agree, but I’d figured out she was the lost princess they were hanging on about in book one, so I do think it was foreshadowed quite a bit in some ways!
But, not sure how you can recommend cruel prince when you can still level the criticism at it that it has two examples of abusive relationships: it starts with a jealous ex and the love triangle is more abuse and pain. What I’d say more worrying with that is that at least Rowan doesn’t act or seem like a teenager, he is other. But, the fae is cruel prince act like teens, and are teens, so I’d potentially argue it’s even worse that their relationships are so twisted!
Just my own thoughts on that comparison 🙂
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I see where you’re coming from but at the end of the book, none of the incredibly evil//abusive people are actually together in a relationship + I also just think that it’s a far better book if you want to read about fae, with better writing, pacing + less irritating characters (in my opinion) so that’s the main reason I’m recommending it over SJM. With the teenager thing, it’s like I said, both of these books are fantasy and the author chooses how their characters act. I completely get how parts of both books can be problematic, but I will always think The Cruel Prince is far better.
Thank you so much for reading and leaving your opinion, it’s really interesting to hear what other people think ❤️
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The first book of the Folk of the Air (the Cruel Prince) wasn’t my favorite, but I think the other two make up for it. The relationship in the first one is meant to be painful and awful, the guy isn’t a good guy and isn’t romanticized as being such, and honestly I love the just desserts he gets.
I haven’t read Sarah, I’ve heard about her being controversial and am just looking into why (I didn’t even know whether it was her writing or something she said), I just wanted to add in that the worst relationships don’t make it to the end of the series in Folk of the Air. The writing isn’t perfect, and though I enjoyed it and didn’t see any glaring problems outside if my druthers, it won’t get a full 5 stars from me. But the characters and their reasoning to their morally questionable decisions (aside from the ones that are just bad people) make sense.
This is more rambling than I meant, but I just finished Queen of Nothing 2 days ago and have a lot of feelings about it lol
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And I JUST looked at the dates these were posted 😅 I forget how long Sarah’s been publishing
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OMG SAME! I absolutely gave up on this series after I read The Dark Tower or whatever Chaol’s book was. I thought the book ended at Queen of Shadows and then basically after that everything changed!!
Gaaahhh I agree with you 100%. Sigh. I also read ACOTAR but DNF’d the second one because 1) Feyre fought for Tamlin and basically saved him then in the 2nd book, she’s like bitch please, I’m in love with someone else who basically slipped her a date rape drug! Gaaaahhh NOOOOOO!!!!! It basically meant that all her “love” in the first book was null? I don’t get it.
Great post by the way! And I used to be a fan. Now, I absolutely HATE it when anybody recs the ACOTAR or even gushes about it. baaaah
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Hey! Sorry for getting back to you late I wasn’t notified if your comment for some reason, honestly everyone seems to be in love with Sarah’s books and I really just don’t get it? I hate that she changed the entire ToG series and everyone just went with it and everyone also just accepts the horrible men she puts in her books, I’m so done with her, she is pushing toxic relationships to young people and having them think they are desirable, I’m not down with that.
Thank you so much for reading and I’m very glad you enjoyed, here’s to (hopefully) never being recommended the ACOTAR series again!
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Haven’t read the entire Throne of Glass series yet–truth be told, I found the first book to be pretty disappointing. The romance did not sit well with me: I was more interested in the plot and in figuring out why Caelena was so scared of Dorian’s dad. I DID read the entire A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy and while the world-building was absolutely mesmerizing, I hated everything else in that series. Trust me, you are not missing out on anything. I know you haven’t read that series yet but the MC in that series has serious issues and is far from being a strong, independent female character.
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woah if you were disappointed by book one I don’t know what you’d do after book three😂 I actually loved the romance in book one it was Rowan that killed this whole series for me. I’ve heard a lot about Feyre and I already despise the woman tbh although I’m annoyed I spent money buying the book I’m so glad I haven’t read it, I kind of think I might though, just to write a snarky review for it…😉
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Personally I enjoy Sarah J. Maas’ books but I love reading posts like this and seeing other people’s opinions!
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I’m glad your experience with her writing is better than mine! thanks for reading ❤
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great post, ive not read the books since Queen was released and I remmeber guessing everything that happened in that one and the characters did such a full 180 on what they werelike. im so scared to go back into the series but i wanna know what happens :c
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Totally get you, I remember being so disappointed in Queen, I honestly really don’t recommend continuing it’s literally just a ton of awful relationships + the same big reveal at the end of the book 🙄 thanks so much for reading 💖
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I enjoy reading SJM books and quite honestly, I liked the last books compared to the first ones in the ToG series. I JUST HATEEED CHAOL SO MUCH SO I DIDN’T LIKE BOOKS ONE AND TWO. I see where you’re getting at. I am aware of SJM’s flaws but seeing so much hate for her just doesn’t sit well with me??? Some people forget about the fact that SJM is a person with feelings and I’ve really seen so many hateful things directed at her which she doesn’t deserve.
I’m also sick of people shaming SJM fans for loving her books. Why can’t we just let people read what they enjoy?? (this is not directed at you. I’m just ranting here 😂)
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. I completely respect your opinions. Some books just don’t work for everyone 😊
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Please don’t take this as me disrespecting Sarah herself, I’m a very sarcastic person and I exaggerate a lot and it can be taken the wrong way, yes, I don’t enjoy her writing etc but I have a lot of respect for her as a successful author and mother. I would also never shame anyone for reading a book they enjoy, I’m so glad your experience with her novels was a lot better than mine, were complete opposites because I loved 1&2 and then it all went a bit downhill 😂
Thanks so much for reading and I hope my odd sense of humour hasn’t made you think I’m a horrible person x
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Don’t worry! I’m not angry at you. I respect your opinions and I absolutely know where you’re coming from 😊
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So first off, ToG is my favourite series but I will say… I don’t know whether using Cruel Prince is the best example of better Fae because some, if not most of the characters in there are also questionable, although there are definitely better Fae books. Uhhh… I preferred once the series became Aelin-y because I prefer the sort of story to what it was originally (although Sarah definitely made a really poor move with that, she could have put a little more effort in and made those two different series… and your points do really make sense and I see where you are come from (she also pulls a lot of bullsh*t that really annoys me- stereotypically attractive characters, lack of any good rep, and she only deals with some trauma well- for someone who writes alot of characters with sexual abuse in their backstory, she doesn’t write the recovery well- in her other series, one of the MCs spends 49 years being sexually abused and about 8 months later jumps into sex again (I think thats extremely unrealistic) so yea, objectively I can see that there are way too many issues with her writing, I just enjoy the characters and story way to much (honestly I just think I’m in it for the fandom at this point, …because i really love the fanfics and the art, I didn’t really like Crescent City and her book coming out in January doesn’t appeal to me, escpecially cause I think the ship are really not suited for one another). ‘yea idk where i went with this, and i just had about 3 realisations writing this but basically objectively her writing is bad but I’m a sucker and love it so much at the same time
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Thank you thank you THANK YOU.
You named everything I cannot stand. A good friend of mine and her sis in law are obsessed with SJM, so I got the audiobooks for TOG and all the parts, and I knew from book one I wasn’t gonna like it. But as a friend… I continued to listen, but roll my eyes ALL THE TIME. I don’t know how to tell my friend I am not a fan, so I stay quiet whilst they fangirl over it. ACOTAR? I read book 1 six years ago and that was enough. I wish I liked her stories, I do… But you said everything that’s wrong and it’s the truth.
It’s a no from me.
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I haven’t read the ToG series yet because I had very mixed feelings about it, but based on this review I feel like I won’t enjoy it very much. Going off what you said about Aelin and Rowan’s relationship, it sounds very toxic and abusive, and definitely not something that young teens should be reading. Especially ones who dream of one day finding their own husband or wife. Congrats, you just gave a bunch of (probably) good teenagers very bad ideas on what a healthy relationship is. Also, I never really knew why people hated SJM so much before, but now that you pointed it out, I understand where you’re coming from with the recycling the plot thing. Just the ACOTAR series, there are a lot of plot points that are repeated, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times “velvet-wrapped-steel” was referenced in that series. Like seriously, I know her naughty scenes are kind of famous, but can you at least use your imagination to find a better way to describe sex?
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thank you for reading! i totally agree with her sexy scenes too, they only ever make me cringe- you’d think that after writing them so much she’d figure out a better way to do it
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All your opinions are totally valid but I don’t think you should be trying to discourage other people reading her books. The momnets you stated are plucked way out of context and none of the relationships in throne of glass are as toxic as you’re leading people to believe. Obviously you’re entitled to your thoughts but encouraging people to not read the books based on a couple out of context lines doesn’t sit right with me. If you arejt willing to buy the books or support the author just go to the library!! Learn for yourself if you want to read the books 🙂
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people have free will, i have not contacted booksellers and asked them to stop selling the books, i have simply said that from my perspective, they are not worth the read, i’m sure my little post won’t destroy sarah’s income and career, the whole purpose of reviews is to offer your opinion and it is up to everyone if they want to read it
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I guess I just read the books mindlessly and enjoyed them, but I see the points you are making. I wouldn’t reread TOG series, but I did enjoy it when I read them.
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i think you completely misinterpreted Aelin and Rowan’s relationship. He was NOT abusive, it was TRAINING. The quote you used to describe just how “abusive” he is was totally twisted by your own viewpoint.
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hiya, i completely understood that the chunk of text was from a training scene, because I read the book. My point is that he was unnecessarily harsh and brutal and also verbally abused her throughout all of these scenes, things he didn’t need to do in order to teach her to fight, and so I still think he is abusive, the quote was not twisted, it was in the book
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Maas’ ignorance of how such things as ships, governments, weapons and armies work is glaringly obvious throughout her books. Even in a fantasy series, two people can’t easily remove the rudders from a whole fleet of enemy ships in one night, for example. Someone needs to fact check the “real world” part of her books before publication.
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Hello all, present day me here. This post, to this day gets so many views (if you could tell me where you guys were finding it I’d really appreciate it), and though I’m aware that this may not be the most well written post, I stand by everything that I have said, I have also since read the ACOTAR series, and my issues with recycled content, changing minds, poor writing and unhealthy relationships stands too with that series. As stated previously, everything in this post is my opinion, and if you saw my goodreads whils reading ACOFAS you would know that I do enjoy the books as trashy, garbage books. This post, and my critical opinions stem from the fact that SJM is treated like royalty and the greatest YA author where in reality, her books show that she isn’t and considering many young people read her books and see the relationships that she presents as ‘good’, it needs to be said. Nonetheless, I thank you for taking the time to read my incoherent ramblings from a few years ago, and if you’d like to have a chat about them, feel free to add my goodreads xx
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i just googled “sarah j maas controversy”
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I came across your blog post because I was looking for a new fantasy series and could not fathom why Sarah J Maas was being recommended so much. I started ACOTAR and couldn’t finish it ( I really tried through).
Tbh, “her writing is decent fanfiction at BEST” summed it up for me ( though I question the “decent” idk). I truly don’t understand why her work is so popular. If you want something lazy and self indulgent with some mild erotica, sure – but otherwise? 🤢
Thank you for ensuring I never pick up another book from this author again and I will also be steering clear of any authors being compared to her too. 😌
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I like the series but I did have a problem with the way Rysand treated fayre. I also had a major problem with how they just left Vernon to starve to death. It was just way out and in readable dumb with Maeve on the loose so I am writing a fan fic in Peranth where Vernon is back and the people of Peranth don’t want anything to do with Lorcan and they are practically on the verge of revolt. Only a group of impoverished deaf civilians agree because their homes were destroyed by the witch tower and they don’t have any where else to go and even they refer to him as an ‘ex monster’
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Damn, Sarika! It’s like you asked for my opinion before writing this 😄, I had to stop myself from cringing while reading the books, though i liked books 1 and 2( of TOG )
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