A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas

The comparisons to Hunger Games, Cashore’s Graceling and other fantasy adventures will be numerous and apt for A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas.  In this new novel, Maas introduces us to Feyre, a young women who must hunt to feed her poverty-stricken father and two sisters. After killing a faerie disguised as a wolf, Feyre is taken off to the faerie kingdom of Prythian where a “Beauty and the Beast” story enfolds.  For me, that was the best part of the book, but I read all of the novel and could not put it down at the end.  There, the adventures and challenges become much darker and surprising loyalties appear as a “blight” attempts to destroy both faeries and humankind.

The romance aspects turn into a love story and while Feyre is not a virgin when she is taken to Pyrthian, there are some additional liaisons, plus several humiliating and demeaning scenes which served to contrast with her generally very strong character. Note that this novel is 432 pages long which may be daunting for the average high school reader, although fans of fantasy will certainly enjoy A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas. Her Throne of Glass series has been very popular, including a selection on the 2015 Abe Lincoln Award list. This new series is a somewhat more mature read, involving themes of faith, trust and resilience, and is filled with danger and images of scheming courtiers, promising to entertain as well.  Booklist says grades 10-12 in a starred review.