Leta’s Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

I picked up Throne of Glass for the first time the summer I moved to Kamloops and before I started university (second year of my degree). As with most eighteen-year-olds, I was at a weird place in my life and more willing to try new things, while still trying to cling to familiar things. So, the first thing I did after moving was get a library card.

The first book I got out of the library there was Throne of Glass. I found it by chance while browsing and was immediately drawn to the strong and graceful woman on the cover. And so I was pulled into the world of Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan’s Assassin. Unfortunately, not all of the books had been published yet, so I waited for the final few books for years and therefore, I read the series over the course of about four years. There were definitely things from the first book that I had forgotten by the time I read the seventh.

That brings us to 2022: I decided this was the year I would reread the series without long breaks. Since it’s been so long since I read them, I wanted to review them as I went – without spoilers, of course.

Throne of Glass reads quite a bit younger than the rest of Sarah J. Maas’s work, which makes sense as this was her debut novel, and she was quite young when she wrote it. For example, I’m reading House of Earth and Blood at the moment and her writing has come so far. I also found Celaena to be quite a bit more childish than I remember, but I know it gets better so it wasn’t hard to get through. I completely understand now why so many readers stop after the first book! If anything in this review makes it through to you, let it be this: read book two before you make a decision on continuing through all seven books. I promise you that Celaena grows up and the writing gains experience.

I enjoyed all of the tidbits of foreshadowing that I didn’t catch the first time around as well. I can see the seeds that Maas planted, but no one would have guessed when or where those seeds grew. I certainly didn’t.

The entire readthrough felt nostalgic to me, so it’s hard to find anything else critical about it. I enjoyed the plot and found it just as tension filled as before. I had forgotten how the ending played out and was surprised at what happened, which is always a great feeling when reading a novel!

I’m excited to continue on with Crown of Midnight. I realized when I finished Throne of Glass that I had merged the plots of books one and two together in my mind. I’m eager to see all those moments I expected in this book and haven’t seen yet. I’m also eager to see how Dorian and Chaol develop, as they are both solid but almost uncomplex characters in book one.

Check back in March for my review of Crown of Midnight! I might have to put spoiler warnings on them in order to make my reviews more in depth, but I’ll make the warnings very clear so don’t worry about stumbling onto it!