Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsITS A PRICKLY PROBLEM ...
Reviewed in Australia on 13 February 2016
Book one of this much lauded YA Fantasy series is, to put it mildly, an extraordinary reading experience. It must be said, however, that ACOTAR starts off relatively slowly. The reader is introduced to the book’s principal character - Feyre - who is a huntress who kills for her own survival and that of her family. Her father is a broken man. Crippled, both physically, financially, and metaphorically. Her mother died when she was younger. He sisters are two unloving, and facetious twats. Her brothers are something our heroine (and the story) were not blessed with.
Fate brings Fayre and a beautiful, fully grown wolf together in the sunlight dappled reaches of the nearby Forest. Destiny steps forth to convince Fayre to kill the wolf. She does so, and her life is never the same again. For the wolf she killed was anything but. Fayre is captured for the kill and punishment is either instant death, or lifelong banishment into the enemy’s kingdom. She chooses the latter to save her family, and this is where the book’s true nature takes form and steals the reader’s heart.
For this is where we meet Tamlin, and Lucien. The sworn and hated enemies who aren’t. It is easy to detest them both, but read on, and your feelings toward them will soften. Moments of breathtaking excitement and beauty follow. Chapter after chapter, after chapter, feature cliffhangers and profound plot twists, that quite literally, take your breath away, and make it impossible for the reader to put the book down. A chain of truly stupendous OMG moments leave the reader in tatters when they realise they must put the book down eventually to rejoin society. Chapter thirteen is where the book finds it’s street cred from a fantasy perspective. And chapter eighteen is a good way for the reader to determine if they are still human, and if they still have a heart than can be broken.
This book is structured, and written beautifully. Pacing is perfect, too. A harsh critic would give it four stars and say, 'its only book one of a trilogy, and you need to leave room for improvement...’ Well, I ain’t no harsh critic. This book is worth full marks, and if the rest are even better, then no doubt the world will get to hear of it. ACOTAR is the first Sarah J Maas book that i have picked up and it is truly gorgeous in just about every way imaginable. My good fortune lies in the fact that book two is less than three months away. That gives me time to read this one again (and again, and again) in readiness, or go and purchase the other titles in her world wide best selling catalog.
Either way, I can’t lose. It’s a prickly problem that I am delighted to find myself in a quandary over.
Yo to that.