Sometimes I love to read books that are easy going, nothing high brow, the equivalent of a Big Mac for the brain. I’m currently reading Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass for a number of reasons. I’m an English teacher and some of my kids have said they’re reading it, so I wanted to be able to talk to them about it. I’m also 3 months post partum and when I was pregnant I bought the series thinking it’d be something that would keep me reading but not take too much brain power. I’m almost finished the first book, Throne of Glass, and honestly don’t know how it was published as is. It feels like it needs at least one more redraft to make it even readable, not even good. None of the characters have distinct personalities, the dialogue is so unrealistic and awkward, the action is slow, to name a few issues I have with it. It’s shockingly bad. In a time when the majority of the kids I teach don’t read for enjoyment at all, I’m glad they’re reading something, but this is honestly so poor I wonder are they even better off? I will finish this book, just because I hate to leave a book unfinished, but will definitely be DNFing the series. It’s a chore to pick the thing up to read, I’m looking forward to getting it finished and getting stuck into something decent.
by Pineapple_onthefloor
18 Comments
Time for the daily “dae SJM bad???” Post!
math. sales are directly proportional to marketing dollars while inversely proportional to quality.
Imo all of her series start off really slow but pick up. I’ve never thought she was that great of a writer, but she’s an excellent story teller, if that makes sense. I loved, loved, loved, the characters in this series. But a lot of her writing style feels very immature to me.
Keep in mind the early books of TOG were written in her teenage years. Considering that, I’d say she did a pretty damn good job.
because people have different opinions and not everything is for everyone. hope this helps
I must be getting old, because that’s my reaction to about 80% of popular books published these days. And I’m not even talking about self-published stuff.
This is one where even fans usually acknowledge that the first two books are…rough and the third is the pivot point. (Note: I do think it’s ridiculous to tell someone to read to three books because it gets better then. We don’t tell people to watch two bad seasons of a show because the third will be better.)
That said to answer “how did this get published,” SJM went into querying with a completed manuscript that went WAY further than the end of ToG the book, so her agent, editor, and publisher had a fuller scope of what the story would end up being over the course of the series. Fun fact, it went VERY differently than the ToG series ended up going. She was a Fictionpress author so back in the day you could read the entire original story online for free.
This is how I felt when I read Fourth Wing. I feel the “let people enjoy things” mindset has lowered a lot of people’s standards.
Should change the name of this sub to gatekeepingbooks. It’s okay to not enjoy something that others do, no need to announce it to the whole world.
Twilight and 50 Shades Of Gray were two of the most popular books in the last couple decades. Popular does not equal good.
I’m indifferent to Mass. I liked her before she became Uber popular, but I’m not beating myself up to get her books on day 1. Throne of Glass is pure fluff. I can think of worse books to read, and many that are far better. The series does pick up, but it’s not groundbreaking
I hate to say this, but it’s very much a product of its time. YA fantasy (non-dystopian) marketed specifically for girls was in its infant stages in 2012 and this book really did feel different at the time from what was available. Additionally, this was a draft that evolved from what was basically a Wattpad story (FictionPress, but still). Also, it’s a debut novel from a 25-year-old girl. She did have a significant improvement between book 1 and 2 FWIW— Crown of Midnight is, in my opinion, a very strong YA fantasy novel. Same with Heir of Fire.
I read a few of her books from ACOTAR series.. some of it was ok, most of it wasn’t so great. Maybe throne of glass is worse? What books do you like?
This has been on my list of “maybes” for a long time, but after your review I think I’ll pass. Not everything has to be high literature and I’ll read anything as long as it’s entertaining, but the one thing I can’t forgive is bad writing, bad character work, bad dialogue. It just makes me irrationally angry, especially when something like that sells like hotcakes and gets praised to the moon and back.
That one is not great. She wrote it as a teen. Each book gets progressively better.
She wrote it when she was 16 tho. The series really develops over time.
You are for sure an English teacher. If it isn’t a book that has had years to be over analyzed it must be crap because no one has come up with a bunch of nonsense allegories. Numerous authors have said that the interpretations people have come up with is wrong. Honestly high school English teachers might be the worst judges of writing. Go back to Lord of the Files.
SJM started writing Throne of Glass when she was 16 years old. I would picture it more as a project that your students are working on.
I’ve read all three of her series. IMO, Throne of Glass DEFINITELY had a youthful flair to the writing and lacked maturity and experience. But the series evolved with her skill as a writer and I thought the series was fantastic by book 4. Books 1 and 2 are “meh” to me like the way Harry Potter books 1 and 2 are. Book 3 was a big shift in characters and plot. Book 4 and onwards feels like a whole new series.
I think she’s fantastic at world building and she writes amazing ensemble casts where you really root for the different individuals as much as the main character. Is it fine literature? No. But it’s fun and I loved using my imagination while reading it.
yeeees, I remember starting to read it, expecting to love it to bits (considering all the reviews and the rating) but couldn’t even get to the half, it was so bad, first of all, I didn’t like the writing. It was something that I might have liked if the idea had been picked by another (much better) writer. So it’s a shame for me, I could have enjoyed reading a bunch of books.