I read her books for the first time when I was only 14 years old. And this is important to note, because the A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass series were both released as Young Adult books (with Maas suggesting it herself). I was in the main demographic for these books when I read them, and the first time I read them, I loved them. And then I reread them shortly after and I learned just how bad it all was. Also, if you read one of these, you will have read them all because she cannot think of any different storyline than whatever basic plot she thought of once. Also, her writing is just shitty. That’s it. 

Crescent City series

I would say this was the worst in terms of writing and lack of creativity, but because it was aimed at an adult audience (and I only read book 1) I have nothing to critique as much. That being said, I still want to cover it. As is typical with all of her books, she uses “male and female” instead of man and woman. It is genuinely the creepiest thing I have ever read (we won’t even discuss the heteronormativity and anti-trans rhetoric so explicitly woven into her books, even with her “queer” characters because I do not have the time to cover it for all the books and I do not remember this well enough to discuss it). It feels like when you meet one of the guys who says “females” and it sets off alarm bells in my head that he is about to hurt me in some way. As per usual with her books, her main character is “badass and feminist” until a guy is there, and suddenly, it’s okay for men to say sexist things.

Throne of Glass series

The most “YA” of all her books (which does not mean much). It’s been a hot sec since I have read these, but I still have plenty to say about them. I am trying to keep these brief because A Court of Thorns and Roses best describes the issues with her books, in easier to spot detail than the rest of her books. However, that does not mean that there is nothing to say about these ones. In this book, we see the glorification of abuse. Our main character (who’s name changes in the book for a really dumb reason), ends up with a man who repeatedly threatened her with physical abuse, all while claiming to be a “badass woman” who “will not take any sexist bullshit.” It’s all incredibly preformative. But it’s worse here than in any adult book glorifying/denying abuse. It is one thing for a book intended for an audience who has the critical thinking skills/experience to understand that it glorifies and celebrates abusive relationships, and it can be a safe way to engage with the dark sides of human fantasy. However, this is a book marketed for children. Young Adult books are books approved for ages 12 and older. The primary audience is under the age of 18, specifically girls. These are incredibly vulnerable girls who are now reading about an abusive relationship that is being portrayed in an incredibly problematic way. On top of that, the only person of color in the first 4-5 books is used to simply push the main white character into an action, furthering the white savior trope, and killing her off rather quickly. There’s also not a single queer character in the (very large) cast of characters,

A Court of Thorns and Roses

This trilogy was the first one I read, and boy is it the worst. While it is also published and advertised as a YA book, remember ages 12-18 primarily, it has very very explicit scenes. This book makes the abuse and racism in the other books she wrote seem like nothing at all. I am going to try to condense it as quickly as I can because it is a lot. SPOILER WARNING!!

Book 1: A Court of Thorns and Roses

This one is based on Beauty and the Beast, and boy can you tell. Because it is literally the same plot, but it manages to make the already questionable plot (no the original Beauty and the Beast is not stockholm syndrome, there’s a wonderful essay about how it isn’t, written by professionals) worse. While Beast realizes “hey I am an asshole, maybe I should not be,” the love-interest gets worse and worse as time goes on. He SAs her, and then sends her back to her house. Then she comes back to save him, and literally dies doing so. Instead of trying to help her escape when he gets the opportunity to, he just tries to sleep with her, while she’s kinda drugged (which is a whole other can of worms because you don’t even know what’s about to happen, except you maybe do) and fails to even do that. On top of that, she is repeatedly drugged by another character throughout the second half of the book and forced to pretend to be his “wh***” as they say in the book (12+ remember) in exchange for saving her life. He also SAd her. He forces her to agree to live with him sometime, if they escape, in exchange for him helping her not die. So basically, both men are taking advantage of her, and yet she loves one and thinks the other one is kinda sexy. All still marketed to 12 year olds. An almost entirely white cast, with the exception of a couple extra characters (only one given a name) who, guess what, dies.

Books 2: A Court of Mist and Fury

This is where it gets even worse. Well, it actually gets better before it gets worse, but then it spirals so badly. This one is meant to be based on Hades and Persephone, by someone who clearly a) doesn’t realize Beauty and the Beast is a Hades and Persephone retelling already and b) doesn’t understand the nuance behind the stories (because there’s way more than one). Moving right along. The main heroine starts to realize that maybe her fiance is abusive, which is great. We love the attempt to break away from abusers and helping young people realize that people are abusing them and that they can escape. While she’s going down the aisle to marry him, the other guy comes in to force her to live with him to save her. Because nothing says heroic like forcing someone to live with you against their will. Then we start to get to know the other dude. You know, the one who forced her to “pretend” to be his sex slave (is it pretend if he treats her like that while she’s drugged i.e. SA) in exchange for saving her life, then forced her to live with him one week a month for the rest of eternity in exchange for giving her a fighting chance, and then explicitly SAs her. That one. Well turns out he is a radical feminist (because that’s totally true) who is a really good guy. Then she goes back and forth between these two jackasses before one of them (the first guy) traps her in the house against her will and she has a panic attack, allowing the second guy to send his friend to save her so she can live with them permanently. He then proceeds to ridicule her for not knowing to read (she was living in poverty) and call her weak (screams feminist to me). But he doesn’t force her to stay in the house against her will. Except for all those weeks where he forced her to stay in the house against her will because of a bargain she made when she was dying. Then he publically “plays with” her (ya know) but it’s okay because she’s sober now (still 12+). Then she finds out they’re mated (the most heteronormative bullshit out there because it’s all intended between “males and females” to make the best babies (seriously cannot make this shit up)) and that he knew since he met her the first time and just didn’t tell her. So she gets mad and he goes to apologize and while doing that excuses all of the times he sexually assaulted her because he was “saving her” from the horrors. You know, all those times he drugged her? It was for her. He’s a feminist like that. 

We finally get a total of 2 queer characters, one who is the negative stereotype of a bisexual, where he constantly wants to have threesomes and cheat on his partner. The other was clearly not originally intended to be a queer character, but she changed her mind when people started pointing out her lack of diversity. 

Intermixed with all of that fun plot, we are introduced to the “barbarians.” In this world, there are “high fae” and “lesser faeries” (yep that’s what they’re called). This one race of faeries are written to look like the high fae but our actually lesser faeries. The race is south asian coded characters and Maas represents them as treating women horribly and being incredibly old fashioned. The second guy is half lesser faerie and half high fae. And while his father is a jackass and white/high fae and his mother is not either of those things, as a whole Maas makes her racism quite clear.

I keep bringing up the fact that the intended audience is 12 and older because that is important. While glorifying abuse and excusing sexual assault is never okay, it is worse when the intended audience is young girls who cannot recognize it for what it is, problematic and dangerous, and they are being told through the media that this is okay behaviour. These books are genuinely disgusting, and this is only the first 2. There are 2 more books and a novella, and they just get worse and worse, all while being marketed to a young teen audience.