Tell Me Maas (Why isn't Everyone Reading Sarah J. Maas?)

I’m pretty new to the That’s Normal team, but I gotta say I’m pretty shocked that one of my favorite world builders, (is that an obnoxious term? Probably…) Sarah J. Maas hasn’t gotten more attention. She fits right in with the likes of Karen Marie Moning, Diana Gabaldon, and all those other badass-lady-writing authors that we cover here. So without further ado, here’s your primer to Ms. Maas.

She’ll Make You Feel Unaccomplished

While doing my research for this post, as this is a highly fact-based and investigative topic and every writer needs their sources, I found out that Sarah J. Maas is only 31. THIRTY-ONE!! She started writing the Throne of Glass series at the tender age of 16, while when I was 16 my main focus was learning every Fall Out Boy song so I could cement my status as that weird girl who mouths song lyrics on the bus. By age 31 she’s written 8 books, and a few novellas in between (side note, she’s also gorgeous and seems like someone you’d want to be friends with). And these aren’t just books, they’re veritable tomes that take place in worlds of her own creation with new species and countless characters. The whole thing makes me feel like a lazy slob, especially factoring in that book that I pretended to write that one time that never made it past the first sentence.

So if you’re someone who wants to get started on one of Sarah’s eight books, it’s a little overwhelming. Where should you start?

Throne of Glass

I’m sure I’ll be thrown across the coals by die-hard Sarah J. Maas fans for saying it, but I like A Court of Thorns and Roses better than Throne of Glass. So why am I recommending you start with Throne of Glass? Well, because I’m a traditionalist and I think a reader should typically start with an author’s first work. And it’s a better introduction to the type of world that Sarah J. Maas builds. The Throne of Glass series is complicated. It’s one of those series that requires a complete re-read before starting each new addition. I don’t want to give away much of the plot, but it centers around Celaena Sardothian, an assassin turned slave given an opportunity to fight for her freedom. The catch is she has to live in the pocket of a prince she hates and play by his court’s rules. Love triangles, fight scenes, and mysterious deaths ensue.

Celaena can be a little…harsh, shall we say, and going by some Goodreads reviews, a lot of people simply hated her. While Celaena isn’t my favorite lead of all time, I think the plot and the world it’s written in make this series well worth the read. Celaena becomes a little more likable and less entitled as the series goes on and she finds out that just claiming you’re the best assassin of all time doesn’t actually make it so. She gets handed her ass a couple times and I think it only benefits her. Everyone loves a flawed character, don’t they? So if you’re someone who read the first book and gave up on it, consider giving the series another chance. Maas’s take on magic and faeries is one of my favorites. This is coming from someone who thinks seelies and unseelies are ridiculous so interpret that as you will.

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A Court of Thorns and Roses

Throne of Glass is a bit of an introduction to Maas’s take on faeries, but A Court of Thorns and Roses fully lives in that world.

I’m not a person that hates books often and my usual response is to get sucked into a series no matter what, but I’m going to put this series in my top five. Which is a hard thing for me to do considering all the good options out there. So if you start Throne of Glass, throw it down swearing at me for making you read this nonsense, but you still like the idea of a book about a nasty woman dealing with some faery shit, pick up A Court of Thorns and Roses instead.

Feyre is a little more show-don’t-tell than Celaena, which makes her much more tolerable to read about. And I know I sound like a very obvious broken record here, but again, this story gets better with each book. Love interests change, and characters grow – the people most readers don’t like in the first book prove to be purposefully unlikable. I don’t want to dissuade anyone from reading or give any unfounded expectations, but this series is supposedly a retelling of Beauty and the Beast – only in the loosest sense, and only for the first book. I didn’t pick up on it until after I finished the book and read some reviews on Goodreads, which is why I hesitate to even mention it. It doesn’t serve the reader to even have that as a thought in your mind while reading. It’s like reading Fifty Shades of Grey and getting nitpicky because that’s not how it happened in Twilight. It really doesn’t matter and will only ruin your experience if you think too hard on it.

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Is This Too Maas* For Me?

Still haven’t decided if you’re interested or not? If you fall into any of the categories below, I say give Maas a shot:

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You like a book with a strong female lead.
You like faeries, witches, strange creatures or anything of that ilk.
You like a rough sex scene every once in awhile.
You’re into having your shipping fantasies rewarded.
You’re not turned off by a man shape-shifting in bed.
You’ve fantasized about wielding a sword with a cool name.
You want to feel sad about the fact that she wrote an entire book when she was 16 and you still haven’t done anything with your life.
You can’t stand these characters and want to hate read.
You like books with character names that you have no idea how to pronounce so you go with your own interpretation (apparently it’s Ree-sand, not Ry-sand like I’ve been saying…too late for me. This is Dobby vs Doby all over again).
You have a lot of time to kill and want to spend it reading complicated books only to have to wait two years for the next one to come out and then have no idea what’s happening when you start to read again.
You want to read it before the TV version comes out. Apparently, Throne of Glass is coming to Hulu! No real timeline on it yet, but a studio and writers were announced in late 2016. Fingers crossed this actually happens!
Or if you just want the opportunity to argue with me in the comments section.