Okay. Let's get a few things straight.

1. I knew going in that this would be her weakest book. It's her debut, of course it is. That's fine! I expect a debut to have blind spots, that's standard for all authors. It doesn't mean I won't point out things I disliked or found lacking. I'm positive she already received this feedback in spades. It's nothing anyone hasn't already heard.

2. I AM having fun with the books, they ARE fun reads at the very least and sometimes a fun read is exactly what you want. Not everything has to be a Pulitzer prize winning masterpiece to have value. I'm not going to compare TOG to something like The Name of the Rose, that's insane, they have different goals.

3. Criticism is not the same as hating. Critiquing a book is NOT hating on that book! It's pointing out weaknesses and offering suggestions for improvement. Hating is just being mean for no reason.

4. I know the context of her story - she was 16 when she wrote it, but 26 when it was finally published. It's okay and fair to hold her to the standard of a 26 year old and not a 16 year old when critiquing this book. She had 10 years to tidy up some things, I get to be critical of that.

5. I am going in FULLY blank slate. I don't know ANYTHING about the story or the throughline plot or the characters. I know literally nothing about TOG. I don't have the knowledge of the later books, I only have what I am reading right now to go off of and form opinions on. I am allowed to form my opinions based on what I do know and not what I do not.

OKAY! Now that that's out of the way, I want to reiterate that I am having fun! I think because I had so many people tell me the story was weak and kind of poorly written, I could just lean in and ignore all the spots that weren't great to just enjoy myself with the story. I actually feel like that's an advantage to me.

I've picked up this series to better understand what it is people find so alluring about TOG and why it's got such a devout following. I am actually really glad I've decided to go on this quest and figure it out because I think I have an idea why the writing is so connecting for people. I'm going to say something and either you'll get it or you won't, but if you do you'll clock it as a compliment:

In the early '00s to the mid '10s, there was a very specific style to fanfiction writing. I'd call it the Golden Age of Fanfiction. We absolutely devoured that style and those fanfics because they were so addictive and fun, not because we thought they were the next Shakespeare. Something about the style just resonated! SJM writes this book in that style. She captures the fanfiction style and turns it into original fiction, which is rarely done effectively, but she pulled it off. The writing feels like something a friend of mine wrote, which makes me feel more connected to the material and not just to the author. This is a compliment! I mean it in a positive light!

However, it also does mean that from a fiction writing perspective, the writing is pretty weak. Maas writes like she thinks a writer should write, not how SHE writes, if that makes sense. Which, duh, this is her debut novel and she was 16, she hasn't found her voice yet. Her dialogue is clunky, there's a lot of strange adjective choices that don't align with the tone of a sentence, but I want to focus on my biggest critique. There's so much telling that's in direct conflict with what she's showing that it's frustrating to read a character like Celaena.

Hear me out.

So far, not loving her. Let's get to why, though.

SJM constantly tells me Celaena is Adarlan's Assassin, the greatest assassin in the world, she is the best assassin in the empire, etc. but then she shows me that Celaena is:

• Regularly snuck up on (Playing the piano, anonymous sweets by her bed)

• Doesn't assess a room (REALLY assess a room--who's in it, where are they, what are they doing, etc.)

• Has poor impulse control (Loses her temper, ruled by anger, can't calm down, etc.)

• Isn't very stealthy (Phillippa straight says she's incredibly clumsy for an assassin, don't come for me)

• Fails to perceive pretty obvious interactions (Not noting Cain's ring, not connecting the murders, etc.)

• Doesn't adjust to the crowd she is with (Catty with other women at court, trading barbs with Kaltain, etc.)

• Has no grasp of human behavioral patterns (Chaol instructing her to stay in the middle of the pack, why wouldn't she both know that AND understand that before him?)

None of this is the behavior of the "world's greatest assassin". It also makes Celaena come across as undeservedly arrogant, incapable of self-reflection, and deeply incompetent at her job. I am overly critical of Celaena over Dorian or Chaol because Celaena is the FMC and both Dorian and Chaol are never positioned as "the greatest X" or "the world's best Y". If you're going to position a character as the greatest at something, they'd better back it up with their actions. She, unfortunately, does not and it makes her character unlikeable in a way I don't find fun or enjoy.

To give you an example, I love Fang Runin from The Poppy War so much. She is severely unlikeable and makes my blood boil, but I love her because she doesn't ever claim to be the best or strongest. She's just extremely angry and traumatized.

"Sarah, she's only 18." Yes, and it shows in her behavior. Again, my criticism stems from being told repeatedly how amazing she is while simultaneously seeing none of her actions match the claim. I'd be much warmer to Celaena if we never positioned her as "the world's greatest assassin". Even if we'd just called her Arobynn's heir apparent or something, I'd have taken a lot more of her in stride.

I also struggle with the perfect character trope thing. I know it's a story written when Maas was young and I'm in my 30s so I'm taking it with a grain of salt, but the trope is just exhausting to me. Unfortunately, Maas has two characters that suffer from perfect character syndrome - Celaena and Dorian. Both of them tell me all the time how beautiful they are and how gifted and perfect and flawless they are. There's nothing to grow from. There are no acknowledged flaws for them to contend with. So like... why do I care about them? They don't need me to root for them or care about them because they're perfect, so there's no risk to them not winning or getting what they want. It makes me bored as a reader to not feel like there's any stakes.

Chaol is literally just some guy. Like. I don't have a lot to say about him. He's pretty inoffensive because he's kinda a snore. He's my favorite so far in the series because he's not dramatic or showy or theatrical and doesn't internalize how hot and perfect he is all the time. Chaol wins the medal because he's just the least frustrating. That's not exactly a glowing review of the man.

"So why are you reading if you hate it so much?!"

The thing is I don't hate it! I have VALID CRITICISM of the characters based on their behavior and what information I possess right now in the first book because that is all I know about them for now. Yes they may change and grow on me, I expect them to! If they don't, that's worrisome! But for now as it stands with my only exposure to them being this? That's how I feel.

Maas does have that sparkle to her writing that feels really unformed in this book. It's her first one in a seven book series that's her debut novel, so the fact of the matter is she IS unformed at this point in her new career! I can say that about the writing because it's true! But I want it to be very clear that I can absolutely see this electricity in her writing that hooks you and keeps you wanting to read more. I crushed the first book in less than two days. If I was hating it, I wouldn't have breezed through it like that.

The first book feels like reading my way through a CW show, for example. Which, again, is NOT meant as an insult. Capturing that addictive style and making me frustrated, but still want to keep reading and chew though the book is not easy to do. There's some magic to the writing that is hard to explain, but keeps me wanting more of it. I think that's actually really special to the book and makes me excited about the rest of the series because there is no option but to improve from here. If she already has the sparkle and just needs shaping, writing more will only make her shine.

The story itself feels a little messy and more like a device for romantic scenes or specific character scenes than a cohesive story at times. I think, however, that's because it was. That's alright, but it does show. For example, Chaol after the fourth violent murder tells Celaena "I hope this doesn't become a pattern." I sighed and had to take a second. The billiards scene with Dorian was a tough read, it felt very forced. There's not a lot of building chemistry between characters so every romantic interaction was a bit difficult for me to swallow and I found myself rushing to the end of them all because none of them together ever clicked for me. Celaena had more chemistry with Nehemia than Chaol or Dorian, I'm sorry.

My thoughts an opinions are solely based on this one book by itself, not the greater sum of SJM's career or other series or the later books in this one. I can only speak to this one story as I have experienced it right now. I am positive she improved from here and there's a reason for her success! I'm only analyzing this one singular book on its own, not the greater sum of its parts.

This is a price of admission book. That's the best way to explain it. To access the greater series that everyone loves, you pay the pound of flesh that is the first book in the series. Most people - including TOG megafans - have described the first two books for me as the price to pay so I can get to the part where it really becomes special. I am more than willing to pay that price. We pay it for male authors all the time and nobody says boo, we can pay it for female authors, too. There's a disproportionate expectation of perfection for women authors that we don't hold men to and I refuse to do that with SJM for this series. She gets to have a cost of admission just as much as every other beloved series has.

I do want to remark about my revisiting the weakness of this book before I stop yapping, though. Let me be super clear:

It's a seven book series. EVERY longer series has weak books that just fall flat. All of them. It's just a law of averages - seven books is a lot, they can't all be masterworks. If SJM has that set of weak books early on in her first two novels ever published? I think she's actually winning, here. It's not hating or mean or divisive to call a book or two in a long series like TOG weak or not well written, every long series suffers from that eventually no matter who the author is or what genre it's in. Containing a book or two that's weak just means SJM writes like any other author with long running series.

In conclusion, I don't feel particularly passionate or attached to the characters and I feel like the writing and plot fall apart sometimes. It always comes back together, however, and the writing style is effervescent in a way I think is really fun. I picked this up to understand the series and why people love it so much, not because I thought it was the next The Name of the Rose. Sometimes a book is just fun and this book, separate from the series as a greater whole, is just fun.

I like it, I see the appeal (especially if I were younger and close in age to YA readers), but I still have critique that I feel holds water and is reasonable. I'm in this knowing it's the price I pay to get to the books she wrote when she figured out her style. I actually enjoy knowing I get to watch SJM evolve from here and witness her trajectory change into a much stronger writer. TOG shows she clearly has whatever magic it is that makes for a widely appealing story and I am very excited to see how it ends up taking shape.