Throne of Glass Review and Recap

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. If I could rave about one series for my entire life, it would be this. However, today we are not talking about the series as a whole but about the first book, which is adeptly titled Throne of Glass. Originally titled Queen of Glass, SJM released the initial draft, which started as a retelling of Cinderella, at 16 online before taking it down to publish traditionally, where it eventually evolved into the series we know and love today. There are multiple covers to these books — the traditional covers that you’ll find at the library and on Facebook marketplace for the big bucks, and the current Bloomsbury covers that you’ll find at Target. Just know that all of these covers refer to the same series. If this is your first time reading ToG, welcome to the best experience of your life. If it’s not your first time, welcome back to the best experience of your life. Throne of Glass is THE series I think everyone should read in their live. It’s full of action, adventure, friendship, love, duty, honor, power, and so so so much more. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this book gets five stars from me.

Who Should Read This Book…

Ummmmm… EVERYONE! (but no, seriously, Throne of Glass is like a necessary life experience)

Perfect if you like…

• Suspense
• Action
• Hero’s Journey
• A little bit of love triangle action
• Dash of mystery
• Fantasy
• Medieval

Non-Spoiler review

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Assassin. Captain. Prince. Renowned assassin Celaena Sardothien is plucked out of a year as a slave in the Salt Mines of Endovier to find her self fighting for her freedom in a glorified competition among killers and thieves. I first picked this book up after coming freshly off Jane Eyre and let me just say that it was a very quick 180. Nonetheless, I think this book has one of the best set of introductory chapters that I have ever read. You are very quickly introduced to the main character and her general tendencies and motives. In addition, I find that the worldbuilding comes at a very steady pace that is not exceedingly overwhelming as compared to some other fantasies. The plot moves at a steady pace and does not leave the reader wanting. There is a very good chance that I am bias in writing this review (as this is one of my favorite series) — but alas, I read this book in less than four days and instantly fell in love with the characters, which is ultimately what compelled me to continue on with the series. Overall, this book is a beautiful entrance into a beautiful series. There are no real ways to describe this book fully until you experience it for yourself. If you like badass fmcs — I’d like you to meet your new bestie Celaena. You’re in good hands my friend.

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SPOILER ZONE

Alright, my friends, welcome to my disheveled recap of the first book in the Throne of Glass series! This recap will be a summary of the events within the book, as well as some side commentary from yours truly. Whether you’re trying to remember plot points before diving into Crown of Midnight, or if you’re just curious what this book is about and don’t want to read it, I’ve got you. Seeing as this next section is an overall recap of the entire book, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD! However, I will not be making reference to events beyond book one. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED…

And BAM, we’re off! Celaena Sardothien, the notorious assassin of Adarlan, is dragged into a room before the prince after a year working as a slave. She is led about by Chaol Westfall, Captain of the Guard, and is given an offer to win her freedom. Crown Prince Dorian Havilliard offers Celaena a chance to compete among 23 other killers and thieves to become the King’s Champion, where she would serve the king for four years before going free. Seeing as her other option is to remain in Endovier and likely die due to its brutality, she travels with Chaol and Dorian to the glass castle in Rifthold to begin her journey.

Celaena is witty and calculated. Chaol keeps close watch over her, essentially acting as a personal bodyguard meant to keep her from causing trouble. But despite the threat she poses, Dorian finds himself intrigued by her. For the competition, she goes under the name Lillian Gordaina and pretends to be a simple jewel thief. The strategy is for no one in the competition to know who she actually is — Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan’s Assassin, trained since age eight by Arobynn Hamel, King of the Assassins himself.

A decent portion of the book is dedicated to Celaena’s training montage as she pushes herself through intense physical training to rebuild her strength (you know, after being practically starved for a year), all while verballing sparring with Chaol. She trains among her fellow champions and befriends Nox, and makes a quick enemy of the ugly brute Cain. As the competition starts, champions start to dwindle one by one and start to mysteriously turn up dead. While at the castle, Celaena befriends Princess Nehemia of Eyllwe (a nation to the south that has been resisting Adarlan’s conquering). The two ladies enjoy discussing books and how horrendous other people in the castle are (girl talk 101). Celaena has great respect and understanding for Nehemia because her own homeland, Terrasen, was invaded by the king of Adarlan 10 years prior, killing the royal family and destroying the country. Anyone suspected of rebellion, usually the people of Terrasen and Eyllwe, are shipped off to Endovier as punishment.

Another POV included in the book is that of Kaltain Rompier. Kaltain is a snotty lady of the court who is bound to the icky Duke Perrington, but really she longs only for Dorian and his crown. Kaltain will stop at nothing to get Celaena out of the way — especially when she begins to suspect that Dorian is falling in love with her. True enough, Dorian continues to seek out Celaena despite Chaol’s insistent warnings. The prince and assassin bond over their love of books and have this constant need to flirt and mess with one another. They get so close, in fact, that Dorian gets her a puppy (Fleetfoot) for Yulemas. The dynamic between Dorian and Celaena is my personal favorite aspect of this book because their personalities just meld together so well when it comes to dialogue.

Celaena uncovers a secret passage way behind an old tapestry in her room and begins to converse with the ghost of Elena — the long-dead first queen of Adarlan. Elena tells Celaena that she must win the competition and defeat the ‘great evil’ within the castle. Celaena finds this utterly confusing but begins to suspect that this ‘great evil’ is linked to the mauled bodies of champions that keep turning up. Chaol, at his last straw, ropes Celaena into helping him solve the case (well, kinda, he just takes her to examine the bodies and asks for her opinion).

Celaena begins to suspect Nehemia of being the cause of the violence because of Nehemia’s use of the mysterious Wyrdmarks. These Wyrdmarks are the same creepy marks and lettering that are placed around the disturbing black clocktower, beside the dead champion bodies, and what Celaena finds painted under her bed. Upon finding these markings in her room, Celaena begins to fear she is the next target in the champion killings.

In order to keep an eye on Nehemia, Celaena decides to sneak into the royal ball against Chaol’s wishes. When she arrives and sees that Nehemia is not up to anything particularly nefarious, she ends up dancing with Dorian for a good long while. At this point, it is painfully obvious that both Dorian and Chaol are falling HARD (and I mean who wouldn’t). After the ball, Dorian sneaks up to her room and the unlikely pair kiss (at which I screamed with joy — Dorian > Chaol every day of the week).

Not long after, Celaena finds herself back in the secret tunnels and uncovers the source of the mysterious deaths. Cain, her biggest and nastiest competitor, had been summoning the vile ridderak, an otherworldly creature that killed the other champions and gave their strength to Cain. Cain had been summoning this creature through the use of Wyrdmarks. Celaena narrowly escapes the tunnels and the ridderak and collapses in a heap of blood in her room, where Nehemia swoops in to save her with her knowledge of Wyrdmarks that she used to heal rather than destroy. This is when Celaena reveals who she truly is to Nehemia, cementing the bond and friendship between the two women.

Right before the final battle between Cain and Celaena for the role of the King’s Champion (because who else would it have been), Kaltain, influenced by Duke Perrington, poisons Celaena. Because of this, Celaena has to fight off Cain both physically and mentally since the poison starts messing with her mind, and she starts to see something ghosty type things. She takes a pretty good beating but ends up getting help from Elena on the other side of the veil (or whatever you want to call it). Cain used his creepy voodoo powers to summon demons and stuff, and Elena steps in and says, “Not today, sucker!”

It takes a hot minute but Celaena FINALLY wins the duel, using Nehemia’s symbolic spear to kick Cain’s little butt. Then, just as Celaena stands to walk away, Cain lunges to spear her through the back, but not before CHAOL steps in and kills him before he can get to Celaena. While I have a great many thoughts on Chaol, this was a respectable move. Though I must add, Dorian also would have killed Cain if he was in the position to…

Our victorious assassin, ehhem, King’s Champion, spends the next bit recovering from the duel. This is also the point where Celaena grapples with the fact that she will be working for the king, the man she hates more than anyone in the world, for the next four years before she goes free. As this understanding sets in, Celaena decides to break off her budding romantic relationship with Dorian to avoid complicating matters or infringing on their respective roles (to which I screamed in frustration).

So Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan’s Assassin, is the King’s Champion only four short years away from eternal freedom! Or is she…

Before I truly leave you, I must provide a list of some notable moments that I did not cover in this Throne of Glass recap, but that are worth noting all the same:

• Celaena helped Nox, her friend from the compeition, escape the castle before the final duel
• There is a brief segment at the end of the book in the Kings pov where you learn that he knows about Wyrdmarks
• Celaena is from Terrasen and all we know of her past is that Arobynn Hamel found her half dead by a frozen river bank when she was 8 and that she woke up in between her parents to find them dead and covered in blood
• Celaena had a past lover named Sam who died before she went to Endovier
• And my personal favorite, when Chaol learned that Celaena’s period had come back after her time in Endovier, he turned bright red and very, very quickly exited the room

That’s all for now, my dears. See you soon!