Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis: In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen year old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught. Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament - fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin's heart be melted?
Review: Oh. My. Gosh you guys - this book was so good! After reading 'The Assassin's Blade' I wasn't too sure if ToG was going to live up to my expectations but it did. It really, really, really did. If you haven't read The Assassin's Blade, or Throne of Glass, we follow eighteen year old Celaena Sardothien, the most infamous assassin of all time. Or at least, she was, until a job went wrong and she was sent to live out the rest of her life in a slave camp. After a year in the salt mines, she's offered the deal of a lifetime - represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament and become the King's Champion. It's a deal Celaena can't refuse - a chance to fight for her freedom. But, there are dark things occurring in the castle, and Celaena will need to keep her wits about her if she's to survive this test. If you have not read this book yet I would seriously recommend you checking it out - it's fast paced, action filled and I sped through it.
If you don't want to be spoiled for this book, then leave now, read Throne of Glass and then come back and discuss with us!
WARNING. THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD...
Okay. So, lets start with Celaena. In my review of The Assassin's Blade, I said that one of the reasons I didn't really like those novellas was because of Celaena. She was very spoilt and very arrogant and I just could not warm to her. I'm pleased to say that, after this book, I have now warmed to Celaena, and actually really like her as a character. Her year in Endovier has removed the spoilt personality that I really disliked in the novella's. Now, she's a strong, determined girl, who will do anything to win her freedom. She's still a little arrogant, but actually, in this book, it almost lightens the tone. She's told not to draw attention to herself, to stay in the middle of everyone else. Which doesn't exactly go down well with Celaena. It was so funny to see the arguments between her and Chaol about keeping her identity a secret. Celaena has become a 'real' person to me after this book and I'm so happy that it happened.
Speaking of Chaol and Dorian - how does Sarah J Maas keep coming up with all of these amazing guys? Seriously. I don't know if anyone can match Rhys but...I'm not complaining. I thought the friendship between Dorian, Chaol and Celeana and the romance between the three of them as well. I really admired Celeana for telling Dorian that being together wasn't going to work between them. I was fully expecting them to continue seeing each other behind everyone else's backs but, she was right. He's the crown prince - it wouldn't be good for him to be seen 'dating' her. Don't get me wrong, I like Dorian but I from the first moment I saw him as more of a friend to Celeana rather than a boyfriend. Of the two of them right now, I'm leaning more towards Chaol but I do know that Rowan comes into the picture in Heir of Fire (though I don't know anything more than that) so I'll have to wait and see if that changes my ship. I learnt my lesson from A Court of Thorns and Roses - do not pick a ship early on! It's highly likely to change!
The little details we found out about Celeana's upbringing with Arobynn were horrific. She wasn't as good at sword fighting with her left hand so, Arobynn gave her a choice: either she broke her right hand herself, or he'd do it for her. So, she slammed her bedroom door on her hand meaning she could only fight with her left hand for months. What? This is just such a cruel thing to do to anybody, but to do it to a child? Okay, great, now she's awesome fighting with both hands but reading that scene just made me feel so sorry for Celeana. Even having read The Assassin's Blade and seeing what Arobynn did to her after the events in the first novella, it still shocked me when I was reading this.
The tests were quite interesting. The whole premise of the contest reminded me of the Hunger Games, so I was expecting the tests to be along the same lines. I was pleasantly surprised actually. I thought the poison test was really interesting because I would be completely useless at it! Scaling the tower as well was such a good chapter to see Celeana's character develop. She could have won that challenge but, instead, she went back to help a friend. I also liked that she picked a less obvious 'tool' to use to help her. Everyone else picked rope or something else quite obvious, whereas Celeana picked tar to help give her grip on the walls but wouldn't weigh her down on the climb. She also took a less obvious path up the side of the tower, staying out of the scuffles that led to people falling off. It's these little details that remind us that Celeana is the best assassin for a reason - these skills aren't something she's forgotten in her year in Endovier.
The final duel was really good if not a little confusing at times. I felt like everything kind of happened at once, with all the demons surrounding Celeana but, it was incredibly cool none the less. I really like how she took down her first opponent in a matter of minutes - faster than Cain did. It was so easy for her to do and it made the effects of the drugs so much more dramatic. I really liked the fact that Queen Elena came to help Celeana, even if she was insanely cryptic about everything. I liked that we had her there - it can sometimes feel a bit random in books. Here's the Queen to help you, she knows everything but won't tell you anything. But it really worked in this book for me. We needed Elena to help Celeana because she did know what was going on. Celeana needed someone who knew what was going on in the castle to help her because she was guarded.
I also love that Elena was also a warrior. It gave her and Celeana a common entity between them, something the Caeleana could relate to. I thought this was an interesting twist on the concept of a fairy tale. The Queen or princess is seen as a damsel in distress, and this was how history remembers Elena when, actually, she was as much of a warrior as Gavin. It's a subtle twist that's so well woven in to the story that if you're not paying attention you could miss.
I'm really interested to see what's going to happen to Kaltain. I get the feeling those headaches aren't going to go away anytime soon and they're not down to opium use. I wonder why she was chosen. Was it just because she was trying to use the Duke or is there another reason? I definitely don't think this is the last we'll see of Kaltain. We have some unfinished business with her.
Sarah J Maas is very good at taking a fairy tale and leaving only a few subtle clues as to the origin behind. Throne of Glass is a retelling of Cinderella and the biggest clue to this is obviously the masquerade ball. I loved this scene. I especially love that the mask she wore did nothing to hide her identity. They all knew who she was. I love how Chaol was just so done with Celeana in this moment - he knew he wouldn't be able to get her to leave but he definitely wasn't happy she was there. He was even less happy when she danced with Dorian. This conflict is obviously missing in the original fairy tale, but makes this book so compelling to read. The fact both Chaol and Dorian want to be with Celeana, but only Dorian takes the chance is huge for both of the guys relationships with Celeana. It also added some humour, with Chaol just standing next to Celeana, putting everyone off coming near her.
I love that Dorian gave Celeana Fleetfoot. I'm a dog lover and Fleetfoot just seems like the perfect companion for Celeana - someone to dull out her rough edges and give her someone she can love unconditionally without really worrying about losing them, in the same way that she's worried about losing her human friends.
I think that's everything I wanted to talk about for this book. I think I'm going to do a review for each book of the series because if this series is anything like ACOTAR (and it's shaping up to be!) there's going to be a lot I want to discuss in each book! What do you think about Throne of Glass? Love it? Hate it? Let me know.
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