ACOTAR | Graphic by Abigail Abbott | The Wright State Guardian
Sarah J. Maas gained popularity for her eight-book series, “Throne of Glass,” and has since started her “Crescent City” and “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” or ACOTAR series, which have all become best-sellers.
ACOTAR was originally intended to stay as a trilogy, but Maas decided to continue it. In these books, she builds an interesting world with elements of magic and unique creatures.
Summaries
“A Court of Thorns and Roses” follows Feyre, a poor human who cares for her father and sisters by hunting, as she kills a faerie and is then taken to the faerie realm of Prythian as payment. There, she meets the High Lord of the Spring Court, Tamlin, and slowly falls in love with him as he protects her from evil faeries and monsters that come after her.
To put a long story short, she ends up having to break a curse that was put on Tamlin and Prythian by solving a riddle and facing impossible trials. After she succeeds in all of her trials, the witch who cast the curse kills her, but in her dying breath, she solves the riddle.
In return for her saving them, the High Lords all give her a kernel of power and bring her back to life, making her High Fae.
“A Court of Mist and Fury” is widely the most loved of the books by fans because it is the heaviest on the romance between Feyre and Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court.
It starts with Feyre getting ready to marry Tamlin, but after he locks her in their house, she quickly leaves and goes to the Night Court. There, she and Rhys get to know each other better, and he helps Feyre master her magical abilities, which include base powers from every court.
The two fall in love, and eventually learn that they are mates. Feyre is made the High Lady of the Night Court.
Soon, however, they learn that Tamlin betrayed Prythian to the enemy faerie territory, Hybern, and the King of Hybern throws Feyre’s sisters into The Cauldron, making them High Fae as well. To get everyone out safely, Rhys and Feyre pretend that Rhys brainwashed her, and she goes with Tamlin to the Spring Court while Rhys takes her sisters to the Night Court safely.
“A Court of Wings and Ruin” follows Feyre as she prepares Prythian for war against Hybern. She starts within the Spring Court, where she makes it fall from within, then returns home.
Rhys and Feyre spend most of this book planning how they are going to beat the vast forces of Hybern and trying to unite the seven courts of Prythian. Feyre plans to befriend and unleash monsters and imprisoned gods, but each of these has a price or an item they require in return.
Eventually, the big war happens, and Prythian wins by a hair. Feyre, Rhys and all of the other beloved characters who have not made these summaries return home safe and sound.
The Courts’ magic
In Prythian, there are seven courts and seven High Lords. Each has its special magical properties. Since the trilogy is mostly from Feyre’s point of view, most of what readers know about these characters and their magic comes from what she is told or the powers that she inherited from each of them.
First, there are the seasonal courts: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each court has powers over their seasons and can do things like give a gust of spring air.
Aside from that, the High Fae of the Spring Court can shapeshift into seemingly anything. The Summer Court grants the ability to water bend varying shapes, the amount of water bound only by the user’s strength. The Autumn Court has the power of fire, and the Winter Court has the power of ice.
Next, there are the solar courts: Night, Dawn and Day. The Night Court members can create and control darkness, as well as a higher population of people who can enter the minds of others, which is possible for powerful members of all courts.
The Dawn Court is gifted with healing, but some, including Feyre, have to give their blood for someone to drink to heal them. Finally, the Day Court can summon bright lights and are talented at breaking curses and spells.
Every High Lord has a “beast form” that they can shift into, which correlates to their corresponding court and powers in some way. Tamlin, belonging to the shapeshifting Spring Court, is often seen in a beast form, but only during serious battles do the High Lords turn into their truest beast.
Monsters
The ACOTAR trilogy gives readers so many monsters, many of which are befriended by Feyre, from the Suriel, an all-seeing skeleton-like creature that loves cloaks and rivers, to the Bone Carver, an ancient death god who appears in a different form to everyone who looks at him.
Feyre makes deals with these monsters, agreeing to fetch items for them or to keep them company. Bryaxis is a cloud of darkness, fear incarnate, and Feyre agreed that she would visit it, and followed through.
Each of these monsters are interesting and create a sense of the world that Maas has built. They are all unique, with descriptions that are vague enough for each fan to get a vivid image but are still different from the next person’s.
The monsters are all their characters in their own right and have unique abilities, some of which are explored while others are left a mystery. Some monsters are evil, but they still have clear motives and are usually intelligent on some level.
The Cauldron
A looming presence for much of the trilogy, the Cauldron is a dark, powerful entity that can destroy and create the most powerful of spells. When the series begins, people pray to the Cauldron, in a way, hoping it will bless them with luck; however, at this time, it is broken apart and scattered across the world.
When the King of Hybern reassembles it, our main characters know they are in for a war. Hybern wields it and experiments with it by throwing in Feyre’s two older sisters, Nesta and Elain, in it. This turns them into High Fae.
Elain, who was thrown in first, was gifted by the Cauldron the ability to see into the future. When Nesta was thrown in, however, she attempted to rip it apart from the inside out, and after she was dumped out, the Cauldron could not work the same again.
The Cauldron is almost a character, as it has wants and actions that it performs. It is eerie and not entirely explained in this trilogy because Feyre does not understand it, even as she faces it multiple times.
Feyre’s abilities
The High Lady of the Night Court can do anything, readers will find. She may have her limits, due to still having limited time under her belt as a High Fae when “A Court of Wings and Ruin” concludes.
She can shapeshift into anything she wants, travel into other people’s minds and have some control over every known type of magic that there is.
As the series continues, she faces the obstacles of monsters who send her on quests that she does not think she can complete, but she always does.
Feyre is a strong character who grows over time, and it is deeply satisfying to follow her through this world as she goes from a powerless human to the powerful High Lady of the Night Court.
