By Features Editor Harleigh Wiesenbach

   Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, book one of the Throne of Glass series, spins the tale of Celaena Sardothien (Sell-lay-nah Sar-doth-ee-en), an assassin who wants nothing more than her freedom. When she is taken from a death camp and brought to the glass castle belonging to none other than the cruel King of Adarlan, it’s for one purpose and one purpose only: to fight in a competition against 23 other warriors, thieves, murderers, and assassins to become the king’s Champion.

  But something dark is lurking in the walls of glass, and as the competition drones on, more and more of Celaena’s competitors are turning up dead in grotesque ways. We follow Celaena through a maze of mystery, friendship, and a competition that may cost her her life.

  If I had to give it a rating, Throne of Glass deserves a four point five out of five stars. The plot is definitely character driven, which works well in a novel with a strong heroine like Celaena (I love that name so much; just about all the names in here are very pretty). She really drives it forward and keeps it moving, and there’s always something she needs to do. Whether that is in regards to the competition, mysterious deaths, or her growing bonds with the three people in the castle she has any sliver of friendship or trust with. But Celaena isn’t the only one who drives the plot forward; two of the other main characters, the Crown Prince and the Captain of the Guard, have their own point of views within the book as well. But instead of splitting their point of views by chapter and doing them frequently, Maas inserts sections of them within the chapters, and they normally aren’t as long nor as frequent as Celaena’s point of view. Personally, I found this quite nice in regards to this novel. It allows the reader to explore more of the relationships between other characters, as well as see a bit more of the world.

  Speaking of the world, I love the way it has been presented so far.  Magic is banned from this universe (don’t worry, loyal readers; this is in the back of the book and therefore not a spoiler), and even talk of it or magical creatures known as the Fae is forbidden. So when someone mentions it in their point of view, it’s always exciting, Any tales told of the Fae or magic itself is just this picture of mystery dancing in our heads, and it really makes you wonder and want to learn more about it. Something else I really enjoyed was that it touched on politics. I’m not really into politics in the real world, but in this universe it was so interesting to see how Adarlan, the country Celaena is in now, was mentioned to get along with the other countries and how this might affect the plot in the future, as well as any of the characters.

  Now, there is a reason I gave Throne of Glass a four point five instead of a five, and that’s because I was just torn. I loved the writing, the plot, the characters, but there were just certain points where I was unsure. Not unsure of what was happening or anything, but just unsure about how I felt about particular scenes. On the bright side, it didn’t happen very often and I loved the book nonetheless. This is definitely going to be another one of my favorite series.

  As far as recommendations go, I would recommend this young adults; this is a YA novel after all. Celaena is eighteen, so she is very relatable in certain aspects, as well as the other main characters. I would also recommend Throne of Glass to anyone who may be newer to fantasy or may not like huge elaborate worlds, as well as anyone who likes fantasy in general. The world is very easy to understand and has a lot of aspects to it that are very intriguing. It also doesn’t have a bunch of huge new words and terms that readers need to know or anything like that. And if there are new words, their pronunciation is in the back of the book.

  Overall, Throne of Glass was a lovely read and I can’t wait to finish the rest of the series. It was filled with mystery, suspense, and some action that left me wanting more with each page.