Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 404
Format: Paperback
Published: August, 2012
Price: Rp144.000 (Periplus)
Rating: 4 / 5 stars
Date started: May 25, 2017 - Date finished: May 31, 2017
Synopsis:
Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.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:
Celaena Sardothien is a famous assassin in Erilea. She is considered to be the greatest assassin of the time. She now resides in in the mines of Endovier because she got caught, working tirelessly and tortured day and night. One day, a royal guest came and offered her a deal of a lifetime. That guest being Crown Prince Dorian Havilliard and the deal is for her to represent him in a tournament to become the King's assassin for a certain period of time and after that she can be free.
The tournament was a series of skill tests for several weeks and in the end the final four will battle it out in a duel where only one will win. To prepare for the tournament she trained with the other champions and with the Captain of the Guards, Chaol Westfall. Celaena thought this would be an easy job, after all she is a great assassin. But, in a gruesome way with strange marks as if performed by magic or demons through a ritual, one by one the champions were found dead and she finds herself fearing for her life. Will she be able to survive long enough to win? Especially when there's a killer on the loose.
“My name is Celaena Sardothien. But it makes no difference if my name's Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I'd still beat you, no matter what you call me.”
Finally I've finished reading one of the most hyped up series in the YA world and let's just say I'm glad that I liked this book. You know how sometimes overhyped books tend to ruin your experience because you're afraid they won't live up to your expectations? Well this one didn't exactly met my expectations but it didn't make me flat out hate it, it has its flaws. Although, this book was a solid first book in a series.
I liked how easy it is to get into the world of this book, granted there isn't that much complicated world building happening in this book and the only part of the world that stood out was the glass/stone castle. I'll admit that I was hesitant to pick up this book because I wasn't ready to dive back into complicated fantasy worlds yet but I'm glad this one wasn't a complicated world to immerse myself in, which was just what I needed at that time.
With each day he felt the barriers melting. He let them melt. Because of her genuine laugh, because he caught her one afternoon sleeping with her face in the middle of a book, because he knew that she would win.
Second place is a nice title for the first loser.
The characters are all pretty likable. Celaena and Dorian is my favorite in this book. Celaena is very opinionated, rude and SASSY (which I love). Didn't get a lot of Chaol in this book but hopefully there'll be more of him in the next installments. Also, I do get why some people say this book lacks diversity since I think Princess Nehemia is the only PoC here (I think? don't quote me on this). I also think this is the kind of book that'll make you confused about who you ship (relationship wise) because there's a spark between Celaena-Dorian and Celaena-Chaol.
Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.
“You could rattle the stars," she whispered. "You could do anything, if only you dared. And deep down, you know it, too. That’s what scares you most.”
There wasn't much action as well in this book, which is understandable because it's the first one where a chunk of this book was pretty much preparation for the tournament, setting up the world, characters and what's going to happen in the next book. But when the action came up it didn't disappoint, my favorite is the duel scene and when Celaena was chased by a demon in the secret passageway to the tomb. Some of the scenes were bloody and some weren't, I expect the next ones to be bloodier than this and I won't accept them if they aren't.
That's all for now!
No comments
Post a Comment