Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Mass is a fantasy tale about an 18 year old girl trained from early childhood to be an assassin. Sent to a labor camp and not expected to survive, Celaena Sardothien is plucked out of the camp by the crown prince to compete in a competition to become the King’s Assassin. If she beats out the other twenty or so competitors and serves the king for four years, she wins her freedom.

Would I recommend it? No, no I wouldn’t. And believe me, I wanted to like this one. I’m all for strong women characters kicking butt, but this is one of those tales that felt like it was for those with a little less grey hair and fewer laugh lines. First in a series, complete with a prequel set of novellas and currently two sequels, the book obviously has a following but unfortunately, I’m not hopping on this bandwagon.

What I liked about it:

• The cover. Honestly, strong woman, great hair, weapons, leather. What’s not to root for?
• The fantasy story of the spirit queen coming back through Celaena had merit and hopefully will play out to an interesting plot in future books.
• The end. I know, I know, I’m not trying to be a smarty pants and celebrate it being over. No, about two chapters toward the end, a secret is dropped about Celaena’s heritage that made me perk up. Plus, for a moment in the last couple of chapters, Celaena allows us in and lets us feel for her. She finally became human.
• In the final chapter, at long last, I got a sense of Celaena being caught off guard and awed by her romantic feelings toward the guy she’s supposed to end up with. But man, I had to read a lot of pages to see her humanity.

What I found distracting:

• When we meet Celaena, she is near starvation, beaten, scarred and being brought before the playboy Crown Prince Dorian. She is a world-renowned assassin and expects people to respect and fear her which they should. Instead, her swagger comes off as obnoxious and I started thinking what this girl needs is a good talking to! Moms. Oi.
• What’s with all the vomiting? She’s starving, she eats, she vomits. She eats, she runs, she vomits. She gets her period, she has cramps, she vomits. Thankfully, she seemed to be able to keep dinner down by the end of the book.
• It was really hard to not compare this tale to The Hunger Games. The competitors spend time training together in a room doing different activities. The first test is archery. It’s a competition to the last (wo)man standing. But there’s no sense of desperation or horror or loss of control that makes The Hunger Games so impactful.
• I couldn’t figure out how to like Celaena. I’m the kind of reader who wants to root for the main character. I want to feel for the protagonist, cry for her, root for her, plot with her and celebrate with her. Instead, I felt annoyance. Sure, Celaena got hurt, but I didn’t feel her pain. There was no horror or sadness or even numbness or fear when other competitors died during tests or were discovered half eaten and mauled in corridors. She comments to Chaol, the Captain of the Guard, how her first kill feels at the end of the book, but it’s too little, too late for me.
• Dorian the Crown Prince needed more page time to prove himself as more than a spoiled playboy. Yes, he changed from start to finish, but to make the maturity stick, he needed more than just an examination of his feelings toward his father’s actions and Celeana. It was interesting to learn what the King thought of his son at the end, but by then, I didn’t really care.
• The fantasy element is downplayed (magic is outlawed!) to the point where when it came in, it threw me out of the story. It ended up playing a larger role and one that I would assume will get bigger in the next two books, though (which might be a good thing!).

Things I’d consider before handing this to child:

• This is a competition amongst people who are trained to kill other people. The main character is an 18-year-old girl trained to kill and she wants to win so she can kill for the king and earn her freedom. Competitors die in gruesome attacks by a fantasy creature – dismembered, half eaten, brains sucked out. One character smokes Opium multiple times. Some kissing. Not sure I’d hand this to a 6^th grader, but 7^th on up, probably okay.

So, I’m sorry to say it, I won’t be reading more in this series, but don’t let that stop you. As I tell my daughter, if we all liked the same book, think how small the library would be.