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A Court of Thorns and Roses

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A Court of Thorns and Roses
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015)
  • A Court of Mist and Fury (2016)
  • A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017)
  • A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018)
  • A Court of Silver Flames (2021)
AuthorSarah J. Maas
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreRomance, fantasy
PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
PublishedMay 5, 2015 – present
Media typePrint

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a fantasy romance series by American author Sarah J. Maas, which follows the journey of 19-year-old Feyre Archeron after she is brought into the faerie lands of Prythian. The first book of the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, was released in May 2015. The series centers on Feyre's adventures across Prythian and the faerie courts, following the epic love story and fierce struggle that ensues after she enters the fae lands. There are currently 5 novels in the series, and a sixth installment, confirmed by Maas, in the works.

The series has sold over 13 million copies and is a New York Times Best Seller, with the fifth book, A Court of Silver Flames, making it to the coveted number one spot on the fiction best seller list.[1] Appreciated by both critics and fans, the series has been nominated for eight Goodreads Choice Awards, winning three, and has been featured on nearly a dozen publications' year-end "best of" lists for fantasy and/or young adult (YA) fiction.

In March 2021, it was announced that Disney's 20th Television would be producing a television adaptation of the series for Hulu, co-created by Maas and Outlander creator Ronald D. Moore.[2] However, Hulu cancelled the project in February 2025 after multiple years of development. Maas is reportedly looking to shop the show to other studios after Disney's rights expire in late summer 2025.[3]

Books

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Main

[edit]
No.TitlePublication dateCountsISBN
1A Court of Thorns and RosesMay 5, 2015130,423 words[4] / 432 pages[5]9781619634442
Nineteen-year-old Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, and a beast-like creature demands punishment for it. She is taken to the land of the faerie, Prythian, by her captor, Tamlin, who is an immortal faerie. She comes to live with him at his estate in the Spring Court. Feyre learns that he is a High Lord of Prythian, and eventually realizes that what she has previously learnt about the dangerous faerie world is false.
2A Court of Mist and FuryMay 3, 2016186,220 words[6] / 640 pages[7]9781619635197
Feyre survives the trials of Amarantha and becomes High Fae, but she remains human inside and must come to terms with the awful acts she performed to save Tamlin's people. To save them and herself, Feyre made a deal with Rhysand, the High Lord of the Night Court, and has to honor it. Feyre begins learning about the politics and power of Prythian, and that even greater evil looms.
3A Court of Wings and RuinMay 2, 2017199,464 words[8] / 720 pages[9]9781619634480
Feyre returns to the Spring Court and Tamlin to spy on him, as well as the King of Hybern and his invading forces that want to take over Prythian. She must play a game of deceit and lie to those closest to her to achieve her goals. As war surrounds her and her allies, Feyre must decide whom can be trusted regarding the High Lords of Prythians, her family, and her closest friends.
3.5A Court of Frost and StarlightMay 1, 201857,763 words[10] / 240 pages[11]9781547600502
Months after the war for Prythian has ended, Feyre, Rhysand, and their friends rebuild the Night Court after the attack from Hybern. Winter Solstice is approaching, and the court prepares for the festive season. As Feyre continues adapting to her role as High Lady of the Night Court, she must navigate around the scars that the war has inflicted upon them all.
4A Court of Silver FlamesFebruary 16, 2021210,289 words[12] / 768 pages[13]9781526620644
After being forced to become High Fae, Nesta, Feyre’s sister, struggles to find her place in the Night Court, following the tragic war that has left her and her powers lost and confused. Meanwhile, Cassian, General of the Night Court, adjusts to the new life that constantly puts him in Nesta’s presence. Together, to defeat new evils, they must confront their past, present, and wavering future.

Companions

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  • A Court of Thorns and Roses Coloring Book (2017)[14]

Development

[edit]

Maas initially intended the series as a retelling of the fairy tales Beauty and the Beast, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Tam Lin. These tales inspired the finished series, though it was not ultimately a dedicated retelling.[15]

She began writing A Court of Thorns and Roses in early 2009, with the first draft taking about five weeks to complete.[16]

A Court of Mist and Fury's first draft was written entirely in a split point of view between Feyre and Rhysand.[17] The second book went through multiple name changes, including A Court of Wind and Stone, A Court of Calm and Fury, A Court of Stars and Smoke, A Court of Wings and Stars, A Court of Venom and Silver and A Court of Stars and Frost.[18] Like the first novel, the second is based upon multiple fairy tales and myths, including Hades and Persephone, with the Greek mythology-inspired characters such as Rhysand and Feyre and their home in the Night Court.[19] Other fairy tale inspirations include Hansel and Gretel, which spawned the character of the Weaver,[18] and the Book of Exodus, which loosely inspired parts of the backstory for Miryam and Drakon.[17]

The final cover of A Court of Wings and Ruin was designed by Adrian Dadich, with the dress pictured on the cover originally designed by Charlie Bowater and later adapted by Dadich.[20]

On July 12, 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that Maas was writing five new books for the series, that would include two novellas and three further novels which would be set before and after the first trilogy.[21][22]

In 2020, the series was reprinted and published by Bloomsbury with new illustrated covers.[23] A Court of Thorns and Roses has existed between the Young Adult and New Adult fiction categories since the publication of the first book.[24] At the time A Court of Thorns and Roses was published, the New Adult categorization had not caught on the way publishers hoped it would. Maas agreed to publish the book as YA so long as her editor did not censor any of the sexual content.[24] The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is now classified as New Adult.[25]

Reception

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Critical and commercial reception

[edit]

In a Vox article titled "Why half the people you know are obsessed with this book series," senior correspondent Constance Grady wrote of A Court of Thorns and Roses: "These books go down like candy, silly and frothy and compulsively readable...What is liveliest about Maas’s writing, though, is how well she knows her formula. Maas is a genius at cramming her books with the tropes of her hybrid genre — and then subverting those tropes just enough to thrill." Calling Maas romantasy's "reigning queen," Grady further praised her for being able to write stories that are "pleasingly familiar, with a gentle touch of surprise" and commended her worldbuilding in ACOTAR for being full of "hat tips" to fantasy classics.[26]

A Court of Thorns and Roses, like all of Maas's book series, is a New York Times bestseller.[27] On March 7th, 2021, the fourth book, A Court of Silver Flames made it to the number one listing on The New York Times Best Sellers List for fiction (combined print and e-books category).[1]

Maas's books have sold over 38 million copies in English worldwide and have been published in 38 languages.[27]

Popularity and fandom

[edit]

While Sarah J Maas has many popular books, according to Vox, "[o]f all Maas’s series, A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) is her crown jewel...Among fans, it is her most beloved work, the only Maas series so popular that it’s spawned its own spinoff novels. They say that ACOTAR has reignited their childhood love of reading, that these are the books that make other books feel worthwhile."[28]

The Independent has credited Maas's success at least in part due to the fact she "was ahead of the game when it came to the rising appetite for empowering female heroines."[29] This has clearly resonated with fans, particularly among women: "already there are fans with Maas-related tattoos, Etsy heaves with merch bearing quotes from Maas’s novels, and colouring book editions exist for each series."[29]

The ACOTAR books have inspired a passionate fanbase that is very active on social media (especially TikTok), where an organic community of Maas readers have formed and helped spread her books to new audiences.[27] The Independent described Maas as a "leading force" in the romantasy genre beloved by BookTok, reporting that as of May 2024, TikTok posts about her books had been viewed over 14 billion times.[29] As of February 2024, the TikTok tag "#acotar" had generated 8.9 billion views.[28] And, as Business Insider noted, this online community has made her books more popular than ever: "Publisher's Weekly reported that sales of her new titles and backlist increased 86% in the 2022 fiscal year amid TikTok's massive growth."[27]

A Court of Thorns and Roses was one of the most borrowed titles in American public libraries during 2023 and 2024.[30]

Awards

[edit]
Year Award Category Book Result Ref
2017 Dragon Awards Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel A Court of Wings and Ruin Nominated [31]
2015 Goodreads Choice Awards Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction A Court of Thorns and Roses Nominated [32]
2016 A Court of Mist and Fury Won [33]
2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin Won [34]
2018 A Court of Frost and Starlight Nominated [35]
2018 Best of the Best A Court of Mist and Fury Nominated [36]
A Court of Wings and Ruin Nominated
2021 Best Fantasy & Science Fiction A Court of Silver Flames Won [37]

and Accolades

[edit]
Year-end lists
Year Publication Work Category Result Ref
2021 Book Scrolling A Court of Silver Flames The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books of 2021 (A Year-End List Aggregation) 39 [38]
2015 Bustle A Court of Thorns and Roses The 25 Best YA Books Of 2015 9 [39]
2015 BuzzFeed A Court of Thorns and Roses The 32 Best Fantasy Books Of 2015 7 [40]
2018 A Court of Wings and Ruins 28 Of The Best YA Books Released In 2017 9 [41]
2021 Business Insider "A Court of Thorns and Roses" Series The 23 best fantasy book series to read right now — [42]
2021 A Court of Thorns and Roses The 21 best young adult romance books to read in 2021 — [43]
2018 Cosmopolitan A Court of Frost and Starlight The 71 Best Books of 2018 33 [44]
2015 PopSugar A Court of Thorns and Roses The Best YA Books of 2015 22 [45]
2016 A Court of Mist and Fury The Best YA Books of 2016 13 [46]
2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin The Best YA Romance Books of 2017 11 [47]
2021 Wired A Court of Thorns and Roses 36 of the best fantasy books everyone should read — [48]

Censorship in the United States

[edit]

In 2022, according to the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, A Court of Mist and Fury was tied for the tenth-most banned and challenged book in the United States. In 2023 a school district in Mason City, Iowa, made international news when they banned the book from library shelves after running a list of books through ChatGPT and asking it if the books, "contain a description or depiction of a sex act."[49][50][51]

In 2023, the Central Media Advisory Committee for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina voted to ban A Court of Frost and Starlight, the fourth installment in the series. The committee declares responsibility for the "review and removal of books" as a result of material that is "educationally unsuitable, pervasively vulgar or obscene, or inappropriate to the age, maturity or grade level of students." The book is still accessible online, but students can be denied access due to parental controls.[52]

In February 2024, individuals in the Rutherford County Schools (RCS) library system in Tennessee were "...quietly instructed by higher ups to remove 20 books from all RCS library shelves", with the entirety of this five-book series being included among those twenty selections; an internal review by RCS determined that two of those twenty titles did not meet the standard for obscenity as defined by Tennessee state law and were accordingly allowed to remain upon school shelves. The removal of the eighteen remaining books occurred without seeking input from librarians and without due process policy for the school system being applied; as of mid-March 2024, all of those eighteen books (still including this entire series) remain off RCS shelves.[53] The Rutherford County Library Alliance, a nonprofit organization whose mission statement defines them as being "...dedicated to safeguarding the principles of intellectual freedom and unrestricted access to information within the public library system of Rutherford County, Tennessee",[54] is in the process of challenging this censorship.

In 2024, all five books in the series were among 13 banned from all Utah public schools by the state school board for allegedly containing "objective sensitive material." One additional Maas book, Empire of Storms, was also banned.[55]

Adaptations

[edit]

In November 2017, A Court of Thorns and Roses was optioned by Jo Bamford's and Piers Tempest's Tempo Productions.[56] The producers announced in 2018 that they had hired Rachel Hirons to work as the movie's screenwriter.[57][58]

In March 2021, it was announced that the series had been opted for a television adaptation by Disney's 20th Television for Hulu, with author Sarah J. Mass and Outlander creator Ronald D. Moore as the show's co-creators.[59] In November 2023, Moore told TVLine that the show was still in development and that they had written some scripts but were waiting on actors to move forward.[60] In February 2024, TVLine reported that the adaptation was no longer moving forward at Hulu and wasn't being shopped to other networks, while a Variety report the next day described the show's future as "extremely murky," as it technically was still in development at Hulu—just not in active development—and that the creators might try to take it elsewhere should Hulu cancel the project.[61][62]

On February 14, 2025, Variety reported that the adaptation had been officially scrapped by Hulu and that Maas was looking to take it to another studio after Disney's rights expire in mid-2025.[3]

References

[edit]
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