a beginner's guide to sarah j maas // acotar, throne of glass, crescent city 🌙

if this is not my most requested video of all time i don't know what this is so i hope you guys enjoy it oh wait i need to switch shirts oh no i'm wearing the same shirt as another video i'll be back i love recruiting friends welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new my name is mel and today i bring you the ultimate sarah j maas reading guide sarah j maas reading guide for beginners i am going to talk all about miss sarah j maas and all of her books her three main title series i want to read them what to do some tips what they're all about what you should expect from all of them etc etc i am here to break this all down for you and hopefully help you if you are looking to get into miss mass and her work now this is probably my most requested video every single time i go on live streams you guys always ask me where do i start with sjm what are her books about what should i expect if i like this and which way do i go into if i don't like this then should i avoid that so hopefully again this video will be somewhat educational with sarah damask and her work and you can narrow down the books that you'd like to read now as you can see from the shelves behind me i do own every sarah j maas book sarah j maas is one of my favorite authors if not my favorite author i just love the way that she writes characters and i love the way that she writes her plot and i'll go a little bit more in depth as i go along in the video but as you guys know i hold a lot of love for these works the court of thorns and roses series is my favorite series alongside the throne of glass series but if you have already read sarah j maas let me know down below what are your favorite books by sjm or if you have read them in any particular order what order did you read it in were there any books you skipped any books that you didn't necessarily like or love let me know all of that down below so that maybe that could be helpful for other people looking to get into this as well and without further ado let's get right into it so a little back story as to how i found out about sarah j maas and her work and why i ended up loving it so much i will never forget this i was in my senior year of high school and i was just looking for a good fantasy book and one of my best friends actually said well i found these books i think you're gonna love them i think you need to read them and i was like okay well if she says i like them then she knows me better than a lot of people so let me just get into it and that was a court of thorns and roses by sarah j maas i literally remember so vividly going into this eating this book up in one sitting loving tamlin as as you know old me had a lot to go through and i remember loving the story and pharah and where it was going i remember just falling in love with rhys the first time that i saw him and unknowingly to me that same year book three came out so i read them i think right after book three came out so i benched all three books back to back and it became my favorite series of all time i had never really read a book that focused on the fae but rather the fae were always kind of like a subplot like kind of another lineage of characters that were in there but weren't necessarily the focus i thought the twists and turns were fantastic and obviously the biggest thing with sarah demas and her books not only with a court of thorns and roses but the rest of her books is that mental health is always a big part of her stories and that is something that i really enjoy i think when it comes to fantasy the topics of mental health are often just lost in translation if not there at all and so i love that they are always a prominent part of her story whether it's depression or trauma or ptsd or overcoming self-sabotage and self-hatred there is a lot of things in here that are quite heavy to read but they're also quite pleasant to read about because the representation with mental health is fantastic now that being said her series are not the series to go to if you are looking for diversity and in fact i think you should be looking towards by authors if you are looking for diversity go to the source itself there are certain black characters and there are certain characters that are lgbtqia plus very very slight but again not the place to go if you are looking for that now that being said every sarah j maas series is entirely different and so i always like to kind of set them apart in little pitches and say if you are primarily this type of reader you should be reading this series but if you are looking for this you should be reading that series because they're all vastly different they range from young adult to new adults to adults and also they all have different focuses whether that's being character driven whether that's a mystery or whether that's plot in world building and a lot in a lot of conflicts and the first book that she published traditionally was throne of glass by obviously sarah j maas i don't know why i had to say the author now she wrote this when she was 16 years old and you can definitely see improvement in writing as the books start progressing i don't think throne of glass is the strongest book in the series in fact i personally think the first installment is the weakest and so i personally think if you don't enjoy throne of glass just give the second book a shot because i guarantee you with writing it gets better now for a synopsis in this series we follow selena sardothien who is an assassin and she is summoned to the king's castle to potentially become the king's champion now the only thing that she has to do and i say only very slightly is defeat other 23 killers assassins thieves knights warriors everything in between she has to defeat those 23 people in order to acquire her freedom which is not necessarily freedom because she'll still work for the king however there are a lot of elements thrown into this that selena never anticipated like magic and mysterious deaths and a blossoming romance that could potentially happen with either the captain of the guard or the crown prince himself and that is where the story starts progressing now this is said to be a cinderella retelling if cinderella were an assassin and not a princess and a deadly warrior i guess i could kind of see where the cinderella retelling comes in however take that very very lightly because if you don't know that this is a cinderella retelling you would never know and even if you did you probably wouldn't be able to catch it however in the throne of glass series i think the things i think the things that stand out the most are definitely the world the world's building the plot and the conflict romance in this one is definitely a subplot in the story and honestly all of sjm's stories have romance and all of them have happy endings she is not known to have kind of sad tragic endings that is not the type of author that she is in this one plot world building and conflict are definitely the things that shine the most hence why all of the later books are so long just because there is so much to unpack there is so much conflict to settle there are so many traumas and so many just hardships to overcome and those journeys are not easy and that's why the books start getting denser and denser but i think in regards to pacing and in regards to resolution throne of glass is probably the strongest series and that's why this series shines the most in that regard and i think it's all due to the fact that the series is so long and the characters have gone through so much so much suffering so much death so much pain that at the very end everything that happens is earned the characters in this one are very complex people who you think have good motivations end up having bad motivations and the people who seem to have that motivations have good motivations the good ones can't stay good and the bad ones can't stay bad and it's all around just twists and turns that you don't expect and i think that's what's so great about throne of glass if you're into the plot into the war into the conflict into the world building this is the one for you now that being said the series is obviously long and it takes up most of the shelf but this is the entire series for throne of glass we have first the novella which is the assassin's blade and if you're a traditionalist i would recommend that you read this first especially because after you move on from crown of midnight which ends on the biggest cliffhanger that you could ever imagine you won't want to go back then we obviously have throne of glass you have crown of midnight air fire queen of shadows and the three chunkers who coincidentally are also my top three from the series you have empire of storms you have tower of dawn and then finally the longest book that i have ever read kingdom of ash which is at a whopping almost thousand pages now with through glass it's also very important to note that between empire of storms and kingdom of ash is tower of dawn tower of dawn is another novella this one follows chaol who is the captain of the guard that we meet in book one and this is his arc his character story so this is very much focused on him this book happens at the same time that empire of storms is happening and somewhere in between they overlap and then this finishes i believe after empire of storms i will put up a chart on screen if you want to look at it some people read these two books at the same time don't know if i would recommend that because they are chunkers they are quite long there is a lot of information in here but don't skip tower of dawn don't you dare skip over one of the best books in the series and the next series that i'm going to be talking about is the court of thorns and roses series and as i mentioned before this was the first series that i read by sarah j maas and it quickly became my favorite series of all time now this one keywords this is more of a fantasy romance the romance is the biggest part of the story it is also very character driven so if you don't enjoy yourself a plot that is very heavy if you don't like yourself heavy world building then this is probably the way to go now in this one we follow pharah who is a young huntress and she has been taking care of her family since her mother died and her father lost all of his fortune and his work and one day she goes into the woods and she sees this wolf that she is willing to slay if only to bring food and money to her family and soon enough she finds out that this wolf was indeed faye and now tamlin who is part of the supreme court has come to her land to her house to claim her life and to bring her back to the supreme court to claim the life of that fae that she murdered it is a beauty and the beast retelling as well even though it's very very slight and it ends up doing its own thing after book one so there is a curse that needs to be broken pharah doesn't understand what it is and how it's meant to be broken that all unfolds during book one now again if you like a more character driven story with twists and turns a lot a lot of romance and also a lot of smut then this one is for you this was initially branded as y a but it's really really not it was even branded as new adults but honestly this should have just been branded as adults the whole time i believe at the time that the series starts vera is 19 and it starts progressing and feyre's two sisters are also between like 25 and 23 so they're all adults so again should have been adults the entire time and this one the main trilogy is complete and the main trilogy is a court of thorns and roses a court of mist and fury which is the fan favorite and also my favorite then we have a court of wings in ruin which is the third book and the last one in the series and then we have the novella which is a court of frost and starlight you don't need to read farther than this because technically this is the main series it is already wrapped up you don't need to continue with it however there is a new set that is coming out as of 2021 so we have a second part to the series that doesn't follow pharah pharah is still a part of the other trilogy however she is not the main character as she is in the main trilogy so the book following a court of frost and starlight and the conflict that a court of frost and starlight sets up is actually a court of silver flames and after this i believe we are getting two more books and either one or two more novellas it is still kind of unsure and so in this one we follow pharah's sister nesta in her journey after the main trilogy and after she finds herself in a very unexpected position a very unexpected life with a lot of trauma and ptsd that she needs to surpass in order to heal and see where she goes as a character so that is what the court of thorns and roses series is about i think in regards to easiness to read probably a court of thorns and roses is easier to read than throne of glass i think throne of glass is a lot more dense with the world building and there is a lot of things that i often find myself confused about that i had to go back and reread so in regards to easy going reading i think court of thorns and roses is probably a little bit easier to read because the world building is very simple and again it's more so about the characters rather than anything else just know the first book is also not the best one i think you just need to get past that hurdle and get past book one in order for it to get really really good but just know that like throne of glass that includes the theme of depression and trauma in aquitar it's probably a lot darker i guess you could say i think especially in a court of silver flames there is mentions of sexual abuse of domestic abuse there is mention of mutilation and graphic violence there is also depression and trauma and ptsd substance abuse so i think in regards to content warnings probably aquitar is a little bit heavier in that sense but i think it's still easier to read because of again the world building aspect rather than throne of glass and the final series that is yet to be talked about is the crescent city series this so far only has one book out which is house of earth and blood most commonly known as crescent city and i think i just it'll it'll forever be crescent city in my head because crescent city is in big bold letters down here and then the title is tiny tiny here and this pitch if i were to give you like if you like this then go for this if you like yourself a good murder mystery with angels and demons and just a lot of again twists and turns i'd say go for crescent city however we don't know when we're getting booked two we hope that it's gonna be 2022 at this point but there is only one book out now in crescent city we follow bryce quinlan who is halfway half human and she finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation a murder that rocked her entire life something that she was not expecting something that has left her with a lot of grief and now they are tasking her with trying to figure out exactly why this murder mystery has happened and they pair her with hunt athalar who is a fallen angel a person who could potentially help her find all of the answers that they are seeking except that more crazy stuff starts going down in crescent city and time is running out and they need to figure out what is going on now as i stated before the theme of grief is very big in this book depression and grief and overcoming that is the main thing about this book however i love that this book is centered more so with the conversation of friendship and loyalty which is something that yes we see in other books but that is the main premise of christian city the friendship is what shines the most in here and although there is a budding romance between bryce and hunt as you move along in the story it's truly the friendship that starts gnawing at your heart's rings and that makes you want to ball your eyes out just prepare the tissues this is one of the longer books this is almost i believe or a little bit under 800 pages but it's worth every bit of it i also have a spoiler spoiler-free reading vlog for this so i will leave it linked down below i also have discussions for all of the aquatar books i will leave those down below as well because i did a read-along for them in preparation of a court of silver flames i often find myself rereading books and lowering the rating and in this one i found myself rereading and making the rating higher i gave this a four star when i first read it and upon a reread it became a five star i think if there is anything that sjm does perfectly beside everything that i have previously mentioned is obviously foreshadowing if you have read any sarah j maas books and you know that nothing comes out of nowhere she is the master at putting a gun on stage and letting it fire in the middle of the play she is a master just leaving you all of the clues right before your eyes but they are so just like inconspicuous that you would never pick them up unless you were really really looking and i think crescent city does that so well there are just so many everything is just right in front of you you don't realize it up until the very end or when you are re-reading the book as you can see there are a lot of blue tabs i would probably say this is sarah j maas's most emotional book to date because again the whole premise of the book is centered around grief and loss so just beware of that if you are looking to go into it that being said though it's definitely one of my favorite sarah j maas books to date so all in all what should you start with what should you stay away from there is no right or wrong answer there is no right order to read these books there isn't like read them in publication order or read them in this order it's definitely up to you up to what you enjoy or what you think appeals to you based on the synopsis it's literally up to the reader so like i always say if you like plot world building conflict war it's throne of glass if you like yourself the topic of friendship and loyalty and a good murder mystery with twists and turns then go with crescent city and if you enjoy yourself a character driven story with a lot of romance with very good written smuds then definitely go for the accord of thorns and roses series so again there is no right or wrong order my personal order was a court of thorns and roses then i read christian city and lastly i went into throne of glass obviously i made my way through throne of glass last just because it's the lengthier series so it is quite a commitment but if you think you'll enjoy throne of glass the best and you want to read that first and buy yourself the whole box set you do you so again there is no right or wrong order but i hope what i have talked about today kind of cleared your mind a little bit and helped you made a decision on where to start but if you still have any questions again you can leave them in the comments section i am always peeping the comment section and answering to as many comments as i can if not all of them i will definitely be in the comment section if you guys still need any help so yeah that is all for today you guys i hope you enjoyed this video again it was one of my most requested videos talking about how to read sjm so hope i cleared your mind a little bit and helped you out give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and subscribe down below for more bookish content if you haven't already i am constantly uploading videos that i'm sure you do not want to miss as well as live streaming every single friday doing weekly reading sprints and if you want more exclusive content more live streams more 101 access to me a discord server buddy reads all of the above and even more then you can sign up to my patreon that is all linked down below we call ourselves the citadel and it's always a fun time over there and alongside that you can also find all of my socials linked down below and if you made it to the end of this video let's leave a crescent moon down below because of crescent city and yeah i love you guys so so much and i shall see you on the next one bye guys [Music] you

Channel: MelReads

Views: 75,879

Rating: 4.9794216 out of 5

Keywords: a beginners guide to sarah j maas, a guide to sarah j maas, how to read sarah j maas books, acotar, a court of thorns and roses, throne of glass, crescent city, house of earth and blood, sarah j maas, books, reading, booktube, fantasy series, fantasy books, fantasy romance, ya books, adult books, popular book releases, most anticipated book releases, books to read, book reviews, review, rant, book recommendations, book recommendations 2021, melreads, reading vlog, vlog, haul

Id: aD3NTF-lufc

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 28 2021