The text I selected for this text review assignment is a book by Sarah J. Maas called A Court of Thorns and Roses. This is book is a fantasy romance novel and involves humans and faeries, which are described as being immortal people that live north of a magical wall in the lands of Prythian. The main difference between humans and Fae is that humans lack magic. In this book, a human girl, Feyre, falls in love with a very powerful Faerie and sacrifices herself for him and other faeries to break a deadly curse.
Within this book, the main character, Feyre, is trying to find her true self, one that she is happy with. Feyre went from being a poor human girl who single handedly kept her family alive due to her hunting skills, to a High Fae with strong powers and then became a strong, independent woman. This book focuses on her finding herself and then being content with the self that she builds.
Power is a topic in this book that is constantly talked about. Each Fae character has their own magical powers, but this book also touches on the conflict of power between each court. Each court wants to be the most powerful and led by the most powerful leaders, High Fae. This conflict of power leads to destruction among the seven courts, all power hungry.
I think that the author wants us to question the importance of power: is it more important than love? Why does Feyre choose love over power when every other person she surrounds herself with would have chosen power over love? I think the Sarah J. Maas wants us to think about the implications of being too power hungry can do to a person. I also think she wants us to think about how important it is for a person to find their true self and purpose and then be happy with it. Comparing this text to our class material, I think that the humans would be considered the Other in this situation. Humans are viewed as either slaves or useless; Faeries wanted to separate themselves from humans so much that they created an entire wall from magic just so they could not come into contact with humans, furthering the Other concept.
Picture credit: Zimmerli, Rachel. “The Pros and Cons of Reading Acotar.” Web. 25 Apr. 2021.