Sarah J Maas

[Diana]

I work in a secondary school library and Sarah J Maas books are super popular with the students. Last year an article came out saying these books were not YA and amongst other things included soft porn, abusive relationships, mono cultural stereotypes etc.. There are three of us working in the library and none of us have read any of these books. We try to vet purchases but sometimes questionable books slip through. My boss asked that one of us read some Sarah J Maas and bring back our comments. I volunteered and borrowed the Throne of Glass ebook today. We don't like to censor the kid's reading and their ability to form judgments about books and values but we also have to satisfy parents, staff and the department that we're making good decisions.
So my questions are - have you read any of these books, do you think they're appropriate for 12-18 year olds and any other insights?. Thanks for your responses.

[Lynne]

I've read one of her books and thought her writing style was poor. It had a lot of brutal violence towards the end but not much in the way of sex, although I understand her books get more sexually graphic the further you go in each series. I have seen sites where parents have complained about that.

[Krystal]

I've read everything by her so happy to answer all questions lol.

Throne of Glass started okay, but from Empire of Storms (the 5th in the series) the series begins including graphic sexual scenes. The entire Court series includes a LOT of sex, violence, disturbing behaviours and unhealthy depictions of relationships. I'd be wary of anyone under 16 reading it.

House of Earth and Blood is a bit more toned down in terms of the sex but its still there and it's still graphic. It's aimed at an adult audience, I believe.

In general, I'd not recommend her writing for anyone under 16. The fantasy element is great and she creates some brilliant characters but she has a soft spot for smut so it gets a little kinky.

Throne of Glass books 1-4, plus the novella compilation The Assassin's Blade, are pretty PG though so they're the only ones I'd recommend.

The writing is mostly terrible lol but she does create some amazing characters and worlds.

[Krystal]

Here's my review for Throne of Glass, Diana, which I recently re-read:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It includes links to my reviews for other books in the series but as mentioned, Empire of Storms is where it started to go wrong for me.

Here's my review for A Court of Thorns and Roses, where I mention almost immediately that it was a bit too raunchy XD

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Hope it helps!

[Jacm]

Honestly, I have read most of the Throne of Glass series and there are so many YA series with more violence and evil manipulation - The Hunger Games, Chaos Walking trilogy to name just 2. While the writing quality is maybe not as high as these two examples, I would not stop a mature teenager from reading any of them.

[Natty]

I've read her books also both throne of glass series and the court of thorn and roses series, I have noticed on some of books on the back of there are a mature content warning on them - the warning label says 'Contains mature content. Not suitable for younger readers'...

While it's a tough one about censorship, but having 12, 13, 14 years potentially reading them for the sexual scenes, the abuse and the violence in them and not being able to place full understanding and context to those topics.. It will probably cause schools some headaches once parents become involved...