A Stitcher's Book Club discussion

What better way to start off the new year than with tales of fantasy and adventure! What did you all think of this one? Was Celaena the girl power heroine that you wanted? Who is the better champion? Who is the better man? Chaol or Dorian? What is the king up to?

Just please remember that we all read at different paces, so if you going to drop a spoiler, please flag it.

This book was ok, but did not captivate me enough to want to invest in the whole series. Celaena was a great heroine especially due to her age and circumstances and of course I think she was the better champion. As for who is the better man, which I'm guessing is in regards to Celaena, it's a toss up for me, at times I was rooting for Dorian and others for Chaol, too many variables to make a choice just based on this book.

Ok....I loved this book. 5/5 Stars! Celaena was such an angsty badass heroine! She's so strong and brave and I really admire her! The best Champion is Celaena of course. Nox was precious too, but not the best champion. I haven't picked a side as far as Chaol and Dorian go. I love them both and I'm ridiculously torn. Morally, I think Chaol is probably the better man. Dorian isn't a bad man by any means, but morally he just doesn't live up to Chaol.
That king is evil af.....I think he's going to set Celaena up for something, not sure what, but he's going to try to ruin her I'm pretty sure. I also think he is going to try to send Dorian away to keep him away from Celaena and to keep him from meddling. As far as the creatures and wyrdmarks and stuff, I think he and the duke are definitely behind Cain summoning all of that. It's like they are experimenting with it.

Can anyone else just not believe that this started out as a Cinderella retelling?! It definitely became its own thing, but there are definitely nods to Cinderella here and there.

Random thought..I'm pretty sure that Dorian's brother is the spawn of satan.

(view spoiler)[The champion's murders were so grotesque! But I loved it! I honestly love that Maas didn't shy away from describing the brutality of it all. I suspected Cain the ENTIRE time. I didn't ever think it was Nehemia or anyone else.

One of my favorite parts of this book was when Celaena kicks Verin's a** in the sparring challenge. I was waiting for her to go crazy on somebody and I'm really glad it was him.

My heart is breaking for Chaol a little with the whole Dorian situation. I need Chaol to find love and be happy. And right now he wants Celaena (even though he hasn't honestly admitted it to himself) so I'm sad for him. I also like Dorian....so.....there's that.
I just don't know who is meant to be end game here...
(hide spoiler)]

*spoilers* Oh my word. I thought this book was terrible. Completely jumping on board the hunger games band wagon and hitting pretty much every YA fantasy cliche that it could manage. An angsty young bad ass woman with a soft side, and 2 hot young men vying for her attention despite themselves. A to the death games tournament, which of course she wins. A cliff hanger leading to the following books in the series. Not one single believable bit of writing about how the trauma of the death camp would have actually affected the mind of a young girl. No, instead she is vain and honestly a bit thick. All those grisly murders mentioned in passing and she doesn't bother to tell anyone that she knows who's doing it. The tournament tests that aren't even described as they are so unimportant to the all consuming question of will she kiss the Prince or won't she. Hunger games is amazing. This is wannabe fan fiction. I'm glad it was so quick to read as now I can go read something better.

I actually really enjoyed this one. I hear there is a movie in the making, so hopefully they don't butcher it. I love Game of Thrones. I liked Hunger Games. I kind of looked at this as a YA mashup of the 2. What's hilarious is I've had the entire series in my house and never picked them up. I am interested to see how the series develops, so I'll definitely pick up more. My favorite part was the magical aspects of this book. I thought it was deep enough to keep my attention, but not so complicated that it took weeks to read it and understand.

Memphistigergal wrote: "I actually really enjoyed this one. I hear there is a movie in the making, so hopefully they don't butcher it. I love Game of Thrones. I liked Hunger Games. I kind of looked at this as a YA mashup ..."

I've had the first book for years too! I have no idea why I never picked it up to read it! I'm glad that I finally did. I loved it.

I didn't know anything about a movie. I'm always so apprehensive about book to movie adaptations because so many of them are just awful.