How to Really Read ACOTAR
The best insider tricks from the girl who has read it three times over
A lady with red lipstick and a bat necklace in Barnes and Noble just talked you into buying Sarah J. Maas’ entire ACOTAR series. Now you’re ugly crying into the map of Prythian trying to understand how this lady just convinced you to spend your life savings on 5 massive bricks that include strange names like Amarantha. Well, stop your crying now because this insider is going to break down 3 ways to make reading the massive ACOTAR series easier.
1. FOR THE LOVE OF NAMES
Remember your school mates; Lucien, Briallyn, and Cerridwen?
-No?
Oh yeah… that is because Maas loves to give out free aneurysms with her books.
I have to give Maas credit for her use of unique names, however no one likes stopping mid sentence to ask SIRI how to say the word “Suriel”.
WHAT DID I Do?
I would personally like to thank Audible for getting me through the first book, without it “Feyre” would have stayed “Fryer” forever.
But I get it- purchasing another thing after already dropping a small fortune on the written text seems redundant. This is where I am going to share the best thing I have discovered since I dipped my first pretzel in Nutella.
PRONUNCIATION VIDEO
For the people like me who need to hear the name, I present you my secret weapon, a video of Sarah J. Maas pronouncing character names:
PRONUNCIATION LIST
For people who are more advanced than me, Congratulations! I present you a list of pronunciations collected by super fans: A Court of Thorns and Roses Wiki
Now fair warning, this is a fan based wiki so this website could contain spoilers. However, if you are careful and do not stray from the linked page, you will have safe access to the correct way of saying multiple character names.
2. Highlight and Tab
Yes, I am about to sound like your high school English teacher that made you annotate EVERYTHING- but I promise there is a method to the madness.
ACOTAR is the Taylor Swift of character building. It is beautiful, poetic and takes things from the vault, meaning things can be brought up from the past. This is why it is important to highlight and tab certain aspects in the book.
Characteristics
First, highlight/tab many of the main characters’ personal attributes. Without giving away any spoilers, let’s just say Maas loves to give her characters depth. This is why it is important to remember how a character acts in certain scenes and which book it happened in for later use. As Selena Gomez sang for the Wizards of Waverly Place Theme Song, “Everything is not what it seems…”
Meetings
Second, highlight/tab each time a new character is introduced. ACOTAR has well over 20 characters so to help remember who they all are you MUST leave yourself a reminder. Trust me, you will thank me later for this one.
3. Get Ready for the Last 300 Pages
It would be wrong for me to call any of the ACOTAR books slow starting, however they keep you at a comfortable pace throughout the majority of the books. But Sarah J. Maas doesn’t like to keep her readers comfy for long.
Get ready to sprint because Miss. Mass LOVES to pack everything in the last 300 pages or so of her books. Seriously, this is a known phenomenon on Booktok; The Maas sprint.
Mass loves to capture your attention with the most heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, sleep stealing last 300 pages. This is why first time readers NEED to sit down for the long haul when they get close to the last quarter of the book. If you start Chapter 33 of A Court of Thorns and Roses at 8 pm on a Sunday night, be prepared to call in sick the following Monday with a book hangover.
You will not be able to sleep, eat, or drink during these last few pages, so set a good chunk of time aside to finish each book.
The Main Tips
According to an insider, to fully enjoy the five massive bricks that make up ACOTAR you MUST:
Use a good resource to pronounce all the names correctly.
Highlight and/or tab character attributes and character introductions.
Give yourself lots of time to finish each book.
Now go back to your local Barnes and Noble and thank that kind stranger for introducing you to the romantasy gateway drug; ACOTAR.
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