If you’re not on TikTok – more specifically BookTok – you might not be familiar with the “romantasy” (romance and fantasy) genre. If you are, however, you’ll know it’s been near-impossible to escape Sarah J Maas’s series, A Court of Thorns and Roses (dubbed ACOTAR by its ardent fans).
While other book series in the genre have reached mainstream success, thanks to TikTok (think Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing or Maas’s Crescent City), none have come close to the universal popularity of A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Earning more than 3.3 million ratings on Goodreads (averaging 4.8 stars), the series is brushing shoulders with titles from literary legends Sally Rooney, Percival Everett, Coleen Hoover and Richard Osman on global bestseller lists.
With all this hype over the past year, you’d be mistaken for thinking ACOTAR is a new addition to the canon. In fact, the first book was released nearly a decade ago, with the last one hitting the shelves in 2021. Through word of mouth and TikTok feed domination, however, both Gen Z and millennials have rediscovered the books more recently.
With fairies, magical powers, shape-shifting werewolves and more, the otherworldly adventures hark back to the fiction of my childhood (think The Hunger Games, Twilight or The Maze Runner), and the series has reignited many people’s love of reading.
Add into the mix the age-old good-versus-bad dynamic, enjoyable enemies-to-lovers storylines and a level of smut that’s surprising, considering the series was classified as ‘young adult’ when it was published (it’s now been described as ‘new adult’), the ACOTAR series offers escapism in its purest form.
Just like Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1848 novella White Nights has recently struck a chord with the social media generation, owing to its themes of isolation and loneliness, so too does ACOTAR. Those on BookTok are cult-like in their talk of complete immersion in Maas’s world, with characters that stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
Even anti-fantasy readers have been swayed over to the dark side, myself included. While I’ve always been a huge reader, my genres of choice are classics, historical fiction, satires and romantic comedies. Growing up, I loved The Hunger Games but I hated Harry Potter, and the closest I’ve come to reading fantasy is probably One Hundred Years of Solitude.
However, when my WhatsApp group chats, conversations and social media feeds started to be dominated by ACOTAR, FOMO encouraged me to cast aside my judgment and take the plunge. Five books and 2,896 pages later, I emerged from Sarah J Maas’s world a true convert (my own enemies-to-lovers storyline, if you will). Here’s my full review of the ACOTAR series – there may be spoilers ahead. Plus, everything you need to know about the allusive sixth book in the series.
