Catching Up: The Throne of Glass Series, by Sarah J. Maas

So. Since I waited until March to start blogging, I am BEHIND. So, here is post 1 of my mad catch-up dash, originally posted on Goodreads for Sarah J. Maas' Throne of Glass series.*

*Okay, so I know the asterisk is supposed to go at the bottom, but I felt like this explanation couldn't wait because then I would feel dishonest. Of the three books currently published in the series, I read one of them in 2014. Egads, gasp, shock, keel over, done. Anyway, this review counts as two books. 

This series, altogether, gets an average of 3 1/2 stars from me, when all things considered, it should have gotten one or two. I listened to the audiobooks on my morning commute for the last month, and laughed out loud more than once when humor was not intended or appropriate. But... I couldn't stop listening/reading. And then I read the sequel. And then I read the other sequel. And now, I find myself Twitter-stalking the author for tidbits about book four.

Let's get the negative out of the way first, yes?

Not going for it (and these are complaints about the whole series):
1. Ridiculously derivative: this book is "Lady Eragon Traverses Middle Earth and Westeros to Bring Down the Capitol." More than once, I caught myself rolling my eyes so intensely I was afraid they would get stuck facing the back of my skull.
2. Celaena: Mary Sue. With ridiculous fantasy spelling: Maerie Ssu. Her major flaw is that she self-flagellates for stuff that (mostly) wasn't her fault. COME. ON.
3. The dudes: really, they're kind of interchangeable. Generic "broody-tortured-hot-dudes."
4. The villain: I like to call him President Sauron Snowdemort -- your basic megalomaniac sociopath (but not in a fun Sherlock kind of way).  He's so two-dimensional he might as well be a despicable paper-doll, rubbing his eeeeeevil hands together and crooning, "NO, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE!"

Going for it:
1. Brilliantly paced. No matter how silly or melodramatic or predictable I think the books are, I keep reading because I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
2. The witches, not really featured until book three, ARE SO AWESOME. The whole series should be about the witches, and how they use their mighty dragon (uh, wyvern) army to take what is theirs with fire and blood (or, ah, iron teeth and claws).
3. After I have already complained about how predictable it can be, every now and again, the plot can be genuinely surprising.
4. I'm a high school librarian. I am forever searching for more books that a.) at least make an effort at character diversity**, b.) have strong heroines who don't necessarily swoon because someone's "hair fell in his eyes," c.) are high-interest, low-reading level, which means they are accessible to all my readers. This book meets all three criteria, and on principle, I don't generally give such books bad reviews.

**Emphasis here on "at least makes an effort;" this book totally has tokens. There's a token person of color, a token gay couple, etc...but they are present, and when you work in a small, relatively homogeneous community, every little bit counts.