By Amy Alfredson
It is easy as an English major to spout out lists of books and names of authors that I love and wish everyone could encounter at some point. Yet, despite the lists, I do have a favorite author, one who happens to be brilliant and an inspiration to women through her fiction. As we have discussed a lot about literature in recent articles, I would like to bring attention to a wonderful fiction writer by the name of Sarah J Maas. As she is my favorite author, I follow her work closely and her new book, Crescent City, is an incredible addition to her works and her cast of strong female characters.
Maas’s prior work consists primarily of two best-selling series titled Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses (the latter being my favorite book and series). All three collections mentioned exist within fantasy worlds involving magic, Fae, and various other creatures and beings. I find we often discount works of fiction that are too different from our own world, thinking they cannot do great work as pieces of literature because they do not present reality. To that I say, who needs reality to provide strong representation? Maas creates worlds and characters that challenge our expectations of fiction and their presentation of female leads.
To avoid spoilers, we’ll simply stick to the basics of who Maas’s female characters are and why they kick-ass, both in their own stories and as figures of inspiration for many young adults and women. For starters, and perhaps the most meaningful aspect to the characters for a lot of women, is that they represent and live with trauma throughout their stories with accurate and conscientious representation. The main characters, Aelin in Throne of Glass and Feyre in A Court of Thorns and Roses, both undergo major loss, physical and emotional struggles, and complete, irreversible personal changes. We see and feel them fight to come out of deep depressions and heart wrenching moments of sorrow. To that, many readers can relate, and it helps to see that there is not some magical moment in which they are suddenly “fixed”. They continue to fight every day to get up and to live, like so many of us. Reality is mimicked in moments like these, in the best way possible.
These women are more than just real. They are strong and do not need anyone else to save them. It is safe to say that the fantasy genre comes with risks and dangers that go beyond the emotional and mental. Feyre and Aelin constantly fight battles, get injured, and have scars that go deep into near irreconcilable trauma. And yet, they manage to work their own way out of most of these struggles using their strengths and cunning to make it through. While this is wonderful on its own, it is also important for Maas to show that, like functioning human beings, her characters know when to ask for help. This is true not only of her female characters, but of her male ones as well. Independence and inner strength are necessary traits to present in characters, but in order to make them feel real and act like people, they need to learn to rely on those around them and make bonds that represent the relationships readers encounter in their own lives.
Maas has influenced the way romance is perceived in her novels as well. Many of us that actively read young adult novels, primarily those with female leads, constantly encounter the cliché love triangle with a cheesy, unrelatable protagonist with low self-esteem that is still strikingly gorgeous to the men who vie for her attention. Maas stays far, far away from such clichés, as her protagonists never find love on the first, or even second try. They live, they love, they hurt, and they grow in real ways that readers can relate to. I remember the first time I read A Court of Thorns and Roses and how much I rooted for the relationship established in that book. I look back on that now and realize how flawed my view was, but that is only because Maas writes so convincingly and lets us grow along with her protagonists. We learn, just as they do. The women in her books know they are powerful, flaunt their charms, and experience love in natural ways, not forced triangles that leave them with two choices instead of real connections.
Beyond the stories themselves, Maas’s characters have inspired so much creativity and positivity. A month does not go by where I do not see a woman expressing herself through cosplay or art of these characters (usually Mannon, Aelin, or Feyre) and opening themselves up to the wonderful community Maas has helped create. In fact, I actually turned to a group on Facebook to help me find out what was most important to other readers of Maas’s books. To see yourself in a character enough to want to be them, if only for a short while, is incredible and does not happen enough for young women in the media we are expected to enjoy. For example, when I was a new teen, the most popular series for my age was Twilight and, I promise you, I literally never wanted to be Bella or saw myself in her. For Maas to have completely deviated from the traditional fantasy stories meant for girls to enjoy is monumental. There is a reason that she is the favorite author of many.
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