Sarah J. Maas
What are Sarah J. Maas’s most popular book series?
Will Sarah J. Maas be publishing a book in 2026?
How old was Sarah J. Maas when she wrote her first book?
What genre is Sarah J. Maas’s work associated with?
What inspired Sarah J. Maas to write her first novel?
What is the premise of the Throne of Glass series?
What criticism has Sarah J. Maas faced regarding her books?
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Sarah J. Maas (born March 5, 1986, New York City, New York, U.S.) is an American fantasy author who has written several popular series, including A Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass. Her work is considered exemplary of the contemporary “romantasy” genre, which blends elements of romance and fantasy. Although Maas’s books are often marketed under the young adult banner, many find that her work, which often features explicit themes, better fits the “new adult” or simply adult fiction category.
- Full name: Sarah Janet Maas
- Notable books: Throne of Glass series (2012–18), A Court of Thorns and Roses series (2015– )
Early life
Maas grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the adopted daughter of a family court judge and a lawyer. She recalls her childhood as one full of exciting experiences at the city’s renowned cultural institutions, including American Ballet Theatre performances at the Metropolitan Opera House, as well as afternoons roaming the American Museum of Natural History. She read folktales and fairy tales from around the world with her parents.
Frustrated by a lack of compelling female characters in the fantasy realm—with the exception of the eponymous heroines of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997−2003) and the manga/anime series Sailor Moon (1992−97)—Maas, at age 16, began writing her first novel, Throne of Glass (2012), which she initially called Queen of Glass. Maas conceptualized the story as an alternate retelling of the fairy tale “Cinderella,” in which the main character is an assassin charged with killing the royal family of a corrupt kingdom. In 2002 she began posting chapters of her book on the online writers’ forum FictionPress; by 2008 it was one of the most-reviewed works on the site. That same year Maas graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, with a major in creative writing and a minor in religious studies. She met her husband, Josh Wasserman, when they were undergraduate students at Hamilton; Wasserman was a resident assistant in Maas’s freshman dorm. The couple married in 2010 and have two children.
Writing career
Throne of Glass
Maas continued to develop Throne of Glass and sold the manuscript to the publisher Bloomsbury Children’s in 2010. The novel spawned a young adult series consisting of eight books that follow young assassin Celaena Sardothien, who in Throne of Glass is serving a life sentence of hard labor in a salt mine. She then gets an opportunity to compete for her freedom against other skilled assassins in a royal championship. The series goes on to reveal more about Celaena’s personal history as she navigates adventure, intrigue, and romance in the kingdom of Adarlan. The titles in the series are:
- Throne of Glass (2012)
- Crown of Midnight (2013)
- Heir of Fire (2014)
- The Assassin’s Blade (2014; prequel)
- Queen of Shadows (2015)
- Empire of Storms (2016)
- Tower of Dawn (2017)
- Kingdom of Ash (2018)
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Maas’s second blockbuster series began with A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), which fans refer to as “ACOTAR.” It is a “Beauty and the Beast”-inspired romantasy spanning five books, with a sixth and seventh underway. The series centers on young hunter Feyre Archeron, who is forced to enter the faerie realm after accidentally killing a faerie she thought was a wolf while hunting. In 2021 the streaming platform Hulu announced a television adaptation of the ACOTAR series. After a protracted period of uncertainty that included the 2023 strike by the Writers Guild of America, it was announced in early 2025 that the show was no longer in development. The titles in the series are:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015)
- A Court of Mist and Fury (2016)
- A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017)
- A Court of Frost and Starlight (2019)
- A Court of Silver Flames (2021)
- A Court of Splintered Harmony (2026)
The seventh volume, A Court of Forgotten Melody, will be released on January 12, 2027.
Crescent City
Maas’s first series explicitly marketed for adult readers, Crescent City delves into the story of half-Fae half-human protagonist Bryce Quinlan, who begins investigating a series of murders after her friends are killed by a demon. The first book, House of Earth and Blood, was published in 2020. The titles in the series are:
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- House of Earth and Blood (2020)
- House of Sky and Breath (2022)
- House of Flame and Shadow (2024)
Reception
“I’m a firm believer in having a lot of sex in my books. Sex is an empowering thing….I want to show women enjoying sex, and not being ashamed to ask for what they want in the bedroom.”—Sarah J. Maas, in a 2020 interview with Telegraph
Maas’s books have become famous for their detailed, high-fantasy world-building, soft-core sex scenes, and strong-willed characters, who grapple with trauma and have complex backstories. The books have received extensive attention on “BookTok,” the book-loving community on the short-form media app TikTok, and have been wildly commercially successful. According to her publisher, Maas’s books have sold more than 75 million copies and been translated into 40 languages. Vox senior culture correspondent Constance Grady described the mass-market appeal of the ACOTAR series, writing:
“These books go down like candy, silly and frothy and compulsively readable. Everyone in ACOTAR is beautiful, everyone is attractively damaged, everyone is pining with love for some inaccessible someone else.”
Maas’s books, however popular, have been controversial. Her stories have been criticized for their lack of queer characters and characters of color. Many readers also mention that the romantic relationships have recurring abusive dynamics and that her first two series would be better labeled as “mass-market adult fiction” rather than “young adult fiction.” Some readers object to the plethora of sex scenes sprinkled throughout both her young adult and adult novels. In 2024 the state of Utah banned six of Maas’s books from public schools and libraries.