50 Fun Facts About Sarah J. Maas

Which AI chatbot did an Iowa school district consult before pulling A Court of Mist and Fury from its libraries?

ChatGPT was fed the Mason City district's book list in 2023 and asked whether each title depicted a sex act, a shortcut that made international news.

Which fairy tale did Sarah J. Maas reimagine with an assassin as its heroine to create Throne of Glass?

Cinderella sparked the idea when Maas watched the Disney film: the music as the heroine flees the ball felt so dark that she pictured an assassin escaping instead.

Killing which animal in the woods gets the huntress Feyre dragged off to the faerie realm of Prythian?

A wolf falls to Feyre's arrow, but it was really a faerie sentry in disguise, so she must pay the life debt by leaving her family behind.

Which fairy tale, alongside the ballad Tam Lin, did Sarah J. Maas loosely retell in A Court of Thorns and Roses?

Beauty and the Beast shaped the opening, in which a mortal girl is carried off to a cursed lord's estate, though the finished series is no strict retelling.

On which video app has the hashtag for Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses drawn several billion views?

TikTok turned the series into a phenomenon among readers, and Maas's three fantasy series have sold more than 70 million copies in English.

Which Gotham antiheroine is the title character of Sarah J. Maas's DC Icons novel Soulstealer?

Catwoman gets an origin story in Soulstealer: Selina Kyle trains with the League of Assassins, then returns to Gotham posing as a wealthy socialite.

Which one-word answer to a riddle does Feyre finally give to break Tamlin's curse in A Court of Thorns and Roses?

Love is the answer Feyre finds only while she is being tortured, after surviving three deadly trials. Solving the riddle frees Tamlin at once.

What can nobody at Tamlin's court take off when Feyre arrives, thanks to a decades-old magical blight?

Their masks have been stuck to their faces for decades, and the so-called blight behind it turns out to be a deliberate curse on Tamlin's lands.

Vox crowned Sarah J. Maas the reigning queen of which book genre, a blend of two older ones?

Romantasy fuses fantasy with romance, and the success of Maas and Rebecca Yarros led publishers to launch whole imprints devoted to it.

Which streaming service optioned A Court of Thorns and Roses for television in 2021, then scrapped the project in 2025?

Hulu announced the series in March 2021 with Maas herself as an executive producer, but no cast was ever named before the adaptation was dropped.

Tamlin, the faerie who takes Feyre across the wall to Prythian, is High Lord of which court?

Spring is Tamlin's court, though he hides his rank at first: Feyre learns that her captor is the High Lord himself only by trapping a truth-telling faerie.

Which lifelong dream, out of reach while her family was poor, does Feyre pursue at Tamlin's manor?

Painting was a luxury Feyre could not afford while she hunted to feed her family, so Tamlin sets her up with supplies and shows her his gallery.

Celaena Sardothien must defeat 23 rivals in Throne of Glass to win her freedom and which court title?

King's Champion is a polite name for the royal assassin: the winner must serve the very ruler who sent her to prison before she can go free.

In which brutal salt-mine prison camp has the assassin Celaena Sardothien spent a year when Throne of Glass opens?

Endovier is a slave camp nobody was meant to survive, yet the kingdom's most feared assassin lasts a year there before the crown prince offers her a way out.

Under which true name is the assassin Celaena Sardothien revealed to be a lost royal heir in Throne of Glass?

Aelin Galathynius lost her parents to murder as a child and trained as an assassin under her alias. By the fourth book she embraces her real identity as a queen.

Which crown prince of Adarlan frees Celaena Sardothien from prison to compete on his behalf in Throne of Glass?

Dorian Havilliard is a bookworm who hates his father's murdering ways, which makes the heir to the throne an unlikely sponsor for a notorious assassin.

Which High Fae villainess holds Tamlin and his court captive Under the Mountain in A Court of Thorns and Roses?

Amarantha wears the eye and finger bone of a human who betrayed her sister as jewelry, and her curse is the so-called blight that Tamlin dreads.

Which Fallen angel is offered his freedom for helping Bryce Quinlan catch a killer in House of Earth and Blood?

Hunt Athalar is enslaved to the Archangels he once tried to overthrow, and his brutal skills have been put to work killing his boss's enemies.

The Crescent City novels follow Bryce Quinlan on which planet, shared uneasily by humans, Fae, angels and shifters?

Midgard is where Bryce is desperate to return in the third book, after she finds herself stranded in a strange world far from her family and friends.

Feyre is furious to discover in A Court of Mist and Fury that she and Rhysand have long shared which faerie tie?

A mating bond is a formal tie between faeries, and Rhysand had known of theirs for a long time without telling her. Feyre feels betrayed before they make peace.

Which battle-scarred Illyrian warrior ends up romantically paired with Nesta Archeron in A Court of Silver Flames?

Cassian sparks Nesta's temper more than anyone, and it takes a formal bargain for a single hour of training before she starts to enjoy the work.

Which Captain of the Guard watches over the assassin Celaena Sardothien at the castle in Throne of Glass?

Chaol Westfall starts out seeing only a captive criminal. Maas wrote him as a man who views the world in black and white until Celaena upends it.

Which full-blooded Fae warrior, over three centuries old, once served in Queen Maeve's elite cadre in Throne of Glass?

Rowan Whitethorn was one of only six warriors in that cadre, an elite group that also included Lorcan, Gavriel and Fenrys.

The assassin Celaena Sardothien is eventually unmasked as the rightful queen of which kingdom in Throne of Glass?

Terrasen waits for its lost queen while its people are enslaved to a brutal king, and she must fight her way back before she can reclaim the throne.

Whose murder, along with her entire pack, sends Bryce Quinlan hunting for answers in House of Earth and Blood?

Danika Fendyr was Bryce's roommate and best friend, a famously powerful shifter expected to lead her kind one day. Her buried secrets drive the mystery.

Being forced into which ancient magical vessel turns the human Nesta Archeron into High Fae against her will?

The Cauldron leaves Nesta with powers nobody fully understands, and she spends A Court of Silver Flames struggling to find her place among the Fae.

In A Court of Thorns and Roses, the faerie king of which island realm threatens to invade Prythian?

Hybern lies across the sea from Prythian and is home only to faeries. Its king wants to tear up an ancient treaty and enslave humans once more.

Which everyday skill does Feyre lack in A Court of Thorns and Roses, nearly dooming her in a riddle trial?

Reading is beyond Feyre when the story begins, so in the second trial Rhysand reaches into her mind and steers her to the correct answer.

On which book-rating site did users vote Sarah J. Maas's House of Sky and Breath the best fantasy novel of 2022?

Goodreads has featured Maas in its Choice Awards since Throne of Glass was nominated in 2012, and the 2022 win went to her second Crescent City novel.

Which publisher bought Sarah J. Maas's debut novel Throne of Glass in March 2010, then ordered two more books?

Bloomsbury signed Maas after her story had already drawn a huge online following, and made it the first of its children's novels to be featured on NetGalley.

Which princess of the conquered kingdom of Eyllwe becomes Celaena Sardothien's closest friend in Throne of Glass?

Nehemia Ytger is a princess with a rebel heart, and she saves the assassin in the contest's final duel by summoning a long-dead queen's spirit to her side.

Which witch in Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series leads a coven of thirteen and stands as heir to her clan?

Manon Blackbeak kills with impunity at first, raised among witch clans that gut humans with iron nails and teeth, yet she slowly starts to question it.

Which gentle middle Archeron sister tends a small flower garden even when Feyre's family can barely eat?

Elain keeps hoping for a better future through the lean years, which is why she plants flowers the family has no money to spare for.

Which sharp-tongued emissary and friend of Tamlin loses an eye to the villain of A Court of Thorns and Roses?

Lucien grew up as the youngest of many brothers in the Autumn Court. His eye was carved out when Tamlin sent him to negotiate peace.

Which holiday do Feyre, Rhysand and their friends celebrate in the companion tale A Court of Frost and Starlight?

Winter Solstice is Feyre's first as High Lady, a hard-earned break while the Night Court rebuilds after the war. She and Rhysand take turns telling the story.

In which American city was the Throne of Glass author Sarah J. Maas born and raised?

New York was home from the start: Maas grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the adopted daughter of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father.

Which heroine of The Lord of the Rings inspired the heroism Sarah J. Maas gave the assassin Celaena Sardothien?

Éowyn lent the courage, but Maas also gave her assassin impatience, vanity and a fondness for shopping, books and fine dining.

On which story-sharing website did Sarah J. Maas post early chapters of the novel that became Throne of Glass?

FictionPress users made it one of the most popular stories on the site under its first title, Queen of Glass, before Maas took it down to publish it.

Which state's school board barred six Sarah J. Maas novels from every public school library and classroom in 2024?

Utah acted under a state law on sensitive material, which requires the removed titles to be thrown away rather than sold or donated.

Which cousin of Rhysand rescues Feyre when Tamlin locks her inside his manor in A Court of Mist and Fury?

Morrigan arrives after Feyre panics at being shut in, a reminder of her old prison. Feyre decides never to go back and joins Rhysand's inner circle.

In A Court of Thorns and Roses, which skeletal, robed faerie must answer Feyre truthfully once she traps it?

The Suriel belongs to no court, and the one Feyre snares tells her to stay close to Tamlin and stop asking questions, moments before monsters attack them both.

In Sarah J. Maas's Tower of Dawn, warriors deep in the southern continent's mountains soar on which legendary creatures?

Ruks carry the mountain warriors in a story that unfolds at the same time as Empire of Storms, which is why many fans tackle the two books side by side.

Which scheming master of the Assassin's Guild sends a young Celaena Sardothien on missions in the prequel novellas?

Arobynn Hamel dispatches her from remote islands to hostile deserts, and those missions leave her acting against his wishes and doubting her own allegiance.

Nesta Archeron and her friends Gwyn and Emerie revive the ways of which ancient band of female warriors?

The Valkyries become their model after Nesta decides other women could benefit from her combat training. Gwyn joins the sessions first, then Emerie.

Which Greek myth shaped Feyre, Rhysand and their Night Court home in A Court of Mist and Fury?

Hades and Persephone was one of several sources: the same book borrowed from Hansel and Gretel for the Weaver and from the Book of Exodus for a backstory.

Which musical's character Velma Kelly inspired the arrogance and fierceness of the assassin Celaena Sardothien?

Chicago opened on Broadway in 1975, and Velma Kelly's unapologetic confidence made Maas want to write a heroine who never said sorry for her talent.

Which Garth Nix novel does Sarah J. Maas credit, alongside The Hero and the Crown, for drawing her to fantasy?

Sabriel opened Nix's Old Kingdom series in 1995, and Maas pairs it with Robin McKinley's Newbery-winning novel as the books that set her on her path.

Which Japanese anime has Sarah J. Maas named as an influence, alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer and movie scores?

Sailor Moon sits on a list of influences that also takes in classical music, fitting for an author whose debut began with a film soundtrack.

At which college did Sarah J. Maas earn a creative writing degree in 2008 and meet her future husband?

Hamilton College is where Maas, as a freshman, met Josh Wasserman, a resident assistant in her dorm. She graduated magna cum laude and married him in 2010.

Which Fae crown prince in Crescent City is secretly Bryce Quinlan's half-brother, though they pose as cousins?

Ruhn Danaan gets Bryce released after the murders simply by sending word that she is half-Fae, then shadows her through the streets against her wishes.