A Court of Thorns and Roses

Feyre returns to the cottage where she and her family have lived in poverty for the last eight years. Feyre’s father was once a wealthy merchant but lost the family fortune and had his kneecaps broken by creditors. Ashamed and permanently injured, he spends his days making small wooden carvings. Feyre’s eldest sister, Nesta, is vain, bitter, and unhelpful. The middle sister, Elain, prefers tending her flower garden to helping with chores. Feyre, the youngest, is the sole provider for the family. Nesta and Elain argue over what to purchase after Feyre sells the doe and wolf skins. Frustrated, Feyre remembers promising their mother on her deathbed to take care of the family. Promises are sacred in Feyre’s world, as only the promise of the High Fae, powerful humanoid faeries, enforces the ancient treaty between faeries and humans.

Feyre reflects on the decorations she painted around the cottage, and she dreams of marrying her sisters off well and becoming a painter. Feyre is illiterate, as her mother neglected her education before she died. Nesta wants to marry Tomas Mandray, the woodcutter’s son. Feyre tells Nesta that they cannot afford a dowry. Angry, Nesta taunts Feyre for her loveless sexual relationship with Isaac Hale, a wealthy young villager, saying no one cares about Feyre. Feyre’s father says that the family needs hope to cling to, but Feyre is dismissive.

Feyre, Nesta, and Elain go to the village market to sell the hides. The sisters are confronted by an acolyte of the Children of the Blessed, a zealous group obsessed with the High Fae who reject the belief that faeries are evil. Nesta insults the acolyte and waves her iron bracelet, meant to repel faeries.

A mercenary buys the hides for a high price in an act of goodwill. Feyre assumes the mercenary must make a lot of money, as the mercenary is so close to the border wall. The mercenary describes several violent encounters with faeries, shows off her scars, and warns Feyre that more faeries are starting to cross the wall and attack humans. Feyre gives her sisters some money and leaves to meet Isaac for a tryst. Later, during dinner at the cottage, an enormous beast bursts through the door.

Feyre recognizes the beast as a faerie “as large as a horse” (33) with elk horns, “golden fur,” and a combination of lion, wolf, and bear features. The faerie, later revealed to be Tamlin, demands to know who murdered his friend, another faerie in the form of a wolf. Feyre admits that she killed the wolf, and she asks that her family be spared. Tamlin tells Feyre that Feyre must either live the rest of her life in Prythian or be killed, according to the ancient treaty. Feyre questions why he gives her the option of living at all, but she believes him because it is said that faeries cannot lie. Feyre’s father tries to negotiate, but Tamlin threatens him. Feyre agrees to go live at Tamlin’s estate. Feyre warns her father to spend the remaining money from the hides wisely and to ask Isaac to teach him how to hunt. Feyre tells Nesta not to marry Tomas Mandray, because Tomas’s father abuses his mother. Feyre’s father tells her to leave and never return, saying she was “always too good for here” (41). Feyre follows the faerie outside.

Tamlin gives Feyre a white mare, and they travel toward the border wall. Feyre contemplates her decision, worries for her family, and wonders what life will be like in Prythian. Feyre asks Tamlin what his name is, but he refuses to tell her. Feyre smells a “metallic tang” and falls asleep. She wakes up two days later as they reach Tamlin’s estate, realizing that what she smelled was magic.

Feyre is terrified and in awe of Tamlin’s estate in the Spring Court of Prythian, where it is always springtime. She feels too weak and hungry to risk escape since faeries are much stronger and faster than humans. Feyre enters and finds the dining room, where she sees Tamlin change from his beast-form to his humanoid form. Tamlin is one of the High Fae, the faerie world’s “ruling nobility: beautiful, lethal, and merciless” (50). Other types of faerie are known as “lesser faeries.” Tamlin wears a masquerade mask decorated with emeralds. He invites Feyre to sit and eat, but she refuses, believing that the faerie food will be lethal to her. Tamlin explains to Lucien, another High Fae and Tamlin’s emissary, that Feyre killed their friend Andras in the form of a wolf. Lucien also wears a mask, in the shape of a fox. Lucien taunts Feyre but stops when Tamlin scolds him. A faerie named Alis escorts Feyre to her room to change. As she leaves, Feyre hears Lucien tell Tamlin that they should kill her and abandon their plan, but Tamlin insists that Feyre remain unharmed.

In her lavish room, Feyre feels guilty about living in luxury while her family remains poor, and she worries that she is being tricked. Alis tells Feyre to be careful and try to settle in. Feyre notices that all of the faeries of the Spring Court wear masks.

Feyre returns to the dining room. Lucien reveals Tamlin’s name when he teases him for his diminished flirting ability. Feyre wonders how old the immortal Lucien and Tamlin really are. Feyre begs Tamlin to let her return to care for her family. Tamlin assures Feyre that he has already arranged for her family’s care. Tamlin says that Feyre can leave the estate, but he threatens to stop taking care of her family if she crosses the wall out of Prythian. Feyre gives in and eats, surprised to find the faerie food similar to human food. Lucien questions Feyre sarcastically about her love life. Tamlin excuses Feyre to rest, and she wonders at his generosity. Tamlin explains that Feyre is too insignificant for him to kill. Ashamed, Feyre leaves.

The next morning, Feyre wonders if some loophole in the treaty might allow her to return to her sisters and fulfill her promise to her mother. Alis gets caught in a trap Feyre set the night before and good-naturedly scolds Feyre for thinking that she could fight or escape a faerie. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin’s protection is limited. Feyre explores the estate and admires the paintings. Feyre asks Tamlin why Andras crossed the wall on the day she killed him. Tamlin explains that there is a “blight” on magic in Prythian, and Andras was searching for a cure. The blight affixed the masks to everyone’s faces after a party 50 years ago, and this is the reason why the Spring Court is largely deserted. Feyre wonders if the blight is dangerous to humans.

Feyre wanders the estate gardens and decides to convince Lucien to help her escape, since he seems to detest her. Feyre steals a knife from dinner that night and contemplates Lucien, noting that one of his eyes is false and his face is scarred. Lucien notices Feyre looking at his sword, and Tamlin mentions that Feyre likes to hunt. Feyre insists she only hunted out of necessity. Feyre remembers her dream of being a painter. Tamlin asks Feyre what her mother told her about faeries, and Feyre explains that her mother died when she was eight. Tamlin apologizes, and Feyre storms out.

The next day, Tamlin invites Feyre to go riding, but she declines. Instead, Feyre follows Lucien to the stables and accepts his invitation to hunt as he patrols the estate. Lucien is filling in for Andras, who usually patrolled the grounds, and Feyre apologizes for unknowingly killing his friend. Lucien tells Feyre that he cannot persuade Tamlin to let her go, guessing at her reason for riding with him. Lucien tells Feyre that Tamlin is more powerful than regular High Fae. Tamlin can shape-shift, which is why his court wore animal masks to the doomed party 50 years ago when the blight began. Lucien reveals that the blight started with a mysterious “she.” Lucien tells Feyre that Tamlin replaced his eye with a magic one after he lost it, but he doesn’t explain further. Feyre asks if there are any faeries who will actually answer her questions, and Lucien tells her about the Suriel, a kind of faerie who is lesser but still very dangerous. Lucien senses something in the woods and warns Feyre to keep still and stare ahead.

Feyre feels a coldness and hears whispered threats, but she keeps her gaze straight ahead. Once the danger passes, Lucien explains that they just encountered a Bogge, a terrifying, lethal kind of faerie that becomes real only if acknowledged. Tamlin and Lucien banter amiably.

At dinner, Lucien tells Tamlin about the Bogge. Tamlin leaves dinner immediately to find and kill the evil creature. Later, as Feyre watches from her bedroom window for Tamlin’s return, she notices her father standing in the garden below.

Feyre hurries to her father in the garden but is stopped by Tamlin in the corridor, just returned from unsuccessfully hunting the Bogge. Tamlin tells Feyre to look again, and what she believed was her father is revealed to be a puca, a kind of lesser faerie that lures its human prey by imitating their desires. Feyre begs again to go home, telling Tamlin about her promise to her dying mother. Tamlin insists that by staying in Prythian, Feyre fulfilled her promise because Tamlin made sure her father and sisters are “fed and comfortable” (98). Feyre asks why there are no sentries at the estate, and Tamlin claims that they are unneeded as long as he is home, and so they are patrolling his borders. Tamlin expresses regret that the blight has allowed deadlier faeries to roam free.

Over the next few days, Tamlin tracks the Bogge, and Feyre continues to hunt with Lucien, though she refuses to kill anything. Lucien worries about Tamlin, and Lucien explains that Tamlin is disturbed by his failure to keep the deadly lesser faeries out of the Spring Court. Feyre has a nightmare in which she holds Andras’s human-form skin instead of his wolf skin. She wakes and feels regret for the murder.