After being lovingly peer pressured into reading the Throne of Glass series, I made the decision I was going to read it in Sarah J. Maas' recommended reading order. This was a very controversial decision, and I had multiple people blow up my TikTok when I started making videos about this choice about how I needed to read The Assassin's Blade first.
I made the right decision not to listen to my comments - if I had, I would not have read the rest of the series. In fact, I honestly wish I had not read this book at all.
Unlike the rest of the series, each of which is its own standalone story, The Assassin's Blade is a collection of prequel novellas explaining different things from Celaena's past that were only hinted at in the books so far. Each of the stories was set in the year before she was sent to the prison camp she's found in at the start of Throne of Glass - and honestly, that was one of the things I hated. I found it hard to believe that every single thing she referenced within the first two books happened in the same year, and to me, it cheapened a little of Celaena's mysterious and adventurous past. I wanted her to have been telling stories from across her entire life, and instead, it all fit into a small timeframe that honestly made her less mysterious. The stories made it clear she had been on plenty of missions by this point, so I just hated the idea that everything about her worth telling happened when she was 16.
Now, as much as I didn't enjoy the stories themselves, I did have the misfortune of falling in love with Sam Cortland. I think if he had been in the book more, I would have enjoyed it more. It was easy to understand why Celaena fell in love with him, and why his death destroyed her so much that she was still mourning him in Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. That being said, I still have a hard time believing he's dead. I have had multiple people tell me he is, however, for incredibly spoiler-y reasons, I will not give the entire theory here.
Overall, the material in The Assassin's Blade reads like bonus material. And that is because it originated as bonus material on Sarah J. Maas' website. It took away the mystery of who Celaena was and introduced characters who I am assuming will be relevant in the rest of the series. While it's nice to know their backstories, I think that a few words and inferences from the readers would have been better than forcing me to sit through this book.
So if anyone ever asks me what order should they read the Throne of Glass series in? I'm going to tell them to read The Assassin's Blade last. I don't think it's necessary to enjoy the series, and if they want the bonus content, it's better to save it for the end. That way it won't turn off any potential new readers by forcing them through this boring book first, and it won't take away from the plot by reading it third. Is this controversial? Probably, but with how disappointed I was by this book, I only want to spare other readers from the disappointment I had.