A Court of Thorns and Roses characters

Also known as Feyre

Appears from the start

The narrator, a nineteen-year-old huntress who keeps her impoverished family fed by poaching in the frozen woods near a mortal village, south of the wall that separates the human lands from the faerie realm of Prythian. Hardened, illiterate, and fiercely practical, she resents and fears the faeries her people were taught to hate. Self-taught at survival and quietly in love with color and painting, she carries a childhood promise to her dying mother to look after the family that rarely thanks her. When she kills a wolf in the snow that proves to be a disguised faerie, she sets in motion everything that follows.

Appears from the start

Feyre's eldest sister, proud, sharp-tongued, and cold. Bitter over the poverty into which their once-wealthy family has fallen, she refuses menial work and clashes constantly with Feyre. Beneath the hardness lies a fierce, stubborn will and a refusal to bow to anyone.

Appears from the start

Feyre's gentle middle sister, soft-spoken and kind, who loves her garden and dreams of an ordinary, comfortable life. Warmer than Nesta but just as unsuited to hardship, she offers Feyre quiet affection amid the family's decline.

First appears in chapter 5

A powerful faerie who comes to the family's cottage in the shape of an enormous beast to demand a life in payment for the wolf Feyre killed, then takes her across the wall instead of killing her. He is the High Lord of the Spring Court, one of the rulers of Prythian, able to shift between a man's form and a monstrous one. Golden-haired and green-eyed, he wears a jeweled mask he cannot remove, a sign of a blight troubling his lands. Gruff and guarded at first, he proves unexpectedly gentle, giving Feyre freedom of his estate rather than treating her as a captive.

First appears in chapter 6

A red-haired faerie of the Spring Court with a mechanical golden eye, Tamlin's close friend and emissary. Quick with a barbed remark and openly contemptuous of Feyre as a mortal intruder at first, he thaws toward her over time. He carries old scars and a hard past from another court, along with a wary loyalty to Tamlin.

First appears in chapter 9

A faerie servant in Tamlin's household who looks after Feyre. Brisk and cautious, she gradually softens, warning Feyre about the court's dangers and slowly revealing pieces of the history and curse that Tamlin refuses to discuss.

First appears in chapter 16

The High Lord of the Night Court, reputed to be the most powerful and most feared ruler in Prythian. He first appears at a Spring Court festival, catching Feyre where she should not be and unsettling her with his beauty, cruelty, and casual menace. Dangerous and unreadable, he seems to serve hidden purposes of his own.

First appears in chapter 33

The self-styled queen who rules from Under the Mountain, having seized control over the High Lords of Prythian and spread the blight afflicting their courts. Cruel, vain, and immensely powerful, she keeps the seven High Lords in thrall and delights in others' suffering. She is the source of the curse laid on Tamlin and the Spring Court.