#and please keep me updated on your acotar journey!

[the-lonelybarricade]

NO LITERALLY wings?? shapeshifting?? all these courts?? who the hell is Tamlin and why is he always an asshole??

when I realized I was reading fanfic, I was asking my friend sooo many questions about ACOTAR and she basically helped me tie the lore to the fics. I discussed how you wrote the characters and their personalities and she's like "that's literally them" so it's safe to say SJM does a good job

im uhhh (little embarrassing) I love monsterfucking lmao. so I was looking through the tag and found the fic where Rhys was in his beast form (link!) and the reaping one (link!) and vampire one (link!). so yeah, I went in pretty strong reading your fics

Who the hell is Tamlin and why is he always an asshole? SENT ME bahaha

I cannot tell you how delighted I am that your first exposure to acotar was through beast!Rhys going feral for his wife 😌 I read through it today and I can imagine all those vauge snapshots of canon from Rhys's point of view must have been a little disorienting! But I'm also guilty of going into generic smut tags for monster smut, so I very much relate and I'm glad you accidentally stumbled across mine!

And as far as my smutty fics go, that's a good trio! The vampire Rhys fic is genuinely one of my favorites I've ever written 😂 Every time I reread it I'm like "wow I wish I could write like this again". I don't know what possessed LB that day but I'm glad she could be of service

I'm still so flattered that you've been talking about my fics with your friend, and I'm relieved your impressions of the characters lined up with canon! Do you think you'll ever end up reading the acotar books, or at this point have you just decided that you know too much? It must be so fun (and maybe strange?) that you can fangirl with your friend about feysand without actually having read the canon!

[alectology-archive]

SJ/M’s plagiarism from fiction/media

I’m hoping to make a comprehensive list of all the sources SJ/M has outright ripped off from in the past. Feel free to comment down below or send an ask if you can think of anything.

SJ/M has very clearly ripped off of GRRM and JRR Tolkien’s works. Same goes for a lot of Anne Bishop’s works, too, and a lot of her favourite authors - so if anyone’s read books SJ/M has stated that she likes please let me know.

Note that this post will keep getting updated as I discover more evidences of plagiarism. Also note that there is every possibility that some resemblances are purely accidental and/or unintentional. So take it with a grain of salt.

(?) indicates a questionable addition to the post.

T/HRONE OF GLASS

- “The Queen Who Was Promised” comes from GRRM’s “The Prince who was Promised” prophecy in ASOIAF, who also goes by Azor Ahai, who wields Lightbringer, and is also known as the Son of Fire. 

- “Aelin” is probably derived from “Aelin-uial” in the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. Additionally, it may have been derived from Aerin Dragon-Killer/Aerin Firehair from Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown, as SJ/M stated it was one of her favourite novels.

- “Fireheart” is the name of Corlath’s horse in The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, an author SJ/M admires.

- Empire of Storms, 2016, contains the infamous line ‘velvet-wrapped steel.’ And… so does Fifty Shades of Grey, in 2011: ‘Steel encased in velvet.’ 

- “Valg” comes from Terry Brooke’s The Sword of Shannara, another author SJ/M admires.

- “Hope. You cannot steal it, and you cannot break it." is awfully similar to the line from The Princess Bride about love "you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords". SJ/M has said that she loved the movie.

- The infamous “You could rattle the stars” is a ripoff of Treasure Planet’s “You’re gonna rattle the stars.”

- “To Whatever End” comes from The Two Towers where King Theoden says it just before the battle of Helm’s deep begins.

- “You bow to no one” is said by Aragorn at the end of the Return of the King after his coronation.

- Orynth has white walls and is surrounded by snow capped peaks. It has large white walls and bears an unusually striking resemblance to Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings.

- Aelin’s journey mirrors that of Aragorn. The lost heir to a powerful throne, spends years in the wilderness denying their claim, joins forces with the elf/faes to reclaim it and has an immortal elf/fae as consort.

- Nehemia names Aelin ‘Elentiya’, saying, “I give you this name to use with honour, to use when other names grow too heavy. I name you Elentiya, ‘Spirit That Could Not Be Broken’.” It sounds similar in tone and cadence to the way Galadriel describes the light of Earendil to Frodo. The name Elentiya even sounds Elvish, and sits discordant with the other naming conventions in Eyllwe.

- Manon gathers the witches to go to war by starting a series of beacons, lit all across Erilea, from snow-capped mountains to the woodlands - directly from the Return of the King when Pippin helps Gondor call for aid. 

- The wall defences of Orynth are completely sound, except there’s one more way in, through a grate in the water canal - another striking resemblance to a place in Lord of the Rings known as Helm’s Deep. There is even a scene where someone asks if there’s a secret passage the women and children can escape through.

- In EoS and ToD, Chaol is referred to as “Hand of the King”. In GoT the “Hand of the King” is a title given to the King’s advisor.

- The speech that Haldir gave when he arrived in Helm’s Deep, uniting the elven and human forces, is paraphrased at least three times in this book. Most notably when Manon brings the Crochan witches to fight alongside the humans. She actually says “Long ago, Crochans and humans fought side by side…”

- Kingsflame blossoms bloom only when a kingdom is at peace and the rightful monarch is on the throne. Also a very similar plot point to the White Tree of Gondor in The Lord of the Rings.

- The dam breaking in Anielle and flooding is based on the Isengard dam breaking in The Two Towers. 

- Chaol crosses the Narrow Sea to get to the southern continent. In GoT the Narrow Sea is the body of water between Westeros and Essos.

- The “Wyrdkeys” are the Silmarils. There are 3 Wyrdkeys and 3 Silmarils. They’re ancient and powerful stones forged by a being of great power (Feanor, who made the Silmarils, was the most powerful elf of all time). Everyone is fighting over them. And just like one Wyrdkey eventually ends up in the Terrasen Amulet, one of the Silmarils ends up in a necklace called the Nauglamir. They’re also all destroyed/lost at the end.

- Kingdom of Ash, page 543: “It was not arrows alone that had been fired, and now peppered the snow.But heads. Human heads, many still in their helmets.” In Return of the King, the orcs catapult severed heads (still in their helmets) over the walls of Minas Tirith.

- “What say you, Queen of Witches?”…….“I shall answer Terrasen’s call.” is a blatant rip-off of the scene where Aragorn approaches Theoden after the beacons are lit in the Return of the King.

- Rowan is referred to as, “My friend through many dangers.” which is exactly what Gandalf says about Shadowfax, his horse, in Lord of the Rings.

- The Land before Time, 1988: ‘Some things you see with your eyes. Other things you see with your heart.’

Crown of Midnight, SJM, 2011: ‘Some things you hear with your eyes. Other things you hear with your heart.’

- ‘Spirit that could not be broken’ is seen in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) and Throne of Glass (2011).

- It’s possible that SJ/M may have plagiarised Maria V Snyder’s Poison Study(?) (published 2005). Both books begin with the heroine being released from prison and being offered the choice to be freed by working for the very rulers who’d imprisoned them. Also, Valek - Yelena’s love interest - is the greatest and most feared assassin in the country and also acts as a mentor to Yelena much like Rowan does in Heir of Fire. However, I think this is a questionable addition despite similarities because SJ/M began writing Queen of Glass in 2003 and all the aforementioned aspects that are similar were already present in the version she published online.

- S/JM has saved a pin of Connor Kenway from the Assassin's Creed series (AC3) as Rowan and Lorcan on Pinterest. Towards the end of the series they started using hatchets as weapons, which is Connor's choice of weapon, outside of swords, and is used heavily in art which features him. Aelin's assassin suit from the earlier books also had a blade built into it, which was very similar to the hidden blade the assassins in Assassin's Creed use.

Further reading: Why not everyone liked Connor’s characteristic traits being ripped off: https://dragonidk.tumblr.com/post/614614548495859712/i-went-through-sjms-tog-pinterest-board-the-other

Further reading: An article comparing EoS’s ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: https://thebookfinch.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/review-empire-of-storms-by-sarah-j-maas-in-which-we-discuss-plagiarism/

A/COTAR

- “Prythian”, the A/COTAR world, is taken directly from Anne Bishop’s Daughter of the Blood.

- The Archeron sisters could be based off the painting “The Acheson Sisters” by John Singer Sargent which features three women.

- The Illyrians could have been based off of the Eyriens from Anne’s Bishop’s Black Jewels series. Both are warrior races with bat wings that use a war blade to fight with. They also both completely refuse their women any right to fight and consider losing their wings to be the absolute worst thing that could happen to them. 

- Feyre tells Tamlin, “The sun was shining when I left you.” which is basically Paris saying, “The sun was shining when your wife left you.” in the movie Troy (2004)

- Rhys proclaims, “Light can be found even in the darkest of hells,” Which is really close to Dumbledore saying (in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

- Daenerys: “We’re going to leave the world better than we found it.” 

ACOWAR: “Leave this world… a better place than how you found it.”

- “Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.” is a variation of “Pity the living and above all, those who live without love,” said by Dumbledore in the Deathly Hallows.

- A Dance of Dragons, George R.R. Martin, 2011: ‘He is fire made flesh, she thought, and so am I.’

ACOMAF, 2016: ‘Fire - he reminded her of fire made flesh.’

- SJ/M may have also plagiarised The Chronicles of Prydain for ACOTAR wherein Prythian is altered to Prydain and The Cauldron is derived from The Black Cauldron. This may be especially true considering the fact that SJ/M has expressed her love for the books and stated it on Twitter. She also went on to mention that she got the name for Prythian from those books. Similarities to the cauldron can also be seen in the fact that SJ/M’s Cauldron can transform humans into fae while Alexander's Black Cauldron is able to resurrect the dead.

!!!! Further Reading: Noticeable similarities between ACOTAR and The Chronicles of Prydain series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Prydain

- Possible plagiarism(?) of Titanic: Rose is Feyre, Cal is Tamlin, Jack is Rhys. The story is similar - the girl is involved with a guy who seems nice enough, but turns out to be abusive etc. There are similar incidents of the table being chucked across the room/and the study being destroyed. Then you also have the girl being told the other guy isn't nice and she should stay away from him, but then it ends up being the other way round. The guy bosses her about, making her decisions for her and ends up dying for her later on.

- Rhapsody by Laura Thalassa and A/COTAR have awfully similar tropes. Both involve faeries, in both the main female lead leaves her barbaric boyfriend to go with the dark, elegant Fae boyfriend who came to collect a debt.

Further reading: A conversation in comparing The Vampire Diaries(?) to ACOTAR:  https://crescentcitysux.tumblr.com/post/618622356795064320/iolanthepeverells-pokeyfaes

Further reading: Similarities between Shatter Me and the ACOTAR trilogy: https://discountalien-pancake.tumblr.com/post/174823303683/dont-take-this-as-an-attack-im-just

C/RESCENT CITY

- Similarities between the plot of Darkfever by Karen Marie Morning (an author S/JM likes) and Crescent City’s plot: https://polysorscha.tumblr.com/post/183661492639/funny-thing-i-came-across-the-crescent-city

- The Princes of Hel might be from the Seven Princes of Hell demonology (some ancient writings trying to classify demons in christianity). [MINOR INFRACTION]

Sources:

- @sjm-exposed 

- @soartfullydone 

- @falstaffing for “My friend through many dangers.”

- https://readatmidnight.com/2018/10/27/book-rant-kingdom-of-ash/

- strangestoryteller.com

- https://camryndaytona.com/2019/08/sarah-j-maas-and-jrr-tolkien

- @rougeam for “fire made flesh”

- @sylphene for Aerin firehair 

- @sylphene and @paperbacktrash  for The Chronicles of Prydain.

- An anon for the Laura Thalassa comparison

- @hireath24 for the Crown of Midnight quote and “spirit that could not be broken.”

- @pokeyfaes and @iolanthepeverells for The Vampire Diaries comparison

- A reddit thread for the Titanic comparison 

- An anon for the Eyrians

- An anon and @dragonidk for the Assassin’s Creed addition

- @longsightmyth for Fireheart

[austennerdita2533]

Hey! It’s former ACOTAR anon-just wanted to say that ended up reading the entire Addicted Series and Calloway sisters series that you recommended and I LOVED IT. I think I ended up reading the whole series in like 2? weeks (granted I was sick so I didn’t have anything else to do). But i loved ever single one of the couples so much-I would say my favorite one was probably Coballoway just because I relate to Rose and I loved their dynamic but LiLo is such a close second like I adore them so much. But all 3 are actually soulmates I loved it so so much thanks for recommending it!!

I have a recommendation for you if you haven’t already read it-I don’t know if it’s your style though but you should check out The Atlas Six I’m currently reading it and it’s SO good. It’s an adult dark academia story-the characters are amazing (you get all 6 POVs), the plot is amazing, all the characters are morally grey, and the magic system and world are incredible. Plus there’s so many ships to choose from-I highly recommend it! It’s not a finished series though I think it will either be 2 or 3 books and only the first one is published.

But anyway hope all is well with you!! Sorry I’ve been MIA lol I feel like I want to keep you updated on my book journey because you convincing me to read ACOTAR is the reason I got back into reading after 10 years so I want to include you even if it’s books you never read.

Hello again, nonnie! So lovely to hear from you!

I'm ecstatic that you enjoyed the Addicted series. I had a feeling you would. Once you start reading you can't help but tear through it. The character development and dynamics are just great, aren't they? The authors are good at shaping the narrative around all their emotional arcs. Coballoway is hands down my favorite ship from that series, even though I adore them all too. I'm such a dork that of course I'm obsessed with how Rose and Connor are always sniping at each other in English AND French. I love to be stimulated intellectually so I relate to that aspect of their dynamic a lot. Plus, I'm a bit of a control freak like Rose and have trouble letting people in so that I'm known, vulnerable, so her journey resonates with me.

Also, I don't know if you know this but there's a spinoff series from that one which follows LiLo's, Coballoway's, and Raisy's kids. It's called Like Us and I think there are another 12 or 13 books? (Not sure how many of these are novellas.) I haven't read it yet but I know I have at least 5 of the books on my Kindle, impatiently waiting to be read.

Oh, and before I forget, you might enjoy the VIP Series by Kristen Callihan as well. It's another new adult-ish contemporary romance series that is character-driven. It follows the members of a famous rock band called Kill John. I like it a lot because it's all about music and hidden demons and human connection. Lots of steamy scenes, too!

The fourth book, Exposed, was just published on July 13th. I'm reading it as we speak.

Thanks so much for the book rec, btw!I keep seeing content for The Atlas Six popping up places but I don't know much about it. You saying that it has a dark academia storyline is an added hook for me. I'm intrigued!

Okay, so I just read the summary because curiosity got the better of me...and magical academicians?? Caretakers of lost knowledge?? This sounds freaking amazing! It's only $3.99 on Kindle rn so I feel fully justified in buying it. (Let's be real, I have no impulse control with books whatsoever. 😂 ) I think I'm going to start this one later today actually. I'm super excited! So thanks again for bringing it to my attention.

Anyway, I hope you've been enjoying your summer (winter, if you're in the southern hemisphere). I'm wishing you all the happy things!

Please, PLEASE drop by whenever you want to talk books or literature or whatever. I love discussion. Nothing delights me more than being kept abreast of what people are reading, doesn't matter if I've already read it or not, or if we have different opinions about an author or some content because that's what makes it all the more interesting. Recs are more than welcome, too. I can never have enough of those. I'm greedy that way, I guess haha.

My ask and inbox are always open! 💜💜💜

[moononastring]

Hello!! I’m the anon whose friend is currently reading ACOTAR haha.

So update: she finished the first book!

1) She’s still a Lucien stan. I told her about Ginger Nut Boy in vague terms and she cackled and has been exclusively referring to him as such 😂

2) She’s figured out Rhys is the other romantic choice. She asked me if she’s supposed to like him by the end of the book because she does. She wants to learn more about his character before she decides anything, but she said she thinks there’s a lot more happening with him beneath the surface. She’s right, of course, but I haven’t confirmed. Overall, I think she’s more curious than anything. She’s also disappointed that Lucien isn’t the other love interest, I think she’s lowkey holding out hope that she’ll be wrong hahaha

3)She’s lowkey annoyed that Tamlin did nothing for Feyre UtM. She ranted about that a lot 😂 AND she can’t stop laughing about how Feyre was about to die and in immediate danger, saw Amarantha, and went “oh she ain’t cute” despite everything else going on hahaha

This has been your update! She’s starting the next book soon 😊

HAHA YESSSS. Ginger Nut King stans unite ✊🏼I loveeeee it!!! I hope she always and continues to love Lucien because my boy deserves it and I'm sooooooo interested to see what she thinks of him in the future books! As for Rhys...well, ain't she in for a show?????? HAHA. ACOMAF is obviously going to be the best experience because it's such a good book. I can't wait to see what she thinks of everything then!! Tamlin was fucken useless and she should rant about it lol. But yesss. Feyre was like "oh evil? well she's plain so whatever" like girl. she will kill you shut up XDDD Please do keep me updated!! I definitely want to know what her ACOMAF journey is like 👀