#reading acotar for the first time

[storieschats]

I really loved the high lord's meeting and poor Tamlin!

Note: Check out previous reactions here. Feel free to comment, reblog, like and talk to be about books whenever!😊

Book 3 Page 506 of 703

What's happened so far: So we had the high lords meeting, we walked around the Dawn Court and finally we went to the human kingdom because the wall fell down and we need somewhere to put the refugees so we went to Elaine's old fiancé for help.

What I'm thinking so far: Ok I'm kinda linking it now. In this book series, I'm more interested in the politics and action stuff than the romance, so as the last few pages have been more about that, I'm more interested.

Positive points:

I loved the whole meeting with the high lords, getting to know them all and getting to know everyone’s personalities was super fun.

We have more interesting characters! Kallias and Viviane (from the winter court) are awesome. Helion (high lord of day) seems interesting.

I really enjoyed finding out the gossip about everyone: Thesan and his lover, Kallias and Vivienne's super cute love story and the whole Helion/Beron(high lord autumn)/Beron's wife situation was super juicy too.

Jurian is good, I knew it, I knew it!!!

Negative points:

OMG the night court acting all superior and then they are the only ones to create physical conflicts and not 1 but 3!!! The only ones!!!!

Feyre thinking and I quote ‘Yesterday, we had been ourselves - open and friendly and caring’????????? What???? Where?????? What are you talking about???

Tamlin being good is making me feel bad for him. Up until now I was kind of making fun of the fact that Feyre was all spying and vindictive, but now I'm starting to feel really bad for him. And I don't like it. I'd rather he was horrible. And I even think it would make more sense in the story. Because I don’t think we are supposed to feel bad about him, like I don’t think is intentional.

4. Nesta I love you so much. Forever!

Stars so far: ⭐⭐⭐

Predictions: ok we're going into battle now aren't we?! We'll be losing but then suddenly there will be armies to save the day, either the armies of Kallias or Beron or the missing queen’s.

[blacktreacle22]

Shut up this was so funny sad!! It made me go back to when I started reading and hated them

Elain: Why does Feyre always come home so loudly after hunting?

Nesta: So everyone knows that no one helps her out in the house.

Feyre, in the distance: *slams the carcass of a deer onto the table*

[jahelyden]

ACOWAR Cassian would have killed ACOSF Cassian.

ACOWAR Cassian would never have let ACOSF Cassian treat Nesta how he treated her.

ACOWAR Cassian would have stand up for Nesta every time in ACOSF.

[browneyedartist01]

I like how Freye just assumed Ryhsand didn't touch her anywhere else but her waist, even when she saw how he could magically fixed the paint in seconds of touching it.

[romanticatheartt]

Lucien's color skin

Recently, I've been seeing discourse around Lucien's heritage/skin color and it seems artists in this fandom can't agree on one skin color and feature (like archeron sisters' hair color💀) so I wanted to give my two cent on this, based on canon and sjm herself.

Feature:

So back in 2017, which is the year acowar was released, Charlie Bowater was commissioned by sjm to do a coloring book for acowar, mentioned in this post that sjm imagined Helion as Persian/Iranian.

And normally Persian feature contain strong, straight nose and most of the time with a bump at the top of the nose, definitely tick, black brows (unibrow are a symbol for Iranians and if you look at their traditional art style most of women and men have unibrow), and cat like eyes or as Charlie said tilted eyes.

I've seen so many artist draw Helion/Lucien with Black feature, which are not the same as Persian feature.

note: In these arts, there is a huge chance that they have the wrong skin color due to the belief that lighter skin color, the better or more beautiful. The classic racism... This idea isn't that potent in Iran anymore.

This is what Helion looks like based on that post and how sjm pictured him:

Thick brows and strong nose. It was also mentioned in the books that he uses kohl for his eyes which imo gave him away as middle-eastern.

Skin color:

Now this is what we have on Helion's skin color in acowar ~ chapter 43:

A golden cuff of an upright serpent encircled one powerful bicep, offsetting his near-glowing dark skin, and a radiant crown of golden spikes—the rays of the sun, I realized—glistened atop his onyx hair.

Acosf ~ chapter 41:

His dark brown skin gleamed over the strong muscles of his bare thighs and legs, ... ... and the spiked golden crown atop his shoulder-length black hair.

And for Lucien which we're gonna use the description in acowar ~ chapter 47 and not the one in acotar since sjm has retcon it:

Look at him. The nose is the same, the smile. The voice. Even Lucien’s skin is darker than his brothers’. A golden brown compared to their pale coloring.

Let's see Persian's skin range color:

Helion being dark skinned can mean many range of skin color. But sjm saying he is a middle eastern, it narrows down his skin color pretty well.

White-passing?

I also wanted to address why he's not white-passing since there's no such thing as white-passing. Even if Lucien's skin were white as paper his feature would've been pretty obvious. Do you call a black person who has Albinism, white or they're white-passing? It is clear that they have black parents/heritage but because of their condition their skin might not be the same dark skin as their parents.

The same can be said about Lucien. If his skin was the same as his brothers', his face would've betray him anyway but still sjm retcon it and turned his skin to golden brown. All the more reason that Beron is aware of him not being is blood son.

note: people are free to have their own interpretations ofc but I tried to prove this based on everything we have at hand :)

[highladyjane]

The assault at Sangravah happened in early ACOMAF (before Elain's existence even came into picture for Azriel - 3 days before he even got to meet Feyre)... So I don't get how G and Az are supposed to be mates when he's had all that time to feel something?

There's the parallel of Rhys' father feeling his mating bond snap into place the moment he met his mother being assaulted.

"One look at her, and he knew what she was..." (ACOMAF, ch. 16)

Or Rhys himself feeling the bond when Feyre was being tortured by Amarantha...

"And I knew as I picked up that knife to kill her... I knew right then what you were. I knew right then that you were my mate." (ACOMAF, ch. 54)

Or Cassian simply meeting Nesta. "Say what I've guessed from the moment we met" he breathed. What I knew from the first time I kissed you. What became unbreakable between us on Solstice night." (ACOSF, ch. 62)

Bonus from Nesta: “‘From the moment I met you, I wanted you more than reason. From the moment I saw you in my house, you were all I could think about. And it terrified me. No one had ever held such power over me."

Or even Lucien after Elain was Made and maybe even while being thrown into the Cauldron... I don't even need a quote for them, but even Lucien knew and has tried seeking Elain out after the incident.

It's stated in the books and shown again and again that it's the males who are deeply affected by the mating bond. That they can know from the moment they meet. They all in one way or another sought after the females. Even Nesta and Feyre felt something before they knew or opened themselves up to it. And since they all met - They. Couldn't. Stay. Away.

But there's like... no hint of it from Az after stumbling upon G? Like he just literally stumbles upon her - never actually even actively seeking her out through all those years? He hasn't even actively tried to stay away? He's just... *crickets*

It's been Gwyn making noises and attracting his attention through all their scenes together. It was Gwyn asking for dagger lessons. It was 'Gwyn' making Az the new ribbon (whatever that means). And it's Az's shadows reacting to Gwyn, not Az himself. But there's no real hint that Gwyn feels anything romantic for him. There's barely any interactions between them without linking it to her assault in Sangravah and her growth from it.

Besides Az's shadows reacting to G, and that ribbon moment that everyone deems so pivotal when Az realises what it means for the Valkyries (that he's had a hand in training) and maybe even reflects upon Gwyn's character development and therefore what the ribbon means for Gwyn - which made me feel proud too, and that's how I interpreted it - but I can't see an undeniable sign of it being a mating bond anywhere.

I thought at first that mayhaps he was giving her space because of the assault, but then the BC came and he went "It was too late to bank without appearing like he was running," and then "He wouldn't go so far as to call Gwyn a friend,". (ACOSF, Azriel's Bonus Chapter)

Let's not even mention the part where Gwyn was actually in danger (no matter how capable she was at that point), while Cassian was going ballistic at Nesta being in danger, but Az is all like "Let's go save Eris". Eris who both he and Cassian hates. Eris who Az himself nearly killed during the HLs' pre-war meeting (before he exhibited actual mate behaviour and sought and risked his life to save Elain who's not even his mate). But no, he gave just as much or even less action and reaction about Gwyn as Tamlin gave when Feyre was UTM.

And I was like...

How are they mates? Where's the mate behaviour every male - mated or not - in Prythian has exhibited throughout the books? Why did I keep seeing things about them being mates and endgame?

The only hint between them that I could even begin to consider it from is the second to last sentence in Az's BC.

"But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly."

But I basically have the same interpretation about that as this post from @merymoonbeam. (Although I'm still neutral about the lightsinger theory, it's the most interesting take.)

Because again.

Why hasn't Azriel felt/shown anything or actively sought her out or even actively stayed away if he's known Gwyn since Sangravah?

If they're mates, shouldn't he have felt and shown something - like that glow - and Gwyn be the one to snap him out of his 'love' for Mor before he even had the chance to meet Elain? If he's just lonely and jealous of his brothers having mates then... Why has he barely noticed or sought out Gwyn who's supposed to be his mate?

What, he had to wait until his shadows reacted to her to even think about her?

I'm not an expert at analysing things - I wouldn't even say I'm good at interpreting things especially when I've got my rose-tinted glasses on, so/but I'm always open to being wrong and changing my mind accordingly.

But/so convince me with actual canon and not just your biased opinions, delusions, self-insertions, or ships.

[fourteentrout]

Listen I get that tamsand is mainly a crack ship but what I can't get over is that like Rhys does almost have like...not an obsession with Tamlin, but like an inability to let him go or something. He is on the opposite end of the continent. Why does he take it upon himself to be the one to visit Tamlin consistently to try to get him to be an active ruler again. Like of all people, why did he have to be the one to coordinate the Summer Guards being sent to Spring, why is he the one always visiting, even if nobody else would think of it, why couldn't he just get someone to do this stuff for him. Like given their history and their actual physical distance it just is a little odd, I guess.

[galaxyofstars]

honestly the debate about whether feyre was qualified or not to be high lady wouldn't be such a big deal if the story stopped trying to frame her as the best at everything. it's ok if the only reason she is initially made high lady was to make her rhys' equal in the sense that he does not hold more power over her, and technically, legally, cannot command her, or force her to do anything. she's his mate, so he feels comfortable doing that very early on into the relationship. it's a statement of his love and trust of her, or rather, his respect of her as her own person. but as @ofbreathandflame elaborates on here, it doesn't actually say anything about feyre herself, and to claim that she has done something to earn being high lady causes problems and conflict, because, well, she didn't. she didn't earn the title at all. there are qualities she possesses that may give her the potential to be a good leader, but she is not there already.

and then of course there's the problem that even if the story focused on rhys 'making feyre his equal', there's still confusion, because she fundamentally is not his equal. and it's never elaborated on because sjm can't without highlighting the contradictory nature of it all, but rhys did not arbitrarily become high lord because he earned the support and was sworn in. it's not clear when a high lord begins his reign officially, but it's implied that it starts when the magic 'chooses' them. the magic chose rhys, not feyre, and that fact will always mean that he holds some level of power over her. and that's a whole other topic with no real solution, but i don't think it would be as much as a problem if the story didn't try so hard to insist that that dynamic did not exist at all.

and to be clear im not trying to criticise or shit on feyre, this is more in defense of her than anything. girl deserves better than being lied to.

[velarisdusk]

i would give anything in the world to have the Nesta Eris dance animated…… i need to see it

[storieschats]

I feel like we are following the least interesting people on the ACOTAR universe?😂 Why can't we see Tarquin's history?

Note: Check out previous reactions here. Feel free to comment, reblog, like and talk to be about books whenever!😊

Book 3 Page 403 of 703

What's happened so far: We've had a battle in the summer court and now we're going to have the meeting of the high lords.

What I'm thinking so far: Out of all the 100-page blocks so far this is the one I've enjoyed the most and I'm excited to get to the book and start reading the part about the meeting.

Positive points:

The battle part was nice, I can't believe I'm saying this as someone who tends to love long descriptions and slice of life stuff but we really needed some action and some adventure and the descriptions were good!

Every time we see another court I have to mention it and oh my god a dawn court sounds so beautiful!!! And with that I think we've seen them all!!!

Tarquin, summer court high lord is such an interesting character. I'll go into more detail about how this is good and bad on the negative points.

A bit more history of the continent and what other species live here with Nephelle's story!

OMG they genuinely want to try diplomacy at this meeting instead of lashing out like they normally do. So proud of them!

Nesta, Amren never leave me my darlings.

Negative points:

Honestly I loved seeing Tarquin again but what it made me realise is that I just want to get out of Freye and Rhysand's story and into the story of all these other characters who seem much more interesting but the book forces me to be inside the head of this twenty-something girl who has an almost impossible to believe lack of curiosity about everything around her ugh.

Okay, apparently the other high lords hate Rhysand because he acts horribly to protect his true identity as a good person and until a few moments ago to hide the fact that there was a good city in the night court. Okay, but we're supposed to feel that he's right about this, but he's not... Being good on the inside counts for absolutely nothing, it counts for god maybe, but for the rest of the world I mean, what you are is what you say and what you do. If you do horrible things but you feel bad, well who cares?! You are a horrible person. I hope they don't make the other high lords automatically forgive everything and feel sorry for poor Rhysand (I don't even dislike him, I just dislike the fact that the book is trying so hard to excuse him).

Ugh why do we have to do this Mor vs Nesta tension??? Why??? They don’t have to be best friends but I think the narrative going out of its way to pine them against each other is silly.

More pain for Lucien fun...

Stars so far: ⭐⭐

Predictions: The high lords will soon forgive Rhysand (except for like Beron and someone else who will be seen as the bad guys), Jurian will show up at the meeting and we'll find out that he's actually good, Lucien will save the missing queen and bring her armies!

[acourtofquestions]

“To the stars who listen, and the dreams that are answered.” “Still the image haunted his dreams; a lovely girl gazing at the stars, and the stars who gazed back.” “You could rattle the stars, if only you dared.”

credits: art Jana Runn (JanaRunneck), quotes Sarah J. Maas

[roselensedeyes]

the tension between feyre and rhys, nesta and cassian, and elain and azriel before they get together makes me go insane

[browneyedartist01]

Me the during the Ryhsand explaining what happened between him and Tamlin

Forgive me for trusting a fae to tell the whole truth,

Granted, there is some truth in lies, but I find it funny how anti tamlin fans think he was tricking freye the whole time, while Ryhsand has proven time and time again that he is willing to do anything to keep his ⅓ of his kingdom safe, including lying to Freye.

I believe Tamlin's family fridged killed Ryhsand nameless mother and sister, I believe Tamlin was forced to tell his father and brothers (after all we know he was younger most likely in his 20's) and was forced to go with the family... But other than that?

Everything Sarah has told me up till this point tells me that Rhys probably didn't care if Tamlin's mother was also killed that night and they just were't able to reach Tamlin before he was awake, and the only reason why he didn't try to finish the job, after Tamlin killed his father, was because Rys knew he had to stay alive to protect the ⅓ of his court and starting fights with Tamlin wouldn't end well.

Ryhsand isn't noble, he drops his morals like Freye drops her critical thinking.

It's sad freye just jumped to the conclusion that Tamlin murdered Rhys family (though he did have a part in the mattered) It's almost as if she never actually knew him or she didn't care to learn.

[samhatch]

ACOMAF Chapter 1 - 5 Thoughts

First time reader here!

The algorithm has fed me down the pro-Tamlin pipeline, and while I'm not mad about that, I will try to be objective when giving my thoughts!

Chapter 1-5

So, I really feel bad for Feyre. She was so resilient in the first book, and now she is like a broken bird, and you just want to scoop her up and nurse her back to health. She seems to want to be useful, but with a simple human background, she doesn't know how to use her title or power to help with anything.

She still has an utter disdain for any faerie traditions or festivals. She finds the winter solstice a "rather odious ceremony" (page 10) and can't be bothered to remember ANY of the names of Tamlin's friends (page 37). It seems like the progress she made in the first book to accept fae culture still has a way to go. I wonder if she hates that she became fae and has some internalized feelings about that.

Her refusal to confide in Tamlin is a little frustrating, and even Lucien begs her to just talk to him (page 29). But Tamlin seems to be bottling things up as well. But he clearly loves her so much, and says "you are everything to me" (page 23) and Lucien points out that Tamlin has had to watch his family die, which is why he's so protective (page 29).

I'm also shocked that she hasn't contacted her family. Like, Nesta sent her off in the first book to save her faerie Lord, and still hasn't heard from her. She probably thinks Feyre is dead! I'm shocked Feyre would assume her family would hate her now that she's fae, even though Nesta was super supportive of her rescuing the fae realm.

Back to the conversation with Lucien, when he talks about watching Jesminda die, my heart really broke for him. He has had to endure so much pain, and it must infuriate him to see Feyre bottle up her feelings instead of talking to Tamlin, when Lucien would give a thing to talk to Jesminda again.

I was very confused by the village they went to, and Lucien says the villagers had spent 49 years under the mountain, but I thought it was established that all the Spring Court faeries were allowed to stay in Spring? It was just the other courts that had to go UTM? Someone help me make sense of this lol.

Lastly, Iantha. This lady is up to something 100%. Super suspicious. She definitely seems like the type to manipulate a fragile court and try to be a de facto leader. It was Iantha's idea not to let Feyre train her new powers (page 15) and Tamlin was just following her advice. She also convinced the other 11 priestesses not to attend the wedding (page 39), and I'm convinced she put red roses in the wedding on purpose to mess with Feyre.

That's the end of my thoughts so far! If you read all of this you're the best! How is my interpretation? Am I picking up on any foreshadowing? I hope so!

[cillianate]

and actually fuck rhysand and feyre too

[kbookblurbs]

A Court of Silver Flames - Sarah J. Maas

2/5 - Don't read if you're not willing to re-write in your head as you go or if you actually like well-written fantasy

I'll be honest, this was my second time through this book. Upon the reread, I had already erased so much of the plot from my memory that it was as if I was reading for the first time. Anyways ...

All the usual Maas problems are here. Weirdly written gay relationships (if there are any), oversexualization of bisexual people, transphobic undertones, retconning characters to being PoC (lucien) a la JK Rowling (or no PoC characters at all), misogyny, CRAZY levels of toxic masculinity, plot holes, etc.

This book is mostly sex and characterization retcons. I really enjoyed Nesta's character arc, the Valkyries, and sometimes Cassian and Azriel, but everything to do with Feyre left a bad taste in my mouth. Favorite scene, no question, was Nesta's dance with Eris in the Night Court. That was the first scene where I felt they actually gave Nesta skills and a personality beyond bitter alcoholism.

That said, the cons of this book far outweigh the pros. As always, Maas' writing is a breeze to get through just because it's not particularly difficult prose, but her insistence (in this novel and in other books) on using Female/Male and weird gender essentialism is at best irritating and at worst actively detracting from the novel. The entire pregnancy plotline could (and arguably should) be removed from this book. It doesn't add anything to Nesta's journey, paints Rhysand and Feyre in a really bad light, and is frankly an incredibly stupid plot choice. You have magic, can shapeshift, and have indoor plumbing but C-sections haven't been invented yet? Really? The whole scenario is incredibly contrived and I actively skipped scenes dealing with it if I could. The entire Inner Circle acts immature, judgemental, and unforgiving, despite their own insistence to the contrary. Elain also still has no personality. I was also confused by the whole "Maybe Rhysand should be High King of Prythian" subplot like ... huh?? Where did that even come from??

The book tops itself off by using one of my least favorite tropes in fantasy, which is when women, usually main characters, have to give up all their power at the end of the story. Maas is very fond of this plotline. She does the same thing with Aelin in the Throne of Glass series. Personally, I find this trope to be misogynistic and often evidence of poor writing to neatly wrap up the end of a story, regardless of whether the choices post-power-loss are in character.

The version of this story that I was re-writing in my head, which cuts the weird bitterness between Cassian and Nesta and Feyre's pregnancy entirely (she's 19????) while expanding on her powers and letting her keep them, is much more interesting. But alas, that is NOT the version on page. Unless you (like me) had it downloaded on your Kindle and an 8-hr plane ride to kill, I wouldn't bother if you're seriously interested in reading fantasy.