#sjm and her messy world building

[maybeiwasjustjade]

The insane part about all these arguments that Nesta and Elain neglected Feyre because she had to hunt for their survival (never mind that Feyre’s survival was also on the line) or because she was illiterate at 19–you would think that both sisters were much older than Feyre. Yet, the age gap between all three is basically the closest you could have three kids without making any of them twins. Nesta’s 3.5 years older than Feyre. Elain’s age is still a mystery, but assume there’s either a 1.5 year ish gap between sisters or Nesta and Elain were irish twins. Either way, it was never a large enough age gap for it to matter.

A LOT of the Archeron’s background and early acotar characterizations made no sense anyway, so I really don’t understand anti’s obsession with bringing it up constantly. Sjm retconned Nesta’s character within the same book ffs! But even if she didn’t, Feyre does have a massive ego when it comes to her sisters, and a sense of moral superiority that people tend to ignore.

Feyre is supposedly illiterate in the beginning, and her narration blames Nesta (and Elain, but not their father interestingly) for not noticing or helping her learn. Which is extremely strange given that Feyre was eleven when the Archerons fell to poverty. Acosf established that Nesta was put into rigorous training and abuse to be the perfect lady from a very young age, which meant the girls were most likely given the proper tutoring befitting their station. An argument could be made that only Nesta was, but clearly Elain is educated, and both sisters never expected that Feyre wasn’t. That itself is already a plot-hole into their background.

Mama Archeron dies when Nesta’s eleven. They survive another three maybe almost four years in high society. Long enough for Nesta to seduce a duke through dance at fourteen anyway. Even if their education went completely backburner by that point (which i sincerely doubt), that means Feyre at least had a governess till the age of eight. And considering Elain’s barely older than her yet is clearly literate, the fact that Feyre wasn’t is already odd as hell.

The Archerons miraculously survived another three years before Feyre was old enough to begin hunting for survival. It’s simple really: it’s a tragedy Feyre had to hunt at such a young age, but it was not her sisters’ responsibility either. The same way that their mother groomed and abused Nesta to seduce and marry older men so that Elain (and Feyre) could marry for love was not her sisters’ fault. The funny thing is that one happened before fourteen, and the other after, but only one is considered a crime. The other is a tool for the IC to take advantage of.

And now, Feyre is fae (by choice, because she went back for Tamlin knowing she could die) and happy with it, powerful, and essentially queen of a territory (more like a mayor of a city). While Nesta and Elain were kidnapped and then murdered as part of a war they had no business being involved in, forcibly turned against their will, and lost their entire mortal lives in one fell swoop. All because Rhysand sucked at his job (not surprising, or maybe he did it on purpose who knows).

Respectfully, elain and Nesta both had their life taken from them in the cauldron as a consequence of Feyre’s actions. Never mind that the father was responsible for his children, even if you blame Nesta and elain for not hunting— they both got their comeuppance when they were dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. They both housed Feyre and her friends at their home despite the steep risk and rightful fear of the fae. Everything they do to help Feyre after Turning is extra. If the sisters were to keep count and tally points against each other, Feyre needs to step up her game.

The narrative is admittedly warped but any level of reading comprehension should let readers see that continuously ragging on Nesta and elain under the banner of them being older and therefore responsible for hunting is ridiculous. Even if you’re willing to die on that hill, Nesta and elain literally died.

When Feyre was killed UTM and turned fae it happened because she went back for true love, she went for Tamlin. She fell in love with a fae and was friends with lucien. Nesta and elain were killed for their involvement with Feyre. They hated the fae, lost everything after turning. Feyre was given more and more power, friendship, love and acceptance. Nesta and elain lost their home, their inheritance, and forced into indentured servitude, with Feyre herself thinking about how to force Nesta to do her bidding during the war.

At the end of the day, Feyre has 5 mansions and became the very thing she hated in those first few chapters everyone wants to bring up so much. Feyre went hunting and her sisters didn’t. Now, Nesta is forced to hunt the trove and fight in their wars and seduce court allies while Feyre sits on her ass and does nothing.

[nikethestatue]

I don’t think Sarah can write a great book anymore, maybe a good book but the last three have been underwhelming.

So this is my opinion of Crescent City as a whole--I think SJM really LIKED the idea of CC and Bryce and the whole story. She really liked it when it was born and when she was nurturing it. But she couldn't write it. And she knew it. I think there are some sparks of brilliance, especially in the 1st book, with the murder investigation and the discovery of who was the bad guy. But then she got lost.

I feel the same with Nesta--i think she wanted to say something about different topics. Self-esteem, love, self-hate, loss, overcoming your own self-inflicted self-punishment, finding friends. I think conceptually, ACOSF was there. She couldn't pull off a compelling story.

Why?

She is a STORYTELLER. She gets messy in trying to be a therapist, with self-insertion, and ACOTAR's pretty poor world building. If she tried harder to establish parameters within that world--magic, powers, lore (like she did in TOG) it would've made for a cleaner world.

Can she write a good book? Yes, I think so. I think her editors SUCK and she shouldn't have 5 or 6 that she has now, and instead go back to one solid editor.

Like imagine I am writing a fic, and I have SIX betas!!! that's nuts.

She should write the story she wants and be done with it.

[bookofmirth]

Lele, I have a rambling though

We always have discussions about possibilities for SJM future books (especially acotar 5) and I always read interpretations that are done so very tastefully and with a lot of knowledge on text interpretation, book context and narratives

but the thing is… ppl always treat SJM as this super hiper mastermind and after HOFAS and how messy and not good it was (honestly it was terrible) … I’m a little afraid about acotar 5 and sjm choosing to go with the easiest way (which, for me, would be choosing Elriel - since with Gwyn she would have to treat her trauma her carefully and be more cautions on her narrative) and I don’t know if I see her doing it 😓

(Also… I would like to say as my last though of someone who is following her since 2018 - that SJM loves to write about powerful woman and the friendships between them and their bonds but to let the fandom be where it is today… young impressionable girls treating each other with such hostility and disrespect… I know she probably can’t say anything bc of contracts but man is a hard pillow to swallow that she “let” the fandom be where it is today… which is a horrible place.)

Anon, have some rambling thoughts of mine!!! hehehe

A big difference between acotar and hofas is how thoughtfully she generally treats the acotar characters. I've been thinking a lot about this the past few days and the main thing I dislike about hofas is how the plot and world building absolutely take over everything to the detriment of the characters. I cannot understate how much I dislike Bryce, and I've always pinpointed her lack of consistent values as the core reason why. hofas really, really emphasized that writing flaw. Not character flaw, but writing flaw.

People acting like sjm is some mastermind drives me crazy when we can see all the plot holes and inconsistencies and retcons. One of these days, someone should make a list of them. Anyway, she mentioned rereading the acotar series sometime last year, and I would bet you good money that she did so in order to see what she can use. She has said explicitly that she isn't great at world building and she has also said that she didn't plan the crossover until she was writing hosab. That means any connection we see between hofas and, for instance, acomaf, is a result of her going backwards to see what she can use. Not the other way around. She "planned" in the sense that she wrote really vague stuff in the first place so that she could use it how she wanted to later on. That has become really apparent to me with the crossover.

Like... for example, Mor's power is "truth". Vague as fuck, right? I would bet good money (again haha like I'm rich) that sjm didn't even know what that meant in acomaf other than "I need a reason for the mortal queens to trust Mor". And then she'll figure out the mechanics and technicalities later and the fandom will call her brilliant for it. *facepalm*

I don't see e*riel being easy at all. But that's all I will say about that hehe.

Gwyn's story aligns perfectly with what sjm has already been doing in acotar, with Rhys and Lucien, and to an extent Nesta. I don't have any concerns there because I think her strength is in her characterization. (CC is just... another beast.) There was an interview she did a while back where she talked about the movie Promising Young Woman and it really emphasized to me that sjm's particular brand of feminism revolves around gender and sex. This isn't a critique, just a statement of what I've observed. My point is that she is very aware of rape culture and has strong feelings about it and gives characters the space to heal on page, and so that's not really a concern of mine, especially in acotar.

To your final point, I got SO frustrated the other day in the group chat, @sabrinasam said it was the most frustrated she's ever seen me haha. I'm so tired of sjm and the publisher being coy about this!!!! But mostly, I am so, so sick of people in this fandom treating each other like shit just because they don't agree on ships. Like it's one thing to have notps and brotps and to be annoyed by or even hate certain characters. It's a completely different thing when people feel totally comfortable going out in public and treating other actual, real, human people like absolute garbage because of those feelings.

Azriel is never gonna lick your fucking home entertainment center!!! Get the fuck over it!!!!!!!!!

I don't think that sjm is at fault for this because I think that people are responsible for their own actions. I also fully believe that the people taking screenshots and mocking them publicly (of people who probably have them blocked anyway, fucking stalkers) or just outright attacking people on different platforms would be doing that exact same thing whether it was about sjm or not. Like you could just stick them in another fandom, and these people would act the same deplorable way.

Anyway. I'm fucking tired. I'm still excited for acotar5 and will continue that series and when I was doing a lil voice chat with my friends for hours last weekend it revived my enjoyment of acotar and ToG. The fandom just makes it a lot of work, trying to have fun.

[kopfkino-o]

so i finally finished hofas. and don’t come for me, but this is officially my least favorite SJM book. spoilers and my thoughts below

this book was just so messy. it felt rushed, felt stuffed full of all these plot threads, and so many side characters were just shoved to the wayside. Like what was even the point of Sigrid? All home girl did was die so Ithan could become Prime. The story could have basically been the exact same without her character. Flynn and Declan largely felt interchangeable. Celestina, Naomi, and Isaiah could have also been left out and the story wouldn't have changed. Hypaxia was there, but we saw hardly any development on her arc or learned anything about her. And don't even get me started on Fury and Juniper (aka the glorified Uber drivers). There were too many characters and not enough time/focus on their development which left them feeling flat / useless.

As for Bryce…yikes. She came across as a discount Aelin with a cellphone and no regard for others trauma. I really don’t like the characterization of her in this book, which is a shame because I LOVED her in CC1. She came across as childish, petty, selfish, and brash. I found some of her "sassy one-liners" to be very cringey.

Lidia Cervos and Nesta Archeron deserve a fucking metal for carrying the entire book on their backs because miss Bryce certainly didn’t.

Now the world building…as a high fantasy girlie, the world building in this book was a treat. I loved all the lore, the history, the explanations we got, and the setup for the next ACOTAR book is truly impeccable (more to come on this later…). Howeverrr the plot of this book just fell a little flat for me. It felt messy, disjointed between all the POV switches, and I feel a lot of plot threads just went...nowhere (ie: the thunder birds, Viktoria the wraith, Ariadne and her dragon fire, the Viper Queen, etc).

I know SJM loves happy ever afters, but damn, she needs to stop with the fake-out deaths.

It really really cheapens the stakes and makes the entire story feel…underwhelming. Undeserved? Like am I truly supposed to be afraid of Asteri, the supposed Big Baddie™️ of the entire universe, if none of the main cast dies or truly suffers at their hands? Idk. Beating them felt…too easy. Too convenient for all the characters.

Also, I really disliked how there were no consequences for our characters.

Ruhn, Baxian, and Hunt are brutally tortured, yet they're back in the gym, thinking nothing of it, a few chapters later. We saw Nesta clearly struggle with the Mask yet both Bryce and Hunt used it as if it was a pair of cheap sunglasses. Tharion experienced no consequences from defecting the Viper Queen and don't even get me started about the River Queen. In exposition, he reflects on how she will 100% kill him, yet she's cool with him after he gives a few half-assed lines about "the right thing". Like mmmm okay babes I thought she wanted you dead dead, no questions asked. Everything was just too easy. Powerful objects were there when they were needed, former enemies turned allies without much of a fight, and the Asteri themselves were defeated rather easily in the end.

Overall? It was a 3.5 star read for me.

[hacawijo]

SJM ACOSF Live Event Notes: Canada

I’m not Canadian but this is the stream that worked in my schedule lol. Also sorry if any of this is redundant, I didn’t want to leave anything out in case this is the first you’re reading about any of these lives.

NOTE: she specifically didn’t give confirmation about who the next book will follow, she knows, but she said her publishing team will probably want to find the right time to announce it! Thus, we can only guess for now what the NEXT book will be about.

SJM Live - 7PM EST. Wed. 2/24/21

Indigo — CA Live

— Sarah began writing this while writing the third book in the ACOTAR series. She wanted to look at what happens after, Cassian and Nesta’s chemistry made her want to write them first. “It was almost like writing fanfiction of my own stuff…”

— Accidentally pitched the sequels — wanted to tell the stories of all these other characters, wanted to explore the world, and what happens when the big battle is over, who makes a play for power. How will the Night Court involve or not involve themselves?

— World-building meets steamy romance - her two favorite things

— She knew from the start that Nesta was a lot more than you were seeing, she’s actually the one person who saw through Tamlin’s glamour. Someone who is closed off and appears as if she doesn’t care - but she does, and deeply, she just doesn’t know how to express it.

— Her own mental health journey informed her work on Nesta’s - things got worse for her and this was around when she started Nesta’s story over. She finally decided to go to therapy and started meds and coping skills and went on this journey that happened to be similar to what Nesta was going through. None of it is autobiographical though!

— Honestly going to cry about how she’s talking about Nesta, she didn’t need to be redeemed, she just needed to be able to understand what she had done and experienced and move forward.

— How do you face the things you’ve done that you’re not proud of and how do you face the people you’ve harmed?

— She’s come to realize that she has a giant soft spot for the tall goofy guys that seem tough but are big softies. She has a big crush on Gronk, which is hilarious. She described her husband as tall and goofy. She immediately loved Cassian and understood him more-so than some other characters.

— OMG this interviewer. “Tell me a little bit about their sex…”

— Her father is currently reading the book, Sarah begged her mother to take the book away from her father. There’s a big difference between her mother and her FATHER reading the sex scenes.

— BJ SCENE: Nesta’s sexuality is a way for her to express herself through her body and in a way she understands and is good at.

— Sarah wants to write in the sweet spot between really steamy and epic romance and epic fantasy and world-building.

— How does Sarah world-build? She actually builds it while writing the story, but starts with a vague understanding of the world - she wants to know how they get the fruit for their breakfast every morning, and all of those little details. She comes across little details that just live in a magical place in her head - she discovered the Weaver in the woods while she was in New Zealand.

— She was inspired by her own New Zealand hikes to write Nesta and Cassian’s.

— She takes notes on all of her experiences so that she can use them later in her books (i.e. when she has a fever and is sick she even takes notes so she’ll be able to describe that sensation accurately).

— Sarah loves world mythology and she loves the really messy, terrifying fairy tales and folklore - stories that taught survivalist lessons. The Scene with the kelpie is one of her favorite scenes she’s ever written because it took her to a place of primal terror. This scene was barely edited from the first draft, it has basically stayed the same since she initially wrote it.

— Yeah this interviewer is behind, she asks the mega-verse question again. Sarah took the scene out of ACOSF where Rhys sees Aelin, but she did confirm that he was talking about Aelin when he told people he saw a star - he saw Aelin but was spooked and didn’t want to tell everyone.

— She identifies with Nesta’s emotional journey the most, Sarah feels like she’s the most like Bryce (but her parents might say she’s like Aelin). It’s like a personality test, sometimes she feels more like a Feyre or an Aelin. They all have parts of her.

— Sarah pictures the fight scenes in her mind, but with Nesta’s book she actually paid attention to how someone builds those skills (her other protagonists were already trained fighters). She talked to her personal trainer who taught her a bit about swordplay. She went through sessions and she paid attention to where she was sore afterward and such.

— What would Nesta’s beast form be? Sarah says something feline, like a snow leopard with gold wings and iron teeth and silver claws. Mesmerizingly beautiful and dangerous.

— She’s currently editing CC 2, about to get edits back! She says a lot of the side characters will get their own subplots in the second book- it will open up the world a lot more.

— Writing through COVID was hard for her, she felt guilt going off to play in fantasy worlds when so many people were struggling with job loss and sickness. But now she can work and is grateful for that escapism.

— Plans for next ACOTAR: She has it plotted out in her head and knows exactly who it will be about and what will happen. It’s in the queue. She won’t say who it’s about because she thinks her publishing team will want to weigh in on when to announce.

[g-perla]

The ACOTAR Series is a Romantic/Gothic Horror Stage and Only Nesta Got the Memo

Not even SJM knows what’s going on.

Ok, this is going to seem off the rails but bear with me.

So I'm a big fan of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (top 5 books and all that jazz) and I was thinking about it because it deals with themes of the Other and the supernatural, Nature as Character, the overlap of the animalistic and human, blurring of established binaries...fun, Romantic shit like that. Interestingly, this overlaps with how SJM illustrates her world and characters a lot of the time, hence why I was considering it while working on my Nesta project. I’ve mentioned before that Nesta really gives me Byronic heroine vibes and that’s a character construct of precisely this literary tradition.

I started thinking about Heathcliff and Cathy and how they're ridiculously extra and just feel the most intense emotions towards each other but also towards literally everything (nothing half-assed ever, this is a Romantic novel after all). I then remembered how so many people ship them, but like in earnest, in a totally aspirational way. It's not a #cursed ship to them at all. It's...romantic to them not Romantic. I even read often that people quote it at their weddings, specifically the infamous "two souls" quote.

Then I had an epiphany. I was like "wait, what if SJM is one of those people?? What if she has the energy of a Cathy/Heathcliff earnest shipper and that's why all her ships are messy??" Because if that is the case, my friends, oh boy oh boy would it explain so much. I will post some sections from Wuthering Heights:

Doesn’t the acotar series seem like a 1/50 dilution of that energy?? And that is barely a taste of all the spiciness this book has to offer. To illustrate further: SJM gave us the F/eysand suicide pact and the near-death battlefield Nessian scene. One is certainly more outlandish than the other, but both are the result of intense emotions. To that Emily Brontë raises the following: Heathcliff asking the sexton to dig up Cathy’s grave to see what’s up because her ghost has been haunting him since he personally dug up her grave 18 years prior and she has been haunting him ever since. He later demands to be buried in the same exact grave when he dies so they can decompose together. They both married other people though which only adds to the mess. (I am not lying to you the Romantic tradition really gave us these gems lmao. As an aside, Mary Shelley was also a writer of the Romantic tradition and she confessed her love to husband Percy Bysshe Shelley on her mother’s grave. Her mother was liberal feminist icon Mary Wollstonecraft by the way which only makes this even more amazing. Additionally, biographers believe that the Shelleys also had sex there. Talk about Romantic 😉.)

Then I had ANOTHER thought! (Dangerous)

If we read the series from the point of view of just another YA high fantasy things might get a bit boring because the world-building is honestly lazy and the magic system is pretty soft, which isn’t a pre-requisite in high fantasy (The Lord of the Rings has a soft magic system) but it's not the norm and it doesn't pay off in this series. Not to mention that the plot is pretty lackluster and derivative. To add to that the romantic and sexual relationships are questionable in their healthiness and consequently are the source of much argument in the fandom. 

But, dear reader, if we think about the ACOTAR series as being a sort of thematic and ideological 21st century YA homage to the Romantic tradition of the 19th century (within which Gothic Horror also lives), things get REALLY, REALLY SPICY.

No longer do we just have a romance fantasy with messy, hyper-emotional, animalistic characters who constantly partake in morally grey situations rife with dubious dynamics. No longer does plot really matter. No longer do we require quasi-scientific descriptions of the world and the magical system. No! All that matters now are the characters and the mood. Now we have potential! Add a lot of Nature ambiance: expanses of dark woods, great mountains, the unknowable and sublime energy of the ocean, a violent rainstorm/hurricane/tsunami, an impending snowstorm whose intensity reflects the growing emotional intensity of the characters as the story goes along (I’m looking at you impending snowstorm in acofas that curiously matches the growing complexity of Nesta’s emotional state). Blur the lines between any imaginable category: life and death, human and animal, known and unknown, Self and Other, beautiful and monstrous, good and evil, masculine and feminine, the list goes on. Most importantly make your readers uncomfortable by frustrating their desires to sort things into easy binary categories and don’t apologise for making them question their assumptions about the world, morality, gender, and any other kind of previously constructed Order. 

Basically write the story with Dionysus-in-a-Greek-tragedy energy and bring to us mere mortals artful Chaos.

Once that is done we can have a literal Romantic/Gothic Horror story.  The Acotar series could have been this unapologetically, with the added element of being told through the eyes of the "Cathy" character instead of through the lens of a third person getting second-hand accounts about what went on. This whole series is honestly enough of a chaotic mess of Byronic-like heroes and heroines and cursed familial relationships that it could have been that. That alone is peak entertainment. The problem, however, and the main reason why I can’t really say that this series truly delivered this wackiness is that SJM committed the act of not fully committing to the bit (very un-Romantic of her, I know). Now, I am not saying that SJM actually intended this. I’m just saying it really could have accidentally been this genius with some tweaks. Unfortunately, she made the crucial mistake of trying to justify too much, trying to make things too neat, too tidy, too sensical (in other words: the reason we really can’t have nice things). 

I could end this here, lamenting the potential of what SJM had set-up for us were it not for one element, one gift:

Nesta 

OHOHOHO DO THINGS GET GOOD HERE SO BUCKLE UP

Most of the characters refuse to fully commit to the bit in their desire to satisfy modern sensibilities, by which I of course mean they want ridiculous things like political power, to conquer lands, to be a Girl Boss, to get married, have kids, celebrate holidays, converse about mundane things, be relatable, etc. You know, pretty pedestrian stuff that only requires a bit of genetic luck, a sprinkle of energy, and the right circumstances within the world of Acotar. I would like to reiterate the beginning of this paragraph: most of the characters. 

Let’s say you’re stubborn and you decide to still read the series through the lens of the Romantic/Gothic tradition, what happens then? 

The most hilarious thing (for the Nesta stans that is. The antis would probably hate this)

Nesta, based on what we know about her through Feyre and the limited amount of other scenes, is the only character who really takes the performance seriously. She's the only one that SJM hasn't managed to confine through justification. Nesta just shows up and simply refuses to make sense (her POWER what a queen 👑). She is endlessly fascinating because she just exists in her world on her terms, established categories be damned, and in this manner she frustrates not only the sensibilities of the characters in the stories but those of the reader as well. This double duty is, I suggest, the result of the other characters not fully inhabiting the nebulous world of Romantic characters and thus being a little too plausible and understandable even if they are not justifiable. 

Ok, you may say, but I relate so much to Nesta. I do understand her. I don’t justify all of her actions, but I understand where she is coming from. (You’re not alone, friend. I like to think these things too. Alas, we are but plebs).

To that I reply; Nesta does things, certainly, and we can spend hours trying to explain through extrapolation, educated guesses, and personal experience why she did those things, but the fact is we really don't know why. We are never explicitly told. Our insight into who she is and her motivations comes predominantly from the understanding of her youngest sister and from our own interpretation of the actions she takes. I must make clear that our own interpretations are rooted in pre-established assumptions about what is sensical and orderly in our own world and in our own lives. We cannot interpret with the tools available to us that which may be, by definition, unfathomable. It is simply paradoxical. Nesta, as we currently know her, is a construct derived from a limited number of scenes and our interpretations and projections of these scenes. Even the scenes where we get third person narration don’t explicitly tell us her motivations and her logic. For all we know there really is no comprehensible reason for her actions and that is endlessly amusing to me in how utterly Romantic it is. Acosf may and likely will change this of course, but as it stands, Nesta is a whole Romantic character. Her divisiveness in fandom and in the narrative could be due in part to her refusal to fit the discrete categories available in her world and ours. 

Isn’t that wonderful?

To illustrate this a bit more I will share some details SJM gives us about her/ elements she sets up that fit in with the characteristics of the Romantic tradition (these are not exhaustive by any means):

The absolute pettiness (and extra-ness) of being so angry at her father’s inaction that she is willing to starve to death to see if he does something.

How in Acowae she is described as shifting between emotions as if she were changing clothes and feeling everything too strongly (probably to the point of destruction)

She is constantly being compared to animals, even when she is still human. Granted, SJM compares everyone to animals, but that strengthens the blurring of lines between usually discrete categories. It is still most powerful when used as a comparison when she is human because it dehumanises Nesta.

Often, SJM describes her characters as forces. Forces of nature, for example. Acofas is full of details like this in relation to Nesta. There is a storm brewing leading up to the solstice party and it is in full swing when she arrives at the townhouse. The language used there suggests that Nesta herself may be the storm (against the onslaught of Nesta). It really adds to the Maleficent energy tbh.

She is often associated with death post her transformation

She is Other even to Others. She was Made like Elain, Feyre, and Amren in a sense, but the process of her specific transformation differentiates her greatly from the others. As it is, she doesn’t fit in anywhere

Her intense attachment to her femininity and its expression are at odds with the ideas and assumptions about the performance of womanhood and a woman’s role in her world and even in ours. She is unapologetically feminine in her physical presentation, but her character, her thoughts, and possibly even desires transgress the unwritten rules of acceptable femininity (unfortunately there still are abject expressions of femininity in our ‘”progressive” mileux

She displays in many of her actions a disrespect towards authority and to the status quo. This is particularly notable when her intensely polarised sense of right and wrong is aggravated.

Her self-destructiveness. This is referred to most strongly in Acofas, but I would say she was remarkably blasé about self-preservation in Acowar as well

She is described as intelligent, cunning, ruthless, attractive, and prone to debilitating extremes of emotionality. All of these are characteristics of Byronic heroes, a subtype of the Romantic hero

Here are a bunch of quotes that touch on many of the elements that I have discussed above:

“I looked at my sister, really looked at her, at this woman who couldn’t stomach the sycophants who now surrounded her, who had never spent a day in the forest but had gone into wolf territory...Who had shrouded the loss of our Mother, then our downfall, because the anger had been a lifeline, the cruelty a release. But she had cared--beneath it she had cared, and perhaps loved more fiercely than I could comprehend, more deeply and loyally.” 

--Acotar, emphasis mine, note the strong emotions. This is a recurring element for Nesta.

“Cassian’s face went almost feral. A wolf who had been circling a doe...Only to find a mountain cat wearing its hide instead.” 

--Acomaf, animal comparison

“Nesta is different from most people,” I explained. “She comes across as rigid and vicious, but I think it’s a wall. A shield--like the ones Rhys has in his mind.” “Against what?” “Feeling. I think Nesta feels everything--sees too much; sees and feels it all. And she burns with it. Keeping that wall up helps from being overwhelmed, from caring too greatly.”

--Acomaf, emphasis mine

“I knew that she was different [...] Nesta was different [...] as if the Cauldron in making her...had been forced to give more than it wanted. As if Nesta had fought after she went under, and had decided that if she was to be dragged into hell, she was taking the Cauldron with her.”

--Acomaf, Nesta had her own plans for the Cauldron what a queen

“Something great and terrible.”

--Acowar, referring to her eyes. Oooh, spooky Nesta 👻

“The day she was changed, she...I felt something different with her [...] like looking at a house cat and suddenly finding a panther standing there instead.”

--Acowar, a two in one here: difference + animal comparison. Boy does SJM really go heavy when establishing Nesta as Other.

“‘Not in flesh, not in the thing that prowls beneath our skin and bones...’ Amren’s remarkable eyes narrowed. ‘But...I see the kernel, girl.’ Amren nodded, more to herself than anyone. ‘You did not fit--the mold that they shoved you into. The path you were born upon and forced to walk. You tried, and yet you did not, could not fit. And then the path changed.’ A little nod. ‘I know--what it is to be that way. I remember it, long ago as it was.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’“

--Acowar, show don’t tell gets thrown out the window here, but it is useful for the present purposes

“What if I tell you that the rock and darkness and sea beyond whispered to me, Lord of Bloodshed? How they shuddered in fear, on that island across the sea. How they trembled when she emerged. She took something--something precious. She ripped it out with her teeth. What did you wake that day in Hybern, Prince of Bastards?

What came out was not what went in [...] How lovely she is, new as a fawn and yet ancient as the sea. How she calls to you. A queen as my sister once was. Terrible and proud; beautiful as a winter’s sunrise.”

--Acowar, who knew rocks, darkness, and the sea were such gossips, but look how many connections to nature! To be compared to the sea, a significant example of the sublime, is peak Romanticism. If any of you have read Moby Dick, think about what the ocean and the white whale might have represented there and how that might relate to Nesta.

“I think the power is death--death made flesh.”

--Acowar, Feyre referring to the possible nature of Nesta’s power. Alluding to her powers possibly being related to death is quite significant because that is something most of us cannot comprehend, nor can most of the characters. For Nesta, a “reborn” but very much living character to have death associated with her is a strong blurring of the lines. The case of her being labelled a witch is similarly significant as it solidifies the elements of the supernatural while simultaneously comparing her to pretty much the only exclusively female-coded monster in western pop culture. I will touch more on this when I do my study of Nesta through the framework of Barbara Creed’s Monstrous Feminine.

“I am not like the others.”

--Acowar, we love a self-aware queen.

“Nesta took in his broken body, the pain in Cassian’s eyes, and angled her head.

The movement was not human.

Not fae.

Purely animal.

Purely predator.”

--Acowar

There are a lot more details and quotes that support this interpretation, but I didn’t write them all down in my archived notes. This post is obscenely long, however, so even though there is more to be said, I’ll leave it for another day. If you made it this far you really are an MVP and probably love Nesta to a concerning degree like me. Please rest your eyes if you’re actually reading this 😂

I’d love to read about any other takes and thoughts that might have come to your minds after reading this monstrosity,

G

[battlestar-royco]

i think sjm might be one of the worse, of not the worst ya author, like when you compare her to other bad authors like cassie clare for example there's a distinct difference, clare while also writing stuff full of flaws/problems at least tries to improve, in both the writing and the representation department, sjm just writes the exact same poorly written white het nonsense all the goddamn time

I personally can’t in good faith say that CC is better than SJ/M, because at least SJ/M clears the low bar of not getting into multiple plagiarism lawsuits, bullying her fans, doxxing people, and being generally unprofessional and immature etc. @discountalien-pancake coincidentally has been talking about this on their blog the past day or so: I also take huge issue with how the Shadow///hunter world is mostly Harry Potter fic and ideas she recycled from herself, plus incest fetishization. And she’s been professionally milking this shit for 13 years (not to mention the years she used HP fic to build a name for herself on ff.net and Livejournal).

Even though CC and SJ/M’s writing practices are abhorrent, I tolerate SJ/M more because at least she doesn’t have legally documented and fan-curated evidence of her being a horrible person? Like at least SJ/M does her personal messiness in private and leaves her fans alone? That said, SJ/M is one of the worst YA authors imo, because her books have had noticeable and bad influence over the industry (ie porn being inserted into YA books, YA books trying to become more adult in general, YA authors flocking to adult etc). So in my mind, SJ/M is like one step above CC.

[maevelin]

i don't know, i don't really see feyre as a mary sue, and tbh all characters from the trilogy have a bit of a special snowflake vibe to them. i wouldn't single out feyre.

Many characters from the acotar universe that are on the forefront (and are meant to be likable or at least be the main characters) are indeed glamorized and their power reserve and their position are highlighted in the writing. They do give such a vibe yes but in the narrative, there are also other aspects that balance that somewhat. It still remains surrealistic.

But truthfully? I have come to terms that when it comes to SJM’s projects I can enjoy them only if I accept that critical thinking at times (so many times lol) needs to take a step back. Suspension of disbelief here I come. 

Sara’s writing is limited when it comes to this. Everyone is too beautiful, too powerful, too prettified, too perfect and so on. Her world building is interesting. She knows how to play certain aspects of the genre well. And how to take advantage of popular tropes like the one she used to set the acotar universe motion aka beauty and the beast. She does have as a writer the talent of having great inspiration conceptually and to occasionally add more layers under the surface but the execution overall loses focus, becomes convoluted and is messy; if not plain ridiculous. She does manage to always write better her secondary characters and not her protagonists.And she has the ability to create characters that speak to the reader despite any problematic presentation.

As far as tropes go. She is able to work with some successfully and with others not some much.

However the Mary Sue trope is something specific and most people lately seem to use the term for every female character (or character in general) they do not like or annoys them. Sure it is a cliche but it is not always a negative trope by default. 

Personally, I am not that opposed to Mary Sue characters, especially in the YA literature. I do not mind young people reading about empowered female characters even to a ridiculous degree that makes no sense. I do not mind young girls and boys reading about perfect girls and special girls. And the Mary Sue trope came in an age when it was needed. When it had things to offer. It still does in some cases but my problem is that it has become a pattern and in many cases it is used as a writing cope out and in order to push under the rug offensive things and to glamorize other problematic ones. I do not like it when we get only that and no other female representation. I do not like it when this kind of literature idolizes that kind of trope at the expense of every other female representation. I do not like it when everything else is progressing in the media and in this age in general and certain tropes remain anachronistic and even send the wrong message. I do not like it when there is nothing fresh about it. Or when there is a complete and total absence of realism and I have to keep myself from rolling my eyes constantly. And of course when it turns problematic inside a problematic narrative.

Feyre was and is a Mary Sue. In a ridiculous degree. I do not see how anyone could make a different argument. But in Acomaf it was a fresh take because that book worked with other tropes like those that dealt with abuse and domestic abuse and PTSD very well and even subverted those so overall the conclusion and the way Feyre’s character worked in that narrative was something tolerable and even refreshing. To the point that I did not even mind the ridiculous counting of Feyre’s powers that surpassed everyone else’s in the whole universe LOL

The same thing cannot be said -in my opinion anyway- for acotar and especially for acowar. 

[nikethestatue]

In my opinion SJM’s writing has declined because of the length of time between books. She used to pump out one book per series each year, equaling 2 books a year. She has said her writing style is not outling, she knows the big points of what will happen but she likes to go on the journey with the characters, and she also writes chronologically and won’t skip ahead to write other scenes. IMO this worked when she was writing quickly because she occupied the same headspace and could smoothly go from one book onto the next. Now that she’s averaging 1-2 years between books (4, in ACOTAR’s case) I think each book feels sort of off and almost OOC. Notice how ACOFAS was the last book she published on that quick timeline, and that was the last book that didn’t have these flaws IMO. She writes based on where she is and how she’s feeling in her current life, so each book will have a different feel to it rather than continuous. She drops plotlines and characters because she loses interest in them as she goes, IMO. I’m not blaming her for the long wait times, I know her life is different now and she needs to do what she needs to do for her personal life. I just think she should consider with her editor how to improve going forward.

Yes, that could be. I have seen a significant decline in her last 3 books. Frankly, ACOSF, HOSAB and HOFAS are just not very good. They are disjointed, they lack the emotional impact that her previous books had, multiple throw away storylines, and extremely lucklustre romances. Even mentally, she keeps lurching from world to world, without keeping them separate in her head, which results in hilariously awkward things such as Cassian knowing about 'lactic acid' and Nesta using the expression 'kill switch'. it's just messy, like the unimpressive romances that she keeps writing. She assassinated Nessian in ACOSF, which was one of her most compelling and interesting pairings back in ACOMAF and ACOWAR. She rushed through Day and Night, without building anything meaningful between them. Quinlar, after CC1 was a mess as well.

I don't know. Between having children, covid and 10 moves back and forth across America, the woman needs to sit down and consider what she wants to do. She clearly cannot write multiple series at the same time. She also needs a goddamn editor, who will tell her, hey Sarah, that's not what you said here. Hey Sarah, this is a continuity error. Hey Sarah, you've used the same expression 74 times in the past 15 pages. Hey Sarah, you've dropped 6 storylines--don't you think it's wasteful? Are you just writing for word count? Hey Sarah, perhaps concentrate on writing fewer characters, but writing them well.

I know she sells like crazy, but honestly, I've been less than impressed with her latest offerings.

I wish I could feel the sense of excitement and overwhelming love that I felt when I was reading ACOTAR for the first time. Where I was sucked into the story and didn't want to let go.

[nikethestatue]

sometimes i wonder if sjm got a ghost writer or simply gave up with ACOTAR bc ACOSF didn't feel like a real book. I don't think she's an excellent writer by any means, in fact, i believe the execution of many o her books and plotlines are weak as hell but in nesta's book...sigh... it was messy from beginning to end. Like a bad fanfic that she wrote on ao3 and she was like well, deadlines are coming, this is what i have.. when you read ToG, or even the main ACOTAR trilogy you get that she has holes in the world building but in ACOSF there are flaws everywhere..from the weak villain, to the side characters, to nesta's poor behavior, to cassian being just a simp with no personality, to the maas assasination of the ic.... like it doesn't feel like her writing and it baffles me

I dont know if it's that, or if she wanted to make Nesta 'likable' but couldnt do it well?

Or she had an original idea and then scrapped it?

I really believe that she does much better if she doesn't get pushed or influenced by anyone, and sticks with her vision. I feel like ACOSF didn't have that. Something happened.

She is always, always very plot driven. She is actually not much of a romance writer--she has romance, but I really consider her to be a fantasy writer, before romance.

The complete lack of plot in ACOSF tells me that something must have happened and she changed course, and definitely not for the better.

Although, some people LOVE ACOSF. So who knows?

[nikethestatue]

“This is probably very unpopular but sometimes I feel like Feyre is overshadowed (not sure if this is the right term) by Rhys in her own series. Like...Feyre is the MC and Rhys is her LI. Sometimes I feel like SJM pushes him more than her” This is so true! I was waiting for her to mention Feyre in her livestream about CC3 but she just says “I’m excited to have BRYCE interact with Rhysand and Azriel! 🤩” I was like “……girl what 🥹🧐”

I like that they both feel mutually important in ACOTAR! because I love them as a pairing, they work as a duo that make eachother better anyway, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love feyre when it doesn’t have to do with rhysand, she’s so strong, fierce, loving and just inspiring for alot of us. im so grateful for discovering a heroine like feyre and aelin, I adore them both so much. my two morally grey yet soft queens 🛐

In all honestly though while we’re on the topic…If SJM continues to not involve Feyre for a third book (esp now that her other heroine out of three is there with feyre! like okay where is this headed and what will Bryce and Feyre’s dynamic be? they’re both treated as the female leaders of their worlds sort of, so they have mutual power in common just like they would with Aelin) and not actually let her USE her powers for once I think it may ruin CC3 for me or future books. Like why make her so powerful and not even have her use her powers in her last book lol? It’s weird writing to build someone up, not let them have their moment for their powers then end their pov without giving those powers justice. she just casually has done nothing with the power of 7 courts? after she was like “imagine what she could do if she combined them all, could freeze armies, mist them, burn them, drown them and make it your own.” what did she do in acowar? she waited the war out and “saved her strength” for the cauldron. did she help save them? yeah but what made her trying to do so exciting? he just flew her there, they healed it and the end for feyre’s role. there’s this popular booktuber that said this same this thing when it comes to feyre and SJM. she’s powerful af and then not even used and she just laughed about it because honestly who does that so casually. Idk guys sorry for the rant but ik I’ll going into CC3 wondering what she’ll have planned for feyre and what will happen with hunt..feyre is not meant to be an equal to the IC, she’s the only high lady with each of those high lords powers. Write her as such or why even make her so powerful? It doesn’t make sense even as a writer stop building things up and never touching on them again..who’s that messy when writing? I feel like she truly treats it as fanfiction sometimes, and is just in her own world not caring about canon or writing criticisms. It makes me grateful that other authors at least listen to criticism that makes sense, because they always end up fixing their mess up sometimes and the next book shows that they made changes. Im not used to an author who just continues what it is they’re doing for years and just viewing it as entitled fans responses that she blocks out and doesn’t let affect her story telling.

Wanting Bryce to meet all the Acotar boys first and foremost was her answer, when all she does in CC is have every guy thirst over her excessively like CC2, like yes hot but it became excessive. It makes me like “is this a reason why she can’t wait for the guys to interact with her? Because she likes it when the character she’s immersed in is in the spotlight of them or viewed as a queen or powerful by men in the series? like if so just be more subtle? Idk maybe she actually does have plans for Feyre and maybe even Aelin but there’s nothing that gives me that feeling that she does have a plan.

I agree that SJM is not good with worldbuilding around Feysand, and especially around Feyre.

For example, in ACOTAR, Lucien explains that the High Lords are a different species--they are Fae, but they are way beyond that because of course their power sustains their Courts. It controls the weather, controls elements, etc. The Power chooses them and they basically transform into this higher being.

Well, what about Feyre then? What does it mean for her to be a HL? Is it just a title that Rhys gave her? But does it come with special powers? Doesn't seem like it! Say he died, would she be able to sustain the NC?

This issue has never been resolved by SJM. Like did she just want to make Rhys a wonderful feminist hero who gave his wife a title? Because again, in the world that she created, women, apparently, cannot be High Ladies, because power never selects them, and hence we only have High Lords. Or does this title come with something?

Also, Feyre has the power of the 7 High Lords. Yet, when Helion described the loss of his power to her, he mentioned it's like a missing scale on a fish. So, if his power is THAT immense that the loss of it feels so insignificant, even with the powers of all 7 Lords, what does Feyre actually have?

Unfortunately, it's these constant annoying inconsistencies that make it so difficult to understand what Feyre actually is. Like, water wolves are nice, but Rhys could hide an entire city with virtually no power, for 50 years.

The issue is that SJM doesn't expand and doesn't explain the world that she has built. She'll throw some piece of information out there, and then it's just there, without any followup.

Like here is an example: It says that Day, Summer and Winter courts rebelled against Amarantha. She executed the previous HLs. Does it mean that Helion's been a HL for only like 30 years? It sure doesn't sound like that from the books. Also, we are to assume that Tarquin became a HL UtM (and perhaps Helion too, but let's set that aside)--so did the Power choose him there? Shouldn't he have had ALL of his power then? He didn't drink that wine that they all drank that took away their powers.

I don't know. I can go on and on, but unfortunately, Feyre seems to be stuck doing a lot of painting now, and being a mom. Both are fine, but then why give her all these amazing powers and never do anything with them? I am really hoping that whatever the FINAL battle is, Feyre can step in and do something amazing. And I don't really want Bryce to overshadow Feyre. I'd much rather read about Feyre than Bryce, tbh.

Unfortunately, it's the writer's inconsistencies that we have to live with. Which is a shame.

[maevelin]

Acowar Review

So now that time has passed and I can view it from a distance time for me to review A Court of Wings and Ruin.

However there is a lot of salt. I can’t help myself.

So...Acotar was a difficult read for lack of a better term but Acomaf was a great improvement. However Acowar was by far worse than Acotar and that says it all. While Acotar had a more or less simplistic story Acowar was convoluted and chaotic. It aspired to be something that it never became.

But before I get to that let me start with the things I actually liked. The book continued the story of characters I love so there had been certain emotions that made the whole journey worth it. There was humor in the dialogues. Certain interactions were amazing. The mythology. The species. The universe. The world building. All interesting, Some descriptions made your mind create great pictures. Most of the imagery was beautiful. Rhysand's introduction in the old war was great and promised greatness. There were certain meaningful phrases inside the book that were amazing. I am admittedly also emotionally compromised with many characters ever since acomaf and I just adore them and nothing with change that. In fact I am not ready to let go of these characters so i will stick around with all the art and fanfiction and discussion.

But in general the whole book was a hot mess. Especially structurally.

It was messy. Sloppy. As if the writer wrote without coherency and just wanted to get out a story no matter what but without any care for the outcome. The pace was wrong. Reading at a point became a hard slog. The book didn't need to be so many pages. It could -should- be at least two hundred pages less. There were no layers. You were being hit over and over in the head with heavy exposition and explanations and repetition. Over and over and over again. It was exhausting.

The exposition was really heavy. This was more of an awkward narration at times and more telling than showing.

Technically wise certain use of vocabulary at times felt wrong. As if the writer was using a thesaurus but not in the right way. And then certain words that sounded nice were being repeated constantly (resplendent much?). But that was a constant theme for more parts than just nice words. The editing was truly terrible. I honestly cannot wrap my mind around the fact that this draft actually got the green light for publishing. It needed more work, more smoothing, more refining. There were glaring mistakes and a constant repetition of words and phrases. This happened in the previous two books too but in this was completely out of control and there is no excuse for it.

Eyes that kept shuttering along with my patience. Star-kissed and night-kissed and wind-kissed and all the -kissed and on top of that all the -flecked. Constantly. Feyre could have sworn so many times.  The former and the latter kept going back and forth. More hands in pockets and a lot of purring. Not recognizing enemy from...foe! (seriously!) At some parts I actually yelled frustrated.

This was like the first draft that someone went over quickly and ...published. Even fanfics get more attention than what I read.

Talking about fics. I am all for smut. I really am. Give me all the smut. Hardcore. Romantic. Hot, steamy, slow, fast. Whatever. I am here for it. My mind is already a gutter anyway. But even the sex scenes were a bit awkward at times here.

Now as you kept reading the writer kept hyping and hyping and hyping and then the actual climax of the story was...anticlimactic. Infinite use of deus ex machina resolutions. I found myself rolling my eyes many times and there were many cope outs in general. Melodrama and ridiculousness all around. The solution to many problems was childish and explained sloppily.

As for the hype thing. Now there is the GRRM kind of writing where everyone dies and then there is the twilight saga pattern where no one dies. SJM falls to the second category. It was completely unrealistic. Commit to the nature of your story and the building you actually made throughout three books and actually give a pay off. But...nope. And yes I would be devastated to lose some of these characters but at the same time it would be a compliment to the story.

Moving on. Unfortunately I felt that Rhysand had lost a lot of his charm and became a bland character except from the moment where he screwed over Morrigan which was okay I guess since all his feminism begins and ends with Feyre. But it is also okay because Feyre in her inner monologues keeps reminding us over and over and over again why Rhysand is perfect. And even basic human decency (like postponing sex for a few minutes in order for Feyre to visit for the first time in months her sisters after the traumatic events in Hybern) is elevated in his case and romanticized because obviously no other person can act that way so it is compare and contrast. It became a constant. For Feyre to praise Rhysand for everything even when he was coddling her when she was messing up.

And mind you that Rhysand is one of my top three best and most loved characters in the Acotar Universe. He still is. But still some of the things in this book irked me the wrong way. Less is more. Yes we get it Rhysand is perfection on earth (well ...yeah lol) but we don't need to be told constantly and his flaws do not need to be presented as character strengths.

Then on the other hand Feyre kept thinking at so my parts of how great she was. What great spy she was. How much of a powerhouse she was. It was annoying. In Acomaf Feyre had become more tolerable for me (I am generally not that fond of the classic YA special snowflake -Mary Sue- heroine with everything in her arsenal that is so damn powerful and special and unstoppable and perfect and can do fits no one else can without any logic or foundation for being able to do so) but here she irritated me again.

And it was as if all the character development for Rhysand and Feyre ended in Acomaf. The fell into a stalemate in Acowar. No progress. No continuation for their growth.

I found Nesta and even Elain at most parts of the book to be the saving grace of the story along with Azriel and Cassian and Lucien (which btw we get that he is Hellion’s son no need to keep reminding us with every sentence! We got it the first 100 times). Secondary characters were far more interesting like Kallias, Viviane etc.

Nessian was also one of the best if not the best parts of it (due to their chemistry in their dynamic and how their interactions complimented their strong traits along with their flaws too) and of course Nesta's character development was incredible.

And then...there was Morrigan. Dear Morrigan. Well Morrigan was there. Or at least a version of her. But THE Morrigan had taken a leave of absence (at this point my salt actually freaking intensifies!!)

Morrigan's characterization took a major hit in this book and I am still in mourning for that. There were offensive aspects when it came to how she was treated here (along with the general LGBT+ representation in general). No grace or class at all. I have many issues with how many parts of Mor’s characterization were handled in this book. And even though I liked the backstory with Andromache there were things that I did not like at all considering the way Morrigan's story was build in Acomaf. Also as I have said THE MORRIGAN has been MIA and if anyone finds her please contact me asap.

On another note the lack of names also irritated me while the use of religious mythology was over the top. We got the Moses parallels and just had the nameless King of Hybern and Lucian Vanserra but any last names were too much to ask I guess.

Other parts in general were simply introduced in the story only to set the foundation for the next spin offs of the series but they felt way out of focus and place in this book here.

Now on a more personal note when I had finished Acomaf I was completely devoted to Feyre’s and Rhysand’s relationship. And I got in Acowar with the same excitement for them and ...I turned into a frigging salt factory! The magic was gone. What made them tick in the first and second book was toned down. They did not push each other. They did not challenge each other. They communicated by only patting themselves on the back. They kept screwing up over and over again and then they were congratulating themselves. It was such a saccharine annoyance. And while their bond was really strong something felt amiss. But I still loved them. I still rooted for them. Until the last three pages of the book. Where I wanted to take it and throw it out of my freaking window!

The last bargain between Feyre and Rhysand was just so horrible. In Acomaf they pushed through all the shit and tried to balance themselves into a healthy dynamic and all of that progress WAS GONE IN TWO STUPID PAGES THAT WAS THE CONCLUSION OF THEIR WHOLE STORY. It left a bitter taste in my mouth and I am so sorry their journey in the books that centered around them ended in this way. It was problematic and toxic and a big no no for me. That was not romantic at all. It was enabling a sick codependency that leads to suicide for one of them in the end. Thanks no thanks.