As promised, I’m importing the A Court of Thorns and Roses recaps here from Patreon. These were originally written beginning in August of 2020, so there will be references to upcoming or seasonal events that won’t fit with our current timeline. I am not a time traveler and you’ll never be able to prove that I am. I will also include editors notes like this every now and then as we go, mostly to amuse myself but to give re-read value to those who’ve already been on this awful, awful journey with me.
We left Feyre just as she’s seen her father approach the gates of the manor.
I didn’t give myself a chance to panic, to doubt, to do anything but wish I had stolen some food from my breakfast table as I layered on tunic after tunic and bundled myself in a cloak, stuffing the knife I’d stolen into my boot. The extra clothes in the satchel would just be a burden to carry.
My question here is, why would she have to “steal” food in a place where they have been actively pushing her to eat? But anyway, after all this careful planning for her escape she was definitely thinking about getting around to doing, the moment has come. She’s surprised that her father has come to save her and thinks, well, I must be worth more than what Tamlin is giving them.
My father—my crippled, broken father had come.
The ableism in this book is something else. I get it, he’s got a disability and this is a kind of medieval, fairytale setting, but that’s exactly what it is. A fairytale. I understand and appreciate realistic ableism in historical settings because I feel like, you know, don’t sugar coat this shit. I know a lot of people think it’s good representation for disabled people to put them in historical stories and never have the character experience any ableism or have any trauma from experiencing ableism but if you’re setting it in a real-world situation, it just doesn’t sit right with me. But this isn’t a real-world book. This is a totally new world, in which the author would be free to simply…have no ableism. Feyre could simply have had empathy (substantial bits of her characterization would need to be reworked), acknowledged how impossible the journey would have been, the pain he must be in from his disability. Both of those would have been so much better than “crippled, broken.” ed.—It’s especially galling to imply that he’s only overcome his disability due to greed.
Feyre makes sure there’s nobody in the garden and climbs down a trellis. There’s another borderline-ableist bit about how her father is limping with his cane and how surprising it is that he made the journey, and those things could have easily been expanded by focusing more on the “oh my gosh, my father cares about me enough to have made this harrowing, physically demanding journey,” and less on, “wow, how did Crippy McGee manage to hoist his lazy self up out of his chair and make it all the way here?” ed.—AAAAY must the mon-ayyyy!
My father reached the gates. They were already open, the dark forest beyond beckoning. He must have hidden the horses deeper in. He turned toward me, that familiar face drawn and tight, those brown eyes clear for once, and beckoned. Hurry, hurry, every movement of his hand seemed to shout.
My heart was a raging beat in my chest, in my throat. Only a few feet now—to him, to freedom, to a new life—
I guess I’m shallow because yet again, I’m like, why would you want to go back to the family that you actively resented? I guess if it’s all you’ve ever known, but she seemed to bone-deep fucking hate them to the point that it sounded like if she hadn’t made that vow to her mom, she would have been happy to see them starve to death.
Now, as we all likely anticipated:
A massive hand wrapped around my arm.
“Going somewhere?”
Shit, shit, shit.
Feyre Rose Steele
I didn’t dare move, not as his lips thinned and the muscles in his jaw quivered. Not as he opened his mouth and I glimpsed fangs—long, throat-tearing fangs shining in the moonlight.
He was going to kill me—kill me right there, and then kill my father. No more loopholes, no more flattery, no more mercy. He didn’t care anymore. I was as good as dead.
“Please,” I breathed. “My father—”
“Your father?” He lifted his stare to the gates behind me, and his growl rumbled through me as he bared his teeth. “Why don’t you look again?”
You know what happens next.
Only a pale bow and a quiver of pale arrows remained, propped up against the gates. Mountain ash. They hadn’t been there moments before, hadn’t—
Yeah, it’s some kind of shape-shifting fairy thing.
“Weren’t you warned to keep your wits about you?” Tamlin snapped. “That your human senses would betray you?”
Yes, Tamlin, thank you. That’s what I was thinking.
On the other hand, I should cut Feyre some slack. She’s never read a fantasy novel before. Maybe she didn’t see that coming. You know, even though she’s been warned like nine hundred times about things in the garden.
“Fool,” he said to me, turning. “If you’re ever going to run away, at least do it in the daytime.” He stared me down, and the fangs slowly retracted. The claws remained. “There are worse things than the Bogge prowling these woods at night. That thing at the gates isn’t one of them—and it still would have taken a good, long while devouring you.”
Nay, Tamlin, ’tis you who are the fool. Because now, Feyre is gonna just focus on the daytime part and disregard every other warning she’s ever gotten.
Feyre is like, my dad shows up here and you think I’m not even going to try to see him, except she once again calls him her crippled father like it’s a job title and not an outdated adjective to apply to other people. She also is like, do you really think I’m gonna be psyched about staying here with you?
He flexed his fingers as if trying to get the claws back in, but they remained out, ready to slice through flesh and bone. “What do you want, Feyre?”
“I want to go home!”
“Home to what, exactly? You’d prefer that miserable human existence to this?”
Exactly! She hated her family, she hated that she had to do all the work for her greedy sisters, she didn’t even like her boyfriend. Feyre, you wanted the fuck out, you got the fuck out.
She goes on to say that because she made that promise to her mother, everything she’s ever done since has been to take care of her family. Again, she doesn’t even seem to like the mother she made this vow to but okay. Feyre tells Tamlin that he’s forcing her to break that vow but it’s like…
Feyre. You’re not upset about your family. You’re not missing your family or your old life. You’re missing your identity.
Feyre has spent years of her life in a cycle of perpetual martyrdom and resentment. Now that it’s been lifted from her shoulders, she has no idea who the fuck she is as a person. I would be able to forgive that if she’d been in an abusive situation but she was really just in a situation where she didn’t like the fact that they’d lost all of their money and her family didn’t know how to cope with the trauma of a violent altercation that left the breadwinner disabled.
Sorry. Broken. Crippled.
Tamsin states the obvious:
“You are not breaking your vow—you are fulfilling it, and then some, by staying here. Your family is better cared for now than they were when you were there.”
Tamsin, Tamlin, I don’t fucking remember, either way, a-fucking-men.
Those chipped, miscolored paintings inside the cottage flashed in my vision. Perhaps they would forget who had even painted them in the first place. Insignificant—that’s what all those years I’d given them would be, as insignificant as I was to these High Fae. And that dream I’d had, of one day living with my father, with enough food and money and paint … it had been my dream—no one else’s.
Yes, Feyre. I’m sure they’ll all forget you. Every time that fairy money shows up on their doorstep, their chest of gold or whatever, probably delivered by a leprechaun, they’re gonna be like, “whoa, wtf is this? Why is this happening? What a strange and unexpected occurrence, completely unrelated to that night a huge, menacing beast tore our door off and threatened to kill us for some reason that has now slipped my mind.”
Like, didn’t her sister even buy her the paint to make those flowers? And LOL that she’s suddenly shocked that her dream of her sisters somehow disappearing and her living at home with her dad forever wasn’t shared by the sisters who would have to disappear and the father who maybe wants some peace and god damn quiet with his adult children out of the damn house.
But Feyre is like, I can’t give up on them and tacks on some moping about how of course her father would never come to get her.
Fed and comfortable. If he couldn’t lie, if it was true, then … then it was beyond anything I’d ever dared hope for.
Then … my vow to my mother was fulfilled.
Oh, shit, how are you gonna find enough wood to build yourself a new cross, Feyre?
My life was now owned by the Treaty, but… perhaps I’d been freed in another sort of way.
Such introspection. And so quickly, too.
They head back inside and Tamlin explains that they don’t need sentries at his house, since he’s there, and most troops are at the border. He, too, trained to guard the border during the war and he’d never expected to have the responsibility of running the manor. Feyre figures that’s why he needs Lucien around to do the talking for him, but she doesn’t want to ask any other questions because it seems too personal.
At this point, she doesn’t think to herself, oh wow, what a weird parallel between our circumstances. Instead, she changes the subject to learn that the fairy that tried to lure her off the grounds is a puca, a creature that would have dragged her away and eaten her alive.
“These lands used to be well guarded. The deadlier faeries were contained within the borders of their native territories, monitored by the local Fae lords, or driven into hiding. Creatures like the puca never would have dared set foot here. But now, the sickness that infected Prythian has weakened the wards that kept them out.” A long pause, like the words were choked out of him. “Things are different now. It’s not safe to travel alone at night—especially if you’re human.”
Weren’t humans always unsafe in fairyland? Yous guys were at war.
This would also be a good time for Feyre to reflect on the fact that she’s been kinda wrong about how the world beyond the wall works but, eh.
“What else is different now?” I asked, trailing him up the marble front steps.
He didn’t stop this time, didn’t even look over his shoulder to see me as he said, “Everything.”
Like, idk, Feyre. The fact they have masks fused to their faces is one of the things that’s different. In fact, kinda all they’ve talked about with you since you arrived is how things are different now? It’s come up in almost every conversation.
But anyway.
After a section break, Feyre finally accepts that she’s definitely gonna stay in Prythian forever.
As much as I longed to ensure that Tamlin’s word about caring for my family was true, as much as his claim that I was taking better care of my family by staying away—even if I was truly fulfilling that vow to my mother by staying in Prythian … Without the weight of that promise, I was left hollow and empty.
Those are the same thing, Feyre.
I turned the page hoping that this would be where she had some moment of further introspection where she realizes that the vow wasn’t important and only fomented resentment or something and she regrets it all worked out that way, but obviously that doesn’t happen. I assume it will at some point because it’s the natural progression of her character arc.
Just like I assume Tamlin is going to turn out to be a great guy and Lucien is going to be an evil villain.
I’m not skipping this next part, it’s just exposition in a paragraph. I wanted yous all to know that before you thought, Jenny, why would you skip a huge chunk of the book. I did not skip a huge chunk of the book. The book skipped a huge chunk of the book. The following is all exposition in a couple of paragraphs.
Feyre starts joining Lucien on patrol and she brings her bow and arrow with her every time but it makes her think about how one arrow changed her fate and when she tries to shoot a doe, she changes her mind.
Then it’s off to dinner!
No, really. Imagine the scene that just got skipped over. Plot and character development happened in that moment for Feyre, and it was consigned to a couple of paragraphs before moving on to talk more about Tamlin. Literally, the female main character’s arc is happening in the background of her own story while the author fixates on the male characters.
Feyre mentions that Tamlin leaves dinner early all the time now.
On the third night after my encounter with the puca, I’d scarcely sat down before Tamlin got up, giving an excuse about not wanting to waste hunting time.
Lucien and I stared after him for a moment.
What I could see of Lucien’s face was pale and tight. “You worry about him,” I said.
Lucien slumped in his seat, wholly undignified for a Fae lord. “Tamlin gets into … moods.”
Oh good. Yous all know how I love “moody” male characters.
“He prefers being alone. And having the Bogge on our lands … I don’t suppose you’d understand. The puca are minor enough not to bother him, but even after he’s shredded the Bogge, he’ll brood over it.”
Sweet, he’s gonna stay moody, too. Gosh, I hope someone cracks his moody shell and overlooks rudeness or mistreatment at his hands to prove her love or whatever.
I’m not saying that’s going to happen, I’m just saying it’s a trope I wouldn’t be shocked by in this book.
“And there’s no one who can help him at all?”
“He would probably shred them for disobeying his order to stay away.”
A brush of ice slithered across my nape. “He would be that brutal?”
Feyre, who has spent this whole fucking book so far talking about how cruel and inhumane fairies are, is shocked that a fairy would be cruel and inhumane.
But again, let me tell you how much I love moody characters who refuse help but continue being “moody.”
Lucien explains that you can’t hold onto power by being friends, and fairies aren’t scared of any consequence other than death. Of course, his actual words are:
“[…]We’re too powerful, and too bored with immortality, to be checked by anything else.”
which doesn’t make sense to me because if they’re “bored by immortality” then how would death be a deterrent? I’m not objecting to the use of “immortal” as meaning “won’t die of natural causes” but I’m 100% objecting to the idea that people who are bored of living forever would view death as a horrible punishment rather than a reward.
It seemed like a cold, lonely position to have, especially when you didn’t particularly want it. I wasn’t sure why it bothered me so much.
A. Because it’s what you just went through with your vow to your mother B. You’re gonna fuck him the answer is C. Probably, all of the above.
After a section break, we’re in a nightmare Feyre is having about shooting Andras. She’s aware in the dream that she doesn’t want to shoot him, but she doesn’t have the choice to stop. After she shoots him, he transforms and she realizes that she’s skinned him in his faery form. Here’s some of the imagery that really jumped out at me:
One shot—one shot straight through that golden eye.
A plume of blood splattering the snow, a thud of a heavy body, a sigh of wind. No.
Love “a plume of blood” because you can really see the arterial spray.
I blinked, and then—then my hands were warm and sticky with blood, then his body was red and skinless, steaming in the cold, and it was his skin—his skin—that I held in my hands, and—
One of the things that’s been overall bugging me about this book is that Maas seemed so reluctant to show these dark and brutal things the fae do, but she mentioned them all the time. It was consistently, “or worse” and “they could eat you” but we didn’t see this stuff. We never saw anybody weeping over a mangled body found in the woods. Feyre never has a memory of someone being attacked, someone she knew, anything to connect her to the violence she was telling us about. I really, really liked this nightmare because it goes so much further and shows us graphic gore. Now, is graphic gore necessary for every fantasy story? No, obviously not. But if you’re going to talk about blood and death and violence and then never really show any, you’re gonna lose me. And this nightmare sequence upped the stakes both in terms of delivering on the promise of darkness and showing us that on at least some subconscious level, Feyre is starting to understand what she’s actually done to Andras. He’s not just a random faery, he’s a person she killed and skinned and even if she didn’t mean to, it happened.
Then, she wakes up and blames her family for her lack of self-examination:
Perhaps it was the quiet, the hollowness, of the past few days—perhaps it was only that I no longer had to think hour to hour about how to keep my family alive, but … It was regret, and maybe shame, that coated my tongue, my bones.
Regret is like almond milk. It coats the tongue.
And the chapter hook? Is that she gets out of bed.
“If he couldn’t lie, it was true, then”
Her BFF Lucien told her IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER, MERE HOURS AGO, that there’s only one kind of fae that can’t lie and they’re not here. Perfectly reasonable to find him untrustworthy, of course, but if she thinks he’s lying, a reasonable person might conclude that means fae can lie!
I am starting to think that Fay Ray had some kind of head trauma during the event that turned her father into a lazy, good for nothing crippled, and she has limited short term memory, hence the constant need to repeat everything and often forgetting something she learned a few pages earlier.
Also, love the idea that she has been so determined to get home because she doesn’t know who she is without being the family Cinderella. Wish that had gotten explored more because it’s a thing that can happen, when someone at a young age is forced into the care giver role it becomes their whole identity. This would have been a wonderful story if it was about Fay Ray breaking free of that burden to discover herself without falling for her two hunky (but masked, so she’s not totally shallow), dangerous, but not to her, sure they threaten her but for some inexplicable reason they never go through with it. (seriously, if I had to spent 10 minutes with this idiot I’d commit cold blooded murder and if that meant spending the rest of my life in jail it would be worth it just to not have to deal with her anymore), captors. Alas, I’m not confident that’s the way it’s going to go. But at least it has sparked a tiny flame of inspiration in me.
I love how the comments here are full of many good ideas just because of hard eye-rolling at this book! 🙂
I mean, Ray Bradbury said a lot of his work was motivated by anger at other people’s artwork so maybe we’ll get something good out of this yet!
She WAS right there when he got his leg broken so yeah, head trauma is entirely possible. For that matter, what if she knows that dude would steal her rabbits because he already did once? Blow to the head and then she’s pissed off, never trusts going near him again. The man sees his dad beat his mom all the time; why would he care about Feyre??
The warhammer fan in me is extremely amused at these fae, who so far seem to spend the majority of their time doing very mundane things, are like “woe is us immortality is so boring”. I’m sorry but if your attempts to deal with the boredom of immortality haven’t resulted in the creation of a new god of hedonism then you just aren’t trying.
Yeah why the hell aren’t these faeries partying all the time?! Or showing us some form of actual entertainment instead of their jobs. Why isn’t she pulling a Rose on the Titanic and checking out the servants dancing away in their quarters to some of them playing a jaunty tune?! Why aren’t they fucking like crazy? Not even a single hint of that? So far Feyre is the only one we know has sex for fun and that was before she got here… that was Egg Boy. Why isn’t she asking about contraceptives?
This is interesting to me because I’ve never bought into the idea that immortality *would* be boring. Like, maybe I’m just a boring person; but I’d be pretty entertained just doing mundane things forever. But also I’ve found good reread potential in these recaps even without the lovely italicized commentary, and spend a lot of time relearning things or rereading stories I’ve forgotten, so… idk; I’m a little less sympathetic to people who complain about how “boring” immortality is. There’s so much fun stuff to do in general!
And I fully recognize that there are so many things I *haven’t* done, and since I’m *not* immortal, I’ll need to speed it up and get them done. Like learning to snowboard and playing VR games and cosplaying and community theatre and getting good at painting figurines and going to concerts for bands I like and playing music on the street just because. And axe-throwing; I’ve never done that before but I’ve been meaning to for years. And these are all pretty mundane things, too; if you literally had magic and lived in a fantasy world… there’s just endless possibilities. Idek.
Exactly. Like even if they don’t have our level of technology there are all sorts of hobbies and media that are still available to create and consume. Not to mention sports, traveling, and hell even horse-back riding counts. You can do that for fun as long as the horse is up for it.
And yeah, magic could easily serve as a substitute for some of the stuff that’s much more modern if one wants to.
I understand that living a very long life means it would be easier to get into a rut and well, getting depression would lead to some incredibly long mental spirals if you don’t get therapy to help rewire your thinking to a new norm. But that’s why you make friends and create schools for accredited therapists.
I forgot to add that research as an immortal scientist or historian or archeologist would be amazing… well maybe heartbreaking if it’s realistic and you’re killing a lot of test subjects to study their brains and stuff but yeah.
Right?! There’s so many things these immortals *could* be doing, but instead they just…don’t? Like I guess we could give the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re in a funk right now because the last time they had a party it got ruined by Magic Plague, but overall they seem to be wasting their infinite time. Like come on, guys. At least take up knitting or something!
Exactly. And if as someone else commented the Blight is a lie (also very vague, doesn’t make any sense, and I can’t fathom how it’s actually supposed to harm them or humanity anyway) then it’s even more infuriating that these faeries didn’t just do whatever for hobbies or fun or another party. I mean, they can’t remove the masks anyway supposedly so why not have another party if enough time has passed?? You’re already set for another masquerade ugh. Just switch out your clothes and start dancing.
Without spoilering too much, if it helps give any context, the ‘blight’ did diminish their magic a lot, and there’s a bunch of random dangerous creatures crawling all over their grounds now as a result. (You are right that the actual canon explanation is stupid and makes no sense). But! You’re absolutely right; none of this precludes them from holding parties. Admittedly they do start having parties in later chapters, but it seems so very basic that it’s disappointing. What, you’ve been alive thousands of years and can’t come up with any better but still complain about being “bored”?
Oddly, in the second book we’re introduced to Fae immortals who don’t seem to be bored at all, and don’t ever complain about immortality. Maybe this is the author’s way of trying to say Tamlin and Lucien are kinda spoiled aristos? It’s true that ennui was more of a thing among the nobility in Europe during, idk, Regency-ish times, since they weren’t doing much.
I highly recommend axe-throwing. It’s a blast.
I just realized: Aren’t we glad she didn’t EAT the wolf, after all? (Though I would love the dark story this could be in the right hands…)
I’m too lazy to check but how many chapters does this book have? I feel like nothing really happens and we’re dragging our feet in circles.
Ugh, yeah, you’re right. We’re at chapter 11. If this book has 22 chapters then we’re halfway. If it’s 30 that’s still so much time wasted on repetitive nonsense.
46, according to Patreon. Fwiw she compressed all the plot into the last ten or so chapters, but the first 17 or so is basically “nothing happens, they eat and repeat things”
So, I have a bad habit of thinking something I’m writing will be short and I only ever write fan fiction for the most part. (I’ve tried original fiction but I always falter.) And I just can’t fathom writing all of this and enjoying it. I mean, I understand making some of these mistakes but the author also probably realized it was repetitive. Or maybe she didn’t realize she was doing it? I feel like she was stumbling over not knowing who Feyre is either.
And while I’ve had depression and spent many days contemplating wanting to draw something but not actively doing so, out of anxiety or not knowing where to start (part of the problem is I am constantly filled with ideas for fandom stuff) but I still consider it and find joy in that. I also idly wonder how I’d depict something or notice the things that I prefer to draw because I’m trying to study them even if I’m not putting that information into practice by doodling at the same time.
I don’t feel like Feyre’s love of art is properly portrayed in any way and it’s very annoying. I can forgive her for not bringing it up, not asking for supplies, not learning how to make some of her own supplies or reusing trash in this manner. I can forgive her for not even just asking for pen or pencil and paper. But I can’t forgive the fact she’s painted flowers when she just doesn’t give a crap about them and her only notice of them is they’re useless.
I just… I think literally the only reason she goes on about flowers so much is because of the stupid rose from the original Beauty and the Beast and the Disney movie of course since a lot of people have seen that.
But yeah, we don’t know anything about Feyre. I could sort of forgive that too but she just has no actual hobbies. Even if she just thought about them and wished she could do them in a less annoying way would be better than nothing. Like why the hell isn’t there some artist here that she can talk to and be tutored by?? PLEASE. Because I’m so irritated that they didn’t do that at least.
And yeah I’m also very pissed off that Feyre fell for the trap set by the lol pucca the fuck. I get that we don’t change our minds very suddenly and it takes a while to get into a different mindset but like… shouldn’t she at least hesitate??
It’s because Feyre is getting what anyone would want but the author isn’t comfortable letting her just suck it up. Why not force Feyre to become a servant first?? Like it’s terrible but you could say “Now you have to do the job Andras did!” Or “you can’t possibly replace Andras but we have something else in mind.”
It’d go along with her finally feeling some regret and realizing he was a person. And it’s help give her a purpose. Ugh.
If they didn’t want to do that then she needs something else. Plus all the lead-up has just been empty garbage. I hate it. None of it shows Feyre as a strong, independent woman either. She’d wash her own damn self.
I suppose I didn’t explain my first paragraph very well; I have trouble being brief because I get little ideas here and there for something unexpected one of multiple characters in a scene will do. Then I get lots of funny or cute or hopefully exciting tangents. I use it for characterization and world building mostly… and I do notice sometimes I will inadvertently have the problem where something is revealed twice but in most cases I’m doing this to reveal new information.
I’ve fallen into the trap of grinding to a halt repeatedly over the one-track mind in the past and it wasn’t fun. It also usually meant the character wasn’t very assertive because in most cases it was or still is them thinking and then later I found a place for a dialog reveal. And I generally err on the side of dialog because it shares information with everyone who’s there for the conversation but I’m still finding my way. Nonetheless, 11 chapters and I would’ve already lost interest in writing this book, quite frankly.
I’d be frustrated with Feyre even if I didn’t realize where I’d gone wrong… and honestly, the guys wouldn’t interest me either because I’d have yet to reveal why anyone would crush on them. There’s no relationships here even for a slow-burn.
I’d peg Feyre as Aro Ace (even though she was banging Egg Boy) and move on to a different relationship or try to figure out WTF this woman is gonna do with her new life and why that makes her more interesting… or at least try to.
And like, I’ve given characters random hobbies I knew very little about, having to do some research, or maybe glossing over it if it wasn’t a major plot point, so I get not realizing she could at least think about art in a more enthusiastic way but just anything. I wish bare minimum Feyre was more curious or asked about books. Like yeah, they’re trying to keep her from being Belle, but if you supposedly trust them this much then just look for some answers in their written knowledge.
Then again, this world is very bland and not very unique so IDK. I’m just especially pissed off she can’t befriend some of the monstrous fairies. Have a few of them at this court, servants if you must, and give us something interesting to look for. But then I love monsters so…
Sorry to reply to myself but I just… I wish there was an edit feature lol.
Books wouldn’t help because she can’t read (I don’t think that’s been in the recaps yet, though), but, yeah; she’s in this rich manor, and a lot of her motivations feel… not fleshed out. Being able to get out of Survival Mode and take some time for introspection should be huge for her character. And it just isn’t.
Okay, that’s fair… but then Feyre can ask someone to teach her how to read if she’s actively invested in it and I think that’s a smart thing for her to do if the writer could make it engaging. They haven’t resisted helping her survive; she might as well find out if they’ll teach her and also I can’t fathom her staying illiterate. This doesn’t feel like the kind of series where that would be allowed. So I’m sure it’ll happen eventually, in some other book maybe, and it’ll probably be glossed over at that point for the sake of something else plot related then because heaven forbid she learn how to read as a form of world and character building. RIP anything entertaining happening in the first 11 chapters. I’ll eat my panties if she’s taught how to read in an exciting way at any point lol.
It happens in the second book! But “exciting” is debatable She does stay illiterate throughout this one.
it would have been a nice touch to have Fay Ray thinking, between “I need to escape” and “these hot guys are dangerous” something like:
As much as I want to leave this place, to flea from these fairies before they tire of my presence and decide that no one will care if I am killed here in this foreign place, there are moments when I think I could stay here forever trying to capture the haunting woods with pencil and paper, or these unusual plants, like nothing I’d ever seen growing up from the dirt and mud of my village with paint and canvas. It is torture being in a place so beautiful when all I want is to escape it.
It’s a bit wordy and the punctuation is probably wrong but I’ve always considered myself more a storyteller than a technically accurate writer. (aka, I’ve long forgotten how to write properly)
Yeah, exactly! Like maybe she’s so enchanted by the world but regrets that she doesn’t think she could ever properly capture it… or maybe she wants to start depicting it so if she DOES go back then she can share her pictures with others or have a reminder or something. And if she doesn’t care about flowers, maybe she can see cool, unique animals or bewitching light or crystals everywhere or lots of weird monsters that she CAN look at or something… maybe ALL of that. Just damn. So much opportunity wasted.
It’s like if she was a photographer from another era then she’d want souvenirs or something you know?? Or even just picking up leaves or cool rocks… oh right she can’t have rocks. Yeah anyway… lol she stole a kitchen knife but she hasn’t pick-pocketed anyone to find out what weird shit they keep in their pockets. That’d be a lot of fun right there!
“Alis, why do you carry this strange cigarette??”
“That’s a blunt; give it back or I won’t be so mellow when I braid your hair and you might lose a few inches in the middle…”
“Duly noted, ma’am.”
Also, now that you’ve brought it up, you’d THINK with her personality that Fay Fay would want to try and find a way to be useful to these fairies after she got over the sheer “I can finally just lie down in a nice soft bed for hours and not need to hustle so hard to survive” or whatever. I mean, I guess she doesn’t wanna seem like a suck-up but it’s a natural conclusion after a certain point so I guess we’ll see how long it takes her to get there.
Also also now I’m wondering if they have fleas and ticks in the fairy woods lol. That’d be amusing. And possibly deadly.
I forgot to add but awesome architecture and of course the high fairies would also be up for drawing/painting/sculpting/etc.
“Let me draw you like my Egg Boy.”
“Who??”
“Please, just pose for her. I find this rather amusing.”
“I will not! You may pose for her and I’ll attend to other business.”
“Winner winner, Feyre Dinner!”
“Oh, now you’re just being cheeky.”
If Maas had had the balls to put in “Let me draw you like my Egg Boy” that would have taken away at least 10 of the writing/storytelling sins she’d committed.
Bwa ha ha ha! Excellent. I’m glad to know I’ve helped.
But would you mind telling me which 10 sins or are we literally just pulling from Mark Twain’s Deerstalker list in full? (No complaints if so, I was just wondering.)
Also, I have kind of a love/hate relationship with moody love interests. I appreciate seeing that they’re just a person, they can get frustrated, and it helps to reveal their desires and struggles if they talk about it or someone else mentions it. And it can reveal something the character needs to overcome to progress the story or their arc.
I’m definitely not fond of the constantly simmering variant. It can be sexy or at least very interesting depending on how they show it but it gets really old really fast and it’s just tedious if you have NO IDEA why they’re upset! Or if it’s just “wow watch me angst and push you away for the will they won’t they” or whatever. A character who just has a constant but subtle edge isn’t too bad; they just have resting bitch face and they can’t control it. That’s cool; that’s just how they are and they aren’t always guarded or resistant or abrasive. But constant grouchiness without any release is exhausting for them and for me.
I want to see romance where they smile and appreciate each other. It’s not hard.
This entire premise written here is… ugh. A REALLY hard start. It’d be one thing if her father had killed Andras and she was there to assist, so they took her instead and she insisted she had no idea but she was against faeries for reasons and she eventually expressed her remorse without the martyrdom. Then Tamlin could be like “you didn’t do the deed; I won’t punish you in his stead. I don’t blame you” or something along those lines.
Or if the guy wasn’t a friend and just his servant… IDK. Sometimes authors make things much harder than they need to be.
I am avoiding giving anything away but GOD yeah no Maas REALLY did make things way harder for herself than she needed to
Yeah, it sounds like it. I think the other factor is, the premise she DID run with actually could work but you’d basically need to use these 11 chapters, condensed down mercifully, as an extended flashback and explain how maybe that was years ago, Feyre worked hard to be less of a bitch, the people who were friends with Andras forgave her for whatever reasons. Still tough as hell to sell even then if he was an actual good friend and they missed him…
Like ironically it’d be so much easier to sell this as Feyre almost killing Lucien or Tamlin, Andras saved them by taking the arrow for them, and Feyre was shocked but initially resolute until she came around to viewing it as a murder, apologized, and like actively tries to make other people’s lives better besides her own.
I get that Feyre is a martyr when helping others but it feels kinda selfish which sounds stupid. I mean, altruism is technically kinda selfish too, it’s just the way she only thinks of herself most of the time sucks ass and when she finally feels bad about Andras it’s good but it’s so hard squeezing that out of her and I don’t remember if she really said much of it. Which, like, as a person who does that kinda ruminating over things left unsaid, I get, but she doesn’t exactly do this either even though she’s repetitive as hell lol.
ugh IDK this thing fries my brain cells. BUT it’s an excellent learning experience and a reminder of the things I’ve already learned but kinda forgot about or still struggle with to a degree. Most notably how to make a female protagonist strong but vulnerable.
The trouble with Fay Ray’s martyr complex as written is that it’s not about doing what is right. She’s not trying to care for her family out of love, or out of an actual sense of doing the right thing because they can’t fend for themselves, she’s doing it because she has to because of vow she made. But even that isn’t “I loved my mother and owe it to her to keep my family safe” so much as, “that stupid bitch who birthed me also stuck me with the burden of taking care of my horrible family”.
I think Maas means for her to come across as making some noble sacrifice out of honor and that she’s such a good person for keeping her word but I see her as a moron who is using this vow as an excuse to stay in her rut and not put herself out and have someone to constantly blame for her shitty life.
As to the 10 sins (It wouldn’t let me reply in that thread so I’m doing so here), I just watch too much Cinema Sins and threw that line in there. Any 10 will do. I feel like this entire book is rife with writing sins. Poor characterization, an unlikeable main character, an obviously looming love triangle, constant repeating of information and yet somehow also having conflicting information. How can you not keep the facts straight and yet repeat them so many times?
It saddens me that such poorly thought out and written books sell so well. 🙁
That’s true. Feyre comes off as having very low self-esteem in a narcissistic way. Not just to throw that word around but she acts like she’s the shit whenever she’s talking and is just shy of lying about her capabilities while internally she’s actively negging herself (which could also be depression or any number of issues where a person tears themself down because they’ve internalized others tearing them down.)
Admittedly part of this comes from the way women are typically socialized (can’t ruin any man’s fragile ego by outshining him but at the same time can’t be incompetent or they won’t pick you for their important plans lol.) So her vow is more like “this is the duty all women have to their families” tying her down and she hates it but is trying to honor it. Which is why she fights so hard to keep it and has to be freed from the vow by some magical man who totally isn’t letting her suddenly reach the top of a new hierarchy where she has way more power. Feyre has to “earn” it but she can’t really… though I do suspect we’re going to find out she’s part fairy herself or become all fairy later on, much like how Bella became a vampire (which is a lot to unpack as well but of course Bella wanted to become the super awesome immortal thing with all the power beyond mere mortals.)
Ha ha and now I’m just thinking about the tv series version of “What We Do in the Shadows” which I need to finish but it eventually showed how the thralls are being used with empty promises of turning them eventually but they never will be because their vampires don’t really value them or care about them.
Feyre’s true concern is in a way simply being used but that’s never addressed because that level of introspection would reveal a lot of nasty little things that Maas didn’t want to deal with or wasn’t able to examine.
I understand why anxious teens and twenty-somethings would flock to this but it’s a bit jarring and it gets tiring very fast if you have any awareness at all.
CONTENT NOTE: SUICIDE
“if they’re “bored by immortality” then how would death be a deterrent? I’m not objecting to the use of “immortal” as meaning “won’t die of natural causes” but I’m 100% objecting to the idea that people who are bored of living forever would view death as a horrible punishment rather than a reward.”
The Ovanans, from Colleen Doran’s A Distant Soil, are a stagnant society whose members no longer age. Several kill themselves, or try to find ways to die. One character tells an anecdote about a woman whose last words were, “I’m bored.”
Incidentally, Colleen Doran also inked the “Façades” issue of The Sandman, about a different sort of immortal seeking release from life.