I’m shamelessly plugging my new Fantasy Romance serial in the intro to an unrelated post. Join the new Patreon tier or my Ream page , or read it on Kindle Vella.
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.
You’re never gonna guess what’s happening at Casa de Failure:
The next day, Lucien joined us for lunch […]
Oh wow, this is a huge change! Usually, they’re at breakfa—
[…] —which was breakfast for all of us.
God damnit.
The table is still small, by the way. They kept that change after Feyre pointed out that the long table for three people was silly. She’s changing lives, yo.
Feyre asks Lucien where he was the night before and he’s like, oh, I was out patroling…SEXY PATROLING WHERE I HAD SEX WHILE PATROLING. The he points out that Feyre and Tamlin didn’t get home until after dawn.
I glanced at Tamlin, biting my lip.
There it is.
Tamlin’s gaze now roved my face as if searching for any tinge of regret, of fear. Ridiculous.
It’s ridiculous for Tamlin to be worried that he’s overstepped his bounds, especially after we know what he did on Calanmai?
Which Feyre points out:
“You bit my neck on Fire Night,” I said under my breath. “If I can face you after that, a few kisses are nothing.”
He braced his forearms on the table as he leaned closer to me. “Nothing?” His eyes flicked to my lips. Lucien shifted in his seat, muttering to the Cauldron to spare him, but I ignored him.
Feyre repeats that yeah, the kisses were “nothing” but:
He could have had me right there, on top of that table. I wanted his broad hands running over my bare skin, wanted his teeth scraping against my neck, wanted his mouth all over me.
“I’m trying to eat,” Lucien said, and I blinked, the air whooshing out of me.
Wouldn’t it be awful if Lucien could read minds? Not because Feyre would get embarrassed or anything. Just if you had to hear Feyre’s every inane bullshit thought. It would make sense why he didn’t want to be around her throughout the book. ed.—telepaths are my number one fear.
“But now that I have your attention, Tamlin,” he snapped, though the High Lord was looking at me again—devouring me with his eyes. I could hardly sit still, could hardly stand the clothes scratching my too-hot skin. WIth some effort, Tamlin glanced back at his emissary.
Lucien actually has some important news that he needs Tamlin to focus up and de-hornify for. A contact Lucien has at the Winter Court has sent him some super disturbing news: two dozen fae children have been killed by the blight.
My contact says other courts are being hit hard—though the Night Court, of course, manages to remain unscathed. But the blight seems to be sending its wickedness this way—farther south with every attack.
I can’t wait for the super not obvious at all twist that the Night Court is behind the blight. I know I’m going to just be bowled the fuck over when that inevitably happens.
“The blight can…can truly kill people?” I managed to say.
No, it killed fairies. Keep up.
Younglings. It had killed children, like some storm of darkness and death.
So did Anakin but Darth Vader was cool as hell so you win some, you lose some.
And if offspring were as rare as Alis had claimed, the loss of so many would be more devastating than I could imagine.
1. Why are you doubting what Alis told you by calling it a “claim”?
2. Twenty-four kids dying all at once is devastating anyway. Unless you’re in the United States and then it’s just the normal weekly school shooting.
The “he” in this next excerpt is Tamlin, btw.
“The Blight is capable of hurting us in ways you—” He shot to his feet so quickly that his chair flipped over. He unsheathed his claws and snarled at the open doorway, canines long and gleaming.
The house, usually full of the whispering skirts and chatter of servants, had gone silent.
The bad kind of silent that means something bad is coming. Tamlin tells Lucien to put Feyre next to the window and the curtains.
I snatched one of the knives off the table and let Lucien lead me to the window, where he pushed me against the velvet drapes. I wanted to ask why he didn’t bother hiding me behind them, but the fox-masked faerie just pressed his back into me, pinning me between him and the wall.
We are well, WELL past referring to Lucien as “the fox-masked faerie,” okay? He’s a significant character in this book and we’re over halfway through it. There’s no reason that “he” wouldn’t work there. We’d still know who it was.
If you, too, are wondering why he doesn’t hide her behind the curtains, it’s because they use magic to hide her by making her seem like she’s an invisible part of Lucien.
I don’t see why the curtains wouldn’t be added camouflage, but it would make it pretty difficult for Feyre to describe the scene. It’s not my responsibility, I guess. I’m not the person who decided to mention the curtains and explain them away.
ed.— Note that Feyre grabbed a knife from the table. This is because she is very tough and brave and Not Like Other Girls™.
But someone was coming, someone awful enough to frighten them—someone who would want to hurt me if they knew I was here.
So, there’s all this suspense building while Feyre is remembering all the monsters she’s seen so far and these footsteps are approaching and Tamlin and Lucien are trying to act casual.
And then he appeared.
No mask. He, like the Attor, belonged to something else. Someone else.
And worse … I’d met him before. He’d saved me from those three fairies on Fire Night.
I love it when the conflict makes an appearance.
He was exactly as I remembered him, with his fine, rich clothing cloaked in tendrils of night: an ebony tunic brocaded with gold and silver, dark pants, and black boots that went to his knees.
But Feyre. There’s a question we need answered about this guy.
I’d never dared to paint him—and now I knew I would never have the nerve to.
And now that we know that, we can move on comfortably. ed.—My guess is that after Maas retconned his race, Feyre decided she probably could paint him, after all.
This faerie guy is Rhysand, and he and Tamlin haven’t seen each other for forty-nine years because I guess they didn’t run into each other at that party a couple months ago, and he insults Lucien by telling him that a fox mask is appropriate for him.
“Go to Hell, Rhys,” Lucien snapped.
Again, no concept of any religion that would make “go to hell” make sense. But I’m a little more hung up on what’s so bad about foxes that you wouldn’t want to be compared to one. Foxes are cool as hell.
Rhysand makes a remark about the “present” he left, which obviously is the head from the garden, though they don’t explicitly mention it. It’s just, you know. It’s the last thing anyone nefariously left for them. Then he monologues to conveniently recap some stuff we already knew and a couple things we didn’t.
“But a nice reminder of the fun days, wasn’t it?” Rhysand clicked his tongue and surveyed the room. “Almost half a century holed up in a country estate. I don’t know how you managed it. But,” he said, facing Tamlin again, “you’re such a stubborn bastard that this must have seemed like a paradise compared to Under the Mountain. I suppose it is. I’m surprised, though: forty-nine years, and no attempts to save yourself or your lands. Even now that things are getting interesting again.
So, Tamlin hasn’t tried to save his land from the blight? You might be thinking, well, this is a bad guy so he’s just taunting. But…
“There’s nothing to be done,” conceded Tamlin, his voice low.
Despite everything about the blight and trying to figure out how to stop it, Tamlin hasn’t actually been doing anything at all? You’d think Feyre would have a lot of thoughts and opinions on this, right?
She doesn’t.
In her defense, shit does get distractingly homoerotic:
Rhysand approached Tamlin, each movement smooth as silk. His voice dropped into a whisper—and erotic caress of sound that brought heat to my cheeks.
He taunts Tamlin some more and:
Lucien interrupted, “What do you know about anything? You’re just Amarantha’s whore.”
“Her whore I might be, but not without my reasons.”
IDK, seems like all “whores” have a reason. For example, it’s their job.
“Little Lucien. You certainly gave them something to talk about when you switched to Spring. Such a sad thing, to see your lovely mother in perpetual mourning over losing you.”
“Hey, Jenny?” I hear you ask. “This whole little scene here…it isn’t just a character showing up and running through a bunch of shit we’ve already been told, right?”
And I pat you on the head, trying to disguise my tears. “It’s okay, little buddy. It’s gonna be okay.”
But it’s not gonna be okay. It’s just going to go on and on, so we can watch this Rhysand guy posture and create accidental homosexual tension. Like when he asks Lucien:
Rhysand laughed—a lover’s laugh, low and soft and intimate. “Is that any way to speak to a High Lord of Prythian?”
I’m thinking maybe Maas is a straight person. Not just because of all the “woe is me, it’s so hard to be a straight white lady” vibes Feyre gives off, but because I see straight authors write some of the gayest shit without meaning to all the time. And to a straight reader, this would seem totally straight because obviously Feyre means he sounds like a lover to make the reader know he’s sexy, not because he’d be flirting with the other male characters. That would be absurd.
And then here I am, queer off my ass, wondering how “a lover’s laugh” leads to this:
My heart stopped dead. That was why the fairies had run off on Fire Night. To cross him would have been suicide.
I’m sitting here reading this and going, “Why, would he fuck them to death?” and not even registering that she means it’s because he’s a High Lord. Especially when the follow up is:
And from the way darkness seemed to ripple from him, from those violet eyes that burned like stars …
I looked like the crying laughing emoji for like eight whole minutes reading this. But then I turned into that heavily crying sadface, the one that has like, faucet eyes, when I realized that there is no way Feyre isn’t gonna fuck this guy. I don’t care if she gets married to Tamlin and they bone down six times a day every single day until they die mid-coitus at age 107, FEYRE IS GONNA FUCK THIS RHYSAND GUY. ed.—from what I understand, this is now the main plot of the entire series.
Rhysand asks Tamlin if he shouldn’t discipline Lucien for being rude to his better and then Rhysand makes some remarks about liking to watch people grovel. There are literally pages of cliches, one stacked on top of the other, as these three guys banter and do their little power plays.
Rhysand—he’d been the one to send that head. As a gift.
It took Feyre this long to figure this out? She didn’t get it the moment he mentions coming to check on how his gift went over? That just breezed past her and two whole pages of insults that could be put in a hat with other fantasy novel and movie lines and it would be impossible to tell them apart went by before she made that connection? I literally thought it hadn’t been explicitly mentioned because it was that obvious.
The Night Court is mentioned and Feyre makes another brilliant connection:
Was the Night Court where this woman—this Amarantha—was located, too?
Wait a second. Hang on. Didn’t we know this already? Or was it a conclusion I just made because it’s been obvious from the second they started talking about SHE and HER that she’s a member of the Night Court and that the Night Court is probably in that mountain Feyre saw on the mural? I could swear we knew this already.
Anyway, speaking of the evil woman (and skipping over yet another mention of how hot Rhysand is and how Feyre would never be able to paint him. No, I’m not kidding):
Rhysand meandered toward the door. “She’s already preparing for you. Given your current state, I think I can safely report that you’ve already been broken and will reconsider her offer.”
FINALLY. The plot advances. I feel like if you made a graph out of this plot, it would be all plateaus. I can’t wait for Feyre to spend like ten chapters in a row wondering what this specific remark meant before someone shows up and delivers a new piece of information.
Sometimes, I think authors spread things out too thin because they’re intentionally aiming for a long series. And like, what better way to do that then only occasionally presenting information and then filling chapter after chapter of the POV character wondering something but never seeking answers.
The High Lord of the Night Court […]
The Honorable Judge Harry Stone.
[…] ran a finger along the back of my chair—a casual gesture.
Imagine how interesting it would have been if they’d glamoured Feyre while she was still sitting at the table. She would have been right in the middle of the action, holding still, forcing herself not to react the very same way she’s reacting in this scene. And then he would run his finger along the back of the chair…
Missed opportunity.
Rhysand notices that there are three plates on the table (good job not disappearing the food like we know you can, Tamlin) and asks where the third person went. When Tamlin says they left right before Rhysand arrived, Rhysand ain’t buying it.
“You dare glamour me?” he growled, his violet eyes burning as they bore into my own. Lucien just pressed me harder into the wall.
Because when I think violet, I think of flame-related verbs. Ever since I picked that violet last spring and got third-degree purple burns. Violet eyes are storms. Everybody who’s ever read romance knows this. Get your shit together, Sarah.
Tamlin’s chair groaned as it was shoved back. He rose, claws at the ready, deadlier than any of the knives strapped to him.
Then why does he need the knives?
Rhysand’s face became a mask of calm fury as he stared and stared at me. “I remember you,” he purred. “It seems like you ignored my warning to stay out of trouble.” He turned to Tamlin. “Who, pray tell, is your guest?”
Lucien says he’s bethrothed to Feyre, which IMO, seems like maybe it should raise more questions or even be something illegal, considering the war and treaty and animosity and all that. But we kinda gloss right past it.
The sunlight didn’t gleam on the metallic threads of his tunic, as if it balked from the darkness pulsing from him.
From now on, I’m just going to imagine Rhysand as a fully erect penis wearing fancy little clothes. Like, so hard that he’s purple and visibly pulsing.
When Lucien pulls a knife on Rhysand:
Rhysand’s venom-coated smile grew. “You draw blood from me, Lucien, and you’ll learn how quickly Amarantha’s whore can make the entire Autumn Court bleed. Especially its darling lady.”
Question: Rysand is a High Lord. That’s like, the guy that rules that whole court, right? This is the impression I have from all the stuff we learned about Lucien and Tamlin and how they became High Lords. So, if Rhysand is a High Lord, why do they keep saying he’s a “whore” to this Amarantha person? Isn’t he the ruler of the place? Is she his wife or whatever? Why is he letting her control his whole court?
This is something that gets revealed in a later book, isn’t it? It doesn’t happen in this one, does it? I feel like, deep, deep in my heart, I am never going to know. Because there is no way I’m doing another of these.
Rhysand says some shit about Feyre being mortal trash and how Lucien’s mom is going to be disappointed that he’s hooking up with a mortal, and Tamlin is like, okay, that’s enough, take a hike, dude. Feyre wonders how bad a fight between two High Lords could be and that’s why things haven’t gotten physical yet.
Or perhaps, if Rhysand was indeed this woman’s lover, the retaliation from hurting him would be too great.
I didn’t realize this was a mystery. He straight up agreed like, yeah, I’m her “whore.”
Rhysand gets between Lucien and Tamlin to corner Feyre.
“If you were wise, you would be screaming and running from this place, from these people. It’s a wonder that you’re still here, actually.” My confusion must have been written across my face, for Rhysand laughed loudly. “Oh, she doesn’t know, does she?”
Why is she confused by the statement that she, as a human, should be running from High Lords? It was the entire focus of the first half of this book until she got horny over one.
Anyway, I guess Tamlin is actually the bad guy? That’s the prediction I’m making.
Rhysand grabs Feyre’s head and gets into her mind.
She has the most delicious thoughts about you, Tamlin,” he said. “She’s wondered about the feeling of your fingers on her thighs—between them, too.” He chuckled. Even as he said my most private thoughts, even as I burned with outrage and shame, I trembled at the grip still on my mind. Rhysand turned to the High Lord. “I’m curious: Why did she wonder if it would feel good to have you bite her breast the way you bit her neck?”
Why are you looking at those thoughts and not like, scanning for something useful, like figuring out how much this mortal chick knows about the Blight and why she’s there and stuff?
Oh…because this book is known as the horny fairy book. So the horny must come first.
If it’s any consolation,” Rhys confided to him, “she would have been the one for you—and you might have gotten away with it. A bit late, though. She’s more stubborn than you are.”
Okay, so Tamlin needed her for something. Since we know this is a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” we can pretty much assume that Feyre was the one who would fall in love with Tamlin and break his curse.
Instead:
“Amarantha will enjoy breaking her,” Rhysand observed to Tamlin. “Almost as much as she’ll enjoy watching you as she shatters her bit by bit.”
I can’t wait to see this violation of Feyre’s mind and all these threats get explained away so Feyre can fuck this dude.
Because she WILL fuck this dude.There has been way too much focus on his eye color for her to not fuck him. ed.—I’m pretty sure I might be psychic.
Tamlin was frozen, his arms—his claws—hanging limply at his side. I’d never seen him look like that. “Please” was all that Tamlin said.
“Please what? Rhysand said—gently, coaxingly. Like a lover.
I have read gay erotica that is less gay than this.
The “please” is Tamlin asking Rhysand not to tell Amarantha about Feyre. In a very not-homoerotic turn of events, this happens:
Rhysand pointed at the ground, and his smile became vicious. “Beg, and I’ll consider not telling Amarantha.”
Tamlin dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
“Lower.”
Tamlin pressed his forehead to the floor, his hands sliding along the floor toward Rhysand’s boots.
I am so hard right now.
Rhysand tells Lucien he has to kneel and beg, too, so now this shit is looking like a tarot card and Rhysand won’t even commit to not telling. The whole point of this was just to, idk, show the readers how important Feyre is to these two hot guys?
Rhysand asks Feyre for her name.
Giving him my name—and my family name—would lead only to more pain and suffering. He might very well find my family and drag them into Prythian to torment, just to amuse himself. But he could steal my name from my mind if I hestiated too long.
Not to beat a dead Bogge here, but why didn’t he get her name when he was probing her mind?
Keeping my mind blank and calm, I blurted the first name that came to mind, a village friend of my sisters’ whom I’d never spoken to and whose face I couldn’t recall. “Clare Beddor.” My voice was nothing more than a gasp.
WHOA. Back up the Go Fuck Yourself Truck. You realize that your family is in danger if you give your real name. So, you give the real name of someone you know? What the fuck?! When this guy goes to find Clare Beddor’s family, what then? He’s not going to know that he’s not torturing your family, you fucking cashew! He’s going to torture the Beddor family! What is wrong with you?!
Just when I think Feyre can’t get any more selfish and reckless, she’s like, hold my fairy wine I’m not supposed to be drinking.
Rhysand tells Tamlin that he’ll see him “under the mountain,” and:
Then Rhysand vanished into nothing—as if he’d stepped through a rip in the world—leaving us alone in horrible, trembling silence.
Am I the only one wondering why the hell he didn’t just do that when he got there? Did he do all the strolling for drama? For the theater of it all?
Maybe Feyre isn’t going to sleep with him. If you catch my drift.
I don’t understand a single thing happening in this book. None of it makes any sense. The more I read, the more confused I get.
It’s not you, it’s the book. I am more and more convinced it is actually Maas’ dream journal and this is just a series of fever dreams she had. She accidentally presented it to her publisher instead of the actual story she meant to give them and, being greedy for the next 50 Shades of Twilight and the Beast (but with Fairies) they printed it.
So far, best I can tell, the plot is: girl kills fairy so his friends adopt her (clearly they hated the guy and want to reward his killer), there are some bad people living in a mountain who aren’t really doing anything because they are the most patient baddies ever and needed the human sex magnet to show up before they made their move. Oh and everyone is hot and they all want to fuck the heroine/human sex magnet because I’m sure there’s a reason other than she’s the writers self insert but I’ve yet to figure it out.
Ironically the most magical thing about this magical land is the ever changing landscape and thus far that seems to just be a writing inconsistency and not a plot point.
It’s the nanowrimo issue. You’re not supposed to edit anything really; you’re just supposed to hammer away at it and reach your word count within the time limit. I feel like Maas did this but then as Jenny suggested, she just never went back and corrected anything or revised anything fully. So the timing, the pacing, and the ideas are all shot. This explains why a lot of stuff could’ve been cut with nothing lost, or trimmed and reworked, or moved around. There’s a kernel of an idea in here but it’s all disjointed and nonsensical. And Maas definitely went into this without really knowing her characters very well or how they interacted IMHO. She’s not good with dynamics or anything because she went in with maybe some names and some basics but nothing else sorted out. I feel like she switched Tamlin and Lucien’s names at one point earlier on or maybe she had the idea for Feyre to trust Lucien first but not Tamlin then whenever she abruptly decided to include Rhysand that became irrelevant or something. I mean, I’m guessing about a lot of this but this definitely reads as if she kept changing her mind and never went back to clean up older details or maybe she just from day to day forgot some of what she’d already put in (or she really does worry people will forget her vaguely intriguing details idk.)
I agree about the switching of Tamlin and Lucien because reading about the early chapters I could not figure out why she thought Tamlin was a monster but trusted Lucien when Lucien was the one who wanted to kill her and Tamlin was protecting her. It never made any sense.
Now that we’re in the “romance” part of the book I guess it was because Maas thinks danger = sexy and isn’t able to write it in a way that doesn’t come off cringy.
But the idea that half way she swapped leading men makes sense, well it makes Maas sense, which is quite a different thing than actual sense.
I love freeflow writing as I am kind of a write the story as if I’m reading it kind of gal. (I honestly have no clue how this years Nanowrimo story is going to end, but for me that’s half the fun.) Difference is, I’m not trying to publish it.
Yeah! Oh dang I had a sudden idea. I wonder if the swap is even more complicated than that? It makes me wonder if she had Rhysand in the early segments and then wrote him out, giving any of his bits to Lucien for some reason? I’d be surprised but it feels kinda weird that Rhysand appears suddenly when he does… like I guess not that unusual, it’s realistic because he doesn’t live at the Spring Court, but what if she had him be Spring Court before she had the idea for the Night Court?
Also I shouldn’t have called it a problem before, I’ve heard you’re supposed to get the first draft finished before editing/revising heavily, but I write the same way that you do, kinda by the seat of my pants. When I change stuff I do go back and fix it or try to anyway. And I like to read back if it’s short enough to kinda catch myself up to where I stopped. I probably end up editing way too much. This is probably another reason I’ve never really done a novel-length work before and mostly succeeded with fanfiction. haha IDK if I could ever get anything in publish-worthy condition but it’s fun and I write for myself mostly.
Every time Tamlin’s claws get mentioned my mental image of him gets 100% replaced with Wolverine from the 90s X-Men cartoon, complete with bright yellow spandex. It really improves the experience, I gotta say.
And Wolverine does have a mask lol. His short butt would be preferable for sure!
You and I are together in this.
So, Feyre has a fetish for anyone threatening her, confirmed. Again, this just needs to be turned into “faeries are into BDSM and other kinky shit” to make it easier to accept, spend less effort squaring the circle later, and then IDK making the faeries different from the humans in any way really.
This book definitely needs more LGBTQA++++ like this could be a fantastic allegory. It’s faeries… it’s RIGHT THERE. We could use something like how Galavant just turned the realm of the faeries into a gay bar in the woods lol.
I was thinking when Jenny mentioned the curtains “wouldn’t it be better if she hid under the table and then regretted that Tamlin kept it smaller?” Just as anything with continuity that could be funny, thrilling, or entertaining. BUT THEN we had that bit with Rhysand touching the table or chair or whatever and Jenny was like “if only she’d still been at the table” like YES this so much! Even better. And this is why two heads are usually better than one. Literally.
But also… Lucien is the one standing in front of her the entire time like why? If he’s just in front of the wall isn’t that kind of suspicious? What if he was standing beside the table instead near his chair pulled out? That’d help hide her if she were still sitting down there.
ugh it’s like every time… and the only sexy good stuff is all problematic because of purity culture. And she only likes guys because of how dangerous they are. There are no other connections really. If all three of them died by blight she’d just pick the next hottie who snarls at her.
Incidentally, I feel like though it’s a small number, the fae kids are just statistics to her. That’s why she can’t fathom it. Although I don’t think they even need the blight when the aristocrats/nobility just decide to murder faeries at random. That’s basically all it even is, isn’t it?
“So, Feyre has a fetish for anyone threatening her, confirmed. Again, this just needs to be turned into “faeries are into BDSM and other kinky shit” to make it easier to accept, spend less effort squaring the circle later, and then IDK making the faeries different from the humans in any way really.”
Actually, I would have loved it if the Fairies finally realized she’s got this thing for being threatened and have Tam fear that she only likes him because of his beast side. “Would she still love me if I wasn’t about to rip her throat out half the time? Can we build a relationship on that?”
Ooh yes >:)
Yeah, if this was addressed it’d actually be interesting! But it won’t because that’s just all there is lol. Although I spoilered myself kinda be accident on certain details, maybe from later books, and now I’m wondering if it was on purpose meant to be like that, like she was sort of going there, but simply butchered the execution. Normally I wouldn’t even consider that possible except Jenny wasn’t kidding when she added the more recent comments about how banging Rhysand becomes the new plot at some point so… I suspect Tamlin is out of luck. I also still suspect, unless again the execution was absolutely butchered, that Maas was going to make a love triangle between Tamlin and Lucien but then she changed her mind when she came up with Rhysand, whenever that was. Or maybe she knew all along but didn’t know how to hint at it? Maybe we’ll uncover more as it goes along. I’m legit more interested in picking this thing apart and sorting out the underpinnings and learning from the mistakes. Dissection is more fun than the book itself!
Thanks for this, Jenny. In an ideal world you’ll be more successful than this author. Truly.
I have watched many Youtube book reviews that I feel like I have already known what I need to know about this series, and thought, “Ok, so this is just stupid. Harmless, but stupid.” Only now do I realize how infuriating I might feel if I actually read it. Jenny emphasized many important things that were glossed over by most reviewers because they’re enjoying too much its stupidity. But reading excerpts of how Feyre narrates things in what are supposed to be crucial scenes is unbearable. When lives are at stake, don’t show me the main characters acting stupid and horny, it’s so irrelevant. And I have an idea what will happen romance-wise and whereas before I can give Maas credit for the “turn”, reading how it lead to that from here now makes me mad. Everyone sucks here. I can empathize with Clare Beddor so much: I barely know Feyre and yet she’s going to make me suffer.
“When lives are at stake, don’t show me the main characters acting stupid and horny, it’s so irrelevant.”
Whether on purpose or not, it’s being established that Fayray is turned on by violence, so when horrible shit goes down, all she can think about is getting her rocks off.
That could be a really good dark comedy, actually…
I would respect the book more if it’s what you said, because that’s definitely more refreshing and interesting. But that would only work if Maas was more clever and honest and discarded the cluttered “plot” part completely. And someone in the story should call Feyre out on her bullshit, or at least free the readers from her thoughts.
I don’t feel like it’s irrelevant simply because the author doesn’t seem to care much about the supposed adventure/mystery-thriller plot. The violence and death feels empty even when she does focus on it (she tries to make it sound terrible but I feel nothing), and I can’t take the blight seriously because I don’t really understand how it will impact anything. I mean, supposedly some kids died but how did it kill them? Did it take their wings? I’m guessing it’s like a magical illness but then how did it glue the masks onto the faces of everyone in the spring court? Did any of them die from that? And Feyre keeps worrying about it affecting her family but how? What can it do to humans? We don’t even know what it does to fairies…
I hate everyone in this book and I’d rather they all died but since death is boring, meaningless, and only makes Feyre go “woe is me” or make the characters repeat a ton of shit we already know, we might as well see what Maas actually finds interesting and see Feyre bone down. It’s slightly less boring because I’m sincerely wondering what mystical magical bullshit will cleanse Rhysand or convince Feyre to lift up her skirt for Tamlin. I’m sure it’ll also be awful but it’s an awful I haven’t seen yet and it gives us accidental gay rep so… eh? IDK.
But yes, this whole thing is terrible and I also wish the blurting out with Clare Beddor never happened because Feyre will never use this as a means to become a better person (in all likelihood) and instead she’ll mentally moan about how she had someone else tortured by accident, if she does anything. I doubt that she’ll try to fix it but if she did then I’m sure it’ll somehow be worse than if she did nothing.
Maas just wants to complicate everything with horribleness which could be interesting if any of it actually mattered but it also actively works against her romantic build-up and turns every character into a horrible, toxic person. A nightmare I’d probably never get through beyond these recaps.
Yeah, it’s a mess because we have to learn things in their world through Feyre’s POV, and if it looks like she doesn’t care, then why the hell should the readers do. She notices how hot a guy is, yet she’s scared?(did she do anything with the knife she grabbed, btw?)…as a reader, how are we supposed to process that? And no character is screaming at her face to emphasize the urgency of the situations. It’s really reflective of how Maas sees her own story. She wanted to write about pretty characters and places, but seems at a loss how to move them or build their personalities around her own world, so she throws moments that could illicit strong emotions and yet no consistent follow through after. Maybe she thought she’s mediating a good balance between plot and porn (and maybe some readers do get that) but even without Jenny’s comments, even just by reading the excerpts… Character barges into someone’s home, making threats, and this girl is describing his clothes. What the hell with the tonal whiplash. This would probably be more effective in an omniscient POV or as a comic. This way the reader can see how attractive the characters are but doesn’t have to associate it with how Feyre processes information and therefore doesn’t make her look like a shallow dumbass.
It’s annoying that this series is the first thing peole think of as popular fantasy-romance with fae, and other authors are using this as their benchmark to get in the genre. And Maas is earning a LOT from writing like this, to even make her fans spend unfairly to read special chapters of her works. Like why.
Oh, yeah, I agree this should’ve been 3rd person POV omniscient or limited for sure. First person just obliterates it because of Feyre’s personality. I don’t think even if it were written that way I’d care though. The problem is we had the guy who’s wings came off and that’s the extent of her ability to show suffering. Then beyond that is just corpses or random curses. It would help to be outside of Feyre’s head but the issue is the plot isn’t conducive to blossoming romance, it isn’t good for caring about anyone else because they’re all awful even when they try to be sympathetic, the author can only do silly things or such over the top stuff that it lends itself to a horror novel more than a thriller (the difference is how powerful the protagonist is and how much danger they’re in, which is why Feyre’s ability to impact anything and fight is all over the place) and she also just doesn’t actually care about anyone besides her lead so everything feels very “hand of the author” no matter what happens, which isn’t a good thing because it breaks immersion.
I suspect the only reason she introduced the plot stuff is because she knew it wouldn’t sell as well or be taken as seriously without it but she isn’t any good at writing adventure stuff. So it’s awful that people think this is the way and that’s why I’d rather see her just focus on the romance. I’m hoping it’d pull her away from the repetition because all the violence? That doesn’t; she’s been using violence since Andras died and even if that was 3rd person I don’t think it’d be any better. The fairy death, the head “gift”, the nagas, and Tamlin protecting the borders wouldn’t be much better. Hearing about the kids dying probably wouldn’t either. We might get to hear someone else discussing it but like Alis would still be underutilized and so would Lucien. Shifting into 3rd person might help with some of the info-dumps but probably not by much and even when she doesn’t rely on those, she’s very sparing with the details and uses lots of repetition. The romance is also repetitive but I’d hope she’d try to focus on crap like the painting, the illiteracy, the landscape… like maybe she’d fix that stuff. Probably not, I’m much too hopeful, but the “plot” is just a crutch Maas is using to keep the reader awake because she doesn’t actually want Feyre with Tamlin and maybe this is when she finally realized it or maybe at the stupid Calanmai is when she decided… possibly back when she switched Tamlin and Lucien around. I have suspicions now that maybe Lucien was originally Rhysand before she invented the Night Court and decided to write him out of the Spring Court entirely which is bold of me to suggest since nothing else really had a continuity shift but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true. It would explain why I initially assumed Lucien was in a love triangle and why Feyre originally trusted Lucien even though he wanted to kill her.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. It’s completely out of line for Feyre to focus on her lady boner and it derails the plot, makes the romance icky, but I don’t think there is a plot. I think the author is just pretending we have a plot and hoping that no one notices she’s been making shit up as she goes lol. I recently stumbled upon a post on another site that makes me think Amarantha was just kinda cobbled together to be a generic hidden evil with a slight twist so she’s basically Queen Beryl meets Sauron with less thought put into her. We’ll see when we get there but I wish we had the plot you want to see pursued and I don’t think it actually exists. The romance exists, it’s awful, but it’s tangible so I’d rather see it in the hopes of more silly things that make me wanna tear out my hair while giggling because we got accidental rep and such.
But yeah it’s horrible that Maas got a ton of money for this and this is the major faerie fantasy-romance out there creating copycats.
No worries, I get what you’re saying, I’m probably giving Maas more credit than what she deserves, because this was published, someone out there thought this story would sell, and it did. And that baffles me so I have to put some sense into this somehow. I have reviewers like Jenny to thank because they are the ones filtering and interpreting the plot. I watched a YT reviewer who didn’t make an effort to summarize the book because-according to them- it was pointless and that’s not what people want to know about. I watched another YT reviewer and they gave a detailed recap of the book. And both gave me the same conclusion: the story is too convoluted, the main draw is the “fairy smut”. So a “conflict” is identified and I’m zeroing in on that and what the characters are doing about it. The fact that they’re not reacting logically infuriates me, but I’m not particularly invested in finding out how the conflict will be solved either. It does feel like a soap opera where you throw in all complications for the sake of drama but then are easily waved off when it’s no longer useful for the character interactions.
With the romance, I honestly just think Maas wanted all the characters to have feelings for Feyre, in whatever form those are, and incite massive shipping wars among fans. I know far too many reverse harem to assume that Lucien is the energetic sassy type who vibes with Feyre (like a frenemy) but is slowly getting drawn to her. Because no one can resist our girl’s charms, amirite?
Forgot to add but it would’ve been so much better if the guy who lost his wings lost both his arms instead and lived lol. If Feyre wasn’t such an ableist or maybe that could help her get over her ablism directed at her father. I forget who mentioned it but a long time ago I read, like in the MLP fandom, how losing a horn or wings is just something we as humans can’t quite fathom so it takes either incredible writing prowess or the loss of something we can fathom to really garner some understanding. I’m coming from that angle but also maybe Maas would’ve realized how silly it was to have him constantly saying “she took my arms!” Which is horrific but like maybe just three times? Third time’s the charm! Also he could’ve died faster if he had to but I’m still angry he didn’t just live and prove how life can carry on in spite of terrible things happening or whatever more positive angle could be had. Like I don’t want him mutilated but for some reason no one can just stop by and visit for a chat, we don’t get to have friends here, only enemies and victims of torture. That guy could’ve even told us more about the Night Court maybe! (Which like Jenny I recall that sitcom but I was a kid, my mom watched it I think, so I barely remember it myself, alas but I’m pretty sure it did have a notable sting much like CSI or which ever show that is I’m thinking of.)
I’m not against a plot, I wish it was there and better, but Maas is woefully incapable and I just don’t really want the world littered with dead bodies and more torture victims because like… I came for the excitement and whimsy, you bitch. Why isn’t there ANY of that to offset the horror? And why aren’t some of the fairies gruesome but goodies? Why??? Because all I have right now is a stupid lubricant lake we will never see again, NPC Sims with randomized CC skintones, and vaguely cute bad takes at a less shitty party than the last one lol. Ugh. I’m staying sane by commenting! XD
You know, I wonder if Maas thinks this is her Game of Thrones, where it is violent, has political intrigue, and sex. Or the publishers think they can sell this like that
As I mentioned before, Feyre only grabs knives to seem tough XD because Maas didn’t graduate beyond “carrying a knife around to feel badass” in terms of knowledge about fighting. Last time she brought a knife to Tam’s party and got grabbed before she could even use it. This time she brought a knife but it was utterly useless again. Don’t worry; this trend will CONTINUE throughout the book.
It’s interesting because there’s another YA book where a heroine brings a knife everywhere but never gets a chance to use it, but that one actually makes sense because it was a gift from her grandmother and she wanted it near her. It’s her emotional support knife. Which is honestly extremely valid.
Feyre doesn’t do this; she just grabs knives because Maas thinks that that’s a good way to make her seem… idek, cool or whatever.
Oh dear, Maas didn’t know what a Chekhov’s gun is? No editor pointed that out to her? Rhysand got close to her and held her head. If she’s so feisty she could’ve at least tried to stab him. So she impulsively takes knives but doesn’t put them to use, and we are supposed to be impressed by that, great.
And you’re right, also not using a shown weapon can be significant to a story. I remember in Inuyasha (I can only reference anime, sorry) a character doesn’t use a sword he inherited because it’s not what he wanted, and it reflected a lot on his personality.
I am still flummoxed by the whole mask thing. If she were a better writer and wanted them masked, she could have found something better than “the magic blight welded them to our faces” lol It could be a protection they wear against the airborne nature of the blight (think Covid), or it could have been something they have to wear around the human because if she sees them she will a) die from their beauty, b) see their true form and somehow gain dominion over them, c) they hate her and don’t want her to know what they look like so that when they finally get rid of her and she sees them in a crowd she won’t be able to recognize them, d) they are constantly prepared for a bank robbery.
Thing is, before she got eye kissed, she didn’t even see them as they are anyway, so I just don’t understand what Maas reason was for the masks in the first place. Did she get Beauty and the Beast confused with Phantom of the Opera for a moment?
Yeah, the mask is weird. I have a theory because the wikipedia page said Maas was inspired by Sabriel and I found out some fun spoiler information about the fourth book Clariel (which is a prequel to the original three.) I’m wondering if Amarantha wears a mask. It’s a long shot but it’s possible that’s why. (It is very much Phantom of the Opera for how it applies to Tamlin though.) I think the masks would definitely benefit from having a purpose, that’s for sure.
Yeah, it’s her excuse. She wanted to do the beauty and the beast moral, but didn’t want any actual monsterfucking in her cishet white story, so she replaced monster form with a mask.
(Also, future spoilers for later, but we do get the real reason in the future. It’s badly done and doesn’t make much sense, though. Just a heads up)
I don’t get this mask curse either. It doesn’t seem to impede their lives, and they can glamour or whatever with their appearance, so what is actually its burden? Because Feyre can’t see their true beauty, eventhough she’s attracted to them anyway? Huhh? Now I’m just imagining it like the hollows in the Bleach anime where they have masks on them because that’s their structure, but apparently can be ripped off to evolve to a higher form. Your idea of wearing masks to be protected from the blight makes SO much more sense.
The entire worldbuilding is confusing, to be honest. I know they’re supernatural creatures but I don’t know the hierarchy of the ecosystem: which are sentient or equivalent to animals, how do they coexist, etc. And this is how Feyre should be utilized! We as readers should be able to sort this out through her discovering things. And by “discover” I don’t mean other characters dumping information on her. A better author can execute that way more creatively.
but, but, we discover all we need to through whether or not Fayray can paint something! What more do you need?!!?!!
Clearly I jest, and I agree that there is very little distinguishing this from the ordinary world other than the constantly shifting landscape, which is clearly just bad continuity or Fayray would have been all “and I can’t paint this world because nothing stays where it is”.
Fay should have been in wonder more than she is. The only thing she seems even remotely interested in, in a world full of danger and beauty and forking magic! is how hot the boys are. And their hotness seems to correspond with how dangerous they are, so again, turned on by violence and threats, which, I like some good BDSM it’s just, like 50 Shades, this is NOT good BDSM.
I think the Foder’s guide to whatever this place is called, Pythingskeepmovingville, would be hotter than this book.
‘I feel like if you made a graph out of this plot, it would be all plateaus.’
…but would they be the kind of plateaus that are on top of mountains in game parks surrounded by trenches in the woods?
Her use of “go to hell” as an insult is so fucking grating, it’s incredible. It’s lazy worldbuilding in the extreme. It’s a lazy insult to use over and over again. And its a lazy insult because it’s so easy to fix. There are so many other more creative ways she could have characters insult each other. It’s just a drop in the bucket for ways this book sucks and YET it annoys me so much.
Even if the Night Queen WEREN’T behind the Blight, having her own people remain untouched by it would open her up to accusations by others.
Having her arrange for some of her own people to die of Blight would not only be the smart move, it would also prove to the reader how eeeeeevil she is.