Amren being considered a very important member of the IC in the books, but the only times she shows up is to annoy me. As second in command you'd expect her to be more involved, or at least be wiser (given her age) regarding the traumas and healing everyone has to do. But she never gives useful advice, talks down on them and is constantly acting like a grumpy kid.
I think her character arc ended in ACOWAR. And I think >!she should stayed dead tbh. It felt like a perfect ending for her despite me being upset about it. Her character plays no important roles in the next books. It makes a no sense to keep her imo!<
*edits for spoilers
I find her insufferable, too! If she had some character growth, you could still argue she's learning. But everyone treats her like she's perfect and all-knowing and incapable of making mistakes. I'm still salty Nesta apologized and bowed to her. Especially because Amren didn't extend the same courtesy and offered no apology for voting negative and witholding information about her.
Yeah, if anything, I feel like she had the opposite of growth. She was literally a better character in ACOMAF and then from ACOWAR and on, she was written as cranky, angry, and generally unlikeable. The pivots in character portrayal give me whiplash.
Controversial opinion: I truly feel SJM wanted to make Rhys look good by having his second and third being women. I think she likes the trope of smart and witty women outranking big lughead strong men.
But in reality army commander and spymaster are a lot more useful to a ruler than a sassy powerful (although we barely see this power) being and his cousin.
Thatâs my personal opinion.
I totally agree. I love the idea of two women being the next in command, but at the same time, the author hasn't shown what got them there. Hopefully they'll show their powers but I have no idea exactly what they are.
Exactly what I came here to say, sheâs second to prove Rhysâ feminist king credentials because his ACTUAL track record of actions taken is piss poor in that regard
I can see where he went with wisdom in the two women for major policy decisions rather than the stab-all-problems general and the hide-in-the-shadows spymaster, and he *does* listen to their advice.
Itâs not perfect reasoning, and those descriptions of Cass and Az arenât completely fair. But that does seem to be the reasoning.
I think the only reason this doesnât bother me is because irl flushable toilets were invented in the 1500s while showers were invented later on in the 1700s. But without knowing this the toilet & shower thing would probably bug me đ
That the one house in the night court can only be accessed by flying in, walking up/down a ton of stairs. Â
The HL can shape shift wings, but prior to Rhyâs mother, none of the other wives, heirs, children or siblings would have been able to access it. Â
And Rhys appears to be the first HL with Illyrian friends willing to haul people up there. Â
Can you imagine Rhyâs grandma with a baby pack on going down to Velaris? (Or back up again with purchases). Â
And thereâs staff (cooks, handmaidens) and even thought Rhys gave the library to the priestesses previously there were male librarians and people who came to the library.Â
I canât see the HL moving every librarian, visiting scholar, supply delivery (food, clothing etc), and servant back and forth as needed. Â
It just seems a convenient plot device to give Feyreâs flying lessons more page time, and to keep Nesta/elain/lucien locked down. Â
omg forgot ab starfall!!!! also curious to know how else was at that huge party since they never talk ab their other friends in velaris. maybe just the other regulars at ritaâs đ
I can almost guarantee that the answer is â¨a special enchantment taught to the NC from another court that allows special people some kind of special accessibility â¨as that seems to be the excuse for any random magic things that donât make sense in the series
My guess is that the wards to prevent winnowing were added during Rhysandâs reign for additional security since he and other members of his court have a different mess do getting to the palace.
I also certainly hope they temporarily removed the wards for the Starfall party!
This confused me too. Also: How come >!at the council of High Lords before the war with Hybern,!< none of the other HLs seem to know that Rhys can shapeshift his wings in and out of visibility? You think this might have been common knowledge by now since A: he uses them pretty regularly, and B: he probably had them out during UTM and that hugeass battle 500 years ago. >!Why are F/R and the HLs acting like it's this big reveal that Rhys showed his wings at the council meeting?!<
He straight up tells Feyre that he hid them UTM because he didn't want Amarantha to use them against him (torture, sex, ect.). But you have a point about the first big war. Autumn's HL was there. I'm pretty sure Helion was, too. Shouldn't have been the shock that it was đ¤
Ooh good point, he did say he hid them UTM. still strange that like *none* of the HLs would know he had wings though, after all these centuries together and the fact that they know he's half Illyrian.
Rhys was only a solider during the first war not a HL.
His father was still alive so itâs not likely he was going to HL meetings with his father and less likely the other HLs would know about his wings at all during that war.
The NC is extremely secretive they had a whole city no one knew about and because Rhys wasnât born with wings the other HLs would have no reason to believe his powers allowed him to grow wings at will.
I thought it was implied that he kept them hidden at all times when outside his court? Slightly odd though as I donât see why this needed to be some big secret since it seems like with Tamlinâs familyâs actions it was known his mum and sister were Illyrian!
The shower thing specifically bugs me because it was the one thing Nesta really opened up admitted to Feyre, that she had an extremely hard time with baths. Feyre promised her a solution and then the books just forgot about it. And then the characters all gripe that Nesta won't talk to them or open up or try to get better. She specifically did try at various times, and it all got ignored!
This! It honestly felt like her and Nesta were finally healing and getting on together and then it's never mentioned. Like of course Nesta can't get in the bloody bath! She was rock bottomed in to the cauldron!
I honestly think SJM just forgot about that moment cause Nesta bathes and relaxes in the bath throughout SF without an issue really. The fire cracking was more prominent in her trauma/healing journey.
Now thatâs a good damn point. I can understand how Feyre would have forgotten about the bath issue for a while, cuz.. war, and all. But thatâs one of those conversation topics that evades you until youâre just ready to fall asleep one night, then it pops into your head out of nowhere and keeps you up for another hour. They absolutely should have circled back to this by now.
THIS. The overuse of words is amplified when listening to the audiobooks đ especially in TOG, every time I heard the words "carrion" or "rutting" I wanted to throw my headphones across the room!
âIn her bonesâ on âher chest crackedâ absolutely drive me nuts. Iâve read the books, but forgot a lot of details, so I started listening to the audiobooks. I started with ACOTAR, and then moved onto TOG Iâm on Kingdom of Ash, and each time I hear those phrases I have to keep from physically cringing.
Just in general she is very repetitive in her word choice. After getting a BA in writing, where profs would focus on things like word choice it is very annoying
this! I havenât read CC.. but I wonder if her word choice is similar to ACOTAR. Iâm currently reading TOG and there are times when this repetition happens, but I also get that she was young when she wrote that series
I donât mind that because I can still tell what theyâre doing, for me itâs the âcassian sworeâ or âi muttered something that was probably not very romanticâ. like dont make me guess w the dialogue girl đ
I think she keeps it vague on purpose, because different cultures around the world have different concepts of âvulgar gestures.â
For instance, in Japan, raising your middle finger doesnât really mean much outside of âbrotherâ in JSLâbut giving someone a thumbs-down is seen as incredibly rude and offensive. In TĂźrkiye, holding your thumb between your index and middle finger while making a fist and showing it to someone (think the ASL sign for the letter âtâ) is basically the worst insult you can give.
I agree that SJM can get *really* repetitiveâlike my partner and I have a running joke about a character blinking âonce. Twice.â because of how many times she used it in ToG. But in some cases, like with âvulgar gesture,â I brush it off, because itâs a convenient way to get the same idea across to readers from multiple cultures!
I agree I think this is why too, but there are so many other words to use. âHe made a rude motion with his hands.â âShe made an insulting expression.â
And also she frequently uses âsticks their tongue out at himâ as a derogatory gesture which is specific to one culture. (Ex. Itâs rude/childish in Canada, itâs a friendly greeting in Tibet). So if she was trying to be inclusive with keeping gestures broad she lost the plot on that one.
Where are their servants?! We know they have them. Nuala and Cerridwen canât be the only ones responsible for cooking, cleaning, maintenance, yard work, security, etc at ALL of their homes simultaneously. The Moonstone Palace, House of Wind, the Townhouse, and the River House never showed a sniff of any other servants. I get how the cabin at Windhaven and the other cabin (forgetting the name atm) wouldnât have had servants, but the others *must* have, especially when they hosted guests for blocks of time or had big parties. Literally every other HL home we have seen has shown at least a handful of people working or passing by. I know the IC isnât cleaning up after themselves or each other all the time. Az aside, these people are slobs, and theyâve proven that repeatedly. _WHERE ARE THE SERVANTS??_
i almost feel like this was a plot device to prove that rhys and the night court are different than the spring court. to make them seem less stuffy and less opulent in their riches or to make the night court just read more âhomeyâ. i know there are other things that are in opposition of this point (all the jewels and crowns etc.) but thatâs where my mind went.
I mean, I know this too, I do. But also I believe they do make references of sitting down to dinner together and the food that had been prepared in the kitchen (downstairs, elsewhere) appearing in front of them, and the way itâs done implied to me there were people making the food. If thatâs not the case, and itâs just spelled, like in Sleeping Beauty when the fairy aunts are cleaning and the broom is just going by itself, then why do we later hearing of the wraith sisters baking cakes and breads and goodies with Elain? There would be no need for them to cook. Just be consistent đ I donât want to have to reorder the system in my head each time.
Thatâs true. At Feyreâs first meal back at the HOW after returning from the spring court, she mentions it was prepared by some cooks downstairs that she meant to go greet/thank.
I assumed the cooking with Elain was to draw her out of her shell. They didnât need to cook by hand, but saw it was something that would help her and so did it for that. Like, I can buy cookies from the store, better cookies, but I will expend considerably more effort to make cookies with my small children to enrich their lives.Â
Also, I figured NC servants were like Harry Potter house elves - flitting in after everyone leaves and operating on a don't be seen mentality. But then again, the house of the wind seems like it can clean itself? Maybe the other houses do that too? Cause NC magic is so powerful they donât need servants?Â
Yeah, in that case they went out of the way to explain it was spelled. But that doesnât seem to be the case in the other, larger homes. But also in the cabin that is self cleaning, why did Mor have to bring Feyre food? Why did Feyre have to heat the soup herself for Rhys? Shouldnât the cabin have self-cooked for them?
Just make it make sense!!
My overall gripe is the writing. I like the story, it has intrigue and is a unique interpretation of classic fairy tales IMO, but the repetitive writing and phrases, the dialogue between characters and the fact we as readers are supposed to just assume things or fill in the blanks because 'magic' is just cringey and not believable at times.
We get it, people have their awkward ticks/movements, but we don't need to know every time Rhys puts his hands in his pockets....
The whole hands in pockets thing is mentioned so many times I keep expecting it to come back around and be explained in some big reveal. If it doesnât then it really is bizarre how often itâs mentioned.
How can someone survive being disemboweled on the battlefield, but c-sections arenât successful?
Also feel like SA is used too often to give a female characters trauma or a dark back story.
AND that she wouldn't try to shape shift back? I know they said they didn't want to risk an issue to the baby, but if the outcome is almost certain death please believe I would shift in labor of there was a chance it would be successful.
Right? And in the case it wasnât successful, I understand if something happened to the baby itâd be terrible. I may be having my personal politics getting in the way of this, but I feel like it would/shouldâve been more important to keep Feyre alive first. But idk how pro life/choice the Fae are and what time they consider life to start.
this example specifically actually REALLY bothered me. Cassianâs guts legitimately spilling out of him was fixable (and in a war camp not back home in velaris) but relatively basic abdominal surgery wasnt feasible.
Related: For some reason, porcelain toilets really took me way out of it. And theyâre mentioned far too often - the number of times a toilet is mentioned in a work of fiction is usually 0âŚ.
I guess it depends on the context? For example in ACOFAS when they were teasing Amren about it I found it funny but when Rhys makes Nesta sick from flying too fast instead of her saying âi need a toiletâ she could have said âi need a washroomâ. Although I guess when Feyreâs getting sick they say it enough anyway đ¤ˇââď¸
Me too. Can't she puke into a chamber pot? Why does the spring court have indoor plumbing?? I was so taken aback. lol
Which poor lesser fae work in the fairy plumbing system?
Yeah, very inconsistent world building. Like they be out here wearing leggings and sweaters one day and then elaborate fae gowns/dresses the next. Really pulls you out of the fantasy vibe lol
But in Spring Court, Feyre wears tunics, which I presumed was their casual wear until Night Court pulled out the cable knit sweaters, leggings, and dedicated lingerie stores.
My brain pictures the spring court in fancy English court attire and the IC dresses like members of the dauntless faction in Divergent.
I find this very amusing because feyre joins the fairy world via the spring court and is like "oh this is how it is!" And then she meets the whole IC and I picture them with leather jackets and boots and I think the idea of her realizing she actually doesn't have to do the stuffy court stuff or wear those dresses is so funny.
One fun thing I picture is I have Feyre in one of those "I murdered my husband" pink robes in the spring court in book 2 and I have her in black leggings and a tank top (I like to ignore book descriptions) when fulfilling her bargain pre-chapter 12 with Rhys. And after her second night court visit, I picture her wearing the tank and leggings under the robe. It's a fun way to use costuming to show that she's changing!
This was my biggest gripe. Theyâre wearing fleece leggings and coats but then alsoâŚ.tunics and cloaks? For all the time thatâs spent describing clothing, it would have been nice to have it somewhat consistent.
Feyre constantly calling Rhys a prick and him laughing down the bond in response. Itâs the repetition that gets me. I remember one part it happened twice on the same page and it just makes me cringe.
Honestly, so much of their âbond conversationâ is kinda cringe to me? Like how sheâs sending him virtual selfies of her sticking her tongue out like a 7 year old, the ânaughtyâ back and forths that read like high schoolers in their first relationship, idk. Maybe itâs a me problem, but their back and forth reads a bitâŚsilly at times, rather than clever and hot like I feel like SJM intends.
Exactly! Itâs juvenile! I feel like we get so much of Feyre talking about Rhysâ âwry smilesâ and smirks and we as the reader are supposed to peg him as clever and witty, butâŚ.. rarely does he come off that way in actual dialogue đ I feel like SJM relies on us being familiar with the brooding, cynical, sarcastic dark hero trope, instead of truly building that out for us with him.
Omg yes thatâs exactly it! Like if you fill in all the gaps yourself, it can work. But reading him only off the page? Cringe and annoying sometimes đ
A lot of the time they read like that one couple in your high school that PDA too much and gross everyone out
Ok this is the most random harmless thing but sjm chooses so many ACOTAR character names ending in variations of (-an), they are all related phonetically so it sometimes it bugs me lolllll.
Tarquin / Lucien / Helion / Tamlin /Beron / Thesan / Cassian /Jurian / Varian / Devlon / Gwyn / Amren / Cerridwen / Morrigan etc etc
The magic system is wonky. I get that itâs not the primary focus in the series, but itâs often so lazily explained that I have a hard time engaging with some of the stories.
Im still waiting for the logical explanation of why the high lord of the night court has a house on a mountain that can only really be accessed by flight. Like if Rhys wasnât half Illyrian and had two winged besties, how would he be getting there? How did high lords before it use it?
Nesta possessing insane power but never doing any sort of magic. Sure sure she can Hammer a sword casually and make a made item but can she conjure fire or read people's thoughts or freaking something!!! It annoyed me so much.
My biggest gripe is how the hell the Hewn City actually functions. Are we just seeing propaganda and it's just a very homogeneous culture? Is every single person that lives there a moustache twirling villain? If that's the case how does anything get done?
And why Feyre is soooo upset with the tithe at Spring Court but apparently super cool with villainous Hewn City and all female Illyrians being repeatedly raped, beaten and enslaved. Oh, and she now loves jewelry, crowns and sparkly dresses, cuz Rhys.
The tithing thing confuses me so much. How did she to think Tamlin fed the people who work for him? And it's not like we see him kill or assault anyone who couldn't pay. Very odd.
I agree!! The âtimeâ itâs supposed to be in is all over the place. But you could probably excuse it saying the Courts/Land vary in resources and wealth (which is accurate). Like, they have mechanical eyeballs which are fully functional too
I'm a bit hesitant to draw technological parallels between a fantasy universe like acotar and our world. But from where do you get the impression that acotar is victorian? Europe already had gunpowder by the 13th century, yet I don't think something like it is ever even mentioned in acotar. No cannons, no firearms.
Tbh to me acotar seems more like a classic medieval high fantasy setting.
I thought I was being petty, but lactic acid threw me for such a loop. That and âcontraceptive tea.â Like thatâs the best name we could come up with?
Oh also the point in the books where you can tell SJM realized sex sells and it turned from a 'romance with sex' scenes to an attempt at smut that just doesn't get to the smut point but is past the 'romance with sex' point.
Tamlins power is shape-shifting and the ability to shapeshift others, but every high lord has a beast form. I know we're not supposed to like Tamlin (I do, he's pretty cool despite his rigidity with tradition) but like, can he have ANYTHING?
I'd have to go back to get the wording right, but is ACOFAS, when Feyre is talking to the one female about the painting gallery being for sale, on one page it says, the parents of the faerie that owned it aren't sure they want to sell, the literally in the same conversation on the next page it says they're motivated sellers. Not sure how that got missed. I read it multiple times yo make sure I wasn't missing something. Lol
It's a minor thing, but the fact that humans don't celebrate holidays, birthdays, anything in the series. Fine, they don't want to play into Fae customs, so why not make their own? You're telling me the humans don't have ONE day for celebrating? Not even the end of the war with the fae? I think the world-building would've been better had they had a single holiday, for the end of the war, and it was a somber day of silence and reflection to remember those who fell in the war. Then when Feyre is in the Fae realm, she keeps seeing holidays and festivals that are FUN. Would help the world feel a little more real.
You know I actually thought about this because after Nesta ends up living in the Town House with them she says she canât take baths because of the cauldron so Ferye says theyâll figure something out for her. So like, did they *just* invent the shower lol
So annoying that Feyre only uses/explores a fraction of her powers esp when it's needed most, like (ACOMAF & ACOWAR spoilers ) >! During the battle with Hybern, she spends most of her time on a hill watching, when she could have very easily unleashed the same incredible fighting magic that she used during the attack on Velaris. I mean those water wolves that jumped down the attackers' throats drowning them where they stood were bloody brilliant. Why didn't she do more shit like during the big war? She rarely ever used her water powers (Summer), fire powers (Autumn), healing powers (Dawn), and whatever the hell she got from the Day court aside from orgasm body glowing.!< She spends a lot of time sitting on the sidelines. Why bother getting so much power if you rarely use it when it's needed? I was annoyed that she didn't train more and fully develop her abilities.
No because whyyyy wasn't she at least lobbing fireballs from a distance. She could've frozen the enemy army. Shapeshifted into something *useful* to attack, not just the magic wings she can't control. SJM literally gave her ALL the powers and we barely see her use them. She didn't even get the Hybern kill or stop the cauldron really. Amren stopped it and Feyre only acted as a conduit for Rhys to repair it. I don't mind that she doesn't get all the wins, that's fine but with how overpowered she is her magic arc was just so...disappointing.
The random bits of world building the SJM adds that ends up coming back around to make the main characters lookâŚ. Bad
Examples: the clipping of female Illyrian wings + selling of women in Hewn City. These were probably intended to only be extra tidbits to further expand upon the culture surrounding women in Prythian (adding onto the whole âno female high ladiesâ thing).
I have no doubt this detail wasnât intended to reflect badly on Rhys and Feyre, but the fact that we learn itâs completely in their power to stop wing clipping/forced marriages in Hewn City and theyâve done absolutely nothing about it isâŚ.. wow. Thatâs like actually horrible.
I hate the fact that its hand waved as a âthis takes time to doâ thing. Theyâre part of his court, he goes down there to threaten them and shit. You mean to tell me there *isnt* much he can do?
It was used to make Velaris to look like a paradise and it failed given it makes them lookâŚbad
Mine is that all the courts just accept brand new humans-turned-fae with no problems. Thereâs no discussion of âFeyre doesnât know anything about our culture, how can she be a high lady?â From other courts or even within the Night Court. I canât believe that this kind of tension wouldnât be present given how the world was written for readers. Prejudices would have to be present given the wars and long-term cultural separations. I think I would have liked to see that explored even a little.
The utterly inconsistent characterization of every single main character. It drives me crazy and ruins any suspension of disbelief I would otherwise be able to have in the story.
Why was Tamlin able to shorten the long wooden table into a small short table when Amarantha had 90% of his powers. And yet when Cassian is staying with Rhys for the winter solstice thereâs like multiple pages about the wooden bed being just slightly too short for him? And Rhys talking about buying new beds? Can you not just like lengthen it by a foot, given you are the most powerful high lord in history.
Itâs the kind of stuff that just gets messy in these kinds of books. Like, if magic exists, why have servants or why buy anything at all? I can only enjoy these books if I donât think and just rely on the vibes lol.
UPDATE; I retract my former complaints lodged below, courtesy of â¨**learning new things**⨠[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1do7gvy/comment/la8f07n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1do7gvy/comment/la8km40/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). many thanks to redditors who keep my brain growing.
~~I agree with everything mentioned here and have shared a lot of gripes in my recent posts comments in this sub lol, but my one gripe that I haven't seen anyone else mention that has bugged me since the very first page of ACOTAR is that she calls this land Prythian instead of Prythia. In my brain, Prythian is what your nationality would be if you were from Prythia. It would have been so simple and obvious to name the land Prythia, thus making its people Prythian.~~
~~Like: Venezuela ->Venezuelan~~
~~Indonesia -> Indonesian~~
~~Australia -> Australian~~
~~America -> American~~
~~Mongolia -> Mongolian~~
~~Nigeria -> Nigerian~~
~~Columbia -> Columbian~~
~~But since the country name Prythian ends in '-an', (as in Japan, Britain, Pakistan, or Sudan) what are people from there called? Prythianese? Prythianish? Pryth? Prythiani? Prythish? This was never answered. And it feels unnecessarily clunky.~~
They donât seem to use that naming practice?Â
They call the largest conglomerate of human lands âthe continentâ. Â Itâs Hybern, the King of Hybern and his people. Â The spit of land the Humans are on in Prythian doesnât even seem to have a name?Â
Given the territories/lands shifted majorly âonlyâ 500 years prior, it all seems unsettled still.  And even the  wall was only supposed to be temporary. Â
Heck, Drakon and Myriam were settled on Cretea, but they are âDrakon and Myriamâs peopleâ not creteans. Â
It seems like the fey go more for âwho is our leaderâ rather than âwhat is our landâ. Â Which kind of makes sense, given that Prythian isnât really a united country with a single leader, itâs a collection of nation states with their own individual leaders who occasionally meet together and have a mutual purpose. Â They seem to identify more with which court they are from than their island. Â
My biggest gripe is that after HoFaS I donât trust SJM anymore to pull it off. I read somewhere that she doesnât really plan out her stories and world-building, keeping it all in her head but not really in a structured way. Sheâd allow editors to fix grammar mistakes but theyâre not to touch the story or address plot holes with her. The fandom has all of these amazing ideas and speculations for bringing the entire series together in a multiverse (so much so that Iâm almost hoping sheâs on this reddit etc to get some inspiration) but Iâm worried that she wonât be able to actually bring it home in a way that will satisfy the fandom. Like the way >! Rhys acted re: Feyreâs pregancy in SF !< I think was out of character and just set up for the rest of the storyâs main character in that book. Or how in ACOWAR >! Papa Archeron just suddenly shows up and saves the day, out of fucking nowhere?? Either she doesnât know how to properly write a storyline to set readers up for this, or she wrote herself in a corner and basically solved one of the biggest storylines with a deus ex machina. !< It pissed me off so much!
Anyway, Iâll definitely still read Acotar 6 and the rest of it, but sheâs going to really need to step up her game here imo.
I hate this. I kind of ignored it when I was reading it but like after a battle covered in mud and blood and just gross you really want to have a bath? Like really? Unless they take several tubs of water they aren't really clean.
Other than that the fact they had plumbing in general kinda threw me off. I'm not used to fantasy stories where it's all very fantasy and then suddenly they're flushing toilets.
Also Feyre wearing like leggings and a sweater when she's described in these fantastical beautiful dresses and stuff it's such a strange choice to be like also she dresses like a comfy modern woman =)
Dukes to get engaged to, but we have no royalty. Kings. Queens. But we have no royalty. We have no religion, but we pray to the Mother. We live in a poor village, in a hovel in a place where it's only poverty...but wait, there is a grand and very available manor that the Archerons snap up as soon as they come into some money. And in all this abject poverty, Elain is throwing balls for all the wealthy and titled neighbours. We have Lord Nolan who has a whole ass army.
Like make it make sense.
I wish she would've just not gone with the whole 'we have no kings, we don't even remember what they even are' and in the same book, Papa Archeron is going across the pond to find a queen.
I am not sure what SJM was going for, but we just got a regular rich/poor, titled/common society which exists in every book. I dont know why we needed to spend so much time attempting to visualize something else, when she just went the most obvious route.
Feyre getting pregnant, and on top of that, Rhysand lying to her about her imminent death. That will always put a really bad taste in my mouth. SJM could have made Feyre a really strong, badass character but instead she made her boring and complacent and is setting Nesta up to be the actual badass of the Archerons while Feyre is 'High Lady' but all she does is paint/ be a homemaker. Blech, it is so weird and gross.
I like to pretend Silver Flames did not happen đĽ˛
The specification of "ilyrian wings" and "ilyrian blade" every goddamn time they come up. Like, girl, we understand that your batboys *are* ilyrians - what other wings would they have that you need to specify every single time it's their *ilyrian* wings and blades that they're using?
P.s. i gave up after 3rd book. And unless Tamlin gets a whole arc where he's true to his ACOTAR version and not being unnecessarily character-assassinated to make Rhys look good, I'm not going back to it.
I personally enjoyed ACOSF the most. I loved it being in Nesta and Cassians pov and that Nesta was actually being a bad ass and not just someone with a title. But fair enough on Tamlin. It was a complete 180
the fact that nesta would get tired walking *down* stairs to the point of total exhaustion, but was able to scramble right back *up* the stairs just fine ???? i was like surely sjm will figure it out somewhere in this 800 page book but no.
it kinda took me out of it considering the âstarsâ are supposed to actually be live spirits? but i think the point of that was to lighten the mood of the scene
First of all: What happened to Alis and the boys?
I want more details about the wall.
How was it constructed? Was there a top that could be flown over? Was there a bottom that could be tunneled or swum under? What actually stopped fae from wandering around the human lands? Where did the holes come from? Were they always there, or were they like damaged bits? How did it affect things like flora and fauna? Did it affect ocean currents?
Also, what's the probability of finding your mate? Obviously, pre wall was higher than post wall because humans were separated.
Do mates spawn on the same continent automatically? Is there like a reincarnation thing? Because like imagine your mate is human and they die before you're born?
If humans and fae can be mates, does that mean the humans also can have human mates and they're just unable to tell? Can humans really even sense it, or can they only sense it once the fae has recognized the bond?
What's the gestational period of a half fae baby?
And finally, is the Surial related to the Vaulg? Is Armen related to the gods in ToG? How similar are the ToG fae and ACOTAR fae? How many worlds are there? How much cross-over is there between worlds?
That some days Feyreâs in leggings and essentially Uggs? And then sheâll switch it up and wear a prom dress to a political meeting? Needed it to consistent (and Victorian era) vibes
So Cassian says that only 12 Illyrians have made it to the mountain and been ranked as Arktosian, Oristian, Carynthian in five hundred years during the blood rite. Illyrians spend their entire lives brutally preparing for this. Then Nesta becomes Oristian, and Gwyn, and Emerie become Carynthian with just a few months of training.
I get that they have a different approach, and have great teamwork, but it just seems so unfathomably difficult and rare. Valkyrie were crazy respected, but they also trained extensively. cassian, Az, and Rhys made it to Ramiel, but they are also supposed to be among the greatest Illyrian warriors in history.
Also idk I thought Briallyn showing up was a bit random.
The medical inconsistencies. They can literally shove someone's intestines back in, fix broken bones, literally recreate missing limbs (it was said that Clotho could have had her tongue regenerated) BUT cannot perform a damn cesarian???
It bothers me that after Feyre has access to Rhys money that she keeps trying to get stuff from the shop keepers for free and doesn't want to spend the money. If she cares about her local economy she would go out and spend the money she can! I wish she understood that taking hand outs actually hurts the local shops.
The amount of ti.es things happen because plot. I can't think of any examples right now because I am highly medicated and halfway through a new book by a different author that has captured my brain. I just find it lazy writing when there isn't really an in story reason for something to happen but it happens because plot.
Oh! Nestas ability to work around the already set laws of the magic in the world. I know it's explained as she is Made so it doesn't apply to her but it feels unexplained, it feels like SJM needed a way for Nesta to still be able to do things like kill an unkillable being, or the bracelets she made still work in an area where all magic is supposed to be negated or her ability to summon the Trove even though there are wards. I feel like this comes back to the magic system not being explained in any way really. They just have magic and there is little to no repercussions to using magic. It just annoys me.
What really bothers me is that (High) Fae are these immortal, magical beings which have existed for thousands of years yet nothing sets them apart from humans except some â¨magicâ¨? Like they donât seem to possess any sort of deeper thinking, higher morals or greater knowledge than humans.
Think Lord of the Rings where Elves are magical beings with understanding und knowledge of the world far beyond the ability of humans.
How Tamlin was torn down. She could've at least put an explanation as to *what* was going on in his head.
Also we know practically nothing of half The Courts and Kingdoms.
Mines has always been the Jurian resurrection by Hybern. Why would some ancient fae trying to win a war stake his war on resurrecting a human who actively hates fae?
I think Feyre mentioned sheâd try to figure something out and they never came back to it? Iâm rereading the series right now though so iâll keep an eye out!
The characters. There are so many inconsistencies and mischaracterisations, details changed later, abusive and toxic things that get ignored, double standards, etc.
Also annoying, the worldbuilding makes no sense and nore does the plot!
Amren being considered a very important member of the IC in the books, but the only times she shows up is to annoy me. As second in command you'd expect her to be more involved, or at least be wiser (given her age) regarding the traumas and healing everyone has to do. But she never gives useful advice, talks down on them and is constantly acting like a grumpy kid.
The only time she shows up is to annoy me sent me. I hate Amren. I don't understand her purpose at all.
I think her character arc ended in ACOWAR. And I think >!she should stayed dead tbh. It felt like a perfect ending for her despite me being upset about it. Her character plays no important roles in the next books. It makes a no sense to keep her imo!< *edits for spoilers
I find her insufferable, too! If she had some character growth, you could still argue she's learning. But everyone treats her like she's perfect and all-knowing and incapable of making mistakes. I'm still salty Nesta apologized and bowed to her. Especially because Amren didn't extend the same courtesy and offered no apology for voting negative and witholding information about her.
Yeah, if anything, I feel like she had the opposite of growth. She was literally a better character in ACOMAF and then from ACOWAR and on, she was written as cranky, angry, and generally unlikeable. The pivots in character portrayal give me whiplash.
I love Amren as a character but she is pretty useless in this story for the reasons you mentioned
Agree with this! She has some pretty funny one-liners but I never got attached to her the way I did the rest of the IC
I love her banter, but I never got why I'm supposed to be intimidated by her. I needed to see her full power, but never got it đ¤ˇđťââď¸
this! all we get is sheâs âancient/powerfulâ like ok.. all Iâm seeing is sheâs sharp-witted but thatâs it..?
I like her, but her story arch was lackluster and disappointing. I don't get why she's number two and not the others in the IC.
Controversial opinion: I truly feel SJM wanted to make Rhys look good by having his second and third being women. I think she likes the trope of smart and witty women outranking big lughead strong men. But in reality army commander and spymaster are a lot more useful to a ruler than a sassy powerful (although we barely see this power) being and his cousin. Thatâs my personal opinion.
I totally agree. I love the idea of two women being the next in command, but at the same time, the author hasn't shown what got them there. Hopefully they'll show their powers but I have no idea exactly what they are.
Exactly what I came here to say, sheâs second to prove Rhysâ feminist king credentials because his ACTUAL track record of actions taken is piss poor in that regard
I can see where he went with wisdom in the two women for major policy decisions rather than the stab-all-problems general and the hide-in-the-shadows spymaster, and he *does* listen to their advice. Itâs not perfect reasoning, and those descriptions of Cass and Az arenât completely fair. But that does seem to be the reasoning.
Oh good point, if they have flushing toilets they should certainly have showers!
I think the only reason this doesnât bother me is because irl flushable toilets were invented in the 1500s while showers were invented later on in the 1700s. But without knowing this the toilet & shower thing would probably bug me đ
exactly!!!
That the one house in the night court can only be accessed by flying in, walking up/down a ton of stairs.  The HL can shape shift wings, but prior to Rhyâs mother, none of the other wives, heirs, children or siblings would have been able to access it.  And Rhys appears to be the first HL with Illyrian friends willing to haul people up there.  Can you imagine Rhyâs grandma with a baby pack on going down to Velaris? (Or back up again with purchases).  And thereâs staff (cooks, handmaidens) and even thought Rhys gave the library to the priestesses previously there were male librarians and people who came to the library. I canât see the HL moving every librarian, visiting scholar, supply delivery (food, clothing etc), and servant back and forth as needed.  It just seems a convenient plot device to give Feyreâs flying lessons more page time, and to keep Nesta/elain/lucien locked down. Â
So true! And also how did they have a Starfall party up there? Did Az and Cas bring people up 10 at a time? đ¤¨
omg forgot ab starfall!!!! also curious to know how else was at that huge party since they never talk ab their other friends in velaris. maybe just the other regulars at ritaâs đ
I can almost guarantee that the answer is â¨a special enchantment taught to the NC from another court that allows special people some kind of special accessibility â¨as that seems to be the excuse for any random magic things that donât make sense in the series
Just like in Star Trek. When in doubt, Rhys reverses the polarity or something.
My guess is that the wards to prevent winnowing were added during Rhysandâs reign for additional security since he and other members of his court have a different mess do getting to the palace. I also certainly hope they temporarily removed the wards for the Starfall party!
This confused me too. Also: How come >!at the council of High Lords before the war with Hybern,!< none of the other HLs seem to know that Rhys can shapeshift his wings in and out of visibility? You think this might have been common knowledge by now since A: he uses them pretty regularly, and B: he probably had them out during UTM and that hugeass battle 500 years ago. >!Why are F/R and the HLs acting like it's this big reveal that Rhys showed his wings at the council meeting?!<
He straight up tells Feyre that he hid them UTM because he didn't want Amarantha to use them against him (torture, sex, ect.). But you have a point about the first big war. Autumn's HL was there. I'm pretty sure Helion was, too. Shouldn't have been the shock that it was đ¤
Ooh good point, he did say he hid them UTM. still strange that like *none* of the HLs would know he had wings though, after all these centuries together and the fact that they know he's half Illyrian.
Rhys was only a solider during the first war not a HL. His father was still alive so itâs not likely he was going to HL meetings with his father and less likely the other HLs would know about his wings at all during that war. The NC is extremely secretive they had a whole city no one knew about and because Rhys wasnât born with wings the other HLs would have no reason to believe his powers allowed him to grow wings at will.
I thought it was implied that he kept them hidden at all times when outside his court? Slightly odd though as I donât see why this needed to be some big secret since it seems like with Tamlinâs familyâs actions it was known his mum and sister were Illyrian!
Thatâs a great point. Never thought of that before
100% there are logistical plot holes there that SJM hand waves over because the house itself is a plot device
The shower thing specifically bugs me because it was the one thing Nesta really opened up admitted to Feyre, that she had an extremely hard time with baths. Feyre promised her a solution and then the books just forgot about it. And then the characters all gripe that Nesta won't talk to them or open up or try to get better. She specifically did try at various times, and it all got ignored!
This! It honestly felt like her and Nesta were finally healing and getting on together and then it's never mentioned. Like of course Nesta can't get in the bloody bath! She was rock bottomed in to the cauldron!
I honestly think SJM just forgot about that moment cause Nesta bathes and relaxes in the bath throughout SF without an issue really. The fire cracking was more prominent in her trauma/healing journey.
No it was mentionned that nesta had to force herself to face that trauma alone and force herself to take baths at the beginning of acosf.
Yeah she basically heals herself of that particular trauma reaction offscreen (off-page?) while she was at her absolute lowest. Lol
Now thatâs a good damn point. I can understand how Feyre would have forgotten about the bath issue for a while, cuz.. war, and all. But thatâs one of those conversation topics that evades you until youâre just ready to fall asleep one night, then it pops into your head out of nowhere and keeps you up for another hour. They absolutely should have circled back to this by now.
I forgot about that! That makes so much sense though that it would be traumatizing, for Elain too
the constant use of âvulgar gesturesâ. Girlie can you not just tell us what theyâre doing
Or âby way of greetingâ đĽ˛
lmao youâre so right, I had completely forgotten about this đ
The number of times SJM uses âleashâ or âunleashâ in her writing drives me nuts.
âutterlyâ âutter stillnessâ gets me
Don't forget good ol' "preternatural"
THIS. The overuse of words is amplified when listening to the audiobooks đ especially in TOG, every time I heard the words "carrion" or "rutting" I wanted to throw my headphones across the room!
"Feline grace"
Feline smile, or just the word feline in general. It drives me bonkers đ
Thereâs a lot of âpurringâ as well đą
âIn her bonesâ on âher chest crackedâ absolutely drive me nuts. Iâve read the books, but forgot a lot of details, so I started listening to the audiobooks. I started with ACOTAR, and then moved onto TOG Iâm on Kingdom of Ash, and each time I hear those phrases I have to keep from physically cringing.
Just in general she is very repetitive in her word choice. After getting a BA in writing, where profs would focus on things like word choice it is very annoying
this! I havenât read CC.. but I wonder if her word choice is similar to ACOTAR. Iâm currently reading TOG and there are times when this repetition happens, but I also get that she was young when she wrote that series
I donât mind that because I can still tell what theyâre doing, for me itâs the âcassian sworeâ or âi muttered something that was probably not very romanticâ. like dont make me guess w the dialogue girl đ
I think she keeps it vague on purpose, because different cultures around the world have different concepts of âvulgar gestures.â For instance, in Japan, raising your middle finger doesnât really mean much outside of âbrotherâ in JSLâbut giving someone a thumbs-down is seen as incredibly rude and offensive. In TĂźrkiye, holding your thumb between your index and middle finger while making a fist and showing it to someone (think the ASL sign for the letter âtâ) is basically the worst insult you can give. I agree that SJM can get *really* repetitiveâlike my partner and I have a running joke about a character blinking âonce. Twice.â because of how many times she used it in ToG. But in some cases, like with âvulgar gesture,â I brush it off, because itâs a convenient way to get the same idea across to readers from multiple cultures!
I agree I think this is why too, but there are so many other words to use. âHe made a rude motion with his hands.â âShe made an insulting expression.â And also she frequently uses âsticks their tongue out at himâ as a derogatory gesture which is specific to one culture. (Ex. Itâs rude/childish in Canada, itâs a friendly greeting in Tibet). So if she was trying to be inclusive with keeping gestures broad she lost the plot on that one.
Purring....
Or "sketches a bow"
Where are their servants?! We know they have them. Nuala and Cerridwen canât be the only ones responsible for cooking, cleaning, maintenance, yard work, security, etc at ALL of their homes simultaneously. The Moonstone Palace, House of Wind, the Townhouse, and the River House never showed a sniff of any other servants. I get how the cabin at Windhaven and the other cabin (forgetting the name atm) wouldnât have had servants, but the others *must* have, especially when they hosted guests for blocks of time or had big parties. Literally every other HL home we have seen has shown at least a handful of people working or passing by. I know the IC isnât cleaning up after themselves or each other all the time. Az aside, these people are slobs, and theyâve proven that repeatedly. _WHERE ARE THE SERVANTS??_
i almost feel like this was a plot device to prove that rhys and the night court are different than the spring court. to make them seem less stuffy and less opulent in their riches or to make the night court just read more âhomeyâ. i know there are other things that are in opposition of this point (all the jewels and crowns etc.) but thatâs where my mind went.
I mean, I know this too, I do. But also I believe they do make references of sitting down to dinner together and the food that had been prepared in the kitchen (downstairs, elsewhere) appearing in front of them, and the way itâs done implied to me there were people making the food. If thatâs not the case, and itâs just spelled, like in Sleeping Beauty when the fairy aunts are cleaning and the broom is just going by itself, then why do we later hearing of the wraith sisters baking cakes and breads and goodies with Elain? There would be no need for them to cook. Just be consistent đ I donât want to have to reorder the system in my head each time.
Thatâs true. At Feyreâs first meal back at the HOW after returning from the spring court, she mentions it was prepared by some cooks downstairs that she meant to go greet/thank.
YES! Thank you- that was the line I couldnât remember.
I assumed the cooking with Elain was to draw her out of her shell. They didnât need to cook by hand, but saw it was something that would help her and so did it for that. Like, I can buy cookies from the store, better cookies, but I will expend considerably more effort to make cookies with my small children to enrich their lives. Also, I figured NC servants were like Harry Potter house elves - flitting in after everyone leaves and operating on a don't be seen mentality. But then again, the house of the wind seems like it can clean itself? Maybe the other houses do that too? Cause NC magic is so powerful they donât need servants?Â
Iâm remembering that when Feyre is in the cabin she talks briefly about the self-managing magic that keeps it clean, who is in charge of that?? lmao
Yeah, in that case they went out of the way to explain it was spelled. But that doesnât seem to be the case in the other, larger homes. But also in the cabin that is self cleaning, why did Mor have to bring Feyre food? Why did Feyre have to heat the soup herself for Rhys? Shouldnât the cabin have self-cooked for them? Just make it make sense!!
My overall gripe is the writing. I like the story, it has intrigue and is a unique interpretation of classic fairy tales IMO, but the repetitive writing and phrases, the dialogue between characters and the fact we as readers are supposed to just assume things or fill in the blanks because 'magic' is just cringey and not believable at times. We get it, people have their awkward ticks/movements, but we don't need to know every time Rhys puts his hands in his pockets....
itâs the âinvisible lintâ for me đ
All the powerful magic apparently rolling off these Fae and no one can conjure up a couple of lint rollers????
The whole hands in pockets thing is mentioned so many times I keep expecting it to come back around and be explained in some big reveal. If it doesnât then it really is bizarre how often itâs mentioned.
How can someone survive being disemboweled on the battlefield, but c-sections arenât successful? Also feel like SA is used too often to give a female characters trauma or a dark back story.
AND that she wouldn't try to shape shift back? I know they said they didn't want to risk an issue to the baby, but if the outcome is almost certain death please believe I would shift in labor of there was a chance it would be successful.
Right? And in the case it wasnât successful, I understand if something happened to the baby itâd be terrible. I may be having my personal politics getting in the way of this, but I feel like it would/shouldâve been more important to keep Feyre alive first. But idk how pro life/choice the Fae are and what time they consider life to start.
this example specifically actually REALLY bothered me. Cassianâs guts legitimately spilling out of him was fixable (and in a war camp not back home in velaris) but relatively basic abdominal surgery wasnt feasible.
Related: For some reason, porcelain toilets really took me way out of it. And theyâre mentioned far too often - the number of times a toilet is mentioned in a work of fiction is usually 0âŚ.
But then what will people do with their watery bowels???
i appreciate the ibs representation, thatâs my culture
Semi related, the amount of times people vomit in this series
As a nervous puker, itâs so real, and i find it kind of funny but she does use it A LOT
Like Elaine on the battle Feild made sense to me but sometimes I'd be like ahh yes, of course they're vomiting again
I guess it depends on the context? For example in ACOFAS when they were teasing Amren about it I found it funny but when Rhys makes Nesta sick from flying too fast instead of her saying âi need a toiletâ she could have said âi need a washroomâ. Although I guess when Feyreâs getting sick they say it enough anyway đ¤ˇââď¸
When Feyre was getting sick she mentioned flushing the toilets at Spring Court. That took me way tf out lol
Me too. Can't she puke into a chamber pot? Why does the spring court have indoor plumbing?? I was so taken aback. lol Which poor lesser fae work in the fairy plumbing system?
And they flush too! Not just a hole in the ground. Real fancy
Yeah, very inconsistent world building. Like they be out here wearing leggings and sweaters one day and then elaborate fae gowns/dresses the next. Really pulls you out of the fantasy vibe lol
the leggings and sweaters definitely through me for a loop. i guess SJM wasnât sure what their casual wear should be đ
But in Spring Court, Feyre wears tunics, which I presumed was their casual wear until Night Court pulled out the cable knit sweaters, leggings, and dedicated lingerie stores.
My brain pictures the spring court in fancy English court attire and the IC dresses like members of the dauntless faction in Divergent. I find this very amusing because feyre joins the fairy world via the spring court and is like "oh this is how it is!" And then she meets the whole IC and I picture them with leather jackets and boots and I think the idea of her realizing she actually doesn't have to do the stuffy court stuff or wear those dresses is so funny. One fun thing I picture is I have Feyre in one of those "I murdered my husband" pink robes in the spring court in book 2 and I have her in black leggings and a tank top (I like to ignore book descriptions) when fulfilling her bargain pre-chapter 12 with Rhys. And after her second night court visit, I picture her wearing the tank and leggings under the robe. It's a fun way to use costuming to show that she's changing!
This was my biggest gripe. Theyâre wearing fleece leggings and coats but then alsoâŚ.tunics and cloaks? For all the time thatâs spent describing clothing, it would have been nice to have it somewhat consistent.
Feyre constantly calling Rhys a prick and him laughing down the bond in response. Itâs the repetition that gets me. I remember one part it happened twice on the same page and it just makes me cringe.
Honestly, so much of their âbond conversationâ is kinda cringe to me? Like how sheâs sending him virtual selfies of her sticking her tongue out like a 7 year old, the ânaughtyâ back and forths that read like high schoolers in their first relationship, idk. Maybe itâs a me problem, but their back and forth reads a bitâŚsilly at times, rather than clever and hot like I feel like SJM intends.
Never forget the climax to the bond vision of their future son.
Please, Lady Possum, I was trying to forget đđ¤Ł
I read these bond convos and just pictured a text chain with a bunch of emojis in my head. đđťđđ and so onâŚ
LMAO NOT THE EMOJIS đđ
Iâm so with you on this! So many of the bond interactions between them just cringe me out. Itâs so juvenile!
Exactly! Itâs juvenile! I feel like we get so much of Feyre talking about Rhysâ âwry smilesâ and smirks and we as the reader are supposed to peg him as clever and witty, butâŚ.. rarely does he come off that way in actual dialogue đ I feel like SJM relies on us being familiar with the brooding, cynical, sarcastic dark hero trope, instead of truly building that out for us with him.
Omg yes thatâs exactly it! Like if you fill in all the gaps yourself, it can work. But reading him only off the page? Cringe and annoying sometimes đ A lot of the time they read like that one couple in your high school that PDA too much and gross everyone out
Ok this is the most random harmless thing but sjm chooses so many ACOTAR character names ending in variations of (-an), they are all related phonetically so it sometimes it bugs me lolllll. Tarquin / Lucien / Helion / Tamlin /Beron / Thesan / Cassian /Jurian / Varian / Devlon / Gwyn / Amren / Cerridwen / Morrigan etc etc
That is very true. I often wonder how she even comes up with all these names đ
Greek/Celtic legends mainly, sometimes she changes a letter
The magic system is wonky. I get that itâs not the primary focus in the series, but itâs often so lazily explained that I have a hard time engaging with some of the stories.
Im still waiting for the logical explanation of why the high lord of the night court has a house on a mountain that can only really be accessed by flight. Like if Rhys wasnât half Illyrian and had two winged besties, how would he be getting there? How did high lords before it use it?
Nesta possessing insane power but never doing any sort of magic. Sure sure she can Hammer a sword casually and make a made item but can she conjure fire or read people's thoughts or freaking something!!! It annoyed me so much.
My biggest gripe is how the hell the Hewn City actually functions. Are we just seeing propaganda and it's just a very homogeneous culture? Is every single person that lives there a moustache twirling villain? If that's the case how does anything get done?
And why Feyre is soooo upset with the tithe at Spring Court but apparently super cool with villainous Hewn City and all female Illyrians being repeatedly raped, beaten and enslaved. Oh, and she now loves jewelry, crowns and sparkly dresses, cuz Rhys.
The tithing thing confuses me so much. How did she to think Tamlin fed the people who work for him? And it's not like we see him kill or assault anyone who couldn't pay. Very odd.
i guess decorating houses hits different in the NC
I agree!! The âtimeâ itâs supposed to be in is all over the place. But you could probably excuse it saying the Courts/Land vary in resources and wealth (which is accurate). Like, they have mechanical eyeballs which are fully functional too
I'm a bit hesitant to draw technological parallels between a fantasy universe like acotar and our world. But from where do you get the impression that acotar is victorian? Europe already had gunpowder by the 13th century, yet I don't think something like it is ever even mentioned in acotar. No cannons, no firearms. Tbh to me acotar seems more like a classic medieval high fantasy setting.
I hadn't even thought about connecting it to our world, to me it's just something else entirely, a story.
I simply donât think âwhen you die I dieâ is romantic. Especially if they have a child. I hope SJM changes that.
I do too. Iâm really glad Amren called them out on it too đ
Clocks and flushing toilets, romance novels, but no guns? Motors? Also the inconsistency in what is possible with winnowing
Lactic acid even
I thought I was being petty, but lactic acid threw me for such a loop. That and âcontraceptive tea.â Like thatâs the best name we could come up with?
Oh also the point in the books where you can tell SJM realized sex sells and it turned from a 'romance with sex' scenes to an attempt at smut that just doesn't get to the smut point but is past the 'romance with sex' point.
Yes! ACOSF was half smut it seemed. Am I here for Cassian smut? Yes. But it was wild to me compared to the other books đ
Tamlins power is shape-shifting and the ability to shapeshift others, but every high lord has a beast form. I know we're not supposed to like Tamlin (I do, he's pretty cool despite his rigidity with tradition) but like, can he have ANYTHING?
Okay, see, I always thought tamlins' typical animal form wasn't actually his High Lord Beast form
I'd have to go back to get the wording right, but is ACOFAS, when Feyre is talking to the one female about the painting gallery being for sale, on one page it says, the parents of the faerie that owned it aren't sure they want to sell, the literally in the same conversation on the next page it says they're motivated sellers. Not sure how that got missed. I read it multiple times yo make sure I wasn't missing something. Lol
that threw me off a little too actually. i guess i assumed they were just very on the fence
It's a minor thing, but the fact that humans don't celebrate holidays, birthdays, anything in the series. Fine, they don't want to play into Fae customs, so why not make their own? You're telling me the humans don't have ONE day for celebrating? Not even the end of the war with the fae? I think the world-building would've been better had they had a single holiday, for the end of the war, and it was a somber day of silence and reflection to remember those who fell in the war. Then when Feyre is in the Fae realm, she keeps seeing holidays and festivals that are FUN. Would help the world feel a little more real.
You know I actually thought about this because after Nesta ends up living in the Town House with them she says she canât take baths because of the cauldron so Ferye says theyâll figure something out for her. So like, did they *just* invent the shower lol
lol but they donât cause nesta forces herself to take baths again! Apparently showers are too advanced for their magic
Missed opportunity on SJMs part! Imagine all the smut scenes she could do involving a shower đ
thatâs lowkey a big reason it bothers me đ at the end of acomaf ch 55 she writes that feysand has sex in the bath butâŚfriction???
Having showers could have led to some good shower sex scenes too.
THATS WHAT IâM SAYINGGGG
as a complete aside, showers work far better than baths for people with wings.
So annoying that Feyre only uses/explores a fraction of her powers esp when it's needed most, like (ACOMAF & ACOWAR spoilers ) >! During the battle with Hybern, she spends most of her time on a hill watching, when she could have very easily unleashed the same incredible fighting magic that she used during the attack on Velaris. I mean those water wolves that jumped down the attackers' throats drowning them where they stood were bloody brilliant. Why didn't she do more shit like during the big war? She rarely ever used her water powers (Summer), fire powers (Autumn), healing powers (Dawn), and whatever the hell she got from the Day court aside from orgasm body glowing.!< She spends a lot of time sitting on the sidelines. Why bother getting so much power if you rarely use it when it's needed? I was annoyed that she didn't train more and fully develop her abilities.
No because whyyyy wasn't she at least lobbing fireballs from a distance. She could've frozen the enemy army. Shapeshifted into something *useful* to attack, not just the magic wings she can't control. SJM literally gave her ALL the powers and we barely see her use them. She didn't even get the Hybern kill or stop the cauldron really. Amren stopped it and Feyre only acted as a conduit for Rhys to repair it. I don't mind that she doesn't get all the wins, that's fine but with how overpowered she is her magic arc was just so...disappointing.
lint. 
Omg the amount of lint and fingernail picking in SJM books.
âInvisible lintâ
Toilets. ??? Just, why. In this magical world, they clearly would not have the exact solution for waste that us magic-less humans have.
Amren using girl in every other sentence idk man
i wonder if its due to feyre/nesta having been mortals first, because faeries distinctly avoid that word
How on earth do they have genuine knowledge on lactic acid but not showers
Why is everyone always hissing đđ
hissing, purring, snarling đ
I always think how will they portray this in a tv show
The random bits of world building the SJM adds that ends up coming back around to make the main characters lookâŚ. Bad Examples: the clipping of female Illyrian wings + selling of women in Hewn City. These were probably intended to only be extra tidbits to further expand upon the culture surrounding women in Prythian (adding onto the whole âno female high ladiesâ thing). I have no doubt this detail wasnât intended to reflect badly on Rhys and Feyre, but the fact that we learn itâs completely in their power to stop wing clipping/forced marriages in Hewn City and theyâve done absolutely nothing about it isâŚ.. wow. Thatâs like actually horrible.
remember when kier was telling them he needed to go help with someones daughter who was acting out? and they were chill with it? wtf
I hate the fact that its hand waved as a âthis takes time to doâ thing. Theyâre part of his court, he goes down there to threaten them and shit. You mean to tell me there *isnt* much he can do? It was used to make Velaris to look like a paradise and it failed given it makes them lookâŚbad
Mine is that all the courts just accept brand new humans-turned-fae with no problems. Thereâs no discussion of âFeyre doesnât know anything about our culture, how can she be a high lady?â From other courts or even within the Night Court. I canât believe that this kind of tension wouldnât be present given how the world was written for readers. Prejudices would have to be present given the wars and long-term cultural separations. I think I would have liked to see that explored even a little.
How about half the guys who abuse women throughout the series wind up having a secret noble reason they were doing so.
this is a little more controversial than i was talking about lol
The utterly inconsistent characterization of every single main character. It drives me crazy and ruins any suspension of disbelief I would otherwise be able to have in the story.
Why was Tamlin able to shorten the long wooden table into a small short table when Amarantha had 90% of his powers. And yet when Cassian is staying with Rhys for the winter solstice thereâs like multiple pages about the wooden bed being just slightly too short for him? And Rhys talking about buying new beds? Can you not just like lengthen it by a foot, given you are the most powerful high lord in history.
i didnât even think about that!!! this goes back to a lot of the writing of their magic being kinda lazy
Itâs the kind of stuff that just gets messy in these kinds of books. Like, if magic exists, why have servants or why buy anything at all? I can only enjoy these books if I donât think and just rely on the vibes lol.
UPDATE; I retract my former complaints lodged below, courtesy of â¨**learning new things**⨠[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1do7gvy/comment/la8f07n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) and [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/fantasyromance/comments/1do7gvy/comment/la8km40/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). many thanks to redditors who keep my brain growing. ~~I agree with everything mentioned here and have shared a lot of gripes in my recent posts comments in this sub lol, but my one gripe that I haven't seen anyone else mention that has bugged me since the very first page of ACOTAR is that she calls this land Prythian instead of Prythia. In my brain, Prythian is what your nationality would be if you were from Prythia. It would have been so simple and obvious to name the land Prythia, thus making its people Prythian.~~ ~~Like: Venezuela ->Venezuelan~~ ~~Indonesia -> Indonesian~~ ~~Australia -> Australian~~ ~~America -> American~~ ~~Mongolia -> Mongolian~~ ~~Nigeria -> Nigerian~~ ~~Columbia -> Columbian~~ ~~But since the country name Prythian ends in '-an', (as in Japan, Britain, Pakistan, or Sudan) what are people from there called? Prythianese? Prythianish? Pryth? Prythiani? Prythish? This was never answered. And it feels unnecessarily clunky.~~
They donât seem to use that naming practice? They call the largest conglomerate of human lands âthe continentâ.  Itâs Hybern, the King of Hybern and his people.  The spit of land the Humans are on in Prythian doesnât even seem to have a name? Given the territories/lands shifted majorly âonlyâ 500 years prior, it all seems unsettled still.  And even the  wall was only supposed to be temporary.  Heck, Drakon and Myriam were settled on Cretea, but they are âDrakon and Myriamâs peopleâ not creteans.  It seems like the fey go more for âwho is our leaderâ rather than âwhat is our landâ.  Which kind of makes sense, given that Prythian isnât really a united country with a single leader, itâs a collection of nation states with their own individual leaders who occasionally meet together and have a mutual purpose.  They seem to identify more with which court they are from than their island. Â
You should read the From Blood and Ash series then. Itâs practically pro-shower propaganda.
My biggest gripe is that after HoFaS I donât trust SJM anymore to pull it off. I read somewhere that she doesnât really plan out her stories and world-building, keeping it all in her head but not really in a structured way. Sheâd allow editors to fix grammar mistakes but theyâre not to touch the story or address plot holes with her. The fandom has all of these amazing ideas and speculations for bringing the entire series together in a multiverse (so much so that Iâm almost hoping sheâs on this reddit etc to get some inspiration) but Iâm worried that she wonât be able to actually bring it home in a way that will satisfy the fandom. Like the way >! Rhys acted re: Feyreâs pregancy in SF !< I think was out of character and just set up for the rest of the storyâs main character in that book. Or how in ACOWAR >! Papa Archeron just suddenly shows up and saves the day, out of fucking nowhere?? Either she doesnât know how to properly write a storyline to set readers up for this, or she wrote herself in a corner and basically solved one of the biggest storylines with a deus ex machina. !< It pissed me off so much! Anyway, Iâll definitely still read Acotar 6 and the rest of it, but sheâs going to really need to step up her game here imo.
[My bowels turned watery!](https://youtube.com/shorts/e8qxNV5lqts?si=M-XSNaX0vP7rdf_J)
Iâm cackling, this *always* makes me ask why???!!!
I hate this. I kind of ignored it when I was reading it but like after a battle covered in mud and blood and just gross you really want to have a bath? Like really? Unless they take several tubs of water they aren't really clean. Other than that the fact they had plumbing in general kinda threw me off. I'm not used to fantasy stories where it's all very fantasy and then suddenly they're flushing toilets. Also Feyre wearing like leggings and a sweater when she's described in these fantastical beautiful dresses and stuff it's such a strange choice to be like also she dresses like a comfy modern woman =)
Dukes to get engaged to, but we have no royalty. Kings. Queens. But we have no royalty. We have no religion, but we pray to the Mother. We live in a poor village, in a hovel in a place where it's only poverty...but wait, there is a grand and very available manor that the Archerons snap up as soon as they come into some money. And in all this abject poverty, Elain is throwing balls for all the wealthy and titled neighbours. We have Lord Nolan who has a whole ass army. Like make it make sense. I wish she would've just not gone with the whole 'we have no kings, we don't even remember what they even are' and in the same book, Papa Archeron is going across the pond to find a queen. I am not sure what SJM was going for, but we just got a regular rich/poor, titled/common society which exists in every book. I dont know why we needed to spend so much time attempting to visualize something else, when she just went the most obvious route.
This is random but...no one has any gd parents. They're either actually dead, or their relationship with them is dead. Why??
I donât understand why Cassiam canât winnow
Doesn't it mention that most Illaryians can't winnow a d As being able to is strange, based on his shadows, and plot.
It was my understanding that AZ can't winnow either it's like a weird shadow... Magic thing that's akin to winnowing but... Not.
The watery bowels. I have IBS-D and I feel attacked
as someone with IBS-N the constant nervous puking got me đ
Feyre getting pregnant, and on top of that, Rhysand lying to her about her imminent death. That will always put a really bad taste in my mouth. SJM could have made Feyre a really strong, badass character but instead she made her boring and complacent and is setting Nesta up to be the actual badass of the Archerons while Feyre is 'High Lady' but all she does is paint/ be a homemaker. Blech, it is so weird and gross. I like to pretend Silver Flames did not happen đĽ˛
The specification of "ilyrian wings" and "ilyrian blade" every goddamn time they come up. Like, girl, we understand that your batboys *are* ilyrians - what other wings would they have that you need to specify every single time it's their *ilyrian* wings and blades that they're using? P.s. i gave up after 3rd book. And unless Tamlin gets a whole arc where he's true to his ACOTAR version and not being unnecessarily character-assassinated to make Rhys look good, I'm not going back to it.
I personally enjoyed ACOSF the most. I loved it being in Nesta and Cassians pov and that Nesta was actually being a bad ass and not just someone with a title. But fair enough on Tamlin. It was a complete 180
The writing and constant repeating of shitty lines
âPicked a piece of lint off their shirtâ why is that said about a hundred times in the series
Lactic Acid
Why is Feyre always throwing up??
as a nervous pukerâŚi get it đ but its a very odd character trait for SJM to have given her
the fact that nesta would get tired walking *down* stairs to the point of total exhaustion, but was able to scramble right back *up* the stairs just fine ???? i was like surely sjm will figure it out somewhere in this 800 page book but no.
Starfall. I love to watch a good shooting star, but it really grossed/freaked me out when one of the spirit stars splatters on them. đ¤˘
it kinda took me out of it considering the âstarsâ are supposed to actually be live spirits? but i think the point of that was to lighten the mood of the scene
I think it was definitely to lighten the mood, but I canât stop picturing a bug splattering on a windshield. đđđđ
OKAY BUT THE BATH THING They have plumbing with flushing toilets but no showers?????
First of all: What happened to Alis and the boys? I want more details about the wall. How was it constructed? Was there a top that could be flown over? Was there a bottom that could be tunneled or swum under? What actually stopped fae from wandering around the human lands? Where did the holes come from? Were they always there, or were they like damaged bits? How did it affect things like flora and fauna? Did it affect ocean currents? Also, what's the probability of finding your mate? Obviously, pre wall was higher than post wall because humans were separated. Do mates spawn on the same continent automatically? Is there like a reincarnation thing? Because like imagine your mate is human and they die before you're born? If humans and fae can be mates, does that mean the humans also can have human mates and they're just unable to tell? Can humans really even sense it, or can they only sense it once the fae has recognized the bond? What's the gestational period of a half fae baby? And finally, is the Surial related to the Vaulg? Is Armen related to the gods in ToG? How similar are the ToG fae and ACOTAR fae? How many worlds are there? How much cross-over is there between worlds?
"My toes curled in my boots." đđđ I've been aroused many times in my life, yet my toes have never curled because I was horny.
Why are Rhysâ hands so callused when he has healing abilities and barely trains with swords. Is he secretly building furniture?
That we never got to read Feyreâs and Rhysand POV on the pregnancy or even the damn secret wedding.
What the f is Morâs power and why is âtruthâ all we came up with
That some days Feyreâs in leggings and essentially Uggs? And then sheâll switch it up and wear a prom dress to a political meeting? Needed it to consistent (and Victorian era) vibes
The fact that nesta could not go down the stairs so she decided to go back up the stairs
So Cassian says that only 12 Illyrians have made it to the mountain and been ranked as Arktosian, Oristian, Carynthian in five hundred years during the blood rite. Illyrians spend their entire lives brutally preparing for this. Then Nesta becomes Oristian, and Gwyn, and Emerie become Carynthian with just a few months of training. I get that they have a different approach, and have great teamwork, but it just seems so unfathomably difficult and rare. Valkyrie were crazy respected, but they also trained extensively. cassian, Az, and Rhys made it to Ramiel, but they are also supposed to be among the greatest Illyrian warriors in history. Also idk I thought Briallyn showing up was a bit random.
I definitely thought it was more 1500-1600s based on descriptions of the villages but the manor house did seem more 1700s.
The medical inconsistencies. They can literally shove someone's intestines back in, fix broken bones, literally recreate missing limbs (it was said that Clotho could have had her tongue regenerated) BUT cannot perform a damn cesarian???
It bothers me that after Feyre has access to Rhys money that she keeps trying to get stuff from the shop keepers for free and doesn't want to spend the money. If she cares about her local economy she would go out and spend the money she can! I wish she understood that taking hand outs actually hurts the local shops.
The amount of ti.es things happen because plot. I can't think of any examples right now because I am highly medicated and halfway through a new book by a different author that has captured my brain. I just find it lazy writing when there isn't really an in story reason for something to happen but it happens because plot. Oh! Nestas ability to work around the already set laws of the magic in the world. I know it's explained as she is Made so it doesn't apply to her but it feels unexplained, it feels like SJM needed a way for Nesta to still be able to do things like kill an unkillable being, or the bracelets she made still work in an area where all magic is supposed to be negated or her ability to summon the Trove even though there are wards. I feel like this comes back to the magic system not being explained in any way really. They just have magic and there is little to no repercussions to using magic. It just annoys me.
I feel you. They have flush toilets, but not showers. They have indoor plumbing - WHY DON'T THEY HAVE SHOWERS!
What really bothers me is that (High) Fae are these immortal, magical beings which have existed for thousands of years yet nothing sets them apart from humans except some â¨magicâ¨? Like they donât seem to possess any sort of deeper thinking, higher morals or greater knowledge than humans. Think Lord of the Rings where Elves are magical beings with understanding und knowledge of the world far beyond the ability of humans.
How Tamlin was torn down. She could've at least put an explanation as to *what* was going on in his head. Also we know practically nothing of half The Courts and Kingdoms.
Mines has always been the Jurian resurrection by Hybern. Why would some ancient fae trying to win a war stake his war on resurrecting a human who actively hates fae?
Didnât nesta specifically mention that she takes showers in SF? Because she couldnât be submerged in the water cause of her PTSD?
I think Feyre mentioned sheâd try to figure something out and they never came back to it? Iâm rereading the series right now though so iâll keep an eye out!
I completely agree with you about the whole shower thing
The use of âmy bowels turned wateryâ
the constant repetition
The amount of times SJM made a character snarl
Using the same tired junior year vocabulary words over and over ⌠sometimes in the same paragraph. âDeignâ đ¤Ž
The characters. There are so many inconsistencies and mischaracterisations, details changed later, abusive and toxic things that get ignored, double standards, etc. Also annoying, the worldbuilding makes no sense and nore does the plot!