#but especially when they get compared to books like aftg or tsh

[bloody-wonder]

Can I ask why you didn’t like six of crows? No hate, I haven’t even read them, lol. I’m just curious because I was considering reading them, and I’ve pretty much seen only praise, and that if you liked AFTG you’ll like them. So now I’m kinda curious why you like one and not the other!

first of all just seeing soc and aftg in the same context makes me go bananas

all those people are lying to you

they live a lie

but secondly i didn’t like soc basically because it’s so overhyped both on tumblr and on booktube which probably gave me unrealistic expectations. if i had just picked this book up having zero context for it (and i would have cause the premise sounds really interesting) then i’d have just thought meh and gone on with my life. but the plethora of hype around it makes it look like a very engaging story with great characters which simply can’t leave a person disappointed. 

well it can

my main issue with it is how it’s “fake dark” or “ya dark”, if you will. its “darkness” is a huge part of how it’s viewed and advertized by its fans and, seeing as the main characters are rogues and criminals, dark r rated stuff is certainly to be expected of such a story. but that’s where the unstoppable force meets immovable object bcs soc is also ya and there’s only so much r rated stuff you can sneak into ya. so in the end we have a book that shoud have been adult but was forced into ya limits to sell more copies i guess and all its potential had to be sacrificed. in the end we have a book which certainly has some graphic violent scenes so i wouldn’t recommend to a 12yo (bcs that’s where ya readership age range begins, doesn’t it?) but which isn’t going to impress a 18yo. a 25yo grumpy crone like me sees only a simplistic story with quite shallow characters that has been peppered with violence here and there to seem more edgy. bleh.

especially in comparison to aftg, where people have real issues and you can see how those issues affected them in their personalities and it impacts you cause you know they aren’t gonna overcome them in a span of one book, soc looks like a wishful fairy tale. and people call aftg unrealistic, ha! 

one of the reasons i expected to like soc is how everybody says it’s character driven. if by character driven you mean that the plot literally dissolves into deus ex machina plot holes if you look at it closely - then well yes it’s true. but as for the actual characters they aren’t gonna work for you unless you do the usual fandom routines of self-projecting, guessing and overinterpreting bcs the text isn’t gonna give you much. jesper and wylan are basically non-characters and if people say they get developed more in the sequel it’s a lie - whatever they have there is very shallow and minimal. their romance is a joke so if you’re expecting a fabulous gay love story you aren’t gonna get it. nina and matthias are defined exclusively by their problematic romance plot which is beyond boring and kinda distasteful in the year of our lord 2020. kaz and inej are the most well rounded ones but if you happen to not like them then there’s virtually nothing for you in this book. inej feels like a more boring version of katara. kaz is a mary sue and just a major disappointment overall.

my last minor nitpick would be the world building. i’m still debating with myself whether what the author did is cultural appropriation or not but to know for sure i need to read the grisha trilogy which unlike soc is set in the country based on russia - but i’ll never do that so i won’t ever know. anyway it’s just really cringy and simplistic as well: we have countries/cities that are basically russia, amsterdam, norway and china. if captive prince can be criticized for taking greece and france, giving them fancy fantasy names and calling it world building then soc should be criticized for that too.

however i’m just an old soul who will attack every book that’s ever compared to aftg, but for you - if you like dark-ish ya then you’re probably gonna like soc. if you do - good for you, but if you don’t - come to me to complain :)

#asks #six of crows #there's a list of overhyped books which i #high key dislike #let's call it that #these are soc trc vicious and if we were villains #these books don't deserve rights anyway #but especially when they get compared to books like aftg or tsh #which are actually good #book tag