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offtorivendell · 4 months

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Is an oily residue corrupting Azriel's hypothetical mating bond and making him feel off kilter? Is it related to Valg-type magic?

Disclaimer: this theory is a continuation of a few of my others that I've been too lazy to post until now - first I was going to post it for Elriel Month 2023, then Azriel Week 2023... it never happened - but like everyone else I'm having massive FOMO before HOFAS, so here we finally go, even though I know I've forgotten something lol. As usual, this makes no claims of being accurate, it's just theorising for fun.

A massive thank you goes out to @wingedblooms, @tswaney17, @silverlinedeyes, @psychologynerd, @ladynightcourt3, @cassianfanclub, and anyone else I've forgotten (sorry!) for all of our discussions that finally became this post. Love you guys. 💜

Spoilers: this is a Maasverse post, and draws from the ACOTAR series, CC 1 & 2/HOEAB & HOSAB, and the TOG series. It is CC 3/HOFAS spoiler free, as I'm waiting to read it in its "original English" 🤓 on the 30th of January. Please be respectful of that if engaging in the comments before it's published!

Plenty of people, including @silverlinedeyes, @icedflames and myself, have posted our thoughts on mating bonds in the Maasverse, and this theory builds on those previously established - though again, as yet hypothetical - ideas. Specifically, this post about the use of “oily” throughout the ACOTAR series is recommended reading.

What we do know is that:

Mating bonds contain threads, and so do spells.

Mates are the song/music of the soul, and their laughter is likened to music.

Different fae, and magics, contain different scents, be that personal or regional

First, let's go back to ACOWAR, when Feyre described the Ravens' entrance into the library as being like an off-kilter chord:

I felt it at the same moment she did. The ripple and tremor. Like … like some piece of the world shifted, like some off-kilter chord had been plucked. We turned toward the illuminated path that we’d just taken through the stacks, then to the dark far, far beyond. - ACOWAR, chapter 30

Initially, I had wondered if the King of Hybern had had Jurian use the Harp to infiltrate Velaris, but it was @merymoonbeam (I think) who theorised that the Cauldron might be mimicking the Harp, and maybe not doing the best job of it. Which made me wonder, could it do the same with mate bonds?

He left the rest unspoken. Because her mate was here, sleeping a level up. Because her mate had been in the family room and Azriel had needed to stay by the door the whole time because he couldn't stand the sight of it, the scent of their mating bond, and needed to have the option of leaving if it became too much. - ACOSF, Azriel's bonus chapter

Looking at her now … She was pale, yes. The vacancy still glazing her features. But he couldn’t breathe as she faced him fully. She was the most beautiful female he’d ever seen. Betrayal, queasy and oily, slid through his veins. He’d said the same to Jesminda once. But even as shame washed through him, the words, the sense chanted, Mine. You are mine, and I am yours. Mate. - ACOWAR, chapter 24

What if the Elucien bond, as either a spell or piss poor Cauldron-Made approximation of a bond, causes Azriel - and maybe Elain, possibly Lucien - nausea when Lucien is around because it's constantly changing, or reverberating over the top of, what remains of a hypothetical Elriel bond?

What if it's making the Elriel bond off-kilter, out of whack, imbalanced?

Does this make Azriel feel sick, nauseous, or simply overwhelmed/overstimulated?

When people are feeling off-balance, for whatever reason, they can feel sick or nauseous. It's one of the symptoms of vertigo, which can be triggered by severe headaches such as migraines. And guess who rubs their temples? Azriel!

Alternatively, certain chords played loudly enough on a string instrument can really mess with your chest - and where do mating bonds attach - if you're standing close enough for them to vibrate through you (at least, they do for me haha). It can be weirdly disconcerting, and I'd imagine that if Azriel or Elain feels something like this, no wonder he describes such severe discomfort that he needs to leave, and she shrinks away from Lucien, the unintentional cause of her pain.

Same with the smell; if the magic of the Cauldron, in whatever way, is messing with the smell that should be there? Contaminating it? Unbearable.

Is this too crack for you? Well, let's get even crazier.

I have previously suggested that the Cauldron's actions throughout the series could be tracked, in part, by SJM describing a feeling or quality as “oily,” and I've also wondered if the dark maker of the Cauldron - Koschei? - could have hijacked it in some way, as the Book of Breathings being made from leftover iron gave me “One Ring” vibes. I still stand by that, but with a clarification (and here is where the TOG and CC spoilers come in, FYI). I think it's only half of the magic belonging to the Cauldron that is "oily":

Throughout TOG, the Valg are heavily associated with “oiliness,” in terms of their blood and magic. The smell “reeks” and always results in the involved characters experiencing extreme revulsion, including headaches. Sound familiar?

Wyrdstone has an oily, hideous aftertaste.

Even in CC 1/HOEAB, Danika was described as oily when she came into Griffin Antiques.

Celaena looked at the sealed door, her stomach turning. A half-dried pool of blood lay at the base of the door, so dark it looked like oil. She crouched, swiping a finger through the puddle. She sniffed at it, almost gagged at the reek, and then rubbed her finger against the pad of her thumb. It felt as oily as it looked. - COM, chapter 45

“What the hell is that?” Rowan demanded, kneeling beside her, sniffing her outstretched hand. He jerked back, snarling. “That’s not dirt.” No, it wasn’t. It was blacker than night, and reeked just as badly as it had the first time she’d smelled it, in the catacombs beneath the library, an obsidian, oily pool of blood. Slightly different from that other, horrific smell that loitered around this place, but similar. So similar to— “This isn’t possible,” she said, jolting to her feet. “This—this—this—” She paced, if only to keep from shaking. “I’m wrong. I have to be wrong.” There had been so many cells in that forgotten dungeon beneath the library, beneath the king’s Wyrdstone clock tower. The creature she’d encountered there had possessed a human heart. It had been left, she’d suspected, because of some defect. What if … what if the perfected ones had been moved elsewhere? What if they were now … ready? - HOF, chapter 45

The overseer roared, thrashing as her magic swept into him, melded with him. But there was nothing inside to grab on to. No darkness to burn out, no remaining ember to breathe life into. Only— Aelin reeled back, magic vanishing and knees buckling as if struck. Her head gave a throb, and nausea roiled in her gut. She knew that feeling—that taste. Iron. As if the man’s core was made of it. And that oily, hideous aftertaste … Wyrdstone. The demon inside the overseer let out a choked laugh. “What are collars and rings compared to a solid heart? A heart of iron and Wyrdstone, to replace the coward’s heart beating within.” - EOS, chapter 15

* Side note, it's giving Tamlin and his stone heart.

Danika didn’t just look like she’d been rootling through the garbage. She smelled like it, too. Wisps of her silvery blond hair—normally a straight, silken sheet—curled from her tight, long braid, the streaks of amethyst, sapphire, and rose splattered with some dark, oily substance that reeked of metal and ammonia. - CC HOEAB, chapter 1

The Hind held Ruhn’s gaze as the game began. She was the spitting image of Luna, with her upswept chignon, the regal angle of her neck and jaw. As coldly serene as the moon. All she needed was a pack of hunting hounds at her side— And she had them, in her dreadwolves. How had someone so young risen in the ranks so swiftly, gained such notoriety and power? No wonder she left a trail of blood behind her. “Careful now,” the Harpy said with that oily smile. “The Hammer doesn’t share.” The Hind’s lips curved upward. “No, he doesn’t.” - CC HOSAB, chapter 33

I think the dark maker of the Cauldron could have been Valg, whether that's Koschei or someone else I don't know though Koschei currently makes the most sense. I also don't know when the dark maker would have had the chance to influence the Cauldron; was it always made from dark and light, or - as @fawnandshadows theorised a while back - did Koschei bastardise it after the fact? Where the Valg would fit in with the Daglan and the Asteri is also a mystery, though my current train of thought is that they could be family names or allegiances, like different clans of the same parasitical species, thanks to the description of Danika in HOEAB.

But, back to Azriel and his severe reaction to the Elucien bond.

I know I'm not the only one who wonders at the very Valg-ish themes with which Rhys and Azriel's powers have been described - maybe one day I'll post my thoughts about the possible link between lightsingers, shadowsingers, daemati and the Valg (but it is not this day lol) - and how that may have come about. For example, are the Valg interwoven, genetically, with the Avallen people, or is it because the Princes of Hel are also involved, and have similar magics? Are the Princes of Hel a similar species as the Valg, Asteri and Daglan, or completely different? Ugh, let's stop this spiral here.

Oily: the obvious train of thought being that oily things are slippery, which can lead to an imbalance… ie. becoming off-kilter.

Sounds like Azriel could be suffering from some sort of vertigo, of which symptoms can include nausea; severe headaches, such as migraines, may trigger an episode… and who rubs his temples enough that Elain noticed it?

Maybe Azriel can sense the corruption in the bond, either the current Elucien bond, or the hypothetical original bond between Elain and himself; if like calls to like, and his shadows are Valg-ish, maybe it is because his OG bond was fucked with. So, what if:

Azriel's shadows can slip away from spells and binding magic (Slippery > oily > Valg).

The guards at the prison know what he is.

Valg magic making Azriel nauseous and Elain sourcing/making a healer's powder for him? It's giving Chaol and Yrene. Especially since Elain (and Mor) make his shadows brighten.

So, we have in-text mentions of Azriel feeling overwhelmed due to the proximity of the Elucien bond, as well as Elain shrinking from Lucien - an action that parallels Azriel hanging out in the doorway, and even Lucien retreating to the human lands, if he feels any bond-related discomfort around Elain. But what about his initial response to seeing Elain, and thinking she was the most beautiful female he'd ever seen? The quote that sent me down the “oily” rabbit hole to begin with?

Well, Aelin felt oily disgust at the thought of marrying someone who wasn't Rowan:

“There are no allies,” Darrow said. “Unless Her Highness decides to be useful and gain us men and arms through marriage”—a sharp glance at Rowan—“we are alone.” Aelin debated revealing what she knew, the money she’d schemed and killed to attain, but— Something cold and oily clanged through her. Marriage to a foreign king or prince or emperor. Would this be the cost? Not just in blood shed, but in dreams yielded? To be a princess eternal, but never a queen? To fight with not just magic, but the other power in her blood: royalty. She could not look at Rowan, could not face those pine-green eyes without being sick. - EOS, chapter 5

This example from Aelin could describe Azriel and Elain’s potential future if Elain accepted a theoretically Cauldron spelled bond to Lucien, but also for Lucien and Jesminda, if they were originally true or fated mates before she was murdered.

Some final thoughts:

We know from TOG that healing light is known as the Valg executioner. In a parallel to Yrene killing Erawan with her healing light in KOA, Elain killed the King of Hybern - who I suspect was possessed or assisted by a Valg, as Feyre described his magic as a “galaxy” in his palms - with Truth-Teller, which had recently devoured the (her?) sunlight; does this mean that Elain could heal or purify Valg possessed things, with or without the magical, Made dagger? Could this be extrapolated to Azriel's magic, the Dread Trove, or even the Cauldron (possibly with Feyre and Nesta for the bigger ticket items)?

If the Asteri are the same species as the Valg, and the Valg somehow had a hand in making or twisting the Cauldron, it could follow that they used the Cauldron to create offspring bonds for a more powerful food source. If this pans out then Elain, bright light, could hypothetically heal the Cauldron. Maybe that is why Azriel describes her with purity language? Not because SJM wants to display Azriel's apparently toxic thoughts about her (🙄), but because she, along with her sisters, will be his/their salvation? Rhys once said as much to Feyre!

@mrspettyferr has suggested that Azriel's shadows ability to hide him from binding magic - see: the High Lord's meeting in ACOWAR - could have prevented his true bond from snapping with Elain when she came out of the Cauldron. This could be supported by any Valg/shadow link.

Thank you for reading! Please don't mention any CC HOFAS spoilers in the comments or reblogs until after it has been officially published. 💜

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gallifreyburning · 3 months

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do you have reccommendations for tog fic? especially nicky/joe, especially their early days

Oh man, it has been a long time since I tried to scrape together a rec list, and honestly there are so many incredible fics that cover this topic, I can't even begin to recall all of them. But these few mostly canon-compliant early days stories immediately came to mind:

Covenant by Delphi - This is my absolute favorite. It's canon to me. Every time I read it, I lose my breath over how perfect it is.

Lessons Exquisitely Crafted by @kaydeefalls - What if Nicolo and Yusuf parted ways right after Jerusalem before they came back together again several years later?

The Dragon and The Other Matter by Survivah - The way this author writes Longing™️ is next level.

Ain't It Exciting You series by paigian - The best kind of early days yearning and feelings and smut.

What It Means to Be Married series by @knoepfchen - Early day JoeNicky from the boys' point of view, and then from Andromache and Quynh's point of view.

Retrograde by pinkninja - Not technically canon-compliant early days because it's a Time Traveler's Wife AU, but it does feature some early days content. (Also I'm obviously super biased toward time travel fics lmao.)

And if you just want deeply researched, phenomenally written historical adventures with the Queer Quartet, you can't get any better than @non-un-topo aka bluetigerlilies.

I love these authors and there are dozens more authors I'd recommend for other kinds of fics besides pre-relationship/early days. I'm also forgetting so many fics right now and don't have the spoons to dig through my bookmarks too deeply. So if anybody else wants to reblog and add their unskippable seminal early days Kaysanova fics, please do!

Happy reading, anon!

#anonymous #answers for your burning questions #I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a couple of my absolute faves #but my brain has been mush for a while now and that condition doesn't seem to be clearing up anytime soon #sorry

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justallihere · 3 months

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I’m a slowburn girlie like you’re a slowburn girlie. Any book recs?! Just getting back into reading again 🤓 Actually obsessed with sitq and need something so I’m not focusing on when the next update will come 💀

Okay here are some of my favorites from the last couple years:

I always recommend Throne of Glass. A lot of people say to start with ACOTAR if you’re going to read Sarah J. Maas but I think TOG is her most consistent in terms of plot and characterization. And it’s completed

The Coven and The Cursed by Harper L. Woods. The villain love interest stays a villain the entire time and he’s SO HOT. It’s a completed duology but it’s set up for more books with other couples in the same world (editing this to say I read these as indies last year but they’ve been picked up by a publisher since. I don’t think you can get physical copies right now but they do seem to still be on KU)

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer is cute and fun! Slow burn and pretty light-hearted, but it is only the first book of a series and the next comes out later this year

If you like contemporary romance (slight paranormal themes) then The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston broke my heart and put it back together several times. One of my favorite books of all time. But it does deal pretty heavily with themes of parental loss and grief if that’s not your jam

One Dark Window/Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig. Very little spice but it’s a fascinating world and magic system and I loved it way more than I expected to!

Similar vibes to the above, For the Wolf and For the Throne by Hannah Whitten. Cottagecore but make it bloody (I also recommend The Foxglove King by her, but it’s only the first in an incomplete trilogy)

The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star-cursed King by Carissa Broadbent. Enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers. There’s sexy blood drinking. If you want more than that I can’t help you

I know a couple of these are pretty standard recs but hopefully there is something in here for you!! Happy reading 🥰

#book recommendations #book recs

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lorcandidlucienwill · 5 months

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Y’all need to stop recommending that people read ACOTAR of Sjm’s three main series first. Like no. If I had read ACOTAR first, I would’ve NEVER read TOG, and TOG is her best series. Besides, do you know how sad my life would be if I had never met Lorcan Salvaterre? I suffered through ACOTAR because I had some lingering faith in Sjm’s writing after TOG despite the disaster that was ACOMAF. And where would I be without Lucien Cunt-Server? I read CC for the same reason (which turned out ok).

So here is the order I recommend: TOG, ACOTAR, CC.

#tog series #tog #acotar #anti acomaf #cc #crescent city #sjm universe #sjm books #sjm critical

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acourtofmishapandmistakes · 20 days

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Hi your memes are very funny, but do mind if I ask what books you would recommend that have similar vibes to actor or fantasy romance , thank you for your time

Hey! I appreciate you asking and for your kind words on my meme craftsmanship lol.

If you've finished ACOTAR and are looking to stay in the SJM universe I would recommend reading Throne of Glass and the Crescent City series, I know that's the generic answer but I think that reading it helped me build the world in ACOTAR even more than it already was. What I wall say is that TOG was harder for me to get into, don't get me wrong, I loved it, but I feel like ACOTAR was a quick and easy read for me and TOG required me to do a little more mapping of characters, plot points and actually looking at the front map which I know isn't everyone's cup of tea. It also just feels a little more young adult to me, which I know is an unpopular opinion, but the characters are younger and SJM was younger when she wrote it.

Outside of the SJM universe I quite enjoyed thematically:

"Serpent & Dove" by Shelby Mahurin - it's about a witch and witch hunter who are married to one another with a good mix of romance and conflict with insane amounts of world building.

"The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black - If you want to stay in the world of the fae, it's the first book in The Folk of the Air series about a girl living in the world of faeries (another really popular one)

"An Enchantment of Ravens" by Margaret Rogerson - About a portrait artist and the autumn prince of the fae - it's gorgeously written

"Wintersong" by S. Jae-Jones - A young girl travels into the legend of the Goblin King to save her sister (a darker read)

For me, ACOTAR was such a joy to read because it was funny, and the conversations felt real! For more of that with the romance elements I would recommend:

"Bring Me Their Hearts" by Sara Wolf - Featuring a really witty and sarcastic protagonist who must bring the heart of a prince to her witch master

"A Promise of Fire" by Amanda Bouchet - it's part of the Kingmaker Chronicles with Greek myth as inspiration

If you're in the doldrums of the post ACOTAR life I hear you. ACOTAR was my entire world for the three months I was in Prythian. Hopefully this gives you a jumping off point for more good reads... but let me know if you find anything else you loved!!!

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clockworkbee · 4 months

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heyy

can u pls recommend some decent sapphic fae romance books?

thanks <3

Hey! I wish I could and I hate that I can't, not in a faerie book, esp. with the main couple being sapphic 🥺 still, what I can tell you,

The Folk of The Air has a sapphic romance between side characters (with not that much page time) and that couple is soon getting a short story of their own in an anthology called Faeries Never Lie: Tales to Revel In.

The Dark Artifices (a trilogy in the shadowhunters chronicles) also has a side sapphic ship (not much page time) but that couple does have a few lovely cameos in other books set in that world such as, Red Scrolls of Magic and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy.

I'm not big on fae romances, I'm just a Holly Black faeries lover-girl 🥺 I have read some other faerie books (the enchantment of ravens, acotar & tog - all straight romances, not that I love any of these) so like, if you've read some really good ones, tell me your one most favourite sapphic fae book/series?

#bookish asks #bee's answered #faeries never lie: tales to revel in #the folk of the air #the dark artifices #red scrolls of magic #tales from the shadowhunter academy #tsc #sapphic romance

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mentallyinwalmart · 4 months

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TOG TANDEM READ RANT (spoiler free! My recommendation for first time readers)

There are two major issues with the EOS/TOD tandem read ESPECIALLY the way everyone is pitching it to first time readers. I originally read the series in order, and did the tandem read on my reread. My opinions/two major critiques are as follows:

1. TOD is not a completely terrible book like some people pretend, it is interesting, and stands just fine on its own. EOS however is the best paced and one of if not the most exciting and thrilling books in the series. While swapping between the two stories can improve some of the more tedious or frustrating parts of TOD, so much more of the magic of EOS is lost when you constantly jump back and forth from the incredibly well written book that Empire of Storms is. Tower of Dawn doesn’t suck badly enough to warrant chopping up one of SJM’s best books across the board, and objectively lowering the quality of the cohesion of the writing/story progression.

2. they were literally released in this order on purpose, if you’ve read the series already you should know why it’s so important that the length of time between EOS and KOA is and feels so fucking long and that certain characters fates are ALWAYS on your mind… SJM emphasizes that and effectively ups the stakes by choosing to write the penultimate book from the POVs/geographical locations she does, so far removed from our typical POV protagonists

If you want to tandem read, that’s fine go ahead! If you want to skip TOD completely, slay, that’s what my sister did and frankly idgaf! But the whole “tandem read is the BEST way to do it” trend I’ve been seeing was making me angy :)

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astrababyy · 1 year

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I just don't understand how the EDITORS— people who are paid to correct and revise— just read through Sarah's acotar and thought it to be a good idea to publish it. I mean seriously, there's no healthy relationship in the ENTIRE damn serious, not nessian, not feysand or anyone. I genuinely dk wht I was thinking when I listened to booktok and thought it would be a good idea to read this series.

Ps. Sorry if the grammar isn't good, English isn't my first language.

don’t worry about your english! it sounds perfectly fine to me :D

it is truly baffling that she got that far with editors. i think the thing about it is that she actually fired her editors at some point while writing either tog or acotar. i can’t say for sure if that’s correct, but i believe @/worldsnotsaid and @/croissantcitysucks have both spoken on this specifically.

regardless of the full backstory with the editors, it truly is insane. her writing just tends to go off the rails, and acosf is probably the worst example of this. there is little to no plot throughout the vast majority of the book, only for the last 100 pages or so to randomly be the precise opposite.

and you’re right that there legitimately isn’t a single healthy relationship between main characters in this series. now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially in romantic fantasy, but do not hail your work as being a healthy relationship when it is literally anything but…

like, the feysand relationship is a living NIGHTMARE. nessian is so… predatory, and it makes me uncomfortable reading their interactions. cassian’s got no respect for nesta as a person, and it’s clear he’s only interested in her because of the mating bond. even then, he only seems to like her for her body.

that’s not to mention the egregious amount of retcons, plot holes, and the like in this series. honestly, half the issues with acotar could be corrected if sjm just had a halfway decent editor.

also, never listen to booktok. their opinions on books very rarely cross with the opinions of fandom tumblr lol. they tend to enjoy more, idk, consumerist (?) books than people on this site, i think. yk those books that are like the book industry’s equivalent of fast fashion? yeah, that’s what booktok likes recommending lol.

#anti sjm #anti feysand #anti nessian #anti booktok #astrababyy #astrababyy asks

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lia-land · 2 months

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Throne of Glass

2.5/5 stars

*Spoilers for the first book in the Throne of Glass series.

This was boring and slow. I would have stopped reading early on had it been any other author, but I ended up resorting to the audiobook only because I love A Court of Thorns and Roses and have seen SJM’s storytelling potential in that series. If I had read this book before ACOTAR, I would have likely stopped reading and not been interested in any of her other works either. I understand that she was around 16 when she wrote this book, but did an editor not go through it? What—perhaps irrationally—annoyed me was the use of so many exclamation marks. 221 of them, to be exact. Here’s some examples from one chapter 2:

She’d forgotten there was anyone else in the room. She looked at her rags and stained skin, and she couldn’t suppress the twinge of shame. What a miserable state for a girl of former beauty!

But now, standing before Dorian Havilliard as little more than a gutter rat!

“Four months,” Chaol said, “after Sardothien arrived, she attempted to flee.”

She waited for the rest of the story, but he was clearly finished. “That’s not even the best part!”

“There’s a ‘best part’?” the Crown Prince said, face caught between a wince and a smile. (This line specifically is a great summary for how I felt while reading this whole book)

Dorian grinned. “What remarkable eyes you have! And how angry you are!”

…And this is all just from one chapter. The second chapter, specifically. As far as first impressions go, this was not a good one. Maybe I’m just not used to seeing this in other books, but thankfully, SJM does drop the exclamation marks for the rest of this series.

The entirety of the first interaction between Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian in Endovier felt like a very young writer wrote it. I’m talking 12 or 13. The dynamic seemed strange as well because they’re all talking to each other like old friends, but they don’t have any previous relationship. I think Celaena was meant to come across as badass, but I found her insufferable and sort of fake. A lot of her remarks through this book were cringey.

There are only two things that I was interested in: Dorian, and the competition. Both lead to disappointment. The competition was such a cool concept based on how it was described and I was excited to see some sort of Hunger Games style situation where it was a continuous and deadly arena sort of thing. I was so underwhelmed when it ended up being weekly ‘tests’ like archery and climbing. It wasn’t even really that necessary for the overall plot of the series. It had so much potential, and nothing was done with it.

It’s worth mentioning that I chose to read Assassin’s Blade as the third in the series as SJM recommends, so maybe I just didn’t have any reason to connect with Celaena in Throne of Glass, but having read Assassin’s Blade at the time of writing this, I can’t imagine I’d have cared enough about any of the characters to get through it as a first book.

The series does drastically improve after Crown of Midnight/Assassin’s Blade in both plot and writing style, as many others have said. I don’t think any book series should take 3 and a half books to get good, but I stuck with it only because it’s SJM. This book gives context and adds to the world building (as does book 2), but this could have easily been combined with Crown of Midnight. ACOTAR felt like a prequel until Under the Mountain, so I went in with the mindset of not expecting much from the start of this series either. I did wonder while reading this book if this series would have benefitted from the first person POV that ACOTAR had, but SJM does get better with third person as ToG goes on and it ends up working eventually.

I’m a very slow reader, like it will take me a full day of reading to get through 200 pages, so I would not have stuck to this series had I not read ACOTAR before it. I extended the courtesy to SJM on this occasion, but I likely would not have done so for other authors and would have missed out on the intricate story that unfolds throughout the rest of the series, as many others have.

It’s worth putting up with this book and the next one in order to get 5 good books (5 because CoM and Tower of Dawn are not great). I haven’t found that Celaena gets any less annoying, but she is unlike any other main character I’ve read about so almost as interesting as she is annoying.

#throne of glass #sarah j maas #celaena sardothien #dorian havilliard #chaol westfall #book review

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thehighladywrites · 3 months

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Ok twinn so i trust your judgment in books do You have any recommendations for romantasy

alright twin i got you, i’m giving 5 romantasy books i really liked

zodiac academy

folk of the air series (more political/fantasy focused but the enemies to lovers was an absolute 10/10)

powerless

from blood and ash series

acotar and tog are in my top 10 list aswell

the kiss of deception

#talkswithamara #bookreviewwithamara #book recommendations #moots <3 #twin💗

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longsightmyth · 1 year

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hi how do you cope with stans having bad takes and their overall illiteracy and refusal to critique the misogyny homophobia and racism in Sarah’s works and continue to elevate her popularity when there are better authors who could do with her fame

Unfortunately the extreme fans of sarah janet's work are not alone in declining to put thought into the media they consume. I try not to engage directly - that usually ends badly. Generally I just mention I don't care for her work and move on. If they press me I say why.

Also I just generally try to recommend better books tbh. If someone says they like tog because they like that celaena has more than one love interest and doesn't end up with the first, I go 'oh! You may like Tamora Pierce. Most of her heroines have more than one love interest, and she also has stabby ladies!'

'I like the worldbuilding' may I interest you in the books of pellinor in this trying time, or The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

'Fantasy romance' I admit I usually lean more fantasy than romance in my reading, but I DO enjoy Blackmantle despite a couple of issues, because 'rightful part-sidhe heir reclaims her family's throne and eventually has to rescue her foreverlove from death after which they live forever!'

Dark fae romance: daaaaark is a bit of a misnomer (for the romance part) but the Toby Daye series has fae galore and a stabby kickass heroine who solves a lot of her problems by punching them in the face. Her stepmom is a mermaid. One who punches people in the face. It's a thing. The High Mountain Court isn't exactly dark either but it has fae and sexy romance.

Anyway my point is this: I am of the firm belief that a lot of people find sarah janet's work compelling or original because they haven't had the chance to read the books she works from (and I don't even in this instance mean the Suspicious Similarities). I think, and have found, that ALMOST ALWAYS (*almost*) the fans of hers who start reading other things start drifting more towards those other things. I genuinely believe this is the true reason bloomsbury wanted to publish her work in YA: YA readers usually haven't been able to read as many books as adults who read, and can therefore be offered less original things without noticing.

I don't mean 'oh lol kids don't know what racism is' but I do mean that, at least in the US, media literacy is being hardcore removed from the curriculum. It is a skill that needs teaching and practice, not an innate talent that some people Just Ignore. If people are given a wider range of things to read, they will start to see more patterns and question why some books do this while others don't.

And I think that Bloomsbury and Sarah Janet herself, in managing her books and writing as they would a brand, are deliberately driving what is (questionably) called 'tribal marketing' and encouraging an 'us vs them' mentality. You'll note similar marketing tactics with apple products.

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