i read ACOTAR

firstly, I did actually plop this lil rambling review on TWP’s goodreads account - if you’d like to be my goodreads friend, hello, here it is, let’s be friends.

but, okokok. i read ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas) bc i know the tiktok girlies lose their minds over it, and i love and respect the girlies! i want to see what they’re up to, join in the loop of their cultural conversation etc.

a summary: tl;dr sexy fairy kidnaps human woman, etc. they fall in love (spoiler) and Other Things happen, but the human woman is the narrator. She’s telling us about this sexy fairy she’s been kidnapped by, and subsequently fallen in love with. ygm ygm ur up to speed.

i have so much to say about this book. buckle in big boy.

i was half expecting this to be straight up sexless YA fantasy, half expecting it to be RAUNCHY AS HELL - i was like ?? almost disappointed with the way sex was presented? i wanted MORE (for this to be filthy wattpad smut) and also none at all. it felt soooo vanilla and elegant and polite. like, EXCUSE ME? ur fucking a literal fairy. be more descriptive, i beg. but then also like why are you fucking a fairy? bit bonkers, maybe wait for the sexual tension to build?? ur not even the same species, isn’t there more of a boundary to traverse? idk! it felt too quick and too slow all at once. maybe it was bc it tried to stomp a middle ground of sex but not too sexy. there was j something unsatisfying about it &in the way it didn’t feel like it was coming or going (ha)

lowkey i read this bc my lil sister was like ‘the tiktok girlies love this!!’ and - we all know i love the tiktok girlies. but after this idk - i think me n the tiktok girlies have different Wants™️ from a Reading Experience. i wana read something absolutely fuckin BONKERS, summink MIND BOGGLING that makes me snort, howl etc. i want somethign that tickles the whimsical muscle of my brain. i think the tiktok girlies want the romance! the character! n i cannot be fucked for that. i respect their choices but ACOTAR was like - it j wasn’t for me. it went in a straight line, a stable steady arc. i wanted it to buck and scare me! i wanted to turn the page and say ‘lmao what the fuck?’ but i never did.

also, lowkey no offence. i feel like this wasn’t well written. it wasn’t BADLY written! it was just Not Well Written. i feel like sarah j maas wrote the first half without q knowing where the second half was going, and once she figured it out, it got kinda good, but i never rly forgot the way i felt like she was wasting my time in the first 50-60%. like, the writing was soooooo —- she j deliberated sooo much, sooo much of feyre’s (human woman’s) internal monologue was repeating the same sentiment, questioning the same belief or impulse. WE GET IT. SHE HATES FAIRIES. THIS IS SURPRISING AND UNEXPECTED. SHES BEEN KIDNAPPED BY A SEXY FAIRY MAN, i am not at any point expecting her to assimilate that information quickly o comfortably but like???? can we move on? that repetition of sentiment impulse belief meant it never digged too far into that feeling, never moved that much from a ‘wtf! omg!’ reaction. and it left literally no room for generosity, no expectation or assumption of my (the general reader’s) intelligence, that i’d be able to get the picture and keep up with that thinking. i obviously can. most of us would’ve been able to get w the program. it felt condescending. maybe i am j more used to taking bonkers twists n turns w fiction, so more willing to suspend my disbelief n lean in, maybe i was disgruntled to hear our protagonist literally justifying the fantasy and fiction of it all, thereby undermining it. so it dragged its feet! it annoyed me!

once that part was over tho, i was like ‘YEAH, THEYRE FUCKING!’ n read those chapters on the tube with a face like 🙀 aghast and delighted all at the same time, but also wanting MORE. ^^^ see above ykwim — n then it launched into the plot n hero’s journey of it all in earnest; my main gripe is obvs that it came soooo late on but once it did——/ for that part, it was very compelling and i was really into the story and the worldbuilding. couldn’t throw away my disbelief quickly enough tbh.

i will say, i have been in a lil reading slump for the most part of this year so far. haven’t read something truly thrilling since december 2022 — maybe j bad luck in what i’m picking up, maybe i’m not feeling it (which is fine!) —- but i read eliza clark’s new new penance jsut before this, & that felt truly thrilling (so good, reading slump found dead in a ditch, i love eliza go eliza eliza fan club sign me up not joking) n i did literally tear thru ACOTAR too. so for that page turn-y vibe, it was compelling enough to get me to want to pick it up n keep storming thru like ‘aha what next?’ EVEN IF there were no graphic sex scenes. so there IS that to consider and weigh up in this soup of my Feelings and Things to Say.

idk. i can rly see why people like this book/this series! i think i j was expecting to be BAMBOOZLED, maybe expecting maybe also wanting to be bamboozled. i wasn’t and that’s fine! i had a nice time and i will probably read the second one once my sister is done w it. like i’m compelled enough to wana know what happens next and after that and after that too. but that’s all!!

lmk if u read ACOTAR and what you thought. i also would like to know if i should plop more book thoughts on the blog as well as goodreads – i can’t tell if doubling up content is good practice or actually j annoying for those of u paying attention. lmkkkkk! happy monday!!!!!!