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Andrew Minyard is realistic ASPD representation. He doesn’t feel remorse for hurting people ( Kevin, Allison, Matt, etc.), fails to understand how to provide comfort and empathize with other’s emotions, and refuses to abide by societal standards of morality, abiding by a code that makes sense to only him. People forget that ASPD can be developed or more prominent in some people through a mix of trauma and genetics. Andrew shows how people with ASPD can still be traumatized and experience pain, despite the stigma surrounding them that labels them “monsters” or “bad”. Andrew also demonstrates how people with ASPD can still find love and form meaningful connections. His ASPD, despite the stigmatization of this disorder, doesn’t make him a bad person, but it shows how he doesn’t form relationships in the socially “acceptable” way but shows care in his own way that Neil put in the effort to understand. Ignoring Andrew’s ASPD is essentially disregarding part of his character because it makes him less easily digestible to the fandom.

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My thoughts on the shatter me series (pt2)

Ok now James. His analysis is mainly centered on how he is written in watch me. First off, I think it makes no sense that he goes to live with Warner and Juliette and leaves Adam. He was literally terrified of Warner the first time he met him, and throughout the Shatter Me series Warner showed little interest in being responsible for him. In the last book of the shatter me series, when James was kidnapped and Juliette was sick, he literally admitted he was ok with James being killed, and when Juliette was kidnapped and James was back, he only visited James to get information about Juliette. In believe me, Warner reiterates that he only wants to be left alone with his wife, and hey suddenly he becomes OK taking in and caring for a whole child. And Adam is OK just letting his 11/12 year old brother make that decision and just gives him to Warner completely? This makes absolutely no sense given the information from all the prior books, and honestly seems like pure fan-service from the author. - Further, it seems like the author recycled Kenji’s personality for James instead of giving him his own. Seriously, there is virtually no difference in their voices between Kenji’s POV in the prior books and James’ POV in watch me. It seems like lazy writing IMO. All that being said, I think he has interesting moments, and I can not make a judgement on his character yet, so I can wait until the next book.

Now, looking at Kenji’s character, to me he is the best character after Adam. His main flaw seems to be when he completely turned on Adam for Juliette, and was also unwilling to really see Adam’s perspective for a second, but honestly, Juliette doesn’t really deserve Kenji’s friendship and Warne especially doesn’t deserve Kenji’s friendship. This was made especially clear in Believe Me, when Kenji went above and beyond for Warner, while Warner remained pretty ungrateful and annoyed with him. Honestly, I think we would have been a better choice for Juliette, because he would have supported her strength and her desire to develop herself into a fighter, which Adam could not do, and not require constant emotional handling, like Warner does. As it stands, it seems like he assumes the role of Juliette’s “emotional fluffer,” in the words of Nick Miller, providing the companionship that Warner can’t. Yet another example of a man who, despite his trauma, is able to remain selfless and kind and empathetic (take notes Warner).

Overall, I think this series has compelling moments, an interesting world building concept, and characters that had the potential to be interesting, but the author does not really use any of those to her advantage. It’s fairly bland and boring and the writing is not very compelling, giving way more to fan service than to remaining true to the characters’ original characterizations.

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My thoughts on the shatter me series (pt 1)

SPOILERS AHEAD

Ok so this series was recommended to me a bunch of times and i finished all the books and novellas so here are my thoughts

Starting off with an unpopular opinion that should not be unpopular: Aaron warner SAed juliette in the first book. I don’t care to hear the excuse that he thought she wanted to kiss him because he can read emotions or whatever. He cornered her and even as she showed negative body language and was clearly also, ACCORDING TO HER OWN WORDS, experienced feelings of disgust and fear and powerlessness as well, he forced himself onto her anyways. And this is the guy she ends up with. And NO, his trauma does not excuse it, there is no excuse, its just gross.

Overall, I never liked Warner. Honestly, he is a walking red flag. He is an asshole to everyone except his wife, and is basically like an unsocialized dog that needs to be kept on a leash by his wife in order to behave. He is narcissistic and selfish. Which is a perfectly normal reaction to growing up in an abusive environment, but the fact that he experienced no development and as an adult puts in no work to better himself, and the fact that juliette just condones and even defends his behavior is honestly very telling about her character.

Juliette is actually very immature and very clearly not in a place to be a supreme commander. She is not only naive but immature and honestly, also selfish. Castle 1000% should have been the new leader, and it makes absolutely no sense. Juliette is also incredibly male centered, and does not read like a strong, female protagonist, as her entire identity seems to revolve around the guy she is with.

The writing of the Warnette romance is completely telling and not showing, with entire pages in Warner’s POV especially dedicated to repeating that he loves juliette, to the point that it’s boring and redundant. Their entire relationship seems entirely codependent, as again, your husband should be able to express kindness/empathy without you being the only thing motivating him to do so. And you constantly overlooking his bad behavior and excusing it because of past trauma, instead of encouraging him to go to therapy and work on himself? Yikes

Now one of the only good characters in the series. ADAM. I can not believe they hate you. He sacrificed his own personal happiness time and time again to protect his loved ones. When his ex girlfriend started dating the man who tortured and tried to kill him, he had a reasonable crash out, and suddenly he’s a villain? Meanwhile, Warner gets away with torturing Juliette’s own sister, torturing a killing hundreds of other people, and oh yeah, SA, because he has trauma? Adam also is traumatized, but again, even during/after his crash out, he puts his pride and personal feelings aside over and over again so he can protect james. He is the greenest flag in the whole series imo, sure he said some bad things, but he's also an emotional teenage boy who was parentified at an insanely young age and has never caught a break in his life, constantly burdened with the responsibility of another child. Honestly, I am so glad he got his own happily ever after, Juliette did not deserve him with the way she could not see his perspective for like one second. Adam my king, they could never EVER make me hate you. He is the most interesting character tbh.

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In TBC I NEED Jean to celebrate Diwali with Ananya it’s literally all I ask PLEASE. The fireworks, the food, the partying, THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS let my boy experience cultural immersion

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Thea’s rehabilitation

here is how I think Nora will rehabilitate Thea’s character in tsc3, the perfect court and the queens game, to ensure a kevthea endgame

I believe that in tsc3, we will see her fight a lot more times, similar to how she did in the, to defend Jean and we will learn more about their relationship in the nest, allowing us to view her as a complex character with a tough exterior and an empathetic interior

in the perfect court, Nora will probably show the racism Thea faced in the nest at the hands of Riko and the master. Probably get some girlboss moments where she is being taunted by the Ravens with misogynistic and racist remarks and proves them all wrong on the court, hands them their asses, making her a character you have to admire or respect.

also in the perfect court, we will likely see more soft(er) moments with Kevin and Jean and potentially vulnerable moments where she opens up about her struggles as a black woman constantly having to tolerate the bigotry and just power through as if it doesn’t affect her. Likely get some insight on her familial trauma as well and how it affects her potentially past abuse she endured, pathos so the reader can root more for her and sympathize.

further l, we may learn more about her reaction to Kevin’s hand breaking and leaving the ravens, see more of her fear and concern for him and how she fights with that and her one track mind on her career

in the queen’s game, I would be guessing as I’m anticipating a potential time jump to Kevin’s future post the foxes but I’m not sure how far, potentially his first Olympics, so we might see Thea’s pregnancy/motherhood journey with amalia and how she and Kevin support each other and see more of the nuances into their relationship, sweet/soft moments as well as moments where they match each other’s “exy freak” in a way no one else can, we will see how Nora shows us they were made for each other. We may see cute amalia moments as well but again idk!

these are just guesses however so lmk if these would work for you or what Nora could do to rehabilitate Thea’s image for you!

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Thoughts on Elodie

Upon finishing the golden raven, I feel as if Elodie is really dead. I think that Jean talking to Laila about her is the first step in his grief journey, as it is the first time he actually talks about her in detail since learning of her death instead of suppressing her memory. Further, it gives him a parallel to Jeremy, as Jeremy went through this with Noah and is also dealing with similar guilt and loss. HOWEVER, I think it could be interesting if Elodie was alive and she had turned into a different, hardened person that Jean did not even recognize, potentially an assassin (black widow esque) or killing others to survive and escape. I think that this would give Jean an interesting parallel to Lucas in the sense of not being able to recognize who your sibling has become and struggling with their new identity/persona. Ofc, Elodie is not Grayson but she could be more hardened/morally grey and emotionally closed off, like Neil in tfc. It would be interesting to see Jean and elodie navigate that relationship, adjusting to the uglier parts of each other and eventually confronting their traumas and experiences together. But again, I just don’t think there will be enough space in third book, even a long one, to go into Jean discovering elodie, meeting her again for the first time, and redeveloping their relationship with everything else that needs to be resolved in that book. Complex sibling relationships in aftg, such as Andrew and Aaron, are usually covered with lots of depth as Nora tends to write them with lots of nuance and detail developed over time to make them truly devastating. Because of this, I believe elodie is truly dead and the reveal of her cause of death are going to direct the plot in a major way somehow in tbc. But I could also be totally wrong so what are your thoughts?