I’ve been rereading ACOTAR and honestly it opened my eyes to a lot of things.
First of all, I knew from the first time I read the series that I did not like it as much as ToG, to me it didn’t even compare. And there’s a lot of things that I didn’t like:
The plot was nonexistent to me. The supposed war that was basically just one battle?? Most of the time, the war was in the background of everything else happening. The focus was always on the relationships, so really there was no real threat. As opposed to ToG, I wasn’t afraid of what was coming, there was no real tension, I just didn’t feel like there was anything at stake.
Also, the magical powers make no sense at all. In ToG, everyone had a limit. Here, nothing is really explained and no one seems to have a limit until suddenly they do. Rhys is described as the most powerful in Prythian but just saying it doesn’t really make it true, and it somehow didn’t feel like it to me. Also what is Mor’s power? It has to do with being truthful but I don’t get what it is.
Most importantly, I didn’t like Feyre. Who is she really? Apart from painting, we know nothing about her personality and that’s a hobby not a trait. Her character never stood out, I couldn’t get attached to her and I didn’t like the way she reacted most of the time. When I first read the series, I had just finished ToG and I couldn’t help but compare and there really isn’t much to compare. Feyre is bland, and it feels like she’s passive in her own story. Also, her being Rhys’ mate didn’t make sense to me because they were not equal in any way. She was a child and didn’t know anything about the world and in some scenes you could really feel that.
All of this, I already somewhat knew the first time I read ACOTAR but rereading it made me look up people’s opinions, not just the fans but the critics. That really opened my eyes to a lot of problems with SJM’s writing.
For example, it is now clear to me that she is not good at world building. She rather adds things along the way, instead of establishing the world first, which results in plot holes and a sense of “fakeness”. As I felt before, her focus is on the relationships and making the characters seem brave and destined to great things and being saviors, and that sometimes feels forced. I also was blinded by how much I loved seeing Feysand’s relationship bloom and totally forgot about how disgusting it is that Rhys drugged Feyre and made her dance for him. That is assault and there is no other way to call that.
I haven’t been a SJM fan for a long time but her books quickly became very important to me. But now, I have to admit that I am questioning a lot of it. Despite all of this, I still can’t get myself to completely stop reading her books. Unfortunately, I am a straight girl who loves the classic romance tropes and has a thing for bad boys who are actually soft boys and that is exactly what SJM targets and what she is good at writing. I already know that I will read the books she drops next, but at least I can be more critical of them.
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