Oh man, I have STRONG FEELINGS about how good The Folk of the Air books are (for YA fantasy) and how bad ACOTAR is. AND I would argue Sarah J. Maas is doing a Temu version of Holly Black: Holly Black’s first novel, Tithe (2002), loosely follows the folk tale Tam Lin, in that a mortal girl has to save her faerie lover from a cruel faerie queen in a dramatic riddle-based showdown in front of the court. The epigraph in Tithe is a quote from “The Ballad of Tam Lin.” ACOTAR (the first book, not the whole series) is also a retelling of Tam Lin, and in my opinion, SJM’s sexy fairies wouldn’t have been as popular if HB’s hadn’t set the stage. Is this claim justified? I don’t care I just have STRONG FEELINGS.
I read HB’s most recent books, The Book of Night and The Thief of Night. They’re good! And I did feel there was an element of Holly Black saying, oh my children, let me remind you I was writing sad pretty men with tragic backstories when you still had your baby teeth; you want a “shadow daddy” I’ll GIVE you a goddamn shadow daddy.
AGREED in that SJM is temu HB. I do think the reason SJM is so big is because she hit the gold mine by appealing to the "hasn't read a book since middle school but wants to get into reading again" and "hasn't read for fun ever" demographics, meaning that her audience reads her first and HB second, and that's where the comparisons come from. But it is VERY clear who is the actual sexy fae author queen. DOES SJM HAVE SURGICALLY ALTERED ELF EARS???? I DON'T THINK SO. YOU KNOW WHO DOES???? THAT'S RIGHT