hey! i haven't read any of maas's books, but i know they were really popular, and i've heard a lot of people recently saying they don't like them. is that just personal preference or is something bad about them?? sorry ignore this if it'd make u more upset to talk abt it !!
you’re not going to upset me, don’t worry about that! Maas’s books are still really popular but I think with the emergence of Better and More Diverse books (some) people are waking to the fact that she is in no way the Feminist Queen people paint her as. honestly, none of her books are “good feminist literature” in my eyes.
she kills off the only PoC (two WoC) in Throne of Glass in very gruesome detail and their deaths are solely for the furthering of the white main characters’ plot lines. to people who disagree: bullshit. they didn’t have to die, let alone in the ways they did. also, I’m fairly certain the A Court of Thorns and Roses series has no PoC (and no “tan” doesn’t fucking count) which is bullshit in itself.
her characters aren’t overwhelmingly feminist as people would have you believe. I do appreciate that Maas has written characters who struggle with mental illness and other things that aren’t Talked About very often (however, YA is definitely changing and becoming more open to discussing tough issues) but they are by no means mold-breakingly amazing. in fact, some of her characters do pretty Unfeminist things… for no reason I can come up with. my biggest qualm is people hailing Rhysand (from the A Court of Thorns and Roses series) as the “Feminist High Lord” because he asks the main character for consent and he believes women should be equal to men. news flash: that bar is set really fucking low. I think the fact that Maas set her books in worlds that are extremely patriarchal and misogynistic makes any deviation from that seem like real good feminist shit but it’s not. fantasies don’t need to always be set in gross patriarchal societies. sorry. (I understand it’s unfair for me to pin this on Maas and I’m not trying to but as the Feminist Queen shouldn’t she idk write in more feminist worlds?) the way Maas writes men (I mean males) in general is very Domineering Meaty Manly Man With Large Penis. honestly, good luck telling her characters apart. they’re basically all the same flavor of Vanilla with a Dominance Streak. also the fact that in both of her series the main parties are overwhelmingly made up of men is annoying. there are very few Important Females in her series. and being a Strong Female Character really should consist of more than being able to wield a weapon.
she can’t hold continuity for her life. this holds especially true in the Throne of Glass series. once you hit the fourth book, none of the characterization of any of the characters is the same. none of them. people cry “they are her characters so she can do anything she wants with them!!” and well, yeah she can but I believe an author has a duty to their readers to remain consistent and show growth in the characters instead of flipping them between books. it’s lazy. also, Celaena and Aelin are in fact the same fucking person so the fact that the characterization is different between them is again: bullshit. Maas also can’t seem to decide if her series are YA or NA because the earlier books in both series are fairly tame but the further you go the more explicit the sex scenes get.
Heterosexual Bullshit all over the books. all over them. all of her characters are neatly paired off into heterosexual couples (which is something I’ve grown extremely tired of seeing). there is (apparently) one bisexual character in Throne of the Glass and I haven’t read the book it was revealed in but from what I’ve heard the reveal was not great and the representation is sub-par at best. there was also one (alive) gay couple I remember from Throne of Glass but they were side characters and also men. all the non-straight characters are men which makes you go Hmm.
listen. I really did like the first few books in Throne of Glass and I thoroughly enjoy A Court of Thorns and Roses. but I am so sick and tired of Maas being The Role Model when it comes to feminism and high fantasy. there’s nothing monumentally groundbreaking about her books.
tl;dr: Maas isn’t a Feminist Queen and her books shouldn’t be your reference for how feminism works. her books are severely lacking in diversity and as a best selling author I expected more from her.
