Call Her Daddy – Sarah J. Maas Recap
She’s currently listening to The Batman soundtrack and K-Pop Demon Hunters.
Writing Process
• She never writes in public. She needs to feel deeply connected to her characters while writing.
• However, she loves walking up to people who are reading her books in public.
• She was completely shocked when she met Margot Robbie. She admires her so much — and now they’re friends.
⸻
TV Adaptations
• She has the rights to all of her work — she recently got them back.
• She wants to be fully in charge of any adaptation.
• If there’s going to be a TV show, she wants it to stay loyal to her vision.
• She hasn’t really watched AI-generated fantasy adaptations or similar projects.
⸻
Casting
She’s going to take her time finding the perfect cast.
She specifically said she’s going to struggle to find the perfect Rhysand — and she refuses to rush it.
⸻
Her Relationship With Writing
• She didn’t like the books assigned in school, but she loved fantasy.
• In middle school she was into nails, makeup, and the Spice Girls.
• Secret life: she’d rush home every afternoon to watch Sailor Moon. Total anime freak. And constantly reading fantasy.
As a teenager, she started writing Throne of Glass while deep in her Lord of the Rings phase. She says Legolas was her “boyfriend.” If she ever met Orlando Bloom, she joked that she would completely lose it.
She was an emo kid and felt like a fish out of water. Books were her escape from school and life.
She published Throne of Glass at 26.
Her family tried to persuade her not to pursue writing. Her parents are intellectuals — big newspaper readers — and told her publishing a fantasy book would be very hard. They supported her reading but were realistic (and skeptical) about the industry.
In college, she studied creative writing. She didn’t love the classes because they made her write short stories and poetry — and she hates writing poetry.
⸻
Building Her Worlds
Her series overlap and connect in subtle ways.
She doesn’t know how she has the brain capacity to manage it all. When she was first trying to get Throne of Glass published, she had a lot of time to write.
• The idea for ACOTAR came to her in 2009, and the first book stayed mostly the same.
• Crescent City was a passion project for a very long time before publication.
She doesn’t keep detailed spreadsheets of lore. Most of the story lives in her head. She has a notebook for certain details, but music especially helps her remember how she built scenes and emotions.
Sometimes she doesn’t plan things — but for some cosmic reason, everything aligns. She keeps crystals on her desk. She admits there’s something slightly supernatural about how ideas click into place.
⸻
Female Characters
Aelin came straight from her. Her journey mirrors Sarah’s in many ways. Her own emotions and experiences inspired many scenes.
What her characters go through often parallels her real-life experiences.
She wanted to write women who don’t need to be pleasing to anyone — unapologetically themselves.
Manon is an extreme version of that.
⸻
On “Smut” and Criticism
She doesn’t like when people reduce her books to “just smut.”
Yes, she loves writing spicy scenes. But she wants readers to acknowledge the emotional journeys, trauma, healing, and growth.
She loves happy books. She loves a journey and a satisfying ending. She wants her books to bring joy.
She dislikes when people call her work shallow because it includes sex. Sex is part of life. She writes about women’s real experiences — periods, bathroom breaks, the unglamorous realities of being human.
⸻
Feyre’s Pregnancy
She loves her children. She hated being pregnant.
Her pregnancy was traumatic. She had an emergency C-section. Her doctor was extremely rude — scolding her for eating before surgery. Her husband wasn’t allowed in the operating room. The doctors were cold; the only kind person was an intern.
The recovery was awful, and the C-section wasn’t properly done.
She believes that without modern medicine, she wouldn’t be here.
Writing Feyre’s pregnancy was her way of processing that trauma. It helped her release the fear. Motherhood doesn’t need to be glossed over — it can be messy and traumatic and still meaningful.
⸻
Mental Health & Nesta
A Court of Silver Flames was the first time she fully understood the connection between her trauma and her writing.
When turning in Kingdom of Ash, her publisher told her it was too long and she had to cut pages. It was extremely stressful. She cut scenes she later realized didn’t need to be cut at all.
That’s when her panic attacks started. Writing had become a job — and it terrified her.
Therapy saved her life.
She wrote Silver Flames while in therapy. The hiking scene is directly inspired by a hike she took with her husband. Her friendships also inspired Nesta’s healing journey.
That book holds a very special place in her heart.
⸻
Fun Facts
• As a child, she wanted to be a marine biologist.
• In relationship dynamics, there must be a spark between characters.
• She didn’t plan ACOTAR in detail — she goes with the flow. The bonfire scene came to her suddenly, and that’s when she knew Rhysand was the true love interest.
• Favorite couple? She loves them all.
F*ck, Marry, Kill (Rhys, Hunt, Rowan):
• F*ck: All of them
• Marry: All of them
• Kill: None of them
She thinks about how sexy a name sounds. She would never name a love interest “Frank.”
She allows any and all name pronunciations.
⸻
Tamlin
People change in relationships.
What Feyre and Tamlin went through Under the Mountain broke them. Tamlin doesn’t have the emotional tools to process trauma. Feyre didn’t have support either. Rhys responds to trauma more similarly to Feyre.
She pities Tamlin. He did terrible things. She doesn’t know if he’ll get a redemption arc. If she ever writes about him again, it would have to be done carefully — without erasing what he did. She doesn’t want to excuse him.
⸻
Autonomy & Power
In healthy relationships, both partners are equals. Even with power differences, autonomy matters.
Rhys should have told Feyre about the pregnancy risks. He made a bad choice out of desperation. Even true love can include mistakes and conflict.
⸻
Romantic Moments
Her favorite romantic moment between Rhys and Feyre is Starfall. It was inspired by Cosmic Love by Florence + The Machine.
Chapter 55 was incredibly satisfying to write. She had been looking forward to writing it for a long time.
⸻
Mates
The concept of mates is destiny — but it’s also biological. Nature can make mistakes (like with Rhys’s parents).
Is Elain rejecting the bond with Lucien?
Elain has a lot to process. Sarah is exploring free will through her.
⸻
Family Reactions
Her 95-year-old grandmother reads her books — and has everyone at her nursing home reading them too.
Her mother-in-law reads them as well. They don’t talk about it. Her mother-in-law’s favorite series is ACOTAR, and she thinks Rhysand is based on her son (Sarah’s husband). Sarah firmly denies this.
⸻
Upcoming Books
She posted a draft page on Instagram — it was from ACOTAR 5.
• ACOTAR 5 is coming out October 27 this year.
• The next book will be released in January.
• She wrote so much that she had to publish two books.
We are being blessed.
The story will unfold in the best way possible.
⸻
Power & Sacrifice
Aelin lost her powers because she had to give up something she loved for something greater.
Losing magic doesn’t take away her strength — same with Nesta.
⸻
Rapid Fire
Will we see the Throne of Glass characters again?
— We don’t know.
Maybe we’ll get a Christmas present.
Where is Manon?
— Hopefully in therapy.
Is the Spring Court’s Pool of Starlight a portal?
— No response.
Rhys’s last name?
— Not revealed.
The King of Hybern’s real name?
— Not revealed.
Dusk Court?
— No response.
Who is Mama Archeron?
— No response.
Is Cormac really dead?
— No response.
Are Rhys and Ruhn related?
— No response.
Is Fury the mercenary from ACOTAR?
— We don’t know.
Bryce and Hunt are endgame.
⸻
Final Thoughts
To her, success isn’t just the books — it’s her family and the life she’s built.
Everything she’s accomplished feels insane to her. She feels incredibly blessed that people read her stories.
And she says nothing would have stopped her from publishing a book — even if it had taken her a lifetime.
