Reading with an Asterisk

[hanitje]

“It’s a handbag.”

[staroftara]

[thebookended]

mmmm. Are we going to see a Nestafication of Feyre here? Since when has Feyre ever craved, or longed for, responsibility or power? Her deepest daydreams for all of ACOTAR were to only ever have to be responsible for herself ever again. Responsibility is a weight that sits very heavily on Feyre's shoulders. She resents it. She yearns for freedom and individuality, and peace.

Like, I get it. Tamlin basically has her cooped up in the house with nothing to do all day and that's boring. I have no problems with her trying to wriggle out of the manor. But her resentment about not being a High Lady...baffles me?

Feyre's never had that kind of ambition. This feels more like something Nesta would crave - power and authority and respect, and being able to wield influence like a dagger. It just comes from right out of left field, especially when Feyre's already struggling with her reality as being a savior for all of Faekind or whatever.

Also, I am doubling down on my question about how one becomes a High Lord. Also what does a High Lord do. Why do Faeries have paperwork? ACOTAR made it seem as though the High Lords perform sacred rites, but it turns out High Priestesses do?

(I know, per my own last post I shouldn't be asking questions - but I can't help myself lol)

[thebookended]

I'm very aware that ACOTAR technically pre-dates the term (and subgenre) of Romantasy - but in many ways it's regarded as the archetype for the genre, so I'm going to include it with this reflection.

I think it goes without saying that the popularity of Romantasy has risen alongside the fixation on "shipping" in media (and in fandom, as well.) So this particular subgenre is essentially "Fantasy But If The Ships Were Canon and Loadbearing", yes?

But here's, I think, the inherent flaw of that logic when you go in to write a story. The concept of "shipping" originates from and is rooted in fandom.

If you look at a capital-R Romance novel, the entire story is the romance between the two lead characters. The entire genre, and its many subgenres, and the many narrative beats and genre conventions are built around the development of that relationship. It gets to be the focal point because it is the story.

Other genres have similar conventions built around what is the assumed core of the story: a mystery novel has tropes and narrative beats that will always center the mystery, for instance. A Fantasy novel will always center around whatever the fantasy is - the fantasy is the story. For most examples of the genre, and many of the conventions and narrative beats, the fantasy - the story - is about something bigger than the reader could ever be. It takes us out of the mundane and elevates us to something more. (Whatever that something is, varies depending on the subgenre.)

So, back to shipping and fandom. If you look at how fandom works, and how fanfic is shaped, the shipping evolves from being able to pluck elements out of a story that are not otherwise the focus. So when a reader, for instance, looks up a shippy fic about Kirk and Spock we can do so without having to focus on developing or fleshing out the world and the context - that work has already been done in the original text, and the reader can simply revel in the Shippyness.

Romantasy as a genre seems to be trying to center the Ships while having the background fantasy world exerting pressure and Plot on the ships to see what happens. Except this doesn't work particularly well outside of Fandom spaces - because the time that in another work would be spent on fleshing out the context and the plot is instead spent on providing the Ship Meat; so the background ends up being set dressing. Flimsy. You could knock over this manor house if you elbow it because actually it's a plywood facade propped up on a stage. We blew the budget on making Hottie McHots look really good because that's what people are coming here for anyway.

I'm not saying Romantasy is universally bad, or that it shouldn't exist. I'm really not out here to censor or quash creativity or literature. It's just an observation about a recurrent flaw I've seen in the genre, and also a reflection that if you want a ship set against a kind-of-filled-in stage setting then this is a perfect genre for you. But if you start pushing on the setting to ask questions and be curious and you crave answers and depth - this is just literally never going to satisfy that. It can't.

[thebookended]

Okay, alright. Okay Sarah. Credit where it's due, the sex scenes in ACOMAF are going to be significantly more explicit than in ACOTAR I see.

(This is not a personal win. I'm wincing awkwardly in uninterested lesbian the entire time.)

However. Even if I wish that this had not shifted, good for the other readers. Good for the target audience. I'd still rate this as like. Jalapeno Popper spice rather than something truly fan-worthy, but we're definitely getting closer to an actual scoville rating, I suppose.

(Please stop talking during this scene though I'm trying to skim it.)

[thebookended]

So, in ACOTAR we're told by Tamlin that among the Fae, mate bonds are more significant and important and revered than marriage bonds. However, we have yet to see a mated pair and Ianthe is pretty markedly seeking an "advantageous" marriage. It makes me wonder how rare a mate bond is, and whether that rarity contributes to its significance?

[thebookended]

I have to admit, the transition from ACOTAR to ACOMAF has been pretty jarring so far? I feel as though that three months we lose between the books is actually really important and necessary here.

For instance, it absolutely makes sense to me that Tamlin and Feyre are both very much struggling with PTSD from their time Under the Mountain. However, plunging back into their narrative three months afterwards they feel like entirely different characters. It's hard to attribute all of this change to PTSD, particularly when we haven't seen what it was like for Feyre to adapt to her new body, or her new relationship with Tamlin.

They're just suddenly rather different people, out of nowhere.

It makes me feel like SJM is trying to retcon the development she left out of ACOTAR into the opening of ACOMAF so she can continue this series with her vision for these characters intact, but it's honestly pretty off-putting.

Also the resemblance to the social and political structures of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels is much more striking in the opening of this novel and I'm very intrigued. ACOTAR was full of what I've been calling "Anne Bishop-isms" but they struck me as remnants of someone who had read those books so many times that the vocabulary of them is ingrained and involuntary. This feels a bit more deliberate now.

(I haven't forgotten my summary posts of ACOTAR, I just got excited about having ACOMAF in my hands and jumped right in.)

[thebookended]

This is an amused gripe that I have, in general, with authors who play around with ancient/immortal/inhumanly long-lived characters. Babe is an 800 year old vase really old to these people? Why is the maid upset about a vase that's barely reached sensible maturity? It's like being sad that your dented clunker car from 2005 got scratched you know? It's both not new, but also not valuably old yet.

The scope and scale of time gets really difficult to remember and conceive when you're writing novels, and this is an observation not limited to SJM, but it does make me giggle. Like what, was this vase Tamlin's third grade project or something?

[thebookended]

Thanks to the generosity of a kind benefactor <3 I have gotten my hands on ACOMAF sooner than anticipated! My Daughter of the Blood re-read is being postponed because I have a list of burning questions and I'm ready to find out the answers to some of them.

I do have a physical secondhand copy coming in the mail, and I'm considering annotating it in the evenings, because I am reading these at work and do prefer to have my kindle for that purpose.

Anyway! Expect more liveblogging (though not too much today, I need to start studying for a test in like 30 minutes lmao)

[thebookended]

Okay, so nobody spoil me if this is addressed in a later book and I'm just not there yet. But I would love to know what's up with how one becomes a High Lord of the Fae? Because there's presumably one in each Court. We know that Lucien's father is like "whoever is the last son standing gets the prize" and they're all supposed to be cruelly maiming each other or whatever. But also like. There's still five total sons remaining out of - what, seven? So I'mma need them to show a little more initiative.

However, Tamlin's story feels more like something that just kind of...happened to him. Like his older brothers were still around, and Tam just started showing signs of Future High Lord and so he had to glamour himself in order to disguise it.

So my questions are these: First, why do these immortal High Lords have children bc it sounds like they're setting themselves up to get murked. Second, if being a High Lord is just something that magically happens to you, what is the trigger for that?

Could they not have killed the High Lords whose power was being held by Amarantha, and had a whole new crop of High Lords? Is stabbing a Fae in the heart the only way to kill them? (Seems unlikely, since the Summer Court dude sustained every other injury imaginable and it was blood-loss from wings that did him in?) Is this exclusive to High Lords? Because instead of sacrificing like. At least twenty randos maybe Rhysand could've just killed two or three High Lords and let them take on Amarantha?

(I am fully aware that I'm reading too much into this, SJM absolutely did not remotely consider this when she was writing. Case in point: Lucien is one of seven, but most Fae are lucky to have like two kids max? So consistency doesn't seem to be a strong suit here. But I do wonder...)

[thebookended]

I finished ACOTAR last night and I have...a lot of thoughts. I want to take the time this evening to write a more comprehensive review of my thoughts, but I thought I would just give my off-the-cuff opinion here first.

This book is a rough draft. The pacing is off, all of the pertinent and interesting information is shoved into Act 3 instead of being deliberately spread out across all three Acts, and by the time SJM gets around to giving me the characterization I was asking for in Act 1 it's just way too late. I haven't poked into the meta of this series yet, so I don't know how much free rein she was given after the Throne of Glass series - but I suspect it was too much. This book needs some heavy editing to be deserving of the love it receives from its fans.

To be clear, this is not a criticism of the fans. I can see what it is about this book that pulls in certain readers, and I remember what the publishing landscape was looking like in 2015 and I understand what unique itch this book was scratching. You're not wrong for wanting this, but I think y'all deserved better than what you got here.

I'd like to write up my thoughts per Act and per character, but that might take me a day or two to really flesh out and put into writing. So for now, I'll suggest that on an A-F grading scale, I give ACOTAR a D.

I also want to point out that I'm aware that fans say that this series gets better, so I'm going to give Mist & Fury its own fair shake, and I will be liveblogging that. However, I need to go get my hands on it because I would prefer to source these books secondhand (as I am not interested in contributing to SJM's coffers for. Reasons.)

In the meantime, I'll be picking up a re-read of Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood - because I couldn't help noticing that SJM must have been heavily influenced by Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy and I would like to explore that a bit more.

Thanks to everyone who has liked my posts, and a special thanks to those who've engaged in conversations! I'll be back with more soon. <3

[thebookended]

So, Feyre is only allowed to be a hunter when it's convenient for the moment, and not as a consistent characterization that's built up. I'm glad Feyre got to set a trap for the worm, but it still doesn't feel like she's allowed to showcase her skills and strengths.

Honestly, nobody likes Feyre, but sometimes I think SJM likes her least of all.

[thebookended]

SJM can't even let Feyre have a single original thought, can she? Everything has to be said or offered by another character in the book - this one's an unnamed Faerie who wants her dead, telling her to use the bones in this pit to climb out. because she can't think of that herself I suppose. Ugh.

[thebookended]

oh, hm. the three tasks are going to be a huge letdown, aren't they? I think one of the things that really can be frustrating about the Romantasy genre and a lot of its authors, is that there's no evidence of a deep love for the elements of folklore they riff off for their writing. this is not the kind of task a Faerie Queen should be giving to Feyre? "Hunt this" but its a giant flesh-eating worm and Feyre's in its home lair?

No.

Go hunt this elusive bird that can only be seen fleetingly in the moments after the sun reaches its zenith, and only in its home which is a golden garden hidden in the heart of an ancient forest. That's what I would expect from this trial. Feyre being delivered to the forest with only herself, her clothes on her back, and her wits to track a singular bird in its garden home at the heart of an ever-shifting woods.

Amarantha you're boring. Such a bore. So unimaginative. UGH I'm disappointed.

[thebookended]

Oh, come on Amarantha. Was this riddle the best you can do??? I mean, I see I'm only 73% of the way through this book so evidently it's good enough to trip Feyre up.

SJM.

I am begging you to run your rough drafts through a few more readers, okay. This has so much potential but you just let it slip through your fingers.

[thebookended]

SCREAMING. DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME WE COULD HAVE SET UP TO JUXTAPOSE AMARANTHA AS AN IMMORTAL HUNTRESS AND FEYRE AS A HUMAN ONE???

WE COULD HAVE HAD FEYRE USING HER SKILLS AS A HUNTRESS TO FACE AMARANTHA?

Oh my god there's so much wasted potential. Oh my god that would have been sick as hell. Jesus Christ I cannot handle this. SJM who was your editor. Who. I need a word. (Or several.)

[thebookended]

I'm back, once again mid-chapter, because somehow Act 3 is going to be as excruciating as Act 2, isn't it?

So, like. The fun thing about Faeries is how creative you can be with your cruelty. It's the recurring trait about them in every culture we see myths of them. Their curses are hyper-specific, and cruel in ways that makes the human mind go slippery. Like being cursed to count all the grains of rice that have fallen onto a floor with cracks and crevices; having to start over every time you lose count. You can never win. You will be trapped here, for the rest of time, doing this.

Having Feyre get the shit kicked out of her by Amarantha's Court is just...so boring and unimaginative? It's too pedestrian to be interesting in a Fae way, and having Amarantha stack the deck in her favor through physical violence is equally boring. What are we even doing here. This bitch could be a Mortal Evil Queen at this rate. Where's the spice? The flavor? The unique cruelty?

We haven't gotten to what the three tasks are, so maybe. Those will be more interesting. But honestly why bust Feyre's nose when you can just watch her suffer in far more customized and interesting ways?

[thebookended]

Okay, we're pausing mid-chapter to talk about Tamlin.

So, it didn't escape me that his name is just Tam Lin smooshed together - or that it's a story easily (though perhaps not wisely) squeezed in with a Beauty and the Beast retelling. Especially in a Romantasy book that involves the Fae (because I think we all know this is a genre whose bread and butter is often built on badly-utilized Celtic names and myths.)

I was hoping this was just a reference via name, but I'm on the verge of finding out that it very much is not and - listen, y'all. I'm tired already of this Under the Mountain business. The fun and interesting thing about (particularly Celtic) myths/stories about entering the realm of Fairies and challenging them - and winning! - is seeing human ingenuity overcome the rigid magical rules which bind Fairy-kind.

And we are just. Stripping that right out of this story, and if I'm gonna have to read about Feyre holding on to Tamlin while he becomes grotesque thing after grotesque thing and be lauded for her - idk stubbornness? I'm going to McLose It.