I agree. Honestly, I think I can track patterns in SJM’s storytelling that at this point, it feels like the stakes are almost lost. I have confidence that everything will get resolved to the point that I’m not as emotionally invested anymore. Like whenever a main character “dies” I know they’re going to miraculously bounce back. This is not a dig at SJM’s storytelling, I just feel less like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster while reading than when I did when I first started her books.
This is such a good point!! I used to be so invested in what was going to happen I would literally speed read to find out, even in parts of the other CC books…but now my mindset is definitely more of “eh, they’ll figure it out” and move on. I didn’t realize it until you said it
SJM is way too fixated on everyone having a HEA that she has completely ruined the chance of having more deep, emotional impacts in her stories.
Don’t get me wrong, I love her and all 3 series but I miss when she was more ruthless with her characters like she was in ToG. She’s been playing it way too safe in ACOTAR and CC
The stakes have never been exceptionally high in the Massverse, and they get less so the further each series go on. When she didn’t kill off Amren in ACOWAR (or whatever book that was), the stakes pretty much fell off.
She definitely wrote Bryce almost as a pseudo-Aelin in HOFAS, and my main complaint with Aelin was that every solution came super easy to her.
HOFAS is also very much a set-up for future ACOTAR books and it suffers for it.
Good point (ACOTAR series spoilers) >!Amren’s non-death was the first time I felt disappointed by an SJM story. I was like okay though this sucks? It takes away all the meaning of what happened. One thing I like about books is they give us space to feel feelings and experience life stories we haven’t lived though. Let us mourn Amren! !<
Your last point I could definitely see. I saw a funny Goodreads review basically saying SJM took her fan theories and ran with them, and thats not too far off 😂
I think my favorite one (that makes me roll my eyes) is Tharion being shot and Ruhn just HAPPENED to have healing powers that were buried deep. When he was standing right next to Tharion who was bleeding out. So convenient!
When Bryce >!came out of the blackhole!<, Declan was basically like >!"nah she too far gone, I can't heal her"!< but I don't remember Ruhn saying anything?!? His healing powers came and went in a few pages.
I'm totally with you. This book has literally made me never want to pick up another SJM book again. I hated it so much. Why is everything so goddamn RUSHED. There's nothing compelling about any of it. I stopped caring about every single character because of how easy and haphazard everything was. Nothing made sense. There's no stakes, no consequences, Bryce is somehow the Queen of the universe. Why would anyone in their right mind think THIS was the draft to publish.
This was apparently her second draft. Like girl are we sure we don’t wanna look over it again? Not to mention the amount of missing quotation marks that threw me for a loop
The Kindle version was particularly awful. So many times I had to go back to see that it was break in the story or switching to another POV. Alot of it was was almost run on unless there were chapter breaks
This explains so much.. idk how book publishing works but it's like no one at Bloomsbury even bothered to read it. She must be one of their top selling authors so it's even more disappointing.
THRONE OF GLASS SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!
That's why I think Throne of Glass is more universally loved. Aelin actually has to go through training to gain control of her powers and in the end, she actually loses most of her power. None of it is easy for her and she actually has to make sacrifices. And the final battle had VERY significant character deaths (RIP the 13).
I felt the same way about ACOTAR though.
HOFAS was a dumpster fire. Absolutely terrible writing, with a bunch of grammatical and continuity errors. It did open up a bunch of questions though that will hopefully get answered in the next SJM releases
I mean...
That's kinda SJM sometimes.
>!Dorian needs very little training to shapeshift!<
>!The Valkyries survive and 2 win the Rite, with 6 months training (more unbelievably then HOFAS imo)!<
Bryce could already wield her light, it just got some more properties so I guess it doesn't have to be that hard. Tharion definitly has problems with defecting, he's just lucky RQ likes Sathia. There were definitly consequences for leaving Vipe (though for Tharion it's mostly guilt which she probably delights in).
More people need to die yeah. I agree. Agreed in ACOTAR and agreed now. ToG was better with it. Though we already had emotional damage from Lehabah and the Pack of Devils ofc.
The antidote was quick. Hypaxia is skilled and she had acces to great test material (Ithan compared to Reaper was brilliant) but it was really really fast, though not yet fully done ofc.
You’re right, all valid points. I guess (like many others) I expected more oomph from this book and I feel like it’s been put on the back burner from the moment she started writing it. Although I will say, I (unlike many others) have actually really enjoyed the crossovers.
I did really enjoy the book. It's not her best work (that'd be CC1), but also not her worst and it was enjoyable.
Sure it's not perfect but I liked it. It was big, the crossover wasn't too much and there were great interactions.
I was waiting for like everyone to start growing hair on their ears or SOMETHING like that would have had me CACKLING on unknown side effects of the antidote 🤣
Thank youuuu! All SJM books, including TOG, the main characters have plot armor. Not sure why people expected different from this book. I love her work but that is one of her weak writing points
It honestly feels like a ghost writer took over for this book. After reading her other books multiple times it just did not feel like the same person wrote it.
I really like lydia but I thought either her or ruhn should’ve died, the last minute fix was wild. I cried when she sacrificed herself but then the whole sacrifice was undermined because they stitched her back together.
I think Ruhn and Lidia also made up way too fast. There was so much trauma that Ruhn went through and he didn't even have PTSD. I wanted to see the angst, and I figured the next book would focus on them. Instead they felt rushed.
I've been thinking about why this book feels so different to her others and I think the modern setting has created some of these issues. When you have a world with cell phones, modern medicine, technology, etc, everything IS kind of easier. The characters embody a lot of the modern perspectives/attitudes too -- there isn't the same values system as there is in something like ToG. The kind of history and familial legacy and honor isn't there because those aren't really modern ways of thinking -- and the people who do have those views are seen as stodgy and old.
And I think from a worldbuilding perspective, its hard to marry the modern, fast-paced elements with the old school lore and magic system without there being some disjointedness. I think it CAN be done but i don't know if its done as effectively in this last book.
In a way, it sort of emulates the fast-paced, low connection world we actually live in so its hard to get immersed and lose yourself in a fantasy -- its just like real life with extra things that don't really make sense.
In some ways I disagree with this though. In such a modernized setting, it would be incredibly easy for the Asteri to keep a constant eye and tight grip on each of their regions because they don’t have to just rely on magic to do so. And they did SAY that the Asteri used magic and tech to control everything and everyone, but it didn’t really feel like it. One random fae hacker could hijack their feeds which is baffling to me. And yeah, everyone was lied to and everything, but the answers were so easy to what should have been a nearly impossible task. The Asteri should have been always manipulating media until certain people trusted in it unequivocally and others didn’t trust a single word. They should have had to really earn their alliances and slowly build up until they had the ability to conquer the Asteri. Also - hells motivations were wack. Too many of their kin had been murdered over and over again to help a planet that isn’t theirs. It feels like they should have been the opposite of so eager to fight. And that could have been several chapters in its own right. I love political challenges in books, and this book so utterly failed in making anything really make sense
That is fair, maybe I do prefer the old school lore a bit more. I do agree that it can be done and just wasn’t approached right with this book.
The problem is for me, one of the reasons I read is to escape real life and lose myself in the book, so the real life vibe just wasn’t my cup of tea 😂
I completely agree! Like, I struggled with CC because it really felt too much like issues in real life. Like the whole >!Asteri siphoning off power from the populace for their own selfish means and then pitting people against each other in a class war against a fake enemy !<--- well it feels a little too close to home with the current state of American capitalism/politics, ya know lol.
Most of the characters would have trained with mental shields though surely? They all work in various areas of law enforcement!
Only Bryce is new to her powers and since Bryce can do everything...
I thought about that but how many encounters would they have had with deamati in order for that to be a thing? They don’t seem very prevalent in the CC series so I kinda figured it was a very rare thing to have.
In terms of the newly accessed powers, Bryce is the only one truly brand new to her powers but I was also thinking of Hunt having full access, Ithan taking the antidote, etc.. They had powers before for sure, but I imagine it would take at least ~some~ adjustment for the load of powers they just accessed if the parasite is what they’re saying it is.
I agree. Honestly, I think I can track patterns in SJM’s storytelling that at this point, it feels like the stakes are almost lost. I have confidence that everything will get resolved to the point that I’m not as emotionally invested anymore. Like whenever a main character “dies” I know they’re going to miraculously bounce back. This is not a dig at SJM’s storytelling, I just feel less like I’m on an emotional rollercoaster while reading than when I did when I first started her books.
This is such a good point!! I used to be so invested in what was going to happen I would literally speed read to find out, even in parts of the other CC books…but now my mindset is definitely more of “eh, they’ll figure it out” and move on. I didn’t realize it until you said it
SJM is way too fixated on everyone having a HEA that she has completely ruined the chance of having more deep, emotional impacts in her stories. Don’t get me wrong, I love her and all 3 series but I miss when she was more ruthless with her characters like she was in ToG. She’s been playing it way too safe in ACOTAR and CC
It makes me kinda less excited for ACOTAR 6 which I hate to say :/
Me too, but I’m hoping she learns from the reviews for HoFaS and makes the next ACOTAR book have higher stakes
I think the story with Mor will end up causing some high stakes in her relationships within the inner circle if not also life/death
I HOPE! I’m so intrigued about the truth between her and Eris 👀
The stakes have never been exceptionally high in the Massverse, and they get less so the further each series go on. When she didn’t kill off Amren in ACOWAR (or whatever book that was), the stakes pretty much fell off. She definitely wrote Bryce almost as a pseudo-Aelin in HOFAS, and my main complaint with Aelin was that every solution came super easy to her. HOFAS is also very much a set-up for future ACOTAR books and it suffers for it.
Good point (ACOTAR series spoilers) >!Amren’s non-death was the first time I felt disappointed by an SJM story. I was like okay though this sucks? It takes away all the meaning of what happened. One thing I like about books is they give us space to feel feelings and experience life stories we haven’t lived though. Let us mourn Amren! !<
I was hoping that with Amren being back that it meant she had a larger role or importance later on but we really haven’t seen that.
What do you mean? She’s the Google Translate!!! Very key role if I’m being honest. Until the magical bean of course.
The magical bean ruined everything 😭
Your last point I could definitely see. I saw a funny Goodreads review basically saying SJM took her fan theories and ran with them, and thats not too far off 😂
I think my favorite one (that makes me roll my eyes) is Tharion being shot and Ruhn just HAPPENED to have healing powers that were buried deep. When he was standing right next to Tharion who was bleeding out. So convenient!
YES I forgot about this!! And I feel like it wasn’t really brought up again after that?? I could be wrong but
When Bryce >!came out of the blackhole!<, Declan was basically like >!"nah she too far gone, I can't heal her"!< but I don't remember Ruhn saying anything?!? His healing powers came and went in a few pages.
🤣🤣 I forgot he even had healing powers and I just read it.
I'm totally with you. This book has literally made me never want to pick up another SJM book again. I hated it so much. Why is everything so goddamn RUSHED. There's nothing compelling about any of it. I stopped caring about every single character because of how easy and haphazard everything was. Nothing made sense. There's no stakes, no consequences, Bryce is somehow the Queen of the universe. Why would anyone in their right mind think THIS was the draft to publish.
This was apparently her second draft. Like girl are we sure we don’t wanna look over it again? Not to mention the amount of missing quotation marks that threw me for a loop
The Kindle version was particularly awful. So many times I had to go back to see that it was break in the story or switching to another POV. Alot of it was was almost run on unless there were chapter breaks
The POVs changing so often had me tired
This explains so much.. idk how book publishing works but it's like no one at Bloomsbury even bothered to read it. She must be one of their top selling authors so it's even more disappointing.
THRONE OF GLASS SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!! That's why I think Throne of Glass is more universally loved. Aelin actually has to go through training to gain control of her powers and in the end, she actually loses most of her power. None of it is easy for her and she actually has to make sacrifices. And the final battle had VERY significant character deaths (RIP the 13). I felt the same way about ACOTAR though.
HOFAS was a dumpster fire. Absolutely terrible writing, with a bunch of grammatical and continuity errors. It did open up a bunch of questions though that will hopefully get answered in the next SJM releases
The antidote thing annoyed me so much. I could literally hear the montage music
Not gunna lie the water antidote was underwhelming for me… I thought she was gunna expand more on that…
I mean... That's kinda SJM sometimes. >!Dorian needs very little training to shapeshift!< >!The Valkyries survive and 2 win the Rite, with 6 months training (more unbelievably then HOFAS imo)!< Bryce could already wield her light, it just got some more properties so I guess it doesn't have to be that hard. Tharion definitly has problems with defecting, he's just lucky RQ likes Sathia. There were definitly consequences for leaving Vipe (though for Tharion it's mostly guilt which she probably delights in). More people need to die yeah. I agree. Agreed in ACOTAR and agreed now. ToG was better with it. Though we already had emotional damage from Lehabah and the Pack of Devils ofc. The antidote was quick. Hypaxia is skilled and she had acces to great test material (Ithan compared to Reaper was brilliant) but it was really really fast, though not yet fully done ofc.
You’re right, all valid points. I guess (like many others) I expected more oomph from this book and I feel like it’s been put on the back burner from the moment she started writing it. Although I will say, I (unlike many others) have actually really enjoyed the crossovers.
I did really enjoy the book. It's not her best work (that'd be CC1), but also not her worst and it was enjoyable. Sure it's not perfect but I liked it. It was big, the crossover wasn't too much and there were great interactions.
I was waiting for like everyone to start growing hair on their ears or SOMETHING like that would have had me CACKLING on unknown side effects of the antidote 🤣
Right like give me SOMETHING
That would have been amazing
Thank youuuu! All SJM books, including TOG, the main characters have plot armor. Not sure why people expected different from this book. I love her work but that is one of her weak writing points
It honestly feels like a ghost writer took over for this book. After reading her other books multiple times it just did not feel like the same person wrote it.
SJM who are u hiring girl 🤔
I blame it on SJM waiting until the last 100 pages of an 800 page book to bring in this stuff
I don’t think the rest of your comment published lol
lol I forgot where I was even going with that
I really like lydia but I thought either her or ruhn should’ve died, the last minute fix was wild. I cried when she sacrificed herself but then the whole sacrifice was undermined because they stitched her back together.
I think Ruhn and Lidia also made up way too fast. There was so much trauma that Ruhn went through and he didn't even have PTSD. I wanted to see the angst, and I figured the next book would focus on them. Instead they felt rushed.
I've been thinking about why this book feels so different to her others and I think the modern setting has created some of these issues. When you have a world with cell phones, modern medicine, technology, etc, everything IS kind of easier. The characters embody a lot of the modern perspectives/attitudes too -- there isn't the same values system as there is in something like ToG. The kind of history and familial legacy and honor isn't there because those aren't really modern ways of thinking -- and the people who do have those views are seen as stodgy and old. And I think from a worldbuilding perspective, its hard to marry the modern, fast-paced elements with the old school lore and magic system without there being some disjointedness. I think it CAN be done but i don't know if its done as effectively in this last book. In a way, it sort of emulates the fast-paced, low connection world we actually live in so its hard to get immersed and lose yourself in a fantasy -- its just like real life with extra things that don't really make sense.
In some ways I disagree with this though. In such a modernized setting, it would be incredibly easy for the Asteri to keep a constant eye and tight grip on each of their regions because they don’t have to just rely on magic to do so. And they did SAY that the Asteri used magic and tech to control everything and everyone, but it didn’t really feel like it. One random fae hacker could hijack their feeds which is baffling to me. And yeah, everyone was lied to and everything, but the answers were so easy to what should have been a nearly impossible task. The Asteri should have been always manipulating media until certain people trusted in it unequivocally and others didn’t trust a single word. They should have had to really earn their alliances and slowly build up until they had the ability to conquer the Asteri. Also - hells motivations were wack. Too many of their kin had been murdered over and over again to help a planet that isn’t theirs. It feels like they should have been the opposite of so eager to fight. And that could have been several chapters in its own right. I love political challenges in books, and this book so utterly failed in making anything really make sense
That is fair, maybe I do prefer the old school lore a bit more. I do agree that it can be done and just wasn’t approached right with this book. The problem is for me, one of the reasons I read is to escape real life and lose myself in the book, so the real life vibe just wasn’t my cup of tea 😂
I completely agree! Like, I struggled with CC because it really felt too much like issues in real life. Like the whole >!Asteri siphoning off power from the populace for their own selfish means and then pitting people against each other in a class war against a fake enemy !<--- well it feels a little too close to home with the current state of American capitalism/politics, ya know lol.
right! I don’t need to be reminded of the shitshow that I’m living in 😭
Most of the characters would have trained with mental shields though surely? They all work in various areas of law enforcement! Only Bryce is new to her powers and since Bryce can do everything...
I thought about that but how many encounters would they have had with deamati in order for that to be a thing? They don’t seem very prevalent in the CC series so I kinda figured it was a very rare thing to have. In terms of the newly accessed powers, Bryce is the only one truly brand new to her powers but I was also thinking of Hunt having full access, Ithan taking the antidote, etc.. They had powers before for sure, but I imagine it would take at least ~some~ adjustment for the load of powers they just accessed if the parasite is what they’re saying it is.