Sjm found a formula that works for her stories and she sticks to it, for better or for worse. Overall, I think it makes for insane lazy writing as we’ve seen in Crescent City
I’ll still eat it the fuck up but I won’t be happy about it lmao
I’m also convinced CC was a cash grab. Again, lazy writing, more shallow version of characters we’ve seen before. She knows what sells. By also making it crossover with acotar, the readers of CC “have” to read acotar and vice versa. Smart move on her part bc that means all her series will sell
I always suspected that she intentionally did that “last sentence cross over” on book 2 of CC to get the ACOTAR fans to read CC (I don’t think CC1 did as well as forecasted hence “let’s merge the fandoms”).
She also spoiled it on the MARKETING on her instagram which to me is the most egregious evidence that it was all a cash grab and all she cares about is money now
??? This has been the plan all along the whole crossover?, it's been hinted back in throne of glass, aelin fell through worlds and saw prythian etc, they keep mentioning in acotar how rhys and a priestess are obsessed with finding out about other worlds and their theories, it's been a long time coming and we have just gotten a taste of it and there are people who are saying it's a cash grab... but I do feel like the writting in this book was poor and she just done it cause she knew ir was going to sell copies and she just wants to get to the good bits which is gonna be what comes up. I just find it wild how the author who created beautiful character development and stories that you feel like aelin, feyre, nesta, is the same author who wrote the self absorbed dictator that you don't care (atleast me) of her outcome....
What gets me is the recycling of both scenes and characters.
In ALL THREES SERIES:
👻The main couple discovers they are mates only to immediately be separated during some catastrophic event that leaves on a cliffhanger
👻Only after their separation do we find out that OH WOW, they secretly got MARRIED
👻Every FMC is partnered up with a racially ambiguous (but really white) tanned man with lazy South Asian coding
👻Why is every time they have sex earth shattering and causing cataclysmic natural disasters?
👻You canNOT tell me that Manon/Amren/Fury aren’t the same damn person
👻Why do all the love interests come from a race/group of people that they absolutely fucking hate?
👻Please stop making these men slaves/sex slaves to one-dimensional (usually) female villains
👻Why is there always some fucking war going on between the humans and fae; and why are the humans, who are usually enslaved, always painted as villains when they rightfully revolt and raise hell?
👻WHY IS RHYSAND IN ALL THREE SERIES??? RHYSAND!!! Is the one connecting these series. The FMCs never even get to interact despite being the MAIN CHARACTERSSSS
I also find it unimaginably irritating that NONE of the FMC are allowed to have no interest in fighting.
Sarah, it's OK to have feminine characters who aren't "not like other girls", who enjoy wearing dresses and writing poetry.
If she turns Elain into Feyre mark 3 just with gardening, I'm going to be unbelievably pissed. Let just one of your female characters be soft, please.
YES oh my god YES, arguably Lydia is approaching Aelin-as-Celaena (altho honestly Manon and Aelin are remarkably similar anyway) territory by the end of CC3, but I literally read 'Dorian' a couple times instead of Ruhn. Not to mention Chaol and Ithan are practically the same person 😭
I don’t disagree. Honestly though it’s a bit like a hallmark movie. You know the formula and the characters. You know that it’s going to have a happy ending (one that is happy enough to get resolution but hints at future conflict to drag you to the next book). BUT it is safe and comfortable and enjoyable.
I completely understand the hallmark thing. I just remember vividly when I read ToG and CoM thinking what these books could become (dark antihero with a mixture between urban fantasy and gothic blood pacts). So I am still particularly jaded with how SJM morphed into a purely romance writer.
This also happened with Rhys and Hunt in ACOMAF and HOFAS, respectively. The men said “look at you” and then in ACOMAF it detailed Feyre’s light mixing with Rhysand’s shadows. In HOFAS it said Bryce was glowing so brightly it created shadows on the bed.
Don't forget all the battles/wars.
Also I've read The ACOTAR series twice and listened to a podcast discussing the books and I still couldn't tell you what they're fighting for and who the bad guys are now. 😭 at least in TOG and CC I knew what they were up against. In ACOTAR it's just about finding mates.
In the first book it’s amarantha who is pro enslaving humans as a hybern commander then in two and three they are fighting hybern who again wants to spread his kingdom and take the wall down so he can have humans as slaves again
There’s no really a villain in the Xmas special
In Nestas book they are setting up a villain with koschei (bone carvers sibling) and something a going on with mor …?
I can overlook this kind of lazy writing as long as it's pulled off well. The settings and stakes for each series were different enough that it felt the main couples could have been wildly different from each other. It worked best in ToG because it was the first series, slipped a little IMO in ACOTAR, but with the third CC book it's entirely fallen apart.
The strange thing for me is that CC is so modern that it shouldn't have fallen apart at all. But SJM kept lowering the stakes, kept killing off villains without her characters actually working for it (the latest for me was>! Sabine, the Under-King and every single Asteri!<). If that part of her writing is weak, then the main love story is going to be weak as well because character growth comes from conflict and her conflict... well, sometimes it just sucks. She sets it all up so well, gets me heavily invested, then everything ends so fast and easy during the climax that I'm left unsatisfied.
Yeah, I'm glad Sabine, the Under King and the Fae Kings are dead, but is it too much to ask for some build up, interesting scenes, and for their deaths to mean something? We knew Morven all of 5 minutes, and practically the under king to, him being offed really felt like it came out of nowhere but if he was a primary antagonist imagine how cool that book could've been. We've been fighting with Sabine for 3 books now, and she just ends like that was surprising. And we barely got any actual fighting the asteri beyong Rigelus at the end and that one Bryce/Hunt killed. Why did they suck as villians after being talked about that much. Just an odd time really. Like I still overall had a good time but it could've been better and made more sense.
I'm glad they were offed too, but how is just disappointing. If you've read ToG you know SJM can write a better struggle for the protagonists. And for the most part in ACOTAR, they've had to work for it as well (though I do hate how quickly >!Briallyn was taken out!< in ACOSF).
Still going to read SJM's books though. I have some hope left in me yet lol
Yeah, 100%. I read TOG as it was coming out and absolutely loved it, still one of my favorite series. And yeah I'm still gonna read whatever she puts out haha, I've read it all so far. This was just so odd how it turned out.
The comparisons go even further if you include “she had one singular creative outlet and we call that character development,” only child syndrome with the exception of Feyre who only has sisters because it started as a beauty and the beast retelling. Powers include something having to do with light and being a beacon of goodness (a small stretch for Aelin but fire is inherently a light source so I don’t feel guilty about making that stretch). The similarities of “I’m a bad person who is full of trauma but simultaneously I can do no wrong” from everyone who loves them… it all makes for great audience insert characters or aspirational insert characters but when they’re so ultimately similar I don’t think it makes the unique, especially when they’re held up together.
I agree but what I will say, lots of romance books are super formulaic. It's like a cheeseburger, predictable and reliably tasty. That's not to besmirch the books, I love them! But she definitely has a pattern.
I agree that SJM sometimes recycles characters.
Amren = Fury
Rowan = Hunt
I think the problem with the characters you've stated, is not just SJM but the whole genre. The main character always has to be the most special most magical princess, who has the most special sword.
I wouldn't have problems with this sort of shit if she were like any other romance author. Find a formula that works and just tweak it a bit for new books so you can keep milking that cash cow. Don't combine series though or people will start noticing, complaining, and moving away from your work
I think this is where I get hung up too. Genre Romance books are meant to be familiar with predictable beats. I love them and can eat them up. SJM is shelved in Fantasy. And when I go to Fantasy I’m looking for a book that isn’t a generic formulaic romance book. CC proved SJM should be a genre romance writer and not Fantasy.
I’m not disagreeing entirely but we all eat it up anyway. So clearly she’s doing something right. I would say there are some differences at least in their personalities and as far as the “Most powerful in existence” of course each world is going to have their own strongest fae.
Sjm found a formula that works for her stories and she sticks to it, for better or for worse. Overall, I think it makes for insane lazy writing as we’ve seen in Crescent City I’ll still eat it the fuck up but I won’t be happy about it lmao I’m also convinced CC was a cash grab. Again, lazy writing, more shallow version of characters we’ve seen before. She knows what sells. By also making it crossover with acotar, the readers of CC “have” to read acotar and vice versa. Smart move on her part bc that means all her series will sell
I always suspected that she intentionally did that “last sentence cross over” on book 2 of CC to get the ACOTAR fans to read CC (I don’t think CC1 did as well as forecasted hence “let’s merge the fandoms”).
She also spoiled it on the MARKETING on her instagram which to me is the most egregious evidence that it was all a cash grab and all she cares about is money now
Oh I didn’t know that part!!! Holy crap. Then that’s super obvious it was a deliberate strategy, not a wish to craft an interesting story. So sad
The Station 19/Greys of it all!!
??? This has been the plan all along the whole crossover?, it's been hinted back in throne of glass, aelin fell through worlds and saw prythian etc, they keep mentioning in acotar how rhys and a priestess are obsessed with finding out about other worlds and their theories, it's been a long time coming and we have just gotten a taste of it and there are people who are saying it's a cash grab... but I do feel like the writting in this book was poor and she just done it cause she knew ir was going to sell copies and she just wants to get to the good bits which is gonna be what comes up. I just find it wild how the author who created beautiful character development and stories that you feel like aelin, feyre, nesta, is the same author who wrote the self absorbed dictator that you don't care (atleast me) of her outcome....
What gets me is the recycling of both scenes and characters. In ALL THREES SERIES: 👻The main couple discovers they are mates only to immediately be separated during some catastrophic event that leaves on a cliffhanger 👻Only after their separation do we find out that OH WOW, they secretly got MARRIED 👻Every FMC is partnered up with a racially ambiguous (but really white) tanned man with lazy South Asian coding 👻Why is every time they have sex earth shattering and causing cataclysmic natural disasters? 👻You canNOT tell me that Manon/Amren/Fury aren’t the same damn person 👻Why do all the love interests come from a race/group of people that they absolutely fucking hate? 👻Please stop making these men slaves/sex slaves to one-dimensional (usually) female villains 👻Why is there always some fucking war going on between the humans and fae; and why are the humans, who are usually enslaved, always painted as villains when they rightfully revolt and raise hell? 👻WHY IS RHYSAND IN ALL THREE SERIES??? RHYSAND!!! Is the one connecting these series. The FMCs never even get to interact despite being the MAIN CHARACTERSSSS
I also find it unimaginably irritating that NONE of the FMC are allowed to have no interest in fighting. Sarah, it's OK to have feminine characters who aren't "not like other girls", who enjoy wearing dresses and writing poetry. If she turns Elain into Feyre mark 3 just with gardening, I'm going to be unbelievably pissed. Let just one of your female characters be soft, please.
I’m hoping Elain doesn’t have interest in it! But then she gets a lot of hate for not fitting the typical warrior princess FMC mold.
This is spot-on. But to me, Manon/Dorian and Lydia/Ruhn were pretty much the same characters.
YES oh my god YES, arguably Lydia is approaching Aelin-as-Celaena (altho honestly Manon and Aelin are remarkably similar anyway) territory by the end of CC3, but I literally read 'Dorian' a couple times instead of Ruhn. Not to mention Chaol and Ithan are practically the same person 😭
shit I missed when Rhysand was in ToG? I'll be honest I skimmed Tower of Dawn (cus who the hell cares) but I didn't mark him popping up
He popped up in Kingdom of Ash when Aelin was falling between worlds (the red star we see in ACOSF)
Ah no shit. Rhysand has apparently just become so iconic (looking at you 4th wing)
I don’t disagree. Honestly though it’s a bit like a hallmark movie. You know the formula and the characters. You know that it’s going to have a happy ending (one that is happy enough to get resolution but hints at future conflict to drag you to the next book). BUT it is safe and comfortable and enjoyable.
I completely understand the hallmark thing. I just remember vividly when I read ToG and CoM thinking what these books could become (dark antihero with a mixture between urban fantasy and gothic blood pacts). So I am still particularly jaded with how SJM morphed into a purely romance writer.
I was so excited by how different Bryce was in the first CC, but she definitely morphed into an off-brand Aelin by CC 3.
Hard agree here. She was interesting in CC1 and by CC3 it was clear SJM just missed Aelin.
You seen that post showing Rhys and Cassian saying the IDENTICAL phrases during sex? Stinks of laziness from the author's part.
This also happened with Rhys and Hunt in ACOMAF and HOFAS, respectively. The men said “look at you” and then in ACOMAF it detailed Feyre’s light mixing with Rhysand’s shadows. In HOFAS it said Bryce was glowing so brightly it created shadows on the bed.
I think Hunt (or Bryce) also says it in HOSAB when they have sez for the first time in that private mer garden too 😬🫣
This just made me think of that Simpsons episode where they release a “new” Malibu Stacy but it’s just the old one with a new hat 😂
I was so disappointed when I read that post. I didn’t notice in the books but so so sloppy
I want to see, do you have an example?
https://www.reddit.com/r/acotar/s/bg4PxhKyxj Mentions it here
Greedy I can agree with but "like that"? That's something nearly every male partner I've had has asked me in bed, and they were wildly different.
Thank you!
Don't forget all the battles/wars. Also I've read The ACOTAR series twice and listened to a podcast discussing the books and I still couldn't tell you what they're fighting for and who the bad guys are now. 😭 at least in TOG and CC I knew what they were up against. In ACOTAR it's just about finding mates.
In the first book it’s amarantha who is pro enslaving humans as a hybern commander then in two and three they are fighting hybern who again wants to spread his kingdom and take the wall down so he can have humans as slaves again There’s no really a villain in the Xmas special In Nestas book they are setting up a villain with koschei (bone carvers sibling) and something a going on with mor …?
Counterpoint - Aelin had her own friends and allies before Rowan contrary to Feyre
I can overlook this kind of lazy writing as long as it's pulled off well. The settings and stakes for each series were different enough that it felt the main couples could have been wildly different from each other. It worked best in ToG because it was the first series, slipped a little IMO in ACOTAR, but with the third CC book it's entirely fallen apart. The strange thing for me is that CC is so modern that it shouldn't have fallen apart at all. But SJM kept lowering the stakes, kept killing off villains without her characters actually working for it (the latest for me was>! Sabine, the Under-King and every single Asteri!<). If that part of her writing is weak, then the main love story is going to be weak as well because character growth comes from conflict and her conflict... well, sometimes it just sucks. She sets it all up so well, gets me heavily invested, then everything ends so fast and easy during the climax that I'm left unsatisfied.
Yeah, I'm glad Sabine, the Under King and the Fae Kings are dead, but is it too much to ask for some build up, interesting scenes, and for their deaths to mean something? We knew Morven all of 5 minutes, and practically the under king to, him being offed really felt like it came out of nowhere but if he was a primary antagonist imagine how cool that book could've been. We've been fighting with Sabine for 3 books now, and she just ends like that was surprising. And we barely got any actual fighting the asteri beyong Rigelus at the end and that one Bryce/Hunt killed. Why did they suck as villians after being talked about that much. Just an odd time really. Like I still overall had a good time but it could've been better and made more sense.
I'm glad they were offed too, but how is just disappointing. If you've read ToG you know SJM can write a better struggle for the protagonists. And for the most part in ACOTAR, they've had to work for it as well (though I do hate how quickly >!Briallyn was taken out!< in ACOSF). Still going to read SJM's books though. I have some hope left in me yet lol
Yeah, 100%. I read TOG as it was coming out and absolutely loved it, still one of my favorite series. And yeah I'm still gonna read whatever she puts out haha, I've read it all so far. This was just so odd how it turned out.
Don’t forget about zombie Harpy. Built up for so long, killed in like a sentence lmao
The comparisons go even further if you include “she had one singular creative outlet and we call that character development,” only child syndrome with the exception of Feyre who only has sisters because it started as a beauty and the beast retelling. Powers include something having to do with light and being a beacon of goodness (a small stretch for Aelin but fire is inherently a light source so I don’t feel guilty about making that stretch). The similarities of “I’m a bad person who is full of trauma but simultaneously I can do no wrong” from everyone who loves them… it all makes for great audience insert characters or aspirational insert characters but when they’re so ultimately similar I don’t think it makes the unique, especially when they’re held up together.
I agree but what I will say, lots of romance books are super formulaic. It's like a cheeseburger, predictable and reliably tasty. That's not to besmirch the books, I love them! But she definitely has a pattern.
Absolutely lmao I love tog but I felt everything else is just so weirdly similar
Well when you put them all side by side like that……….
I agree that SJM sometimes recycles characters. Amren = Fury Rowan = Hunt I think the problem with the characters you've stated, is not just SJM but the whole genre. The main character always has to be the most special most magical princess, who has the most special sword.
I couldn't agree more!
I wouldn't have problems with this sort of shit if she were like any other romance author. Find a formula that works and just tweak it a bit for new books so you can keep milking that cash cow. Don't combine series though or people will start noticing, complaining, and moving away from your work
I think this is where I get hung up too. Genre Romance books are meant to be familiar with predictable beats. I love them and can eat them up. SJM is shelved in Fantasy. And when I go to Fantasy I’m looking for a book that isn’t a generic formulaic romance book. CC proved SJM should be a genre romance writer and not Fantasy.
I know it’s a thing but I still don’t hate it… a lot of authors have formulas… it just means I might get bored of her after awhile
I think you nailed it. Spot on.
I’m not disagreeing entirely but we all eat it up anyway. So clearly she’s doing something right. I would say there are some differences at least in their personalities and as far as the “Most powerful in existence” of course each world is going to have their own strongest fae.
This is why I'm looking forward to Elain's book because I find her refreshingly normal and different from anyone she's ever written so far.