acotar – Simone and Her Books

No, this isn’t some salacious post about Sarah J Maas or the ACOTAR series. I’m just over her books and wanted to come on here and talk about why. This post isn’t a drag. This is just a reader who’s grown out of Sarah J Maas and her work.

If you’re new to the fantasy genre, Sarah J Maas is one of those authors people pick up in hopes of finding love in the genre. For the most part, people pick up SJM and gush over the characters, especially the male characters. They love the bad ass females set in these Fae worlds. And for a really long time, I also really loved Sarah J Maas for the same things.

Over the holidays, the cover for A Court of Silver Flames was revealed and while at that point I was really excited about the book, I wasn’t too excited for the cover. It didn’t match the covers of the past three books, but matches the new covers set out for them. So I could get a copy of this book, but would probably have to buy the rest of the series in the new covers to match. You know the bookshelf aesthetic; every book in a series must match.

But truthfully, it doesn’t matter what the cover looks like because we get a new book in the series, right? And while I was waiting for the newest story, I read Crescent City as well as numerous other fantasy novels over the course of 2020. I thought Crescent City was wildly entertaining filled with characters you’ll love and a story that keeps moving for all 800 pages of that chonker. But there was a waning feeling; a sense that perhaps SJM doesn’t speak to me as much as she used to.

And I love seeing folks picking up her books for the first time. I love seeing people who don’t normally read fantasy books find something of interest in her books. But something happened to me between finishing Crescent City, seeing the cover for A Court of Silver Flames, and everything in between. My love for SJM wanes a little everyday and my interest in her new book isn’t as much as it used to be.

At this point in my life, I’ve read some great fantasy books that I would much rather read than SJM’s books. Perhaps what I’m feeling is that I’m growing up and some of the books that I loved when I was younger will be fondly remembered, but no longer followed closely. I’ll most definitely appreciate SJM for writing some great stories that thrust me into the YA fantasy world. I appreciate the fact that she’s written something digestible with characters worth investing your time and energy into and keeping me on my toes from book to book to book. But it’s time to finally put her away, read other books, and find other worlds beyond this one. Because like many parts of our lives, our reading lives are ever evolving journeys between worlds. We grow tired of one and then move onto the next one with great respect for the books that got us here. You can say I’m setting off into the sherbert-colored sunset tipping my hat to the author who started off my love for fantasy.

Again, I’m not hating on SJM and the folks who absolutely love this series and her books. I encourage everyone to pick up this book, but what I’ve concluded after writing this post is that I’ve outgrown her work. I’ve moved beyond Sarah J Maas to other authors that I want to put my effort into.

Some of you may do this while others take a more traditional approach, but I love to track my books on Goodreads. Being as my day job consists of looking at numbers all the time, I wanted to look at the numbers for a book I was reading. How long does it take me to read a book? What genres motivate me more? What motivates me less? What do I truly love to read? I can find out all that information through tracking.

So when I recently finished reading A Court of Wings and Ruin (or lovingly referred to as ACOWAR) by Sarah J. Maas, I did what I always do; I marked it on my Goodreads. And lo and behold, I can see the dates I started reading the book and when I finished.

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Looking closely at the status dates, I started ACOWAR on May 9th and marked it read on June 9th. That is ONE MONTH of reading a book.

I think the last time it took me that long to read a book I was reading 1Q84 and I wasn’t as avid a reader as I am now. That book took me four months, but we don’t have to talk about that.

You must be thinking, a 700-page book and it only took you a month? Please that seems accurate. But it doesn’t feel accurate when the last book you read by Sarah J. Maas was even longer and you read it in eight hours.

Yes. Eight, straight hours.

Granted there are a million excuses for me not reading faster or carving more time out of my day to read this book, but I think the biggest reason why I didn’t read is just circumstance. I was busy getting fired from my job. I was busy looking for another job. I was busy putting all my life possession into boxes, moving to another city, and then unpacking all those boxes. I didn’t have Internet for a week and then I got a new job that I needed to focus on.

And the reason why I bring this up is because life is filled with circumstance. There will be days, weeks, or even years where you don’t have time to read. Just remember that deep down while you don’t have a book in your hand, you’re still a book reader. If it takes you a week or a month to read a book, just be happy with the fact that you’re reading. You’re educating yourself and you’re questioning the understood belief.

People always say that life is short, but it’s only short if you want it to be. If you savor each moment and spend your time doing instead of thinking, then you might think life is short, but it’ll have been the greatest life of all time. Don’t waste your time getting caught up by your reading challenge. If you’re a blogger, don’t feel guilty for not writing a post in a few months. People always find a way back to you especially if they like you.

Anyway, onto my review.

Synopsis

23766634 Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

This book was difficult for me to get through despite the fact that I had some outside circumstances getting in my way of finishing it. However, I feel like this always happens when you’re reading a book series.

Rating: 4/5 Cauldrons

My thoughts

Aside from the fact that it took me a month to read this, I thought this book was OK. In comparison to the last two, this felt like a mid-series novel where a lot of set up needed to happen in order for the final battle can happen. There was a lot of setting up of meetings and conversations and thoughts and wondering about things and sometimes you need to sacrifice a book to the series gods in order to build up for the big thing. I was worried this book would be a whole bunch of build up and then nothing happens. I thought Sarah J Maas was going to leave us on the edge of our seats and wait for the next book to come out. However, she doesn’t. Actually, I loved this ending (and endings are a bit of a sore subject for me), but where will she go from here?

Another big thing about this book is that we see the true nature of the characters that Sarah J. Maas created. I was kind of shocked to see that some of them were “playing the game” while others were just hurt and sad. It’s true to reality where we wear these masks of pride in order to hide what we truly feel. In the end, masks are removable and for the characters, no one can hide for long.

I was reading a few reviews of this book and someone brought up the fact that Feyre has had it pretty easy for her. Without knowing spells or having the talent or the little tidbit where she was human, she’s been able to manage through the Fae world pretty easily without being too injured or too abandoned. I guess that blogger is right. It’s been pretty easy for her, but I do hope that things get a little bit tough. Granted, I don’t want to see anyone die, but perhaps that’s what’s in store in the future. Perhaps we’ll see something go wrong.