I have to be honest. I set out knowing I’d hate this book. This shit just isn’t for me. But with how popular it is and how much I talked about it in passing, I had to actually know if what I wanted to say was true or not. As it turned out, I actually hate this book more than I thought I would. And maybe hate isn’t even the right word. I hated reading it, I don’t hate that it exists. It’s like eating something you’re mildly allergic to and don’t even enjoy. Just eating it to be polite.

Because I am a hater, I gotta say what I think of ACOTAR in detail.

It’s badly written. In more ways than I thought it could be. Sara J Mass uses way too many words. There are full paragraphs when she could much more concisely use one sentence to communicate the feeling or revelation. For example, Feyra’s inner monologue might go on and on about how Tamlin is a moody bitch that she does not understand when it’d better to just say that. But even that would be unnecessary because SJM already wrote several scenes showing us that Tamlin is a moody bitch. It would have made more sense to just show Feyra being captivated by Tamlin’s moody bitchiness. Most stories do this because it’s entertaining, informative, and efficient.

This leads right into my next point: SJM writes as if her readers are forgetful imbeciles. She writes down points she already made earlier like they’re revelations never mentioned in the story before. They are not observations that Feyra has in context or Feyre connecting dots because Feyre already did that except doing it two times is not enough, it has to be shocking the third time around too. They are literal thoughts that Feyra had cognitively, repeated after observing or hearing, being stated again as if they are news.

One of my biggest gripes with this book is that SJM does not foreshadow, she straight up lies to the readers or doesn’t give substantial evidence so she pull off her “plot twists”. The heart of stone, the blight, Nesta, it’s all bullshit. Of course the plot twist is twisty when there was no reason for the reader to think anything else. SJM, seemingly, did not plan out the story sufficiently by any means if she relies on such obvious and cumbersome methods.

The characters are just names being thrown around and at best vague concepts. It’s difficult for me to believe that Mass ever truly liked the story with how flimsy everything about it is. Out of all the characters I liked the villain and Lucian best. Amarantha because she was funny sometimes and Lucian because he’s the most consistent and least annoying. The way Feyra responds to traumatic shit and the way she remembers traumatic shit is so bizarre. She acts as if she’s bitter but then a moment later narrates that she’s used to being treated badly so it doesn’t affect her. She’s inconsistent. With every single new event she is “moved to her very core”. Even when she’s depressed she’s longwinded and dramatic. Every chance SJM has to make Feyra relatable she squanders by making her obtuse and pathetic. Not pathetic as in defeated and lost but pathetic as in the worst. It’s like her character is played by a bad actress despite this being a book. I can feel her performing what she thinks should be the right emotion despite having never actually seen a real person feel anything ever. On top of that, Feyra is stupid. It’s not her fault, Mass just wrote the story so badly that it was impossible not to make the pov character look and sound stupid. At no point in the story were she and Tamlin interesting together. All their interactions felt as if they had the impression that the other had at one point been in the same room they were currently in and was responding to what they thought the other might say. Their hot moments felt like the come socks forgotten under a teen’s bed or lukewarm oatmeal. Rhysand makes no sense. He’s creepy. The way he’s presented makes him feel like the result of a lesbian middle schooler trying to imagine what a hot guy would be like for an English paper.

Why does SJM write the story as if fairies SHOULD hold human morals? It’s not like it’s written as if fairies are different creatures with different cultures and belief but rather, as I’d they consistently choose to be cruel despite knowing that they shouldn’t but SJM simultaneously wrote that fairies DO have different customs and traditions but the reasoning feels like it’s more because they’re human plus hot and scary, not entirely different creatures. Also the set up is disgustingly classist for no reason at all. And let me be clear, the story is classist against the common fae. The story frames it like, “ew, not the peasant fae, they’re smelly and savage.” The story frames it like the common fae SHOULD be treated poorly.

And my personal, biggest problem with the book is how unnaturally, and forcefully cis gendered and heterosexual it is. It is *humidly* straight! It’s not just in its characters being cishet, it’s in the way it’s set up, the tones it takes, the pacing, the word choices. The gender dynamics are suffocating with how “beastly” Tamlin and Rhysand are and how reliant and vulnerable and unwilling Feyra is. Rhysand, with his dark clothing and jewelry gives off faint queer vibes but those are instantly crushed with how he corners and feeds off Feyre’s fear and anger. And then there is the disgusting male/female language all the goddamn time; it is painful to read. I get that Feyra is looking at the fae as different creatures that don’t conform to human gender norms but they do and throughout the whole book Feyra is interacting with them so why??? And even if the fae did only recognize themselves as their sex wouldn’t they have their own language for that? The way that the book referred to everyone by their sex made them feel like something being consumed or used, not like characters. On top of that the way each “male” fae was described, including if not especially the love interest, gave them an undertone of sexual violence. I think this was intentional because in our culture sexual violence is framed as salacious more often than not. But for me, it was unpleasant.

I’d never recommend this to someone. Not because I don’t think anyone would enjoy it or I don’t want people to enjoy it but because I don’t think it serves it’s purpose.