ACOTAR: Is It Worth The Hype?

Short answer? Definitely not. But also definitely yes.

I’m only one book down, so ACOTAR fans, I beg of you—be merciful to me.

That’s one book down in the five books fantasy/romance series that has taken TikTok by storm these past couple of years. It focuses on the story of Feyre, a hunter who kills a wolf in the woods one day and has her life changed forever as a result of it. I’d love to share some of my praises and complaints about the first novel with you all:

Pro: I loved the establishment of Feyre’s story and character at the beginning of the story. This is usually the most difficult part of a story to nail, along with a strong ending, but I think Maas does it very well here. Feyre is established as our main girl right off the bat. She’s a hunter, a provider and protector (stream Cowboy Carter, y’all) for her thus far rather naive/ungrateful family, and she’s a sympathetic and likable character. She’s kind and cares about people, but she’s not a pushover. She’s strong, witty, charming, occasionally funny, not super annoying, and can fend for herself. She’s like a little Katniss-Princess Merida-Bella Swan fusion, and I mean that with love. I liked her quite a bit. She maintains many of these positive qualities throughout the story.

Con: I think that plot convenience, or maybe rather just the author’s desire to implant lazily constructed drama and tension into the story, occasionally dumbs Feyre down as a character and makes her act overly arrogant at best/nonsensical and stupid at worst. She does not seem to contemplate the consequences of her actions, and she does not take advice from any of the people around her who look out for her. She also doesn’t take many things as seriously as she ought to, even when she is specifically told to. It makes her seem almost suicidal at times, honestly, with how recklessly she treats her own life in this new world where she is already vulnerable and so very mortal. But all this is fine, because it’s also balanced out by her being the luckiest person alive in the ACOTAR universe. Blessings of being a main character—I’m not even mad at it.

Pro: The last quarter of the book was quite good. I liked the trials, as they showed off more of Feyre’s capabilities and strengths and how far she’s willing to go for her boring ass man. Rhysand and Feyre’s little dynamic was interesting, as Rhysand is indeed very mysterious and charming, but the wine/lap dance part was just so weird that it kind of took me out of it a bit. Amarantha was a typical evil queen, but I kind of liked her cunning and ruthlessness as a villain because I felt like the book needed some evil. I also liked Feyre’s character development and her internal struggles with guilt and self-worth in the last part of the book, that I hope points to more development to come in the sequel.

Con: Despite it being the best part of the book, it isn’t without its faults. I disliked the whole riddle thing—not because the answer was too easy, even though Amarantha basically gave Feyre the answer to it before her third task and she still didn’t take the hint which was a bit frustrating, but because… why would Amarantha stake everything, the entire curse she upheld for 49 years, on one simple riddle to a human girl? I also kind of hate that the blight was just a fabrication for the real issue at hand, Amarantha and the curse, because the blight was a more interesting, more unique plotline, and there was little to no foreshadowing of it being made up at all. I hated that Feyre was like wow… Tamlin was trying to tell me this was the truth all along… when I was there thinking he really could have tried a WHOLE lot harder. But then he also couldn’t for… no reason? Because… Amarantha, I guess. And magic. And whatever. And the curse itself is also so dumb and so oddly specific. I hated how it made Feyre feel guilty for something so completely beyond her control. Oh my god, and I also hate how Tamlin just stood there next to Amarantha the entire time and acted like he didn’t care about Feyre until he and Feyre started sucking face at one of the parties before they get cockblocked by Rhysand. What a dick move. Even if he was trying to protect her, acting emotionless like that seemed so unnecessary. It was hurting Feyre’s feelings the whole time, too. Give my girl a break. Also, the two of them trying to bang in the middle of the party, after not speaking for all that time, with all the unspoken stress and tension between them that they could have had a conversation about instead, with Rhysand and Amarantha barely one room away, with Feyre literally basically stating she would be lucky to get a SECOND alone with Tamlin, was also very dumb. I’ll leave it at that.

Pro: One book of hers down and this is already quite evident to me: Sarah J. Maas is super talented at incorporating expert levels of steaminess and sexuality into her work. She’s good at creating a bunch of sexy male characters that are going to appeal to its widely female audience. We got the dark, brooding blond hottie in Tamlin and the smug, morally ambiguous… violet-eyed daddy in Rhysand (his violet eyes are mentioned a lot, like a LOT a lot). The variety of hot dudes keeps readers intrigued, especially since Feyre has a connection and a level of chemistry with all of them. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure of romance; you get to pick the personality you like the most and root for that dude to get with Feyre. Like a light novel of sorts. It’s fun.

Con: Some of the romantic/sexy writing gets really cringey. Every time Tamlin growled, or Rhysand’s eyes sparkled, or shone like stars, or were violet, or Feyre feels something “in her” that is not a penis but is a clear allusion to it—a little piece of me died. That means a LOT of pieces of me died. Sarah J. Maas has killed me.

Also, oh my god. I’m sorry, Ms. Maas, but “my bowels turned watery” is the most disgusting sentence you could have possibly chosen in the entirety of our English language in order for you to express the fear of a character. I was forced to picture Feyre needing to take a watery shit every single time she said it. It just sucked the tension and danger out of the moments by being such a wild thing to say.

Random but one last little complaint—Amarantha has red hair. All of a sudden in the last leg of the story, she is stated to have black hair. Um? Pardon me? She’s already been established as red haired, Sarah, do not fuck with my mind. For someone like me who always has a vivid picture of all the characters in my head, it was a glaring, devastating mistake. It hurt my feelings.

To sum everything up, ACOTAR was actually not as bad as I thought it would be; it was quite enjoyable. It didn’t read like a bad fanfiction, but rather a very good one. The book had a lot of stuff that I liked. I dig the fae/fairy lore, the gorgeous kingdoms, the trials, the evil queen, the hot dudes, and a classic “chosen one” protagonist. I liked all the action and the fight scenes and the moments of tension and drama, especially with Rhysand. But I also found myself falling into boredom whenever the book tried to go too much into a romance direction, which is a big part of the story. I just don’t think that Feyre and Tamlin have a lot of chemistry, and the chemistry they do have seems purely physical. I also don’t think Tamlin is as intriguing of a character as Feyre, at least not yet. I would have liked to see him fight harder for her—or better yet, see them become enemies again by the end of the book for dramatic effect. Something needs to impact this relationship to make it better, or it has to end. The clear sexual tension building between Feyre and Rhysand might be hinting to their eventual relationship instead, which could be an interesting direction for the series to go in, but in a lot of ways Rhysand seems like even more of an asshole than Tamlin, especially with that whole wine thing. I’d love to know more about his character, though—why he did what he did for Amarantha, how he actually felt towards her and the curse, what his motives and morals were. Rhysand and Tamlin developments would be very much appreciated; I’d also love to know about their clearly odious pasts with one another.

But most importantly, I want to see more of Feyre! I do think that Maas has a vision for Feyre, but I just don’t know if that vision was reached fully in this book. And hey, there’s five massive books in this series—maybe this isn’t meant to be her conclusion. But I can’t help but feel like Feyre would be better just ditching Tamlin for good, because he’s kind of a douche. She’s such an interesting and lovable character at her core; I want to see her without Tamlin and all his baggage, who she is beyond his lover, who she is beyond any man. That’s my hope for the sequels.

All in all, I was super entertained but also super frustrated at this book. That being said, not only am I super down for reading the next book—I’m starting it immediately. There is such an indescribable pull I feel to this book, this world, and these characters, even if I didn’t feel certain that I liked it that much more than I disliked it, and even if it turns into somewhat of a hate read like it did a little bit in this instance—I need that sequel. Hopefully it doesn’t though; this world and these characters genuinely do have a lot of potential, and despite all the shortcomings it has, I’m looking forward to exploring what Sarah J. Maas does with them next!