there are some spoilers in this video for Crescent City, ACOTAR & Throne of Glass. while i did my best to warn you in the video itself, i completely forgot about the one at 38:50 (throne of glass spoiler) check the description box for all the details & timestamps, hope that helps! 🧚🏻♀️
Exactly 😭😭 I was like "girl frodo never recovered from all the shit he went through, what do you think those last chapters were about?" My man literally went through hell and back carrying the embodiment of evil and was permanently scarred physically and emotionally for the rest of his life 😭
17:52 "the characters in lord of the rings are not traumatized enough" Frodo goes to the undying lands with the eleves at the end of the books because he can't live among the happy go lucky hobbits after everything he's gone through. Wdym that no one explored trauma in fantasy before you???? Have you read the books you criticize??? (Sorry, that comment really hurt my brain)
I was looking for this exact comment! Frodo at the end is supposed to be a representation of how after WWI many soldiers came home and didn't know how to continue on living their everyday lives after the trauma they'd experienced!
A lot of people do not actually interpret Frodo going to the undying lands in that particular way, a lot of people see it more as some kind of a reward or an elevation of him over other hobbits, or something. (But, also, yeah....a lot of people have only seen the movies, not actually read the books.😅) But she didn't actually say that literally no one had done it before, she just said that in general it was typically not done very often or was glossed over a lot or given much less central focus. Even if there are specific exceptions(especially post like 2012 or so .. give or take a few years), as a general rule she's still not totally wrong. And going away to the elves because you can't function in normal society anymore in the very end really isn't exactly the same thing as his trauma actively being explored or focused on directly throughout the course of the entire book or right in the midsts even during other events unfolding in the book or actively exploring how to try and cope with actually trying to still live with other/'normal' people and not just retreating entirely from all society as you previously knew it altogether. Ssoo..... 🤷 idk. I feel like both you all and her have valid points, and the real answer probably lies someplace in the middle. I dunno.
The fact that she thinks she writes trauma better than Tolkien is down right offensive. Frodo's whole storyline is a metaphor for trauma of war. He is deeply irreversibly traumatized and it can't be fix by sex or a workout. Through all the other characters are shown various different reactions to trauma. Some of them more seriously effected than others. All SJM writes is women with PTSD who just need some good sex and a workout and the PTSD is fixed. But I will say none of the "plagiarism" she's accused of is plagiarism. The lines from other books work more like references than actual teft. Her work is derivitive, absolutely, but not plagiarized.
"But I will say none of the "plagiarism" she's accused of is plagiarism. The lines from other books work more like references than actual teft. Her work is derivitive, absolutely, but not plagiarized." well in fact it is. If you copy sth and do not give a source its still considered a plagiarism. In this video not but I suggest checking Tumblr because there are a lot more examples of things stolen by SJM. It kind of reminds me of Cassandra Clare's case when she, at the biginning of her writing journey to write her fanfiction abt Draco Malfoy, stole quotes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5 and Pamela Dean's book The Hidden Land. Just like SJM she passed them off as her own and was also praised for them. However everything changed, when a user named Avocado revealed her plagiarism. Later she proceeded into cyberbullying her critics. In Sarah J Maas case it would have still be good if she at least asked these authors for permission to use their quotes in books.
@@niesamowitagabichan3394 Singular lines do not count as plagiarism in the context of novels (in different context they might). If they would large junks of the whole literary canon would be plagiarized. How many times have authors written the line "to be or not to be?" without crediting Shakespere? Plagiarism or copyright infringement protects writers/artists/etc. from someone making profit of off their work and them losing potential income because of it. But will anyone buy sjm books instead of harry potter because she uses very vaguely similar line in her work? Simply no. Throwing plagiarism around is destructive to whole creative field and doesn't in fact help at all with the real plagiarism issues. Real copyright infringement actually has financial impact on people. It's companies removing writing credit to avoid proper payment and shady retailers selling unlicensed copies of books without paying royalties etc. Sometimes it's also content farming authors putting up multiple books a year and doing it by writing very little, instead plagiarising large junks from other authors, making it much harder for the actual writers to compede and survive the industry. If there's no evidence of sjm copying large continuos junks of other works, with maybe some rewording, which this video at least didn't claim, then there's no evidence of her plagiarising. Copyright doesn't give ownership of singular sentences or plotpoints, or character concepts, or ideas, or story structures. I don't know about Cassandra Clare but if it was the same as this, it doesn't sound plagiarism. Though sounds like she's like shitty person other ways. It's not like I care to defend either of these people, their works are wholly unappealing to me. But I will defend creative expression.
@@karoliinalehtinen6701Shakespeare’s writing is in the public domain, meaning writers are legally allowed to quote him without citations. The other more modern authors works are not in the public domain. Also, can you please provide citations to back up your claims about copyrights.
@@karoliinalehtinen6701 The weavers song was almost all exactly copied. She just changed a few words and as far as I know, didn't credit. (Please correct me if I'm wrong)
Her Breonna Taylor post is what made me no longer read her books. As a black woman, to me, it felt very tone death. If she really cared that much about Breonna Taylor & police brutality she should have made a whole separate post about it. Not combine it with her cover reveal where most of her readers are only going to care about the book. Really seemed like she was trying to get brownie points from black readers. And she kept the post up after people said it was in bad taste!! Also, the one thing I hate the most about this is that whenever this topic is brought up her fanbase turns rabid and refuses to listen and understand why people feel the way they do about the situation.
That is really bad, like it makes me question her work as an author. Like if she's going to use the murder of a black woman as a way to sell books, she's not a good person.
There's always two sides to these types of faux pas though and that's why people disagree. For some they see it as her using her book and popularity to reach her audience about the issue and promote it since her audience is largely white. The other half are saying she was using Breonna to promote the book that's why people don't agree about it. Also her rabid fanbase can actually be the most critical of her work so unsure why they would protect thus unless they assumed it was situation 1 and not situation 2. PR is tricky and she probably got told she did nothing wrong which is why the post is still up. Personally I think most authors could use more media training because I wouldn't attach a post like that to anything else, but that's just me.
She honestly could’ve been fine if she had dedicated the book to her and donated a portion of the proceeds to her family. Like, that would’ve made the post make sense.
@@ll2323 It's a little more complicated than that to actually set something like that up, though, probably. I mean, the books were already printed, how is she going to put a dedication in there? And without having been able to arrange something beforehand when they first set things for the release into motion to just automatically pull a certain percentage of every sale and deposit it in donation or something, I feel like there would likely be a whole lot of other hoops to jump through to figure out how to donate any of it-I mean, she couldn't force the publisher to donate anything from their portion of the profit, she could only donate from her own portion of it....and she couldn't do that before the sales were finalized and everything, since preorders can be canceled, etcetera. Maybe she still should have tried to do something like that anyway, but maybe this was the one thing she actually knew how to actually do in the actual moment? It's difficult to say.
Maybe she knew that it was more likely that her fans would actually stop and read it and become aware of the situation rather than just skimming right past without even looking if she included it in a post that actually mentioned her book too. Like a compliment sandwich, that starts with a compliment then offers some criticism then closes with another compliment, or something. I'm not saying that made it actually the best or most proper way she should have gone about it. I'm just acknowledging that it is possible there could have been other motivations other than just trying to use the buzzy news to catch more eyes for her book. It's impossible to know for sure without literally being inside her head, unfortunately.
Rhys' first encounter with Feyre in ACOTAR is a blatant copy of Howl meeting Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle. The entire setup, the hidden/double context, in addition to the exact words "There you are. I've been looking for you" to get her away from two men accosting her. It makes me furious that readers believe SJM came up with this complex, nuanced meeting when it's a blatant plagiarism of a much better story.
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 I argue that's not a trope, but a blatant copy. If you watch the scene in HMC, it's the exact same. It also doesn't help that SJM mentioned listening to HMC soundtrack to help write. There's tropes, inspiration, and plagiarism. I've always felt that that scene fell between the latter two.
@@stephaniea2932 It IS a fairly common trope, though, regardless of whether SJM used that particular one in her book in a specifically inspired-by or plagiarized way or not. I have actually seen that scene in HMC, although I haven't actually read any of SJM's books. But my point/question was, exactly how much does it actually resemble that scene in HMC specifically, and how much does that scene in both HMC and SJM's book simply resemble basically any other scene of that specific nature with that specific trope in basically any of the many other things that have also had such a scene in them? I know I've encountered several of them in several different things throughout the years myself, although I can't currently recall exactly what things all of them were in or not just off the top of my head right now. And it's not a completely uncommon practice for people to not merely take inspiration from but to sometimes also occasionally recreate certain small moments as deliberate homages to some other previous work of fiction or such before theirs-and there can be a really fine line sometimes between recreated homages versus plagiarism, because plagiarism is intended to sneakily try and pass itself off as a totally original creation of someone who did not in fact actually first create it, but recreated things/moments are actually and deliberately supposed to be overtly and blatantly recognizable even without saying so as having been lifted directly from whatever previous work had done it first and supplanted into whatever newer thing is paying tribute to that to anybody else who has also seen both it and the prior piece of fiction too. (For example, in the 'Interview with the Vampire' tv series, there is a certain moment when a certain character rips their shirt open and steps out into the sunlight that I can almost guarantee you was probably a deliberate recreation of a certain scene in one of the Twilight movies when a certain other character ripped their shirt open and stepped out into the sunlight also-but literally nothing immediately before or after that one specific frame/moment was plagiarized from anything else, the IwtV tv series just likes paying tribute to various popular vampire cinema and tv from throughout the ages like that because Anne Rice was a passionately avid lover of all things vampire movies and tv throughout the years specifically moreso even than she was ever a fan of vampire literature like her own and it was actually an old vampire movie which had first inspired her to ever even write her IwtV book to begin with. And in various Final Fantasy video games, there are many assorted little things/moments that were deliberately lifted from Star Wars and transplanted instead into FF too, like certain random background characters often being named Biggs and/or Wedge as well as certain quotes from one of Yoda's famous speeches sometimes appearing in other characters' dialogue and that one moment when Leia or Han or whoever sees Luke disguised as a Storm Trooper and remarks on him being 'a little short...for a storm trooper' or whatever also having been recreated at least once. If I recall it correctly, little moments like that don't always count as plagiarism either just because they are culturally understood nods/tributes and/or because I think it's something like 40-to-60% or more of a thing that has to be plagiarized from something else or some-such like to legally qualify, unless I'm grossly misremembering here(which is always possible); and it also has to be plagiarized specifically not for certain specific purposes or not in certain specific ways/manners/fashions or whatever that are actually considered legally allowable for certain reasons, such as if it's parody and/or commentary and/or criticism and/or considered somehow sufficiently transformative and not at any risk of ever truly infringing upon and harming or taking anything away from the original work's rights/sales/profits/market/audience or whatever.) But since I haven't read SJM's books, and I don't personally know SJM to ask her about it or her intentions with it, I really couldn't tell if I would myself in fact actually agree or disagree with you about what the scene in SJM's books actually was or not...in this particular case. 🤔🤷🤷♀️🤷🏻♂️ 🙂 I was just opening a discussion / making conversation / expressing my own general thoughts when reading your prior comment, or whatever-not really trying to argue or tell you that you were somehow wrong to think/feel about it the way that you do, at all. Lol
((I think it's still totally fair to be bothered by it that some people don't know or recognize that it is/was already a pre-existing thing even before SJM, either way, though. Just to be clear! 🙂🤍))
I think that Sarah's books are only "super spicy" for protestant societies. The throne of glass series barely has a couple of sex scenes, acotar series has more but they're mostly standard nothing particularly kinky (also, terribly written). I don't know why people talk about her books like they're pornographic or something. Idk maybe is because I've been on ao3 since that site was created but she seems pretty tame (unless you're not used to adult books having sex in them??)
i think that spice in ACOTAR was so sensational because people were not used that in traditionally published YA books it of course can’t even hold a candle to smut on ao3 lol 🌶️😂
I kind of refer to the ACOTAR series as smut for people who never had a fanfic phase. There’s so much better written smut on Ao3 that anyone who’s been on the site will find the ACOTAR smit fairly boring.
omg YESS! THIS! ^^^^ I was so dissapointed when everyone was screaming "fairy smut fairy smut" on social media and marketing her books as these spicy fantasy novels and then I read them and there's barely ANY content of such themes and if there was it was sooooo stale and tame. I kept asking myself with every page "where is it??? where is it???"
@@SkyeSoleil LOL isn't that who every TikTok famous book is for? Of the many reasons TikTok books hurt my soul, one of them is that I used to read comparable or even better books on Wattpad. Ao3 crowd says the same for Ao3. We used to read these books for free and we need to bring fanfic/Wattpad phase back.
They’re the dickheads who believe that everyone wants to be them when I reality no one thinks they’re all that. I guarantee you the people of Velaris only tolerate them because they have to, not because they actually like them.
Just came to say this. Theres a tumblr community of ACOTAR fans who actually despise parts of the book and I love reading all of the different points they'll make. Definitely a fun 'deep cut' to look through lmao
Yeah, and her writing is just repetitive and it's sometimes even cringey. The fact that she has to have multiple prequels, and multiple "extra chapters" just goes to show that she is pretty unorganized as a writer and her writing is actually really bad… especially if those "extra chapters" are essential to understanding the next books, just tells you everything you need to know about her. I don't know if she has ADD or ADHD but it's pretty annoying when you do that I've never seen a writer do what she does, where things that are essential to understanding the story are just "extra" and not included in every copy of the book… that's just bad writing and bad marketing. The “extra chapters” was probably a one time thing, and then she probably realized that it did make her more money because then people had to go out and specifically buy the most expensive copies, from Barnes & Noble, even if they already had copies, if they found out that there were other chapters that weren't in their books, if they didn't know that before hand, then they would have to go out and buy more copies specifically from Barnes & Noble, which gives the funds directly to the writer, and she must've made a significant amount of more money and decided that that was a good marketing strategy to make more money. Because I never heard of any other writer doing this shit before, and then she did it with throne of glass, and then she was like “oh wow this is so great. I make so much more money. People have to go out and buy more copies.” 🙄 Then she does not really tell you, that there are extra chapters in the said specific books at these said specific stores, and lets you find out for yourself, so that way you've already bought a copy or several copies from other bookstores other than Barnes & Noble, and by the time you find out that there are extra chapters since she doesn't specify that there are certain copies at certain locations and stores that have these “extra chapters”, then you're gonna have to go and buy the entire series over again just to be able to have those extra chapters… So boom, more money for her since she didn't really tell her audience in the way that she doesn’t make these in every copy of the books, that there were certain copies at certain stores with the extra chapters. Oh, it's genius. It's shady as fuck, but it's still genius, because it works, and because people do…. They actually go out and buy these extra copies, and they buy several sets of the same book set just to be able to have the “extra chapters” or to have the aesthetics, because they’re such die-hard fans for no real reason. It's slick, it's fucked up, and it's greedy as fuck, but it works… because her specific audience doesn't seem to care that she's essentially screwing them over. To me, she is like the snake of writers . Jk Rowling never pulled this shit. Philip Pullman never pulled this shit. Suzanne Collins never pulled this shit. Rick Riordan never did. Stephenie Meyer never did. She is the first and only author to pull this shady snake screw over crap on her readers… She has some nerve… Is she trying to commit career suicide?! She is so fucking greedy and you know what, I think she's actually pretty evil. Also, the fact that she does this with every book tells you that it's not a necessity to do this “extra chapter thrown” in bs that is not in every copy sold, and that it's a money grab more than anything else… Also, if you don't know about the extra chapters or fawn over her every move, then you won't know about them until later on... so let's say you see her books on display at a random book store and you don’t know much about them, or SJM, and you pick a few of them up, then you wouldn't even know about these "extra chapters" and that you have to buy them specifically from Barnes & Noble to have them… That’s a d*ck move.
one of my biggest issues with sjm's WRITING (aka not the objectionable stuff that she has said and done personally) is simply the double standards. rhysand is just as bad as if not worse than tamlin, and yet the narrative treats him as if he's an angel. it would be one thing if it were an unreliable narrator situation, where rhysand's behavior is simply normalized by this pseudo-historical society and so feyre et al don't conceptualize rhysand's behavior as an issue. but it's NOT, because when tamlin pulls *the exact same shit* it's rightfully called out as toxic or abusive, meaning that even if acotar's society at large doesn't view these behaviors as wrong, these specific characters do... except not when rhysand does them. it's a trend with a lot of mediocre authors where instead of writing good and bad actions, they write good and bad people. and if the "good" character does something, it's good, while if the "bad" character does something, it's bad, because good people do good things and bad people do bad things, even if those things are the exact same. also, child ballad 39 (the ballad of tam lin), which book one of acotar is vaguely based on / inspired by, is one of my favorite fairy tales of all time. and since it's not very well known to the average person, the only modern novel-length adaptation / derivative of it is fucking acotar. and for that i will never forgive her. + at 20:55 i get what she's going for, but if she's trying to make a point about fantasy fiction not acknowledging the trauma that characters would have, lotr is like.. the WORST example to use and makes me wonder if she's ever actually seen / read lotr lmao
SOOOOOOO TRUEEE omg I can't with the sudden switch between who's supposed to be loved and hated. Like why it seems like everyone forgot that in BOOK ONE of ACOTAR Rhysand is basically the disgusting pimp that uses Feyre as he wishes because she is a prisoner and very suggestive sex slave??? And suddenly SJM is trying to tell me that "he is a feminist"??? Madam, where???
Some people said it's because the POV is from Feyre, because when you change POVs to the other sisters he's just as bad. Though the question is if she did this on purpose or not.
While I can understand how the "romantasy" label can come across as misogynistic, I actually appreciate the distinction. Romantasy isn't just women authored fantasy, it's more specifically books that focus on romance in a fantasy setting. I myself enjoy romance as a suplot, not the driving force of the story, and nothing infuriates me more than picking up what I think would be an interesting, well-thought-out fantasy novel only to be met with 400+ pages of flimsy worldbuilding, animalistic smut, and contrived plot devices used to push the main character and her super hot, super growly love interest together (no hate to romantasy lovers but I seriously could not care less about two people swooning over each other's sexiness when there are more pressing plot matters at hand). So yeah, being able to distinguish romance-driven fantasy from plot-driven fantasy can be extremely helpful to me and, from what I've seen, many other fantasy readers as well.
It seems more and more smutty books with the air of romance has taken over genres. I still remember way back after the horrible written fifty shades came out erotic romance novels started to flood book stories to the point that some places stopped selling just regular old fashion erotic novels. And than they started to show up in big box stories and stretching out into other genres like science fiction and now fantasy. One hand I can't blame publishers after all the majority of readers are women and these books are pretty much aimed at them but it does push other stuff of the shelf a bit.
This. One, I don't read smut. Been there, done that, not my vibe. I find sex scenes utterly boring because once you've read a few, you've basically read all of them (I guess it'd be different if kink is involved but I'm not into that either). Two, while I enjoy romance as a subplot, especially in fantasy cause the story usually spans over a long time so you grow to care about the characters as people, I would be pissed off to find that a story I picked up as fantasy doesn't have the parts I like the most about fantasy. And even more pissed off if that fantasy was filled with smut. It would be like reading Sherlock Holmes stories and instead of Sherlock solving mysteries with Watson helping him, we get Sherlock and Watson pining over each other and having sex halfway through the book. As much as I love the gradual development of of Sherlock and Watson's friendship throughout the books/stories (and as much as I headcanon that they shared romantic love too), that's not what I read detective fiction for. In fact, I refuse to read SJM books (so far) for this exact reason. Was it her fault that people raved about Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series as the best fantasy ever? Probably not. Am I still pissed off that I was about to read smut/romance while expecting fantasy? Yes. Idk about ToG but I thankfully happened to stumble upon WithCindy's videos on ACOTAR and have been so thankful to her. Point of all this is, I hate it when I expect fantasy and get romance and I hate to read smut everywhere. Romantasy as a label has nowadays stopped me from trying to read books that sound like promising fantasy and being disappointed. It's like the dark romance as a label/genre/sub-genre for me. Though, my dislike of smut (and my distrust towards the taste of tiktok) has made me avoid basically every popular book out there so maybe the lable isn't _as_ useful for me anymore. While I don't read a lot of romance, I love knowing that if I do read romance or stories with romance someday, I can just stay away from dark romance because it doesn't fit my vibe. I love the slow burn, healthy romance with lots and lots of pining and cuteness and afaik, dark romance will definitely not have all of the health and cuteness. And that's okay. But it makes it easier for people who like dark romance to find such books easily and who dislike it to avoid them easily. Same with romantasy. One, you don't build up false expectations about the kind of book it is and two, it helps people who like romance in fantasy settings like it and who want to read fantasy in fantasy settings away.
@@Saphia_ one while I don't use tiktok from my understanding most if not all books that get hot on it are horrible. That said I kind of get it, if a book is smutty ideally one would be inform of that fact before they pick it up. I know some publishers will mark erotic romance as such. While I am no fan of fantasy (Robert E Howard's Conan and Harry Potter are the only straight up fantasies I like) I can see how you would be pissed if you pick up a book expecting a fantasy maybe with a little romance and instead get a romance that happens to have a fantasy. It is a clear bait and switch that no doubt the publishers intentionally do and I doubt they will change their ways.
Couldn’t agree more on the bait and switch argument. I don’t have a problem with smut. What I do have a problem with is starting a book where the world is ending, people are dying, the kingdom is burning, ect. but it feels essential to put that on hold for 100 pages so people can flirt, cry over nothing, and bang. That’s romance. Plain and simple.
I said it many times and I’ll say it again. It’s obvious who had their wattpad era and who’s now currently in their wattpad era, there’s no other explanation for people drooling over these mediocre books.
I get your point, but there are plenty of good wattpad books. And plenty of people who put actual hard work and skills into their online stories. Everyone doesn't have to be put together and insulted
@@Edemayy nope . Her writing and storytelling is pretty darn bad . They're popular because sometimes people enjoy a bit of self-insertion and escape into the world of fantasy and indulge in those hot fantasy guys ( people like whom are actually dangerous to mingle with irl) , also enjoy those spicy 🔥 stuff . I have enjoyed ACOTAR , I can see why it's popular; but there is nothing good about it . Except one or two times where it reaffirms the victims of abuse that it's okay to prioritise yourself and get tf out of the abusive relationship. ( But it also reaffirms when the said victims seek out abuse and manipulation AGAIN because it's familiar so I don't know if it negates the good things or not).
@@Edemayypopularity does not b equate to quality. Often, it’s quite the opposite. Rupi Kaur is another example of substantial mediocrity that went viral.
I also hate the double standard between Tamlin and Feyre in the second book. While we, as the readers, and SJM empathize with Feyre for how her trauma/PTSD about under the mountain manifests, we are supposed to see Tamlin as the bad guy. She completely changed who she is, also becoming quite cruel and distant with Tamlin, but whatever she does is understandable, because she's "been through so much". However, Tamlin doesn't get the same sympathy. While I'm aware that his behavior is controlling and toxic, SJM doesn't acknowledge at all that he has also suffered and that he is also a victim that needs treatment. Instead, he gets the villain treatment. (And of Rhysand can be a horrible person, because he has REASONS whenever he does it...uhuh.) It's completely in lien with SJMs general toxic masculinity depiction honestly.
👏🏻 absolutely! It's like she is selective on who can "have trauma". I read acotar and remember a scene in which Lucien told Feyre she needs to consider Tanlim's view..something like "I watch/heard my betheoded heart stop beating. unlike me Tamlin got his love back." Basically implying that Feyre isn't considering Tamlins trauma of nearly losing her (and could lose her again). Also let's not even get started on how she overlooked all of poor Lucien's baggage. There are some great fan fics on Archive Of Our Own that address Lucien and Tamlins story lines.
I've been so mad about this! Nesta is a horrible person and does fucked up shit but it's okay because she has trauma, but then Tamlin is treated as the devil lol
This was exactly the reason I stopped reading acotar. I don't remember much (read the book on the day it was released) but clearly still remember being very dissappointed on what the author made tamlin to be. So i just stopped reading after the second book. I mean can't tamlin get like true redemption or something. He was just shoved into a corner and made to be the villain.
The Breonna Taylor post was inappropriate and exploitative. Keeping it up after people told her to take it down tells me everything I need to know about her. To me her books are not well-written and she frames controlling behaviour by Rhysand as being protective so I was already done with her books.
Sarah, tell you didn't read Lord of the Rings without telling me you didn't read it. LotR heavily touches subjects of trauma, PTSD and depression. There are some striking examples like Theoden, Eowyn and of course Frodo and he is so deeply traumatized, that he couldn't find his peace in Middle-Earth and could only sail to Valinor with some hope that he'll be healed there. All ringbearers, even Sam, were deeply wounded. Merry also was traumatized, but he was able to heal with time. Aragorn also was pretty messed up by all those lonely years, constant fighting and the burden of his responsibilities. I could go on and on about that. I reacently re-read LotR and I was crying my eyes out all the time and I felt seen in my depression and PTSD much more than in most modern books.
She strikes me as the kind of person who has very little reading comprehension, especially if how badly written and exhaustingly repetitive her own books are is any indication.
omg i also think of her as the taylor swift of authors, they both have such crazy cult followings that immediately turn me off from having any interaction with their works at all.
i love taylor, swifties can seem crazy especially to an outsider hahah 😂 and some of them do be acting mean even to fellow fans but i guess these things are kind of inevitable when the fandom as huge as it is
@rayareadzzzz I've been in my fair share of cult like fandoms to be fair, can't help but remember the craziness that was the one direction fandom while i was in high school back in the day 😂
Honestly I don’t mind problematic things in the books I read. One series that’s important to me (as the first lgbt series I ever had access to) has a lot of problematic themes. But that’s why media literacy is so important, and seeking out trigger warnings. As readers we should be able to separate fantasy from reality, and why media literacy is so important- think Sokka being sexist but learns to be a better person. What matters is how authors frame it, and treat certain topics with respect and not put in their work for shock value.
The big issue is the fact that this series is still marketed to underage minors to this day. SJM was all too happy to profit off young readers being exposed to romanticized abuse and messages of white supremacy and homophobia in her books. She literally demanded her publisher keep the sexually explicit content while knowing they were shifting her ACOTAR books to the young adult audience.
That part but it’s crazy how SJM frames her book so poorly but people will call it a masterpiece but Octavia E Butler and other writers like Samantha Shannon don’t even get one glance to there work
It wasn't a fantasy book I read, but there was a YA book I had read when I was a teenager. It was written by a Canadian author, set in Oshawa, Ontario. It discussed something very problematic. It discussed violence against a gay teenager who was jumped by a group of boys (possibly a group of older men in the 20s) just for being gay. The main character who was the best friend of this character had to figure out what happened because their friend couldn't speak for himself due to suffering catastrophic brain injury. Maybe this isn't problematic in the sense of what is being discussed in this video, but I loved that book because of the feelings of horror and disgust I had. It definitely made me think more clearly about my own actions and words towards others. Sadly, I forgot the name of the book and every time I search for it, I can't find it. I feel that problematic themes like violence aimed towards minorities or people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community is extremely important. I think discussions on themes and issues that are problematic in society is extremely important. These discussions can come from any book, including fantasy books about fae or whatever.
I feel with 21:52 she shows perfectly what's the problem with modern media (to me): Everything has to be shoved in your face and overly explained, otherwise it's "not there"
A former SJM supporter here. She wrote my former all time favourite book. It showed my trauma and I felt seen. It gave me hope. Now, I didn’t really understand the ‘her characters are not diverse’ things for a long time because I saw people of colour when I pictured the characters and thought it was just peoples inherent racism they needed to address that they couldn’t see the people of colour clearly there. I deeply loved the ACOTAR books, mostly the second and third. She had 2 shelves on my books shelves to her work. I loved her books. But I was going through things and I wasn’t reading and the Novella came out and I didn’t get my hands on it, I didn’t hear good things so I never got around to getting it or reading it and then court of silver flames came out and I heard how she destroyed Rhysand and as I was still in a bad mental place and wasn’t reading it gave me space from it, so I never read it. And the instagram post happened and it was like something broken inside me and I no longer could support her. She never apologised, she kept the post up after it was communicated it caused harm and that’s when it felt she showed her true colours as a racist. I took all her books off the shelves and have them hidden on another shelf until I work out what I wanted to do. I tried reading court of silver flames this year and the transphobia as a non binary person was so in my face. She writes all her woman as ‘females this, females that’ and I gave up, then moved onto to trying to read house of earth and blood and it was in there as well. I couldn’t do it. Soooooooooo much ‘female this, female that’… so I sold off a large part of my collection that had taken me ages to collect, floppy paper backs and hardcovers. I still have my original hardcovers of ACOTAR and Thrown of glass in hardcover and paperbacks, but I’m seriously considering selling my original hardcovers of thrown of glass, I never finished the series so I’m re reading Thrown of glass to see what I want to do but the love isn’t there because I’m so hurt by the author. I don’t feel good reading this knowing who the author is. I find it hard to separate the artist from the art. I don’t want to read to just enjoy books, which I think is why many people don’t critically evaluate the authors they are reading the works of. They want to put their head in the sand and ‘love what they love’ without asking if what they love is harmful to their own thinking and if it’s asking them to grow as a person. Because what we consumes does influence us, it is important we question it. I say this as a dark romance reader (yay trauma). It takes a lot for someone to take a step back from what they love to really look at it with clear eyes. We do this with people and unfortunately with media. Because of the stuff I was going through where I stopped reading for a long time- I was also given the space from the works I loved and the rose tinted glasses were able to fall off. Thank you for this video, it gave me even more information and reasons why I don’t want to support this author.
Ohh please get over yourself, woke people like you and your constant shaming of people for not having the same line of thoughts as you. Must be so cold up there so high on the moral high ground -_-
Her Lord of the Rings comment at 20:55 just triggered me so bad. The fact that she brought up the movies instead of the books (an author doing this???) The fact that a major theme of LOTR is trauma. The fact that Tolkien himself was a war veteran who experienced the horrifically traumatizing battle of Somme... I can't. You just know even if she read the books it would go completely over her head, because Tolkien was more subtle and complex than she is capable of comprehending let alone writing.
My issues with the books are honestly from a weird place of her completely not understanding the fae. It's... really just a smut fest with something vague with wings and magic. (Which is fine but you can easily bullshit your own race to accomplish this instead of romantizing the worst types of magical beings) I'm Scottish, so we have a lot of myths about the fae and I promise, you don't want a hot fae boy anywhere near you. Unseelie or Seelie. Especially since a lot of the myths are seductors, who if you aren't seduced (god forbid), they'll curse your whole life to the point your luck is flipped upside down to the point your life's ruined - yeah, just rejecting a fae earns you misery worse than any incel. Then there's bride stealers. Children stealers. And that's not counting the one's who - and I say this firmly because the books have them tossing out names and insults to each other willy nilly, Feyre, if she did any of what she did to ACTUAL fae? She'd not be a quirky love interest, she'd be dead. Period. Properly dead after being tortured in some of the worst ways they could think of because unseelie do NOT need a reason to torture, they just do it. Unseelie especially aren't classed as the secret underdogs, (not all of them are evil but their way of living is strong beats the weak and honour is stupid) so you best bet your handsome unseelie boy is going to make you utterly miserable because being MALICIOUS is literally their whole courts purpose. Signed, an asexual who saw the premise of these books and immediately knew it was bullshit, that just has a bunch of girls fangirling over myths who would rather see them on their dinner plate than in their beds.
Omg thank you, I am so tired of the misconceptions around the fae in popular media. And trying to explain it to people who think it's all Tinkerbell. Or when they know a little they still think Seelie is shorthand for good.
More than similarities to the Black Jewels trilogy or her getting credit for the "Rattle the Stars" and "To Whatever End" quotes when they came from other works - in her Throne of Glass series one character in later books becomes "Hand of the King" which is a term CREATED by GRRM. Also there are whole scenes in Kingdom of Ash that are basically ripped from the LotR movies: there's a scene where one character orders the others to light the beacons to signal that they require aide/to gather the troops, there's an entire rip off of the Helm's Deep battle - including an actual scene where a character uses Eowyn's lines about getting the women and children to safety, and even a dam breaking during a battle like in The Two Towers. I don't know if this is considered plagiarism - but it's definitely more than "inspired by" or "paying homage" to other works.
I mean people who read the GOT series can clearly see some of the monsters in all her series are similar to his. She has her own white walkers, skin walkers, people who can warg, giant spiders, I mean the list goes on. I would be fine if she just said she took inspiration from them.
nehemias death in crown of midnight is appalling. sarah has no idea how bad it reflects on her that the only black character is killed to progress the plot and make the main character feel bad
I hated when feyre and rhysand had sex in the library so much. I remember being truly shocked that she wrote that and I had to put the book down. as someone who has suffered sexual trauma, I found solace in the priestess’ at the library, and was flabbergasted that she defiled them all in the same chapter. I felt like I was actually connecting to the characters because I didn’t see myself in any of the main protagonists :(
I will never get over the fact that she clearly plagiarized the whole Black Jewels series from Anne Bishop, and got immense success with it while the original author and her ORIGINAL story/idea/universe is almost forgotten and not known at all. I hate ACOTAR for that and despise her as an author in general :\
@@rayareadzzzz yuppp, her books were sold with "Adult Content Warning" and compared to harlequin erotica of high fantasy hence why she was never discovered by the larger public as this genre on it's own is thrown upon. :\ If only she was able to publish them now and with YA label, SJM couldn't even compete. It's just so depressing :(
I'm tired of fae fantasy books, it's always a white thin teenage girl who finds a guy who is 100000% better than her because he's Fae, rich, muscular, 300-500 years old. The teen and old man (who alway look 20-25) have sex all the time, even when friends or family die, serious injury, or in the middle of a battle/war. The teenager is valued once no longer human, and becomes subservient to 500 yr old boo. Everything becomes centered around his wants/likes and her opinion, morals and values are thrown out for him. Most are thin, pale, light eyes, it's so boring! I'm tired of reading about teens having sex! Why aren't these books better? Why aren't there more action and adventure? SJM uses sex scenes to distract from terrible plots and 1 dimensional characters. God forbid we have Fae Fantasy without exclusively writing thin pale teenage MC girls who revolve around a guy in the end. Who is writing 30+ and diverse characters, sex scenes that make sense, and non predictable storylines? Take my money! Please! 😅😅
Try Operation ZEIT in AO3. The male leads are 29 - 33 yo three indigenous half brothers who formerly fishermen from one fishing village in Sabah, Malaysia. They accidentally getting into time travel due to accidental discovery of treasure. Even they are not like other male characters. They are chaotic brothers with their sense of humor, musical scenes and crazy ideas. The female leads are 25-27++ spinster and fractured fairy tale characters (Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella) that been escaped from their fairytale life. They met the male leads by accident before they get DnD style adventure. They are not strong independent women or damsel in distress. They are in-between / well balanced characters. The romance is slow burn due to most characters are Muslims especially the male leads, even the male leads are getting recovery from their heartbreak, while the female leads are still building their chance to trust when the world they living in is dystopian. Besides that, they are getting time travel mission across three timelines (15th/16th medieval, 1881 steampunk Victoria, 2181 cyberpunk) in order to stop the time travel criminals that trying to vanish the childhood joy of fairytale + folktale, and DnD adventure from present and future sight
lol that’s a good point. As an adult now it’s weird to be “watching” my high school characters doing it, especially since teenagers seem soooo young to me now
I think it's great that SJM has found success in her passion. I've been on the fence about reading her books. As you've pointed out a lot of problematic things about her writing, I've also heard the same from others. I personally don't think that controlling, powerful men should be romanticized for young girls. The things I've heard about Rhysand and Feyre's relationship genuinely make me worried. However, maybe one day I'll pick one up and make a judgement for myself. This video was interesting and I enjoyed your take!
I do wonder how a parent can name their kid after someone like Rhysand or really any book character that has explicit smut scenes. Do you never read the books again? What about your kid? They're going to find the book some day so how would that talk go? XD
that's definitely a thought... although i will say, rhysand is a popular welsh name so there's at least a little bit of a defense. but maybe rhysand isn't the name to choose.
I liked Sarah's books when I was younger, but I felt like I liked them less and less as more books came out, especially in the Throne of Glass Series, there really was no need for that series to have that many books. But the thing that made me not want to read any more of her books was the lack of editors/lack of effort put into some parts of the writing. At one point when reading Tower of Dawn, I started counting how often she used the word "Indeed", and it was a ridiculous number of times. Sometimes I could read one hundred pages without seeing that word, and then find it three times on the same page. I felt lika a lot of them could be taken out if she had just put some more effort into the writing. This also continued in Kingdom of Ash, which became the last of her books that I read. For those who are curious, ToD has "indeed" written 98 times and KoA has it written 113 times
That’s exactly what happened to me with ACOTAR, the first book was awesome, second was a bit of a let down, and then third book was a mess and I’ve never returned to her writing. I know I read a couple of the ToG books before I read ACOTAR but I don’t even remember the plot so that just goes to show how memorable her stories and characters are 🥴
If you read one S.J.M. book, you've read them all. Still a little salty being lied to about an assassin fantasy in my golden years of Assassin's Creed obsessed phase. ("cough-glass throne-couth!")
That book was so off putting. She's supposed to be a master assasin and noting in the book shows it :( It also makes no sense that she'd be holding back or not try to kill members of the royal family.
I read Throne of Glass a few years ago and really liked it, so I continued the series. However, I stopped at the fourth book because I literally couldn’t read the MCs pov bc she was so annoying! I see so many people saying she’s one of the best female characters and I just …. 🫠 excited to watch this video!
Raya: *names authors who unfriended Sarah Janet* Me: *begins to follow said authors on Goodreads* My spite towards this woman is intense. And I already love Leigh Bardugo for the Shadow and Bone trilogy.
I used to be a huge fan of SJM’s but the sharp decline in quality in her writing and the subtle emergence of conservative themes in her work post-ACOWAR has seriously put me off. I don’t begrudge her books existing because I think they’ve helped more than they’ve harmed, but truly I cannot understand the hype for Crescent City, which is easily her worst work, and in fact one of the worst fantasy series I’ve ever read. I loved TOG, ACOTAR was frustrating but fun, but CC is borderline unreadable to me. It fails on every possible level. I don’t know what other people are seeing, but it seems to me that success has made SJM and her editors extremely lazy.
While there is a definite bias towards male authors, I think calling Romantasy a misogynistic response to women writing fantasy isn’t entirely fair (though it’s undoubtedly used in a hateful way by others and can fall under that term). Like the creation of YA - which isn’t that old as a genre and is an age marker more than anything - I feel that Romantasy emerged because of the audience. SJMs books generally will appeal to women. Authors like GRRM, Robert Jordan, ect. appeal to men. There is most definitely crossover between the two but if you’re looking at the averages, I think it’s reasonably clear who gravitates to what. By distinguishing between Fantasy and Romantasy, readers are able to make a more informed decision about what kind of book they’re picking up. Particularly if there is something you’d prefer to avoid in stories such as smut or sexual violence. I do not like romance forward fantasy. By having this label I am able to distinguish between something I want to read and something I most likely won’t click with. This stops me from picking up books with a focus or type of plot I know I don’t like but don’t realize is central to the story until after reading. It’s also better for authors because they’re not receiving a bunch of mediocre ratings because people picked up books that weren’t for them in the first place.
Well as an ASOIAF stan, i can tell you Martin has been heavily criticized for his violent sex scene, however the good outweighs the bad because Martins books are so damn rich with lore and mystery not to mention the action, suspense and adventure.
Speaking as a fantasy girlie, we have been criticizing George RR Martin for using SA of characters as a short cut to emotional reactions. The toxic male stans drown out that criticism a lot of the time, but please know that it does exist. Unfortunately, a lot of fantasy has been dominated by misogynistic men who worship Martin and other toxic authors. They get just as, if not more rabid than SJM fans when defending their favorite authors. That being said, I'm sure I'd be the same way if someone came after Neil Gaiman or Diana Wynne Jones. 😅
@@JanessaStuckey he's been recently accused of SA by two women and he's been denying it and calling it "false memories" or something like that, i don't remember right now the exact words he used
The point you brought up at @31:58 is really interesting. It explains a lot about this whole situation with fantasy or romance books that contain sexual content being labeled as YA books. Publishers don't view it as 'real' or 'adult' fiction so they label it as YA. They don't believe it would sell as well if it was actually marketed at adults and maybe they are right. I think the problem is that 16-25 year olds form this kind of grey area between YA and adult fiction but they are potentially the largest group of consumers for honestly any type of media. A lot of them probably don't regularly browse through the adult fiction section in their local bookstores. The idea to have a New Adult genre to bridge this gap was a good attempt at solving this issue but I never really saw it implemented at my local bookstores. Sarah J. Maas books or others like it are either in the YA section or with all the other adult fantasy books in the adult fiction section (or they're on one of those cursed #booktok shelves which are still in the YA section in my local bookstore). There isn't really a section specifically targeting 16-25 year olds. That's where these types of books belong.
New Adult is the perfect way to seperate hardcore smut from YA and allow young teens to not have to be unwillingly exposed to adult content just to enjoy a fantasy story, but frustratingly mainstream publishers are completely resistant to ever making New Adult a real thing, it’s only recognised in self publishing. Authors will get their book proposals auto-rejected by the big 5 traditional publishers if they’ve labelled their book as “New Adult”, so even authors who know their books shouldn’t be considered YA are forced to mislabel it in order to get traditionally published.
I was a fan of SJM from the beginning. I started reading her books back when the TOG cover was the cringe Barbie doll lol. And I loved her stuff. But then I started reading more diverse authors and stories, and I realized her stuff wasn’t this amazing, show stopping writing. It was okay and it was fun (for the most part. I wasn’t really ready to take a critical look at what I was reading at that time and didn’t really see anything wrong with her lack of/horrible representation). And then A Court of Silver Flames came out. I had to put that book down for a whole year before trying to finish it again. It was trash. I sat back and realized that she just recycles the same five characters in different bodies and uses the same tropes over and over but with a tiny twist each time. And the spicy scenes made me want to gag. I’ve made my fiancé read some of them and we just sit and laugh the whole time. I continued to read her books (through the library, she’s not getting any of my money again) and each book is just getting worse and worse. Flame and Shadow really solidified for me that she’s not worth my time anymore
i’m not a die hard sjm fan, but i’ve enjoyed the books i’ve read of hers. i know she has a ton of fans and some very vocal critics. thanks for making this video, it hightlighted what i didn’t like about her books.
I’m so glad there’s a cultural change happening where it’s now acceptable to even name Zionism in a TH-cam title (not to say ppl won’t get backlash when speaking of it but I feel like bringing Zionism wouldn’t even be dared a few years ago)
Zionism is not a slur. It's the belief that the Jewish people have the right to live safely in their ancestral homeland. By using it as a slur you are being antisemitic and need to reeducate yourself on Jewish history and reevaluate moral values and life decisions. Bravo.
@@Thenoobestgirl I never said it was a slur, I said ppl were scared to call it out by it’s name when addressing the harm this ideology has caused Palestinians. Doikayt✌️I will not be debating further
@@Thenoobestgirl You are right it isn't a slur... but you are wrong to simplify it as such... jews could have lived there and did without zionism. Instead, european atheist jews created a violent colonial ideology, no matter how you may want to simplify it to something harmless. Plenty of jews lived there before, and plenty moved there over the years and were welcomed into Palestine. It was zionists who created terrorists groups and stole land. If anything, zionism should be extracted from judaism and no longer conflated.
I think authors like Sara J Mas with this diehard following get a little more heat put on them, not because they are bad, but because they are mid. Colleen Hoover gets this particular hate as well. People get annoyed by all the praise, but some start to lose the plot, and it becomes this irrational hate that you can't really explain or justify.
Exactly this. Speaking for myself, I get why they have so many people reading their books. It's what Wattpad and Ao3 was for a lot of us--- a gateway into the world of books and stories. But ohhh, do I hate that people like SJM and CoHo get so much love and praise when there are so many authors with better works who (in my eyes) are far more deserving. Then there's all the problematic stuff I've heard about them too.
Something I noticed after reading the ACOTAR series and that nobody else seems to pick up on, is that Rhys is a shameless copy of Lucas Hunter from the Psy-changeling series. People's favorite phrase, "Hello, Freyre darling" is from there. Even the physical description of Rhys (when he hides his wings, which is most of the time) is the same as Lucas, except for the eye color and that Lucas has a scar. The Psy-changeling series came out two years before ACOTAR. So it wasn't the other way around.
I feel like SJM definitely started out very much in the YA genre when she was writing Throne of Glass. Throne of Glass throught Heir of Fire was YA and Queen of Shadows on was New Adult. I remember reading the books in high school and noticing a big shift in tone once I started Queen of Shadows and was totally taken aback when all of a sudden, there were more descriptive spicy scenes instead of fade to black.
I bought the first book, read one chapter, and put it away and donated it to charity without ever reading another chapter. • The protagonist keeps being called skilled and dangerous. • She has an internal monologue about how she could easily kill everyone and escape if her hands were free. • She meets a prince and her cheeks go scarlet as she has an instant crush on the first rich dude she meets. I have read teenagers first fanfics about brightly coloured equines in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, ridiculously derivative and yet more engaging with a more distinct protagonist.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember there being any explicit sex or SA scenes in The Wheel of Time. I read this series 20 years ago so I could be wrong, but I think I would remember it since I was a teenager. Patrick Rothfuss, on the other hand, boasts some very explicit and poorly written sex scenes.
I was looking for this comment. Nothing is on the screen with WoT, its all fade to black. Is there some problematic things with the whole treatment of Mat/Tylin for example, yes. But RJ is nowhere near on the page sexual violence in the way GRRM is.
ooh good point that women’s writing of smut scenes are overly critiqued while the abundance of rape/SA scenes in men’s novels are not. i always had issues w that in books like GOT (when overused) and i rly havent seen people talk about that.
I read the throne of glass books in high school and I remember them being fun and a good introduction to high fantasy for me. Like yeah it was a fun time when I read them but they are not good books and yet she has die hard fans even with all these controversies.
People do genuinely (and pretty rightfully) hate GRRM"s SA and explicit scenes, there are a lot of them that are genuinely interesting in regards to what they say about certain characters, their warped perspectives, and their motivations (thinking specifically of anything with Cercei and how she uses people as proxies for others, including herself), but they're so poorly written you'd get significant pushback for saying you enjoyed elements of them. They do have value to the story but are so poorly executed many give up on the series after the first Danny chapter. I've found SJM a bit bland, though it has been awhile. I can handle badly written smut as long as it is actually interwoven into the plot and not painted by numbers.
How explicit are they really? I ask because I have read books that had one star reviews complaining about how there was so much sex (mostly oddly enough horror books) and really it would be maybe handful of barely scenes. I mean you go and read some romance novels specially the erotica ones and they will have graphic scenes that go on for pages and pages. Half the sex scene in these type of books are clearly written to get the reader off on it.
Personally I feel the biggest difference is that Martin doesn't try to romanticize the SA. It's pretty clearly meant to be a bad thing every time, and the truly good (if there are any) characters don't participate in it. Plus he's not very graphic in his descriptions of sex from what I recall, violence yes, but not sex. The one positive sex scene he wrote was terribly written. Mass romanticized it. I just don't get how we are supposed to support a character like Rhysand who is absolute trash in his behavior
@@stephennootens916 he definitely doesn’t romanticize the sa that is in his books, and never goes into detail about rape (like sjm does). It’s more of a thing that gets acknowledged in past tense, and has a lot of impact on the characters. The most graphic chapters imo are probably Theon’s in a dance with dragons
38:05 personally, I really appreciate representation (especially good representation), but it is always a matter of the personal preferences of an author who they do or don't want to represent in their stories. It's still valid to criticize this choice/preference though if the author in question is someone like sjm who really banks on being progressive and feminist. (Also, literally everyone having the exact same attributes of traditional, white beauty is just unrealistic lol)
Honestly, I feel like a lot of acotar is cultural appropriation - the clothing described that Feyre wears in the night court feels highly south asian/middle eastern inspired, as well as Feyre's 'tattoo' thats shockingly similar to henna. It wouldn't be an issue if she said that she was inspired by them, but she never actually does, and all the characters in these settings are meant to be white. Saying that the sex in the books is a good thing is a bit of a reach. Sex in a book is never inherently bad, and writing in books doesn't always need to be Austen-like, but calling a dick 'velvet-wrapped steel' is absolutely cringe-worthy. If you enjoy sex in literature, too bad, because in SJM books its utterly atrocious.
I do appreciate seeing someone who isn't a diehard ACOTAR fan/quoter who lives and dies by the writing. I'm still a fan of hers, but I can definitely appreciate where she goes wrong, and other authors who do better in some aspects. So, on that note, I have my own thoughts: 1. I think the LotR comment was taken out of context (20:55). She never said she was better than it- she said in movie media, specifically, trauma isn't shown super well. In the books, it was deeply discussed, especially towards the end, whereas in the movie, it was often sidelined (as most movies do) until the very very end. I like SJM for writing the trauma THROUGHOUT the story, and even bringing it onto the battlefield. She isn't new for doing this, but she did take characters down pegs during very heavy scenes, reminding us that they're still *people*, and even heavy action can't hide that. 2. Her break-ups with other authors is kinda sketchy, yeah, but I'm reminded of every celebrity that ever was. Whatever they post on social media is the tip of the iceberg of what their actual lives are like. Maybe they're in the middle of an argument, or maybe they got tired of fans talking about their friendships as if they were remotely involved. They may also be banned from talking to other people by their PR or publishers to save face- either their own or the company's. So her personal relationships mean nothing to me as long as she isn't making friends with serial killers (and even then- how well do we know our own friends?) She isn't a paragon, however; I remember her tweet about Breonna Taylor, and it was very...placid. Some people just shouldn't speak up if they can't add to a conversation. 3. The quoting is a bad comparison. I once went to a publishing workshop, and the first thing the speaker said was "Shakespeare did it first, and did it the best." She wasn't wrong; every book and every author ever has been inspired by SOMEONE or SOMETHING before them. Writers especially, since it's usually because of something they loved reading made them want to write! What she wrote has been written before. And what they wrote has been written before. Every time someone talks about hope being light a candle flame about to be snuffed out, I think of Greek mythology and Mongolian mythology and all of these other religions using a flame as an allegory for life. It has been done. It will be repeated. Unless it is line-for-line copying (which is why artists and writers have editors), it is impossible to use this example as bad writing without condemning thousands of writers before. I will read the Black Jewel series and see what is up, but I have a feeling I'm going to see a tooooon of mirrored tropes and lines, and in the end just have another "fae royalty with assassins and dark daddies" story in my brain. SJM is not the Shakespeare of Romantasy, and her more ardent fans have put her on an impossibly stupid pedestal, but it's important not to have binary thoughts about aaaanyone's work.
On the idea that SJM is a plagiarist, I think if you're an avid reader of books there's bound to be lines and quotes that stand out and stick in your mind. Over time, the memory can sometimes forget things, and so a line you thought you'd made up and was unique, actually ends up being something you'd read and forgot about. I can see that happening to a lot of authors
This video is really well scripted! your commentary is in-depth and easy to understand, plus your voice is really calming and nice to listen to! (the taylor comparison made me flinch as a sjm hating Swiftie tho lollll)
In terms of a tv show/movie many many things get optioned and never made! It’s way more common than people think, there are so many elements at play to get a project from being optioned>script finished>cast and crewed> being filmed it’s completely believable that this one is having trouble getting off the ground even with its popularity.
As a fan I think the main draw is her female main characters! I found her series cathartic on a personal level. They’re depicted doing things that conservative American society at least deems bad for women to do- like be muscular, athletic, eat a lot of sweets, be openly sexual, struggle with addiction. Be bad at cooking. Not be smiley and pleasant. They’re often depicted as rulers with their husbands sitting on the arm of her throne instead of letting the man be the star of the show. Even the religions depicted- it’s a reaction to and escape from Christian purity culture and the pressures put on women. I think it’s written for those women tbh possibly because sjm can relate but I don’t know 🤷♀️ i think her books deal with trauma more typically seen in women and it’s often the a main plot point in her stories
Hearing that SJM didn't like to read growing up actually makes a lot of sense to me. One of the things that I've noticed about SJM or like Colleen Hoover books is that they simply don't seem to attract readers on their own the same way that something from Stephen King or Terry Pratchett does. You never see someone talk about the plot of a SJM book or a Colleen Hoover book (outside of criticizing them) and more people talk about what else they bring to the table. "SJM books are fantasy stories WITH SMUT", "Colleen Hoover books are fiction books WITH DARK, EDGY DANGEROUS ROMANCES", it honestly reminds me a lot of the Game of Thrones TV show and how it was advertised as "Fantasy Sopranos" or notably "Fantasy for People Who Don't Like Fantasy". It's this sense that the books are done by and for people who don't necessarily just enjoy the act of reading itself or the genre or whatever and need something else to pull them in. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that it seems that fans of writers like SJM or CH are people who didn't necessarily enjoy reading growing up or even didn't read anything after school, but have been drawn into it by the appeal of smut/romance and are now "born again" readers and, as such, really don't have a wide range of writers they can use in comparison while many critics of SJM and CH are lifelong readers and writers who enjoy the process in its entirety and therefore have a wider breadth of reference to compare SJM and CH to.
I think this is a very accurate description of the booktok scene. I’m lucky I’ve read a lot of wonderful authors who were inspired by other wonderful authors. so even if I think SJM writing is lackluster, I can see where casual readers are drawn in
Genuinely curious as to why you didn't discuss Dicksoapgate in this video?? It's one of the most infamous book community controversies, like ever, not just even involving SJM
hahha i genuinely forgot that ever happened and i guess because it’s not directly linked to sarah, i guess it didn’t come up in any of the articles/discussions bummer though, this would have been fun to discuss 😂
i’m all for kind of shitty books but once i heard about the breonna taylor thing i immediately put her on my dnr list 😬 as an asian person i just cannot let something like that go
I read her “Throne of Glass” series when I was 14, and my jaw DROPPED when I was reading the fifth book in the series (“Empire of Storms”). I had only known that the series was labelled YA, and when I read the first smut scene in EOS, I put the book down for a week and didn’t touch it. While I do understand that the characters are at the age and that them having intimate moments are a given, the series was YA and there was another way to write those scenes so that you knew what was going on but it wasn’t so graphic (ie. like she did in the second TOG book, “Crown of Midnight”). The smut in the final three books in the TOG series is kind of unnecessary-at least the explicit descriptions are unnecessary when it was done in a more digestible way in a previous instalment. I get that the audience had gotten older, that SJM had gotten older, but making the switch from YA to NA in the middle of a series is very jarring. Just a POV from someone who had read and loved one of her series. I don’t think I’ll read her other series’ since I tried to read ACOTAR (also marketed as YA; gave up because I really disliked Feyre and because it was also apparently NA) and I have heard some mixed reviews about her Crescent City series.
Not sure if this is discussed in this video, but how do you feel about Sarah J. Maas fans going after other writers who have published books set in fae worlds? A few months ago, something came to my attention where a bunch of Sarah J. Maas fans targeted an Irish author who decided to write a book with similar themes and tropes because her book is also about fae. I can't even remember the name of the author at this moment and when I try to search up information, I can't find anything about this issue. However, Sarah J. Maas fans didn't just target this specific Irish author. They've gone after a lot of writers and have accused them of plagiarism, including a self published author who had written and published her book years before Sarah J. Maas was ever published.
With regards to how her books are marketed as young adult and who to blame for it, while the publisher may market them as young adult, that does not mean that bookstores have to categorise it that way. In my experience, each bookstore - both independent and chain stores - has its own system of records and genres. So often times it is up to the bookstore where they place her books (not to say that this is always the case). For example, one bookstore i worked for categorised her books as fantasy, which ensured less young readers picking it up, and if they did we would sometimes explain to the parents that ACOTAR, for example, might not be the best fantasy book for a 13-year-old to be reading. In another bookstore, they are categorised as Young Adult, but would have big neon 'Mature Content' stickers placed on the front cover, so both the reader and parent are aware of what exactly they are buying. So in my experience, how her books are labelled in store, are often times up to the stores themselves, but that of course does not change how the publisher, author, booktok etc promotes the books so it remains a complicated subject.
If a novel is a Beauty and the Beast trope, wouldn't it pretty much have the same elements as other books using the same trope? Im reading 2 different series, and they read very similar to ACOTAR
14:41 As much as I ask why has such a huge fanbase, it's not that surprising either. Given how many of us grew up reading books on sites like Wattpad and Ao3, it's not hard to imagine people liking books like that. Especially if they never had or never grew out of fanfic/Wattpad phase (at all cause I don't think most of us have completely grown out of fanfic/Wattpad phase still).
im reading acomaf right now and there's barely any chemistry between feyre and rhysand. idc about spice in a book as long as they have chemistry. so far, the series is overrated. I don't normally care about representation THAT MUCH but this is just ridiculous. not only do ALL of them have earth shattering beauty but a few of them even talk and act the same. Most of them read as "racially ambiguous" and ive heard that bryce from the crescent series main character is supposed to be "curvy" but SJM says nothing about if she is actually plus size or not. that being said id still rather read her books than read something even more problematic by an old (and outdated) white dude. hopefully I will like TOG better. 17:38 how i feel about taylor swift. these women know how to market themselves like crazy.
The fact that Sarah J. Maas' works were being marketed to a young audience instead of an adult audience speaks volumes of problems within the publishing industry. YA is meant for teenagers, not for adults. So spicy scenes that we find in books written by Sarah J. Maas have no place in the hands of a YA audience. That within itself is not misogyny but the truth. YA... meant for a teenage audience. I am glad that her books got rebranded for adults that I feel appreciate them more than a YA audience would. I think they even made up a new term for books like this called New Adult, which is just so weird within itself? I do agree with people saying that YA is meant for teenagers, some places have YA deemed for 12-16 year olds. I am just happy that people aren't looking at these books and thinking that they are just for children because they look like children's books or they feature fae.
I'm new to the SJM universe and only 2 books into the ACOTAR series - I really appreciate this deep dive! The last "romantasy" series I read was, honestly, probably Twilight when I was a tween, lmao. I've enjoyed SJM's ACOTAR series so far but am learning now about some of the controversies she's had (I know it's hearsay, but I don't feel good knowing I'm potentially supporting a mean girl). I'm still going to read the rest of the series and maybe the TOG and CC series, but for anyone reading this: if you have any other suggestions for books similar to hers (romance/fantasy, good characters and world-building, etc.), and you think they're better than SJM's books, please comment them below! Thanks for making this Raya! ♥
Regarding the "plagerism"; there is one lifted line I surprisingly never see mentioned, which is taken from the film "Troy". Before Menelaus fights Paris, there is this exchange: Meneleus: "Prince? What prince? What son of a king would accept a man's hospitality, eat his food, drink his wine, embrace him in friendship & then steal his wife in the middle of the night?" Paris: "The sun was shining when your wife left you." vs A Court of Wings & Ruin - Chapter 44 (pg 417 - 418) Tamlin: "If you hadn't stolen my bride in the night, Rhysand, I would not have been forced to take such drastic measures to get her back." Feyre: "The sun was shining when I left you." Given that ACoTaR borrows HEAVILY from Greek myth, Maas previously confessed to adoring Bloom, & the unique nature of the line, there is little doubt in my mind that this was a coincidence.
Honestly the only problem I’ve ever had with her books is that I started reading throne of glass in middle school and really enjoyed it until she put smut in it and it got removed from my school library. Now I didn’t know that’s why it was taken out so when I got the next book from the public library my parents had a lot of very awkward questions to answer. Like she could have just written another series for adults not add it into a young adult book that a lot of young kids were reading. Edit: I wrote this before finishing the video but the point still largely stands
I’m currently reading SJM first series and I already read the acotar series. well, this is all interesting. I’m a huge music person and a big reader and I choose not to politicize my musicians or my authors. I know that it’s really important for some people for people to take stances on things but for me, I just treat it like they’re humans and they’re allowed to have their own opinions and keep things private. And at the end of the day, I just judge on whether it’s a good book or not. I’m not going to run out and buy the new books with the additional chapters. But I know some people will. I think that’s a personal choice and marketing is something that’s just very part of our culture in general. so it’s really up to people what they want to spend their money on and they want to give money to. I do appreciate deep dives because this is all interesting and I did learn a lot but ultimately I like the material in the book so I’m going to continue to read it and I don’t really care what the author does in their spare time. I’m not judging anybody or critiquing this video or the person who made it or anyone who agrees with her. I just wanted to offer a different perspective because she ended it saying that clearly a lot of readers don’t participate in the discord about her or seem to care. But I’m guessing that a lot of the people that are continuing to support her and her books are similar to me where they just want to read a story and get lost in it and don’t really Care that much about what the person who wrote it about Palestine. But to each their own. I am a therapist who works with people ages 12 and over and I do not think that the one series is appropriate for young adults. It did shock me that it’s being advertised as such, but it does sound like a little bit out of control to some degree. And as a therapist, I do appreciate that she takes a stance on trauma and highlights that you can come out of it. But I didn’t read it as that the love interest made the female characters less strong, but rather that in loving somebody else and having someone love them they learn to love themselves, and I don’t think that’s inherently a bad message personally. Not trying to change anybody’s mind again just offering a different point of view.
I can’t call her books REAL fantasy.. I loved some of them.. being a female the same age as her. Having read some of the best fantasy with little to no hardcore sex like wheel of time etc I can’t call it real fantasy. Am I alone? I think SJM is going to approach her older midlife and say to herself “have I written anything real?”. She’s talented.. I feel like she could have written something that counted her in the top names of fantasy writers..but it got so sexual which in some ways yes.. but it feels like a cheap way to sell. She didn’t need to rely on it. And her business moves have made her seem cheap to me. A sell out.. a product of the US greed scene. And it’s all just put me off.
I just really wish more romantasy fans would read A Discovery of Witches, because that is legitimately some of the best paranormal/fantasy romance out there imo
Not to bash but I tried a SJM book, Throne of Glass it was very high school and the writing was not poetic at all. The hype came from the book tube community. Books aren’t for everyone, but don’t put YAs with Classics. The writing styles are at different ends of the spectrum. It’s putting Leonardo Davinci in the same list as Hello Kitty. Both have a place, but not together.
I haven't finished the video yet, but I just wanted to thank you for making it because fantasy books are really not my thing so I've never read her books, but ignoring her existence is silly because as you said these authors are cultural phenomena so it's worth knowing about them
i read the first two truthwitch books while i was reading the throne of glass series. i don’t know if it was because i was starting a new series or what, but i ended up liking tog more. i’m always down to retry, but it sort of left a weird taste in my mouth 😅 i’m interested to know why you like susan dennard books more.
@@readsbyemma I'm not sure why I preferred it. I actually liked throne of glass when I was younger then when the crown of midnight came out (showing my age that I read it before the second book was out) I refused to read it when my friend said there was sex. I don't enjoy romance being a main theme in books. Especially fantasy because it is often written in a way that detracts from the story. Years later I bought it and read the first book and the second and I hated it so much I donated it after. I thought I would have liked it just like I did as a teenager. My reading comprehension has improved over the years and could actually comprehend what was going on and didn't like it and thought it was just surface level and not enjoyable. Truthwitch I picked up because it was recommended when I was sucked into the book tube buying every book that came out craze. I loved the world it built and the magic systems being unique and interesting. I also liked how there wasn't just one main character who everyone loved. There were two friends who went on seperate adventures during the dark time in the books. Also the villain is fascinatingly well written. It's been a while tbf since I read them but I am up to the 4th book witch shadow but I really liked them. I am just a slow reader. I especially like the character of Iseult. I think the fantasy not having the main character being pretentious that I hate them (the darker shade of magic by ve schwab had a character like this that I just couldn't stand it anymore despite liking the overall book) and not having the magic systems constantly overridden for the plot and having interesting politics and history has made me really like it. Tbf the writing could not be that great and my learning issues make it so I didn't notice but I read the first book when I was at least 20 and it's only been a few years since I read them. Sorry for this long message lol. I think it is a mix of Brandon Sanderson ve schwab (the stuff I liked in those books minus the character of Leila) and the three dark crowns
@@readsbyemma sorry for the long comment. I actually begged my library for the next throne of glass book after I read it. There was no "next" book when I was begging for it
I'm pretty sure romantasy doesn't mean "fantasy written by a woman" but actually "a romance story happening in a fantasy world", which means that it is a story in a fantasy world where the main plot is a romance - two characters discovering or renewing their love. (So if the same story can still happen without the characters developping feelings for each other, it isn't a romantasy since the plot isn't romance driven) Romantasy can absolutely be written by men, and women can write fantasy that isn't romantasy.
hey! :) what you say is absolutely true (in fact i have a whole separate video about the romantasy genre, where i go over it in more details) of course there is romantasy out there written by men, and fantasy written by women. but i personally see this newly coined term of romantasy as almost a byproduct of people incessantly criticising fantasy written by women for not being “real”, “adult”, “serious” fantasy
@@rayareadzzzzI think it makes sense to have a separate term for a different genre, especially one that is getting so popular and is different to fantasy. Some readers do go to romantasy because they want to read something with a central romance, and some readers don't want important romances at all so can also find use from the distinction. But unfortunately there probably indeed is some effect of "romance is for women" that affects romantasy too (which isn't surprising since it is a subgenre of romance) So it does lead to some separation of 'fantasy by and for women' VS 'real fantasy', but I wouldn't agree that it comes from generally refusing the books written by women as 'real' fantasy. Rather, that there are people now pointing to romantasy as the 'fantasy for women genre' _because_ it's different from fantasy
hehe i’m frankly not a huge fantasy reader, it’s just not my genre overall 😃 here i personally was thinking more in terms of YA fantasy specifically + as i said, i was reiterating what i saw people online say re SJM but again, yes, my knowledge of fantasy as a genre is very limited, but i’ve been having fun reading comments of what other people have to say regarding this
@@rayareadzzzz this wasn't intended to be directed at you specifically, so I apologize for coming off so argumentative! it was more meant as a general statement since I've seen this type of sentiment a lot online recently, and it does make me sad as an avid adult fantasy reader 😔
I watched a really good deep dive into ACOTAR from a channel called Charlotte Reads. It gives a really great and well-thought out critique of the books it's called "The Villain in the Story: Abuse, Feminism and Choice in SJM's ACOTAR Series." for anyone interested!
First of all love the make up Second of all thanks for this deep dive I personally am not a fan of SJM because of her views but I am insanely curious so I gotta watch
About the aspect of mysogony underlinning SJM criticism: I agree it is a part of the issue, but to boil it down to "a woman writes sex and the patriachy is angry about it" is slightly disingenuous. Yes, the adult fantasy space was once male dominated. However, this hasn't stopped women and queer writers from breaking that glass ceiling, and in recent decades the genre as a whole has grown more diverse which is great to see. That being said, plenty of female writers have written books which are aimed at and marketed for adults and which have sex scenes in them (for example, Fonda Lee or NK Jemesin - *and they've won prizes for those books). I think the reason SJM gets criticised when others don't is that the sex scenes and romance in her books are the scapegoat for all the other issues. It's easier to criticise romance and sexuality for being frivolous than it is to build a solid case against her. That's the real misoginy: simple laziness. If I can speculate on why her books are marketed towards a YA audience: I think it's because there's a certain simplicity to her writing that undercuts the darker asspects. Yes, that darkness is explored but in a very surface level way. This is not to say that YA can't be complex, but rather that its a *possible* characteristic of a YA book which can make a novel scew towards YA rather than adult. Also, adding on to the trauma thing as well ... I've seen a lot of people mock SJM for her comment on Lord of the Rings, and ... well, yea, I agree, it's pretty ridiculous all things considered, but it's intersting to compare SJM's approach to trauma and people's reaction to it with other stories. It's silly of her to insinuate that exploring trauma in fantasy is new and I think is a misrepresentation of the genre as a whole and shows that SJM doesn't understand fantasy as much as she claims to (note: this might explain why people dislike her worldbuilding). Considering how many other fantasy books have covered trauma, and done so in more intersting and enlightening ways, I think its fair to say that SJM fans tend to be newer to reading fantasy and thus more likely to see what SJM is doing and think it is new and unique. Maybe that's the real reason her books are marketed at a teen audience; they're like a modern HP fandom: enthusiastic but mostly because they haven't experienced much else. All that being said (and, whoa I ranted for longer than I wanted to), enjoy reading what you want ... but maybe step out of your bubble from time to time and try some other authors (Fonda Lee and NK Jemesin are only some of many amazing adult fantasy writers to try). (oh and I tried to stay focused on the storytelling stuff but on a meta level: the way SJM used Breonna Taylor's death to promote her book ... so fucked up and it's the real reason you shouldn't read her books)
First off you’re beautiful😮💨 Secondly you actually did a really good job on the video providing thorough information And actually remained unbiased good ass video 🔥
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 84 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องศึก vs เมืองไทย"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3kuzsAIDf1c/mqdefault.jpg)
there are some spoilers in this video for Crescent City, ACOTAR & Throne of Glass. while i did my best to warn you in the video itself, i completely forgot about the one at 38:50 (throne of glass spoiler)
check the description box for all the details & timestamps,
hope that helps! 🧚🏻♀️
GIRL…. I didn’t see this comment before watching that part 😭
@@mamajitobro me too I can’t belive it just got spoiled for us 😭 I’m so sad
@@mamajitosame!!😭😭
not sjm saying she's doing better than lord of the rings by exploring trauma.... girl what do you think frodo's entire ending was about
Exactly 😭😭 I was like "girl frodo never recovered from all the shit he went through, what do you think those last chapters were about?" My man literally went through hell and back carrying the embodiment of evil and was permanently scarred physically and emotionally for the rest of his life 😭
She wouldn't understand unless sam and frodo went to bone town
I guess she’s never read The Children of Húrin. That whole story is just one long trauma dump.
My exact thought at that bit T.T
well idk did Frodo ever climb down stairs to heal his trauma?? that’s what I thought
17:52 "the characters in lord of the rings are not traumatized enough" Frodo goes to the undying lands with the eleves at the end of the books because he can't live among the happy go lucky hobbits after everything he's gone through. Wdym that no one explored trauma in fantasy before you???? Have you read the books you criticize???
(Sorry, that comment really hurt my brain)
I was looking for this exact comment! Frodo at the end is supposed to be a representation of how after WWI many soldiers came home and didn't know how to continue on living their everyday lives after the trauma they'd experienced!
Fr like trauma is one of the most prominent themes in LOTR??? Did we read the same books
It’s the least important subject here
Right ... bc only women can be traumatized the "correct" amount. And that's only when it's at the hands of a sexy alpha male
A lot of people do not actually interpret Frodo going to the undying lands in that particular way, a lot of people see it more as some kind of a reward or an elevation of him over other hobbits, or something. (But, also, yeah....a lot of people have only seen the movies, not actually read the books.😅)
But she didn't actually say that literally no one had done it before, she just said that in general it was typically not done very often or was glossed over a lot or given much less central focus. Even if there are specific exceptions(especially post like 2012 or so .. give or take a few years), as a general rule she's still not totally wrong. And going away to the elves because you can't function in normal society anymore in the very end really isn't exactly the same thing as his trauma actively being explored or focused on directly throughout the course of the entire book or right in the midsts even during other events unfolding in the book or actively exploring how to try and cope with actually trying to still live with other/'normal' people and not just retreating entirely from all society as you previously knew it altogether. Ssoo..... 🤷 idk.
I feel like both you all and her have valid points, and the real answer probably lies someplace in the middle. I dunno.
The fact that she thinks she writes trauma better than Tolkien is down right offensive. Frodo's whole storyline is a metaphor for trauma of war. He is deeply irreversibly traumatized and it can't be fix by sex or a workout. Through all the other characters are shown various different reactions to trauma. Some of them more seriously effected than others. All SJM writes is women with PTSD who just need some good sex and a workout and the PTSD is fixed.
But I will say none of the "plagiarism" she's accused of is plagiarism. The lines from other books work more like references than actual teft. Her work is derivitive, absolutely, but not plagiarized.
as someone with ptsd and having had depression, the way Nesta was treat was VILE
"But I will say none of the "plagiarism" she's accused of is plagiarism. The lines from other books work more like references than actual teft. Her work is derivitive, absolutely, but not plagiarized." well in fact it is. If you copy sth and do not give a source its still considered a plagiarism. In this video not but I suggest checking Tumblr because there are a lot more examples of things stolen by SJM. It kind of reminds me of Cassandra Clare's case when she, at the biginning of her writing journey to write her fanfiction abt Draco Malfoy, stole quotes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Babylon 5 and Pamela Dean's book The Hidden Land. Just like SJM she passed them off as her own and was also praised for them. However everything changed, when a user named Avocado revealed her plagiarism. Later she proceeded into cyberbullying her critics. In Sarah J Maas case it would have still be good if she at least asked these authors for permission to use their quotes in books.
@@niesamowitagabichan3394
Singular lines do not count as plagiarism in the context of novels (in different context they might). If they would large junks of the whole literary canon would be plagiarized. How many times have authors written the line "to be or not to be?" without crediting Shakespere? Plagiarism or copyright infringement protects writers/artists/etc. from someone making profit of off their work and them losing potential income because of it. But will anyone buy sjm books instead of harry potter because she uses very vaguely similar line in her work? Simply no. Throwing plagiarism around is destructive to whole creative field and doesn't in fact help at all with the real plagiarism issues. Real copyright infringement actually has financial impact on people. It's companies removing writing credit to avoid proper payment and shady retailers selling unlicensed copies of books without paying royalties etc. Sometimes it's also content farming authors putting up multiple books a year and doing it by writing very little, instead plagiarising large junks from other authors, making it much harder for the actual writers to compede and survive the industry. If there's no evidence of sjm copying large continuos junks of other works, with maybe some rewording, which this video at least didn't claim, then there's no evidence of her plagiarising. Copyright doesn't give ownership of singular sentences or plotpoints, or character concepts, or ideas, or story structures.
I don't know about Cassandra Clare but if it was the same as this, it doesn't sound plagiarism. Though sounds like she's like shitty person other ways. It's not like I care to defend either of these people, their works are wholly unappealing to me. But I will defend creative expression.
@@karoliinalehtinen6701Shakespeare’s writing is in the public domain, meaning writers are legally allowed to quote him without citations. The other more modern authors works are not in the public domain.
Also, can you please provide citations to back up your claims about copyrights.
@@karoliinalehtinen6701 The weavers song was almost all exactly copied. She just changed a few words and as far as I know, didn't credit. (Please correct me if I'm wrong)
Her Breonna Taylor post is what made me no longer read her books. As a black woman, to me, it felt very tone death. If she really cared that much about Breonna Taylor & police brutality she should have made a whole separate post about it. Not combine it with her cover reveal where most of her readers are only going to care about the book. Really seemed like she was trying to get brownie points from black readers.
And she kept the post up after people said it was in bad taste!! Also, the one thing I hate the most about this is that whenever this topic is brought up her fanbase turns rabid and refuses to listen and understand why people feel the way they do about the situation.
That is really bad, like it makes me question her work as an author. Like if she's going to use the murder of a black woman as a way to sell books, she's not a good person.
There's always two sides to these types of faux pas though and that's why people disagree. For some they see it as her using her book and popularity to reach her audience about the issue and promote it since her audience is largely white. The other half are saying she was using Breonna to promote the book that's why people don't agree about it. Also her rabid fanbase can actually be the most critical of her work so unsure why they would protect thus unless they assumed it was situation 1 and not situation 2. PR is tricky and she probably got told she did nothing wrong which is why the post is still up. Personally I think most authors could use more media training because I wouldn't attach a post like that to anything else, but that's just me.
She honestly could’ve been fine if she had dedicated the book to her and donated a portion of the proceeds to her family. Like, that would’ve made the post make sense.
@@ll2323 It's a little more complicated than that to actually set something like that up, though, probably. I mean, the books were already printed, how is she going to put a dedication in there? And without having been able to arrange something beforehand when they first set things for the release into motion to just automatically pull a certain percentage of every sale and deposit it in donation or something, I feel like there would likely be a whole lot of other hoops to jump through to figure out how to donate any of it-I mean, she couldn't force the publisher to donate anything from their portion of the profit, she could only donate from her own portion of it....and she couldn't do that before the sales were finalized and everything, since preorders can be canceled, etcetera. Maybe she still should have tried to do something like that anyway, but maybe this was the one thing she actually knew how to actually do in the actual moment? It's difficult to say.
Maybe she knew that it was more likely that her fans would actually stop and read it and become aware of the situation rather than just skimming right past without even looking if she included it in a post that actually mentioned her book too. Like a compliment sandwich, that starts with a compliment then offers some criticism then closes with another compliment, or something. I'm not saying that made it actually the best or most proper way she should have gone about it. I'm just acknowledging that it is possible there could have been other motivations other than just trying to use the buzzy news to catch more eyes for her book. It's impossible to know for sure without literally being inside her head, unfortunately.
Rhys' first encounter with Feyre in ACOTAR is a blatant copy of Howl meeting Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle. The entire setup, the hidden/double context, in addition to the exact words "There you are. I've been looking for you" to get her away from two men accosting her. It makes me furious that readers believe SJM came up with this complex, nuanced meeting when it's a blatant plagiarism of a much better story.
I don't think Howl's Moving Castle is actually the first or only place to utilize that particular trope/scenario, though.
@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 I argue that's not a trope, but a blatant copy. If you watch the scene in HMC, it's the exact same. It also doesn't help that SJM mentioned listening to HMC soundtrack to help write. There's tropes, inspiration, and plagiarism. I've always felt that that scene fell between the latter two.
@@stephaniea2932 It IS a fairly common trope, though, regardless of whether SJM used that particular one in her book in a specifically inspired-by or plagiarized way or not. I have actually seen that scene in HMC, although I haven't actually read any of SJM's books. But my point/question was, exactly how much does it actually resemble that scene in HMC specifically, and how much does that scene in both HMC and SJM's book simply resemble basically any other scene of that specific nature with that specific trope in basically any of the many other things that have also had such a scene in them? I know I've encountered several of them in several different things throughout the years myself, although I can't currently recall exactly what things all of them were in or not just off the top of my head right now.
And it's not a completely uncommon practice for people to not merely take inspiration from but to sometimes also occasionally recreate certain small moments as deliberate homages to some other previous work of fiction or such before theirs-and there can be a really fine line sometimes between recreated homages versus plagiarism, because plagiarism is intended to sneakily try and pass itself off as a totally original creation of someone who did not in fact actually first create it, but recreated things/moments are actually and deliberately supposed to be overtly and blatantly recognizable even without saying so as having been lifted directly from whatever previous work had done it first and supplanted into whatever newer thing is paying tribute to that to anybody else who has also seen both it and the prior piece of fiction too.
(For example, in the 'Interview with the Vampire' tv series, there is a certain moment when a certain character rips their shirt open and steps out into the sunlight that I can almost guarantee you was probably a deliberate recreation of a certain scene in one of the Twilight movies when a certain other character ripped their shirt open and stepped out into the sunlight also-but literally nothing immediately before or after that one specific frame/moment was plagiarized from anything else, the IwtV tv series just likes paying tribute to various popular vampire cinema and tv from throughout the ages like that because Anne Rice was a passionately avid lover of all things vampire movies and tv throughout the years specifically moreso even than she was ever a fan of vampire literature like her own and it was actually an old vampire movie which had first inspired her to ever even write her IwtV book to begin with. And in various Final Fantasy video games, there are many assorted little things/moments that were deliberately lifted from Star Wars and transplanted instead into FF too, like certain random background characters often being named Biggs and/or Wedge as well as certain quotes from one of Yoda's famous speeches sometimes appearing in other characters' dialogue and that one moment when Leia or Han or whoever sees Luke disguised as a Storm Trooper and remarks on him being 'a little short...for a storm trooper' or whatever also having been recreated at least once. If I recall it correctly, little moments like that don't always count as plagiarism either just because they are culturally understood nods/tributes and/or because I think it's something like 40-to-60% or more of a thing that has to be plagiarized from something else or some-such like to legally qualify, unless I'm grossly misremembering here(which is always possible); and it also has to be plagiarized specifically not for certain specific purposes or not in certain specific ways/manners/fashions or whatever that are actually considered legally allowable for certain reasons, such as if it's parody and/or commentary and/or criticism and/or considered somehow sufficiently transformative and not at any risk of ever truly infringing upon and harming or taking anything away from the original work's rights/sales/profits/market/audience or whatever.)
But since I haven't read SJM's books, and I don't personally know SJM to ask her about it or her intentions with it, I really couldn't tell if I would myself in fact actually agree or disagree with you about what the scene in SJM's books actually was or not...in this particular case. 🤔🤷🤷♀️🤷🏻♂️ 🙂
I was just opening a discussion / making conversation / expressing my own general thoughts when reading your prior comment, or whatever-not really trying to argue or tell you that you were somehow wrong to think/feel about it the way that you do, at all. Lol
((I think it's still totally fair to be bothered by it that some people don't know or recognize that it is/was already a pre-existing thing even before SJM, either way, though. Just to be clear! 🙂🤍))
Not the first or last creative that will use that
I think that Sarah's books are only "super spicy" for protestant societies. The throne of glass series barely has a couple of sex scenes, acotar series has more but they're mostly standard nothing particularly kinky (also, terribly written). I don't know why people talk about her books like they're pornographic or something. Idk maybe is because I've been on ao3 since that site was created but she seems pretty tame (unless you're not used to adult books having sex in them??)
i think that spice in ACOTAR was so sensational because people were not used that in traditionally published YA books
it of course can’t even hold a candle to smut on ao3 lol 🌶️😂
I kind of refer to the ACOTAR series as smut for people who never had a fanfic phase. There’s so much better written smut on Ao3 that anyone who’s been on the site will find the ACOTAR smit fairly boring.
omg YESS! THIS! ^^^^ I was so dissapointed when everyone was screaming "fairy smut fairy smut" on social media and marketing her books as these spicy fantasy novels and then I read them and there's barely ANY content of such themes and if there was it was sooooo stale and tame. I kept asking myself with every page "where is it??? where is it???"
@@SkyeSoleil LOL isn't that who every TikTok famous book is for? Of the many reasons TikTok books hurt my soul, one of them is that I used to read comparable or even better books on Wattpad. Ao3 crowd says the same for Ao3. We used to read these books for free and we need to bring fanfic/Wattpad phase back.
plenty of people are still fanfic authors :D most people use ao3 now instead of wattpad because there's no strict rules or anything
I can totally see SJM as a mean girl because the Inner Circle in ACOTAR is 100% the cool kid table.
They’re the dickheads who believe that everyone wants to be them when I reality no one thinks they’re all that. I guarantee you the people of Velaris only tolerate them because they have to, not because they actually like them.
Just came to say this. Theres a tumblr community of ACOTAR fans who actually despise parts of the book and I love reading all of the different points they'll make. Definitely a fun 'deep cut' to look through lmao
Yeah, and her writing is just repetitive and it's sometimes even cringey. The fact that she has to have multiple prequels, and multiple "extra chapters" just goes to show that she is pretty unorganized as a writer and her writing is actually really bad… especially if those "extra chapters" are essential to understanding the next books, just tells you everything you need to know about her. I don't know if she has ADD or ADHD but it's pretty annoying when you do that I've never seen a writer do what she does, where things that are essential to understanding the story are just "extra" and not included in every copy of the book… that's just bad writing and bad marketing. The “extra chapters” was probably a one time thing, and then she probably realized that it did make her more money because then people had to go out and specifically buy the most expensive copies, from Barnes & Noble, even if they already had copies, if they found out that there were other chapters that weren't in their books, if they didn't know that before hand, then they would have to go out and buy more copies specifically from Barnes & Noble, which gives the funds directly to the writer, and she must've made a significant amount of more money and decided that that was a good marketing strategy to make more money. Because I never heard of any other writer doing this shit before, and then she did it with throne of glass, and then she was like “oh wow this is so great. I make so much more money. People have to go out and buy more copies.” 🙄 Then she does not really tell you, that there are extra chapters in the said specific books at these said specific stores, and lets you find out for yourself, so that way you've already bought a copy or several copies from other bookstores other than Barnes & Noble, and by the time you find out that there are extra chapters since she doesn't specify that there are certain copies at certain locations and stores that have these “extra chapters”, then you're gonna have to go and buy the entire series over again just to be able to have those extra chapters… So boom, more money for her since she didn't really tell her audience in the way that she doesn’t make these in every copy of the books, that there were certain copies at certain stores with the extra chapters. Oh, it's genius. It's shady as fuck, but it's still genius, because it works, and because people do…. They actually go out and buy these extra copies, and they buy several sets of the same book set just to be able to have the “extra chapters” or to have the aesthetics, because they’re such die-hard fans for no real reason. It's slick, it's fucked up, and it's greedy as fuck, but it works… because her specific audience doesn't seem to care that she's essentially screwing them over. To me, she is like the snake of writers . Jk Rowling never pulled this shit. Philip Pullman never pulled this shit. Suzanne Collins never pulled this shit. Rick Riordan never did. Stephenie Meyer never did. She is the first and only author to pull this shady snake screw over crap on her readers… She has some nerve… Is she trying to commit career suicide?! She is so fucking greedy and you know what, I think she's actually pretty evil. Also, the fact that she does this with every book tells you that it's not a necessity to do this “extra chapter thrown” in bs that is not in every copy sold, and that it's a money grab more than anything else… Also, if you don't know about the extra chapters or fawn over her every move, then you won't know about them until later on... so let's say you see her books on display at a random book store and you don’t know much about them, or SJM, and you pick a few of them up, then you wouldn't even know about these "extra chapters" and that you have to buy them specifically from Barnes & Noble to have them… That’s a d*ck move.
@@mmmossyfrogWhat’s the name of the tumblr community? I would love to check it out!
this!!! they always seemed so weird to me, you put it in words perfectly though
one of my biggest issues with sjm's WRITING (aka not the objectionable stuff that she has said and done personally) is simply the double standards. rhysand is just as bad as if not worse than tamlin, and yet the narrative treats him as if he's an angel. it would be one thing if it were an unreliable narrator situation, where rhysand's behavior is simply normalized by this pseudo-historical society and so feyre et al don't conceptualize rhysand's behavior as an issue. but it's NOT, because when tamlin pulls *the exact same shit* it's rightfully called out as toxic or abusive, meaning that even if acotar's society at large doesn't view these behaviors as wrong, these specific characters do... except not when rhysand does them.
it's a trend with a lot of mediocre authors where instead of writing good and bad actions, they write good and bad people. and if the "good" character does something, it's good, while if the "bad" character does something, it's bad, because good people do good things and bad people do bad things, even if those things are the exact same.
also, child ballad 39 (the ballad of tam lin), which book one of acotar is vaguely based on / inspired by, is one of my favorite fairy tales of all time. and since it's not very well known to the average person, the only modern novel-length adaptation / derivative of it is fucking acotar. and for that i will never forgive her.
+ at 20:55 i get what she's going for, but if she's trying to make a point about fantasy fiction not acknowledging the trauma that characters would have, lotr is like.. the WORST example to use and makes me wonder if she's ever actually seen / read lotr lmao
Thanks to you, I found this ballad. It made me nostalgic even if I had never heard of or read this one.
SOOOOOOO TRUEEE omg I can't with the sudden switch between who's supposed to be loved and hated. Like why it seems like everyone forgot that in BOOK ONE of ACOTAR Rhysand is basically the disgusting pimp that uses Feyre as he wishes because she is a prisoner and very suggestive sex slave??? And suddenly SJM is trying to tell me that "he is a feminist"??? Madam, where???
Some people said it's because the POV is from Feyre, because when you change POVs to the other sisters he's just as bad. Though the question is if she did this on purpose or not.
The LotR thing sent me lol
because of this comment I found out that the SMT (video game series) demon Tam Lin is actually derived from that same fairy tale :0
While I can understand how the "romantasy" label can come across as misogynistic, I actually appreciate the distinction. Romantasy isn't just women authored fantasy, it's more specifically books that focus on romance in a fantasy setting. I myself enjoy romance as a suplot, not the driving force of the story, and nothing infuriates me more than picking up what I think would be an interesting, well-thought-out fantasy novel only to be met with 400+ pages of flimsy worldbuilding, animalistic smut, and contrived plot devices used to push the main character and her super hot, super growly love interest together (no hate to romantasy lovers but I seriously could not care less about two people swooning over each other's sexiness when there are more pressing plot matters at hand).
So yeah, being able to distinguish romance-driven fantasy from plot-driven fantasy can be extremely helpful to me and, from what I've seen, many other fantasy readers as well.
It seems more and more smutty books with the air of romance has taken over genres. I still remember way back after the horrible written fifty shades came out erotic romance novels started to flood book stories to the point that some places stopped selling just regular old fashion erotic novels. And than they started to show up in big box stories and stretching out into other genres like science fiction and now fantasy. One hand I can't blame publishers after all the majority of readers are women and these books are pretty much aimed at them but it does push other stuff of the shelf a bit.
This. One, I don't read smut. Been there, done that, not my vibe. I find sex scenes utterly boring because once you've read a few, you've basically read all of them (I guess it'd be different if kink is involved but I'm not into that either). Two, while I enjoy romance as a subplot, especially in fantasy cause the story usually spans over a long time so you grow to care about the characters as people, I would be pissed off to find that a story I picked up as fantasy doesn't have the parts I like the most about fantasy. And even more pissed off if that fantasy was filled with smut. It would be like reading Sherlock Holmes stories and instead of Sherlock solving mysteries with Watson helping him, we get Sherlock and Watson pining over each other and having sex halfway through the book. As much as I love the gradual development of of Sherlock and Watson's friendship throughout the books/stories (and as much as I headcanon that they shared romantic love too), that's not what I read detective fiction for.
In fact, I refuse to read SJM books (so far) for this exact reason. Was it her fault that people raved about Throne of Glass and ACOTAR series as the best fantasy ever? Probably not. Am I still pissed off that I was about to read smut/romance while expecting fantasy? Yes. Idk about ToG but I thankfully happened to stumble upon WithCindy's videos on ACOTAR and have been so thankful to her. Point of all this is, I hate it when I expect fantasy and get romance and I hate to read smut everywhere.
Romantasy as a label has nowadays stopped me from trying to read books that sound like promising fantasy and being disappointed. It's like the dark romance as a label/genre/sub-genre for me. Though, my dislike of smut (and my distrust towards the taste of tiktok) has made me avoid basically every popular book out there so maybe the lable isn't _as_ useful for me anymore. While I don't read a lot of romance, I love knowing that if I do read romance or stories with romance someday, I can just stay away from dark romance because it doesn't fit my vibe. I love the slow burn, healthy romance with lots and lots of pining and cuteness and afaik, dark romance will definitely not have all of the health and cuteness. And that's okay. But it makes it easier for people who like dark romance to find such books easily and who dislike it to avoid them easily. Same with romantasy. One, you don't build up false expectations about the kind of book it is and two, it helps people who like romance in fantasy settings like it and who want to read fantasy in fantasy settings away.
@@Saphia_ one while I don't use tiktok from my understanding most if not all books that get hot on it are horrible. That said I kind of get it, if a book is smutty ideally one would be inform of that fact before they pick it up. I know some publishers will mark erotic romance as such.
While I am no fan of fantasy (Robert E Howard's Conan and Harry Potter are the only straight up fantasies I like) I can see how you would be pissed if you pick up a book expecting a fantasy maybe with a little romance and instead get a romance that happens to have a fantasy. It is a clear bait and switch that no doubt the publishers intentionally do and I doubt they will change their ways.
Couldn’t agree more on the bait and switch argument. I don’t have a problem with smut. What I do have a problem with is starting a book where the world is ending, people are dying, the kingdom is burning, ect. but it feels essential to put that on hold for 100 pages so people can flirt, cry over nothing, and bang. That’s romance. Plain and simple.
@@endlessshelf1614 there are books like that? That sounds too stupid.
I said it many times and I’ll say it again. It’s obvious who had their wattpad era and who’s now currently in their wattpad era, there’s no other explanation for people drooling over these mediocre books.
Her writing and storytelling skills are fantastic, there’s a good reason her books are popular.
I get your point, but there are plenty of good wattpad books. And plenty of people who put actual hard work and skills into their online stories. Everyone doesn't have to be put together and insulted
@@Edemayy nope . Her writing and storytelling is pretty darn bad . They're popular because sometimes people enjoy a bit of self-insertion and escape into the world of fantasy and indulge in those hot fantasy guys ( people like whom are actually dangerous to mingle with irl) , also enjoy those spicy 🔥 stuff . I have enjoyed ACOTAR , I can see why it's popular; but there is nothing good about it . Except one or two times where it reaffirms the victims of abuse that it's okay to prioritise yourself and get tf out of the abusive relationship. ( But it also reaffirms when the said victims seek out abuse and manipulation AGAIN because it's familiar so I don't know if it negates the good things or not).
well said
@@Edemayypopularity does not b equate to quality. Often, it’s quite the opposite. Rupi Kaur is another example of substantial mediocrity that went viral.
All personal stuff aside, she wanted to prove that fantasy was as good as lit fiction.... and she wrote that??
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
this is so foul… but I kinda get it 😭
for real 😂
I also hate the double standard between Tamlin and Feyre in the second book. While we, as the readers, and SJM empathize with Feyre for how her trauma/PTSD about under the mountain manifests, we are supposed to see Tamlin as the bad guy.
She completely changed who she is, also becoming quite cruel and distant with Tamlin, but whatever she does is understandable, because she's "been through so much". However, Tamlin doesn't get the same sympathy. While I'm aware that his behavior is controlling and toxic, SJM doesn't acknowledge at all that he has also suffered and that he is also a victim that needs treatment.
Instead, he gets the villain treatment. (And of Rhysand can be a horrible person, because he has REASONS whenever he does it...uhuh.)
It's completely in lien with SJMs general toxic masculinity depiction honestly.
👏🏻 absolutely! It's like she is selective on who can "have trauma". I read acotar and remember a scene in which Lucien told Feyre she needs to consider Tanlim's view..something like "I watch/heard my betheoded heart stop beating. unlike me Tamlin got his love back." Basically implying that Feyre isn't considering Tamlins trauma of nearly losing her (and could lose her again). Also let's not even get started on how she overlooked all of poor Lucien's baggage.
There are some great fan fics on Archive Of Our Own that address Lucien and Tamlins story lines.
I've been so mad about this! Nesta is a horrible person and does fucked up shit but it's okay because she has trauma, but then Tamlin is treated as the devil lol
@@Anna-bm3oe I agree. That was the one thing that really bothered me. I dont think SJM has a lot of self awareness as a writer for this reason.
This was exactly the reason I stopped reading acotar. I don't remember much (read the book on the day it was released) but clearly still remember being very dissappointed on what the author made tamlin to be. So i just stopped reading after the second book.
I mean can't tamlin get like true redemption or something. He was just shoved into a corner and made to be the villain.
The Breonna Taylor post was inappropriate and exploitative. Keeping it up after people told her to take it down tells me everything I need to know about her. To me her books are not well-written and she frames controlling behaviour by Rhysand as being protective so I was already done with her books.
Sarah, tell you didn't read Lord of the Rings without telling me you didn't read it. LotR heavily touches subjects of trauma, PTSD and depression. There are some striking examples like Theoden, Eowyn and of course Frodo and he is so deeply traumatized, that he couldn't find his peace in Middle-Earth and could only sail to Valinor with some hope that he'll be healed there. All ringbearers, even Sam, were deeply wounded. Merry also was traumatized, but he was able to heal with time. Aragorn also was pretty messed up by all those lonely years, constant fighting and the burden of his responsibilities. I could go on and on about that. I reacently re-read LotR and I was crying my eyes out all the time and I felt seen in my depression and PTSD much more than in most modern books.
She strikes me as the kind of person who has very little reading comprehension, especially if how badly written and exhaustingly repetitive her own books are is any indication.
Let alone Denathor being too strong to turn directly evil so gets his depression fed to the point where he becomes dangerous to himself and others
@@eveellisen you hit the head on the nail. This is why i cant get into her work.
omg i also think of her as the taylor swift of authors, they both have such crazy cult followings that immediately turn me off from having any interaction with their works at all.
i love taylor, swifties can seem crazy especially to an outsider hahah 😂
and some of them do be acting mean even to fellow fans but i guess these things are kind of inevitable when the fandom as huge as it is
@rayareadzzzz I've been in my fair share of cult like fandoms to be fair, can't help but remember the craziness that was the one direction fandom while i was in high school back in the day 😂
@@lovelove-cs7zh except Taylor can actually write
@@alexharris3869debatable
except that Taylor is actually a good writer LOL
Honestly I don’t mind problematic things in the books I read. One series that’s important to me (as the first lgbt series I ever had access to) has a lot of problematic themes. But that’s why media literacy is so important, and seeking out trigger warnings. As readers we should be able to separate fantasy from reality, and why media literacy is so important- think Sokka being sexist but learns to be a better person.
What matters is how authors frame it, and treat certain topics with respect and not put in their work for shock value.
i agree, it’s not what you do/write but how you do/write it
The big issue is the fact that this series is still marketed to underage minors to this day. SJM was all too happy to profit off young readers being exposed to romanticized abuse and messages of white supremacy and homophobia in her books. She literally demanded her publisher keep the sexually explicit content while knowing they were shifting her ACOTAR books to the young adult audience.
That part but it’s crazy how SJM frames her book so poorly but people will call it a masterpiece but Octavia E Butler and other writers like Samantha Shannon don’t even get one glance to there work
It wasn't a fantasy book I read, but there was a YA book I had read when I was a teenager. It was written by a Canadian author, set in Oshawa, Ontario. It discussed something very problematic. It discussed violence against a gay teenager who was jumped by a group of boys (possibly a group of older men in the 20s) just for being gay. The main character who was the best friend of this character had to figure out what happened because their friend couldn't speak for himself due to suffering catastrophic brain injury.
Maybe this isn't problematic in the sense of what is being discussed in this video, but I loved that book because of the feelings of horror and disgust I had. It definitely made me think more clearly about my own actions and words towards others. Sadly, I forgot the name of the book and every time I search for it, I can't find it. I feel that problematic themes like violence aimed towards minorities or people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community is extremely important.
I think discussions on themes and issues that are problematic in society is extremely important. These discussions can come from any book, including fantasy books about fae or whatever.
I feel with 21:52 she shows perfectly what's the problem with modern media (to me): Everything has to be shoved in your face and overly explained, otherwise it's "not there"
A former SJM supporter here. She wrote my former all time favourite book. It showed my trauma and I felt seen. It gave me hope. Now, I didn’t really understand the ‘her characters are not diverse’ things for a long time because I saw people of colour when I pictured the characters and thought it was just peoples inherent racism they needed to address that they couldn’t see the people of colour clearly there. I deeply loved the ACOTAR books, mostly the second and third. She had 2 shelves on my books shelves to her work. I loved her books. But I was going through things and I wasn’t reading and the Novella came out and I didn’t get my hands on it, I didn’t hear good things so I never got around to getting it or reading it and then court of silver flames came out and I heard how she destroyed Rhysand and as I was still in a bad mental place and wasn’t reading it gave me space from it, so I never read it. And the instagram post happened and it was like something broken inside me and I no longer could support her. She never apologised, she kept the post up after it was communicated it caused harm and that’s when it felt she showed her true colours as a racist. I took all her books off the shelves and have them hidden on another shelf until I work out what I wanted to do. I tried reading court of silver flames this year and the transphobia as a non binary person was so in my face. She writes all her woman as ‘females this, females that’ and I gave up, then moved onto to trying to read house of earth and blood and it was in there as well. I couldn’t do it. Soooooooooo much ‘female this, female that’… so I sold off a large part of my collection that had taken me ages to collect, floppy paper backs and hardcovers. I still have my original hardcovers of ACOTAR and Thrown of glass in hardcover and paperbacks, but I’m seriously considering selling my original hardcovers of thrown of glass, I never finished the series so I’m re reading Thrown of glass to see what I want to do but the love isn’t there because I’m so hurt by the author. I don’t feel good reading this knowing who the author is. I find it hard to separate the artist from the art. I don’t want to read to just enjoy books, which I think is why many people don’t critically evaluate the authors they are reading the works of. They want to put their head in the sand and ‘love what they love’ without asking if what they love is harmful to their own thinking and if it’s asking them to grow as a person. Because what we consumes does influence us, it is important we question it. I say this as a dark romance reader (yay trauma). It takes a lot for someone to take a step back from what they love to really look at it with clear eyes. We do this with people and unfortunately with media. Because of the stuff I was going through where I stopped reading for a long time- I was also given the space from the works I loved and the rose tinted glasses were able to fall off.
Thank you for this video, it gave me even more information and reasons why I don’t want to support this author.
thank you for your comment, it was really interesting to read your perspective!
resell them!! they’re in super high demand and you’ll make a ton of money, i recommend pangobooks
I’m not trying to dismiss your experience…but how is writing “female” transphobic? I don’t get it….ive never gotten the transphobic vibe from her
@@eshitasahuI have no idea. Fae aren’t humans and the terms “women” and “men” are used for humans…
Ohh please get over yourself, woke people like you and your constant shaming of people for not having the same line of thoughts as you. Must be so cold up there so high on the moral high ground -_-
Her Lord of the Rings comment at 20:55 just triggered me so bad. The fact that she brought up the movies instead of the books (an author doing this???) The fact that a major theme of LOTR is trauma. The fact that Tolkien himself was a war veteran who experienced the horrifically traumatizing battle of Somme... I can't. You just know even if she read the books it would go completely over her head, because Tolkien was more subtle and complex than she is capable of comprehending let alone writing.
My issues with the books are honestly from a weird place of her completely not understanding the fae. It's... really just a smut fest with something vague with wings and magic. (Which is fine but you can easily bullshit your own race to accomplish this instead of romantizing the worst types of magical beings) I'm Scottish, so we have a lot of myths about the fae and I promise, you don't want a hot fae boy anywhere near you. Unseelie or Seelie. Especially since a lot of the myths are seductors, who if you aren't seduced (god forbid), they'll curse your whole life to the point your luck is flipped upside down to the point your life's ruined - yeah, just rejecting a fae earns you misery worse than any incel. Then there's bride stealers. Children stealers. And that's not counting the one's who - and I say this firmly because the books have them tossing out names and insults to each other willy nilly, Feyre, if she did any of what she did to ACTUAL fae? She'd not be a quirky love interest, she'd be dead. Period. Properly dead after being tortured in some of the worst ways they could think of because unseelie do NOT need a reason to torture, they just do it. Unseelie especially aren't classed as the secret underdogs, (not all of them are evil but their way of living is strong beats the weak and honour is stupid) so you best bet your handsome unseelie boy is going to make you utterly miserable because being MALICIOUS is literally their whole courts purpose.
Signed, an asexual who saw the premise of these books and immediately knew it was bullshit, that just has a bunch of girls fangirling over myths who would rather see them on their dinner plate than in their beds.
Omg thank you, I am so tired of the misconceptions around the fae in popular media. And trying to explain it to people who think it's all Tinkerbell. Or when they know a little they still think Seelie is shorthand for good.
More than similarities to the Black Jewels trilogy or her getting credit for the "Rattle the Stars" and "To Whatever End" quotes when they came from other works - in her Throne of Glass series one character in later books becomes "Hand of the King" which is a term CREATED by GRRM. Also there are whole scenes in Kingdom of Ash that are basically ripped from the LotR movies: there's a scene where one character orders the others to light the beacons to signal that they require aide/to gather the troops, there's an entire rip off of the Helm's Deep battle - including an actual scene where a character uses Eowyn's lines about getting the women and children to safety, and even a dam breaking during a battle like in The Two Towers. I don't know if this is considered plagiarism - but it's definitely more than "inspired by" or "paying homage" to other works.
I mean people who read the GOT series can clearly see some of the monsters in all her series are similar to his. She has her own white walkers, skin walkers, people who can warg, giant spiders, I mean the list goes on. I would be fine if she just said she took inspiration from them.
nehemias death in crown of midnight is appalling. sarah has no idea how bad it reflects on her that the only black character is killed to progress the plot and make the main character feel bad
I hated when feyre and rhysand had sex in the library so much. I remember being truly shocked that she wrote that and I had to put the book down. as someone who has suffered sexual trauma, I found solace in the priestess’ at the library, and was flabbergasted that she defiled them all in the same chapter. I felt like I was actually connecting to the characters because I didn’t see myself in any of the main protagonists :(
I checked and they don't. Rhys only jokes about licking Feyre. Do not true
They didn't do that in the library
I will never get over the fact that she clearly plagiarized the whole Black Jewels series from Anne Bishop, and got immense success with it while the original author and her ORIGINAL story/idea/universe is almost forgotten and not known at all. I hate ACOTAR for that and despise her as an author in general :\
i for one never heard of Anne Bishop before i started researching for this video ☹️
@@rayareadzzzz yuppp, her books were sold with "Adult Content Warning" and compared to harlequin erotica of high fantasy hence why she was never discovered by the larger public as this genre on it's own is thrown upon. :\ If only she was able to publish them now and with YA label, SJM couldn't even compete. It's just so depressing :(
ordering the first book of the Black Jewels series on thriftbooks now, thank you ! 🖤
As someone who read Black Jewels, i dont think she plagiarized much.
Interesting that the titles are similar too.
I'm tired of fae fantasy books, it's always a white thin teenage girl who finds a guy who is 100000% better than her because he's Fae, rich, muscular, 300-500 years old. The teen and old man (who alway look 20-25) have sex all the time, even when friends or family die, serious injury, or in the middle of a battle/war. The teenager is valued once no longer human, and becomes subservient to 500 yr old boo. Everything becomes centered around his wants/likes and her opinion, morals and values are thrown out for him. Most are thin, pale, light eyes, it's so boring! I'm tired of reading about teens having sex! Why aren't these books better? Why aren't there more action and adventure? SJM uses sex scenes to distract from terrible plots and 1 dimensional characters. God forbid we have Fae Fantasy without exclusively writing thin pale teenage MC girls who revolve around a guy in the end. Who is writing 30+ and diverse characters, sex scenes that make sense, and non predictable storylines? Take my money! Please! 😅😅
Exactly
Try Operation ZEIT in AO3.
The male leads are 29 - 33 yo three indigenous half brothers who formerly fishermen from one fishing village in Sabah, Malaysia. They accidentally getting into time travel due to accidental discovery of treasure. Even they are not like other male characters. They are chaotic brothers with their sense of humor, musical scenes and crazy ideas.
The female leads are 25-27++ spinster and fractured fairy tale characters (Snow White, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella) that been escaped from their fairytale life. They met the male leads by accident before they get DnD style adventure. They are not strong independent women or damsel in distress. They are in-between / well balanced characters.
The romance is slow burn due to most characters are Muslims especially the male leads, even the male leads are getting recovery from their heartbreak, while the female leads are still building their chance to trust when the world they living in is dystopian. Besides that, they are getting time travel mission across three timelines (15th/16th medieval, 1881 steampunk Victoria, 2181 cyberpunk) in order to stop the time travel criminals that trying to vanish the childhood joy of fairytale + folktale, and DnD adventure from present and future sight
Read👏A👏Discovery👏Of👏Witches👏 it’s truly some of the best paranormal romance out there, from start to finish (there’s even a tv series adaptation)!!!
lol that’s a good point. As an adult now it’s weird to be “watching” my high school characters doing it, especially since teenagers seem soooo young to me now
Read lore of the wildes! It’s by a black author and so beautiful 💜
I think it's great that SJM has found success in her passion. I've been on the fence about reading her books. As you've pointed out a lot of problematic things about her writing, I've also heard the same from others. I personally don't think that controlling, powerful men should be romanticized for young girls. The things I've heard about Rhysand and Feyre's relationship genuinely make me worried. However, maybe one day I'll pick one up and make a judgement for myself. This video was interesting and I enjoyed your take!
I do wonder how a parent can name their kid after someone like Rhysand or really any book character that has explicit smut scenes.
Do you never read the books again? What about your kid? They're going to find the book some day so how would that talk go? XD
hahahhaha i haven’t even thought of it
that's definitely a thought...
although i will say, rhysand is a popular welsh name so there's at least a little bit of a defense. but maybe rhysand isn't the name to choose.
@@readsbyemmafeel like you have to be Welsh or in or near Wales to get away with that then
I liked Sarah's books when I was younger, but I felt like I liked them less and less as more books came out, especially in the Throne of Glass Series, there really was no need for that series to have that many books. But the thing that made me not want to read any more of her books was the lack of editors/lack of effort put into some parts of the writing. At one point when reading Tower of Dawn, I started counting how often she used the word "Indeed", and it was a ridiculous number of times. Sometimes I could read one hundred pages without seeing that word, and then find it three times on the same page. I felt lika a lot of them could be taken out if she had just put some more effort into the writing. This also continued in Kingdom of Ash, which became the last of her books that I read. For those who are curious, ToD has "indeed" written 98 times and KoA has it written 113 times
oh wow
considering KoA is like 900 pages long I don't think that's too bad 😂
That’s exactly what happened to me with ACOTAR, the first book was awesome, second was a bit of a let down, and then third book was a mess and I’ve never returned to her writing. I know I read a couple of the ToG books before I read ACOTAR but I don’t even remember the plot so that just goes to show how memorable her stories and characters are 🥴
If you read one S.J.M. book, you've read them all. Still a little salty being lied to about an assassin fantasy in my golden years of Assassin's Creed obsessed phase. ("cough-glass throne-couth!")
That book was so off putting. She's supposed to be a master assasin and noting in the book shows it :( It also makes no sense that she'd be holding back or not try to kill members of the royal family.
I had to pause to comment cause I can't stop looking at your eyeshadow! I'm obsessed
aww thank u you are too sweet! 🥰💘
@@rayareadzzzz ❤️❤️
Loll same 😭that eyeshadow looks delicious.
I read Throne of Glass a few years ago and really liked it, so I continued the series. However, I stopped at the fourth book because I literally couldn’t read the MCs pov bc she was so annoying! I see so many people saying she’s one of the best female characters and I just …. 🫠 excited to watch this video!
ty for watching 🥰🫶🏻
Raya: *names authors who unfriended Sarah Janet*
Me: *begins to follow said authors on Goodreads*
My spite towards this woman is intense. And I already love Leigh Bardugo for the Shadow and Bone trilogy.
i applaud your level of pettiness 😂
I used to be a huge fan of SJM’s but the sharp decline in quality in her writing and the subtle emergence of conservative themes in her work post-ACOWAR has seriously put me off. I don’t begrudge her books existing because I think they’ve helped more than they’ve harmed, but truly I cannot understand the hype for Crescent City, which is easily her worst work, and in fact one of the worst fantasy series I’ve ever read. I loved TOG, ACOTAR was frustrating but fun, but CC is borderline unreadable to me. It fails on every possible level. I don’t know what other people are seeing, but it seems to me that success has made SJM and her editors extremely lazy.
While there is a definite bias towards male authors, I think calling Romantasy a misogynistic response to women writing fantasy isn’t entirely fair (though it’s undoubtedly used in a hateful way by others and can fall under that term). Like the creation of YA - which isn’t that old as a genre and is an age marker more than anything - I feel that Romantasy emerged because of the audience. SJMs books generally will appeal to women. Authors like GRRM, Robert Jordan, ect. appeal to men. There is most definitely crossover between the two but if you’re looking at the averages, I think it’s reasonably clear who gravitates to what. By distinguishing between Fantasy and Romantasy, readers are able to make a more informed decision about what kind of book they’re picking up. Particularly if there is something you’d prefer to avoid in stories such as smut or sexual violence.
I do not like romance forward fantasy. By having this label I am able to distinguish between something I want to read and something I most likely won’t click with. This stops me from picking up books with a focus or type of plot I know I don’t like but don’t realize is central to the story until after reading. It’s also better for authors because they’re not receiving a bunch of mediocre ratings because people picked up books that weren’t for them in the first place.
Well as an ASOIAF stan, i can tell you Martin has been heavily criticized for his violent sex scene, however the good outweighs the bad because Martins books are so damn rich with lore and mystery not to mention the action, suspense and adventure.
And he dont romanticize that
Speaking as a fantasy girlie, we have been criticizing George RR Martin for using SA of characters as a short cut to emotional reactions. The toxic male stans drown out that criticism a lot of the time, but please know that it does exist. Unfortunately, a lot of fantasy has been dominated by misogynistic men who worship Martin and other toxic authors. They get just as, if not more rabid than SJM fans when defending their favorite authors.
That being said, I'm sure I'd be the same way if someone came after Neil Gaiman or Diana Wynne Jones. 😅
I don't mean to sound awful, but that Neil Gaiman line did not age well.
@@seanboggs215 what happened to Neil Gaiman
@@JanessaStuckey five different women have come out and accused him of sexual assault.
@@JanessaStuckey he's been recently accused of SA by two women and he's been denying it and calling it "false memories" or something like that, i don't remember right now the exact words he used
The point you brought up at @31:58 is really interesting. It explains a lot about this whole situation with fantasy or romance books that contain sexual content being labeled as YA books. Publishers don't view it as 'real' or 'adult' fiction so they label it as YA. They don't believe it would sell as well if it was actually marketed at adults and maybe they are right. I think the problem is that 16-25 year olds form this kind of grey area between YA and adult fiction but they are potentially the largest group of consumers for honestly any type of media. A lot of them probably don't regularly browse through the adult fiction section in their local bookstores. The idea to have a New Adult genre to bridge this gap was a good attempt at solving this issue but I never really saw it implemented at my local bookstores. Sarah J. Maas books or others like it are either in the YA section or with all the other adult fantasy books in the adult fiction section (or they're on one of those cursed #booktok shelves which are still in the YA section in my local bookstore). There isn't really a section specifically targeting 16-25 year olds. That's where these types of books belong.
New Adult is the perfect way to seperate hardcore smut from YA and allow young teens to not have to be unwillingly exposed to adult content just to enjoy a fantasy story, but frustratingly mainstream publishers are completely resistant to ever making New Adult a real thing, it’s only recognised in self publishing. Authors will get their book proposals auto-rejected by the big 5 traditional publishers if they’ve labelled their book as “New Adult”, so even authors who know their books shouldn’t be considered YA are forced to mislabel it in order to get traditionally published.
Sjm is also criticized for her mental health rep, because she essentially shows characters being magically healed from ptsd with fighting and romance
I was a fan of SJM from the beginning. I started reading her books back when the TOG cover was the cringe Barbie doll lol. And I loved her stuff. But then I started reading more diverse authors and stories, and I realized her stuff wasn’t this amazing, show stopping writing. It was okay and it was fun (for the most part. I wasn’t really ready to take a critical look at what I was reading at that time and didn’t really see anything wrong with her lack of/horrible representation). And then A Court of Silver Flames came out. I had to put that book down for a whole year before trying to finish it again. It was trash. I sat back and realized that she just recycles the same five characters in different bodies and uses the same tropes over and over but with a tiny twist each time. And the spicy scenes made me want to gag. I’ve made my fiancé read some of them and we just sit and laugh the whole time. I continued to read her books (through the library, she’s not getting any of my money again) and each book is just getting worse and worse. Flame and Shadow really solidified for me that she’s not worth my time anymore
i’m not a die hard sjm fan, but i’ve enjoyed the books i’ve read of hers. i know she has a ton of fans and some very vocal critics. thanks for making this video, it hightlighted what i didn’t like about her books.
ty for watching 🫶🏻😇
I’m so glad there’s a cultural change happening where it’s now acceptable to even name Zionism in a TH-cam title (not to say ppl won’t get backlash when speaking of it but I feel like bringing Zionism wouldn’t even be dared a few years ago)
Zionism is not a slur. It's the belief that the Jewish people have the right to live safely in their ancestral homeland. By using it as a slur you are being antisemitic and need to reeducate yourself on Jewish history and reevaluate moral values and life decisions. Bravo.
@@Thenoobestgirl I never said it was a slur, I said ppl were scared to call it out by it’s name when addressing the harm this ideology has caused Palestinians. Doikayt✌️I will not be debating further
@@ThenoobestgirlZionism is a slur. This ideology has caused thousand of deaths. Shame on you for trying to defend it.
@@Thenoobestgirl You are right it isn't a slur... but you are wrong to simplify it as such... jews could have lived there and did without zionism. Instead, european atheist jews created a violent colonial ideology, no matter how you may want to simplify it to something harmless. Plenty of jews lived there before, and plenty moved there over the years and were welcomed into Palestine. It was zionists who created terrorists groups and stole land. If anything, zionism should be extracted from judaism and no longer conflated.
@@ThenoobestgirlWhat an amazing way to show you lack reading comprehension and logical deduction. Bravo.
I think authors like Sara J Mas with this diehard following get a little more heat put on them, not because they are bad, but because they are mid. Colleen Hoover gets this particular hate as well. People get annoyed by all the praise, but some start to lose the plot, and it becomes this irrational hate that you can't really explain or justify.
Exactly this. Speaking for myself, I get why they have so many people reading their books. It's what Wattpad and Ao3 was for a lot of us--- a gateway into the world of books and stories. But ohhh, do I hate that people like SJM and CoHo get so much love and praise when there are so many authors with better works who (in my eyes) are far more deserving. Then there's all the problematic stuff I've heard about them too.
@@Saphia_ something about praise that isn't deserved is more upsetting than being bad or controversial.
@@srose1088 Yeah, exactly!
SJM heals trauma by exercise and love/sex, not sure it’s that realistic for everyone
Her answer to mental health is turning into a badass warrior and fucking the nearest man available
I've only heard of people coping with their trauma that way, but healing is much harder to achieve.
Something I noticed after reading the ACOTAR series and that nobody else seems to pick up on, is that Rhys is a shameless copy of Lucas Hunter from the Psy-changeling series. People's favorite phrase, "Hello, Freyre darling" is from there. Even the physical description of Rhys (when he hides his wings, which is most of the time) is the same as Lucas, except for the eye color and that Lucas has a scar. The Psy-changeling series came out two years before ACOTAR. So it wasn't the other way around.
great video as always, high quality both when it comes to editing and information
aww thank u!! 🫶🏻 thanks for watching 🤗
I feel like SJM definitely started out very much in the YA genre when she was writing Throne of Glass. Throne of Glass throught Heir of Fire was YA and Queen of Shadows on was New Adult. I remember reading the books in high school and noticing a big shift in tone once I started Queen of Shadows and was totally taken aback when all of a sudden, there were more descriptive spicy scenes instead of fade to black.
gurl this just popped onto my recommendation page and i immediately clicked. I love you sm for this
thank you for watching!!🫶🏻
The screaming in the bookstore is a lot for me 😅
I bought the first book, read one chapter, and put it away and donated it to charity without ever reading another chapter.
• The protagonist keeps being called skilled and dangerous.
• She has an internal monologue about how she could easily kill everyone and escape if her hands were free.
• She meets a prince and her cheeks go scarlet as she has an instant crush on the first rich dude she meets.
I have read teenagers first fanfics about brightly coloured equines in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, ridiculously derivative and yet more engaging with a more distinct protagonist.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember there being any explicit sex or SA scenes in The Wheel of Time. I read this series 20 years ago so I could be wrong, but I think I would remember it since I was a teenager. Patrick Rothfuss, on the other hand, boasts some very explicit and poorly written sex scenes.
I was looking for this comment. Nothing is on the screen with WoT, its all fade to black. Is there some problematic things with the whole treatment of Mat/Tylin for example, yes. But RJ is nowhere near on the page sexual violence in the way GRRM is.
ooh good point that women’s writing of smut scenes are overly critiqued while the abundance of rape/SA scenes in men’s novels are not. i always had issues w that in books like GOT (when overused) and i rly havent seen people talk about that.
I read the throne of glass books in high school and I remember them being fun and a good introduction to high fantasy for me. Like yeah it was a fun time when I read them but they are not good books and yet she has die hard fans even with all these controversies.
People do genuinely (and pretty rightfully) hate GRRM"s SA and explicit scenes, there are a lot of them that are genuinely interesting in regards to what they say about certain characters, their warped perspectives, and their motivations (thinking specifically of anything with Cercei and how she uses people as proxies for others, including herself), but they're so poorly written you'd get significant pushback for saying you enjoyed elements of them. They do have value to the story but are so poorly executed many give up on the series after the first Danny chapter.
I've found SJM a bit bland, though it has been awhile. I can handle badly written smut as long as it is actually interwoven into the plot and not painted by numbers.
How explicit are they really? I ask because I have read books that had one star reviews complaining about how there was so much sex (mostly oddly enough horror books) and really it would be maybe handful of barely scenes. I mean you go and read some romance novels specially the erotica ones and they will have graphic scenes that go on for pages and pages. Half the sex scene in these type of books are clearly written to get the reader off on it.
Personally I feel the biggest difference is that Martin doesn't try to romanticize the SA. It's pretty clearly meant to be a bad thing every time, and the truly good (if there are any) characters don't participate in it. Plus he's not very graphic in his descriptions of sex from what I recall, violence yes, but not sex. The one positive sex scene he wrote was terribly written. Mass romanticized it. I just don't get how we are supposed to support a character like Rhysand who is absolute trash in his behavior
@@stephennootens916 he definitely doesn’t romanticize the sa that is in his books, and never goes into detail about rape (like sjm does). It’s more of a thing that gets acknowledged in past tense, and has a lot of impact on the characters. The most graphic chapters imo are probably Theon’s in a dance with dragons
@@Breezemalea that is pretty much what I suspected.
I love the ACOTAR series but ACOSF seemed like it didn’t have an editor. I personally don’t see the point to smut scenes… ACOSF was a damn force.
38:05 personally, I really appreciate representation (especially good representation), but it is always a matter of the personal preferences of an author who they do or don't want to represent in their stories. It's still valid to criticize this choice/preference though if the author in question is someone like sjm who really banks on being progressive and feminist.
(Also, literally everyone having the exact same attributes of traditional, white beauty is just unrealistic lol)
👌🏻👌🏻 this is similar to how i feel too
Honestly, I feel like a lot of acotar is cultural appropriation - the clothing described that Feyre wears in the night court feels highly south asian/middle eastern inspired, as well as Feyre's 'tattoo' thats shockingly similar to henna. It wouldn't be an issue if she said that she was inspired by them, but she never actually does, and all the characters in these settings are meant to be white.
Saying that the sex in the books is a good thing is a bit of a reach. Sex in a book is never inherently bad, and writing in books doesn't always need to be Austen-like, but calling a dick 'velvet-wrapped steel' is absolutely cringe-worthy. If you enjoy sex in literature, too bad, because in SJM books its utterly atrocious.
I do appreciate seeing someone who isn't a diehard ACOTAR fan/quoter who lives and dies by the writing. I'm still a fan of hers, but I can definitely appreciate where she goes wrong, and other authors who do better in some aspects.
So, on that note, I have my own thoughts:
1. I think the LotR comment was taken out of context (20:55). She never said she was better than it- she said in movie media, specifically, trauma isn't shown super well. In the books, it was deeply discussed, especially towards the end, whereas in the movie, it was often sidelined (as most movies do) until the very very end. I like SJM for writing the trauma THROUGHOUT the story, and even bringing it onto the battlefield. She isn't new for doing this, but she did take characters down pegs during very heavy scenes, reminding us that they're still *people*, and even heavy action can't hide that.
2. Her break-ups with other authors is kinda sketchy, yeah, but I'm reminded of every celebrity that ever was. Whatever they post on social media is the tip of the iceberg of what their actual lives are like. Maybe they're in the middle of an argument, or maybe they got tired of fans talking about their friendships as if they were remotely involved. They may also be banned from talking to other people by their PR or publishers to save face- either their own or the company's. So her personal relationships mean nothing to me as long as she isn't making friends with serial killers (and even then- how well do we know our own friends?)
She isn't a paragon, however; I remember her tweet about Breonna Taylor, and it was very...placid. Some people just shouldn't speak up if they can't add to a conversation.
3. The quoting is a bad comparison. I once went to a publishing workshop, and the first thing the speaker said was "Shakespeare did it first, and did it the best."
She wasn't wrong; every book and every author ever has been inspired by SOMEONE or SOMETHING before them. Writers especially, since it's usually because of something they loved reading made them want to write!
What she wrote has been written before. And what they wrote has been written before. Every time someone talks about hope being light a candle flame about to be snuffed out, I think of Greek mythology and Mongolian mythology and all of these other religions using a flame as an allegory for life. It has been done. It will be repeated. Unless it is line-for-line copying (which is why artists and writers have editors), it is impossible to use this example as bad writing without condemning thousands of writers before.
I will read the Black Jewel series and see what is up, but I have a feeling I'm going to see a tooooon of mirrored tropes and lines, and in the end just have another "fae royalty with assassins and dark daddies" story in my brain.
SJM is not the Shakespeare of Romantasy, and her more ardent fans have put her on an impossibly stupid pedestal, but it's important not to have binary thoughts about aaaanyone's work.
Man, her laugh at the start, I dunno what it is, but wow that's creepy. Villain laugh right there.
it’s such a rich person laugh and it’s no surprise because I think she went to a PRIVATE school in the UES of new york 😭
On the idea that SJM is a plagiarist, I think if you're an avid reader of books there's bound to be lines and quotes that stand out and stick in your mind. Over time, the memory can sometimes forget things, and so a line you thought you'd made up and was unique, actually ends up being something you'd read and forgot about. I can see that happening to a lot of authors
i agree, nothing is new under the sun 😁
This video is really well scripted! your commentary is in-depth and easy to understand, plus your voice is really calming and nice to listen to!
(the taylor comparison made me flinch as a sjm hating Swiftie tho lollll)
thank you! ❤️ i love Taylor, though that does not stop me of being critical of her too 😂
In terms of a tv show/movie many many things get optioned and never made! It’s way more common than people think, there are so many elements at play to get a project from being optioned>script finished>cast and crewed> being filmed it’s completely believable that this one is having trouble getting off the ground even with its popularity.
As a fan I think the main draw is her female main characters! I found her series cathartic on a personal level. They’re depicted doing things that conservative American society at least deems bad for women to do- like be muscular, athletic, eat a lot of sweets, be openly sexual, struggle with addiction. Be bad at cooking. Not be smiley and pleasant. They’re often depicted as rulers with their husbands sitting on the arm of her throne instead of letting the man be the star of the show. Even the religions depicted- it’s a reaction to and escape from Christian purity culture and the pressures put on women. I think it’s written for those women tbh possibly because sjm can relate but I don’t know 🤷♀️ i think her books deal with trauma more typically seen in women and it’s often the a main plot point in her stories
Hearing that SJM didn't like to read growing up actually makes a lot of sense to me. One of the things that I've noticed about SJM or like Colleen Hoover books is that they simply don't seem to attract readers on their own the same way that something from Stephen King or Terry Pratchett does. You never see someone talk about the plot of a SJM book or a Colleen Hoover book (outside of criticizing them) and more people talk about what else they bring to the table. "SJM books are fantasy stories WITH SMUT", "Colleen Hoover books are fiction books WITH DARK, EDGY DANGEROUS ROMANCES", it honestly reminds me a lot of the Game of Thrones TV show and how it was advertised as "Fantasy Sopranos" or notably "Fantasy for People Who Don't Like Fantasy". It's this sense that the books are done by and for people who don't necessarily just enjoy the act of reading itself or the genre or whatever and need something else to pull them in. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that it seems that fans of writers like SJM or CH are people who didn't necessarily enjoy reading growing up or even didn't read anything after school, but have been drawn into it by the appeal of smut/romance and are now "born again" readers and, as such, really don't have a wide range of writers they can use in comparison while many critics of SJM and CH are lifelong readers and writers who enjoy the process in its entirety and therefore have a wider breadth of reference to compare SJM and CH to.
I think this is a very accurate description of the booktok scene. I’m lucky I’ve read a lot of wonderful authors who were inspired by other wonderful authors. so even if I think SJM writing is lackluster, I can see where casual readers are drawn in
Thank you for a very thorough video. Your intelligent and balanced criticism was refreshing and much appreciated.
thanks for watching! 🫶🏻🧚🏻♀️
Genuinely curious as to why you didn't discuss Dicksoapgate in this video?? It's one of the most infamous book community controversies, like ever, not just even involving SJM
hahha i genuinely forgot that ever happened
and i guess because it’s not directly linked to sarah, i guess it didn’t come up in any of the articles/discussions
bummer though, this would have been fun to discuss 😂
you speak with just right speed and sooo clearly, it's rare i have no problem at all understanding video 🥰
thank you so much 😊
i’m all for kind of shitty books but once i heard about the breonna taylor thing i immediately put her on my dnr list 😬 as an asian person i just cannot let something like that go
I read her “Throne of Glass” series when I was 14, and my jaw DROPPED when I was reading the fifth book in the series (“Empire of Storms”). I had only known that the series was labelled YA, and when I read the first smut scene in EOS, I put the book down for a week and didn’t touch it. While I do understand that the characters are at the age and that them having intimate moments are a given, the series was YA and there was another way to write those scenes so that you knew what was going on but it wasn’t so graphic (ie. like she did in the second TOG book, “Crown of Midnight”). The smut in the final three books in the TOG series is kind of unnecessary-at least the explicit descriptions are unnecessary when it was done in a more digestible way in a previous instalment. I get that the audience had gotten older, that SJM had gotten older, but making the switch from YA to NA in the middle of a series is very jarring.
Just a POV from someone who had read and loved one of her series. I don’t think I’ll read her other series’ since I tried to read ACOTAR (also marketed as YA; gave up because I really disliked Feyre and because it was also apparently NA) and I have heard some mixed reviews about her Crescent City series.
Not sure if this is discussed in this video, but how do you feel about Sarah J. Maas fans going after other writers who have published books set in fae worlds? A few months ago, something came to my attention where a bunch of Sarah J. Maas fans targeted an Irish author who decided to write a book with similar themes and tropes because her book is also about fae. I can't even remember the name of the author at this moment and when I try to search up information, I can't find anything about this issue.
However, Sarah J. Maas fans didn't just target this specific Irish author. They've gone after a lot of writers and have accused them of plagiarism, including a self published author who had written and published her book years before Sarah J. Maas was ever published.
this is actually insane 😳
With regards to how her books are marketed as young adult and who to blame for it, while the publisher may market them as young adult, that does not mean that bookstores have to categorise it that way. In my experience, each bookstore - both independent and chain stores - has its own system of records and genres. So often times it is up to the bookstore where they place her books (not to say that this is always the case). For example, one bookstore i worked for categorised her books as fantasy, which ensured less young readers picking it up, and if they did we would sometimes explain to the parents that ACOTAR, for example, might not be the best fantasy book for a 13-year-old to be reading. In another bookstore, they are categorised as Young Adult, but would have big neon 'Mature Content' stickers placed on the front cover, so both the reader and parent are aware of what exactly they are buying. So in my experience, how her books are labelled in store, are often times up to the stores themselves, but that of course does not change how the publisher, author, booktok etc promotes the books so it remains a complicated subject.
this is super interesting, thanks for sharing!!
If a novel is a Beauty and the Beast trope, wouldn't it pretty much have the same elements as other books using the same trope?
Im reading 2 different series, and they read very similar to ACOTAR
14:41 As much as I ask why has such a huge fanbase, it's not that surprising either. Given how many of us grew up reading books on sites like Wattpad and Ao3, it's not hard to imagine people liking books like that. Especially if they never had or never grew out of fanfic/Wattpad phase (at all cause I don't think most of us have completely grown out of fanfic/Wattpad phase still).
Just commenting to appreciate all the work you did to make this video possible !!! you’re amazing
thank you so much! ✨💛
Great video! The author has been so big, especially on Tiktok and TH-cam, thank you for making a neutral video about her and her work
thank u for watching!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻
im reading acomaf right now and there's barely any chemistry between feyre and rhysand. idc about spice in a book as long as they have chemistry. so far, the series is overrated. I don't normally care about representation THAT MUCH but this is just ridiculous. not only do ALL of them have earth shattering beauty but a few of them even talk and act the same. Most of them read as "racially ambiguous" and ive heard that bryce from the crescent series main character is supposed to be "curvy" but SJM says nothing about if she is actually plus size or not. that being said id still rather read her books than read something even more problematic by an old (and outdated) white dude. hopefully I will like TOG better.
17:38 how i feel about taylor swift. these women know how to market themselves like crazy.
Rhys and Feyra meh regular and basic but the 5th book trauma, love, a strong carácter. That’s my Roman empire the evolution of nesta.
The fact that Sarah J. Maas' works were being marketed to a young audience instead of an adult audience speaks volumes of problems within the publishing industry. YA is meant for teenagers, not for adults. So spicy scenes that we find in books written by Sarah J. Maas have no place in the hands of a YA audience. That within itself is not misogyny but the truth. YA... meant for a teenage audience. I am glad that her books got rebranded for adults that I feel appreciate them more than a YA audience would. I think they even made up a new term for books like this called New Adult, which is just so weird within itself?
I do agree with people saying that YA is meant for teenagers, some places have YA deemed for 12-16 year olds. I am just happy that people aren't looking at these books and thinking that they are just for children because they look like children's books or they feature fae.
The Taylor Swift of the fantasy book industry
i hope not 😭 i'm an avid sjm hater and also a taylor swift fan :(
I'm new to the SJM universe and only 2 books into the ACOTAR series - I really appreciate this deep dive! The last "romantasy" series I read was, honestly, probably Twilight when I was a tween, lmao. I've enjoyed SJM's ACOTAR series so far but am learning now about some of the controversies she's had (I know it's hearsay, but I don't feel good knowing I'm potentially supporting a mean girl). I'm still going to read the rest of the series and maybe the TOG and CC series, but for anyone reading this: if you have any other suggestions for books similar to hers (romance/fantasy, good characters and world-building, etc.), and you think they're better than SJM's books, please comment them below! Thanks for making this Raya! ♥
ACOTAR also rips off Howl's Moving Castle
I said this too 😮
Regarding the "plagerism"; there is one lifted line I surprisingly never see mentioned, which is taken from the film "Troy".
Before Menelaus fights Paris, there is this exchange:
Meneleus: "Prince? What prince? What son of a king would accept a man's hospitality, eat his food, drink his wine, embrace him in friendship & then steal his wife in the middle of the night?"
Paris: "The sun was shining when your wife left you."
vs
A Court of Wings & Ruin - Chapter 44 (pg 417 - 418)
Tamlin: "If you hadn't stolen my bride in the night, Rhysand, I would not have been forced to take such drastic measures to get her back."
Feyre: "The sun was shining when I left you."
Given that ACoTaR borrows HEAVILY from Greek myth, Maas previously confessed to adoring Bloom, & the unique nature of the line, there is little doubt in my mind that this was a coincidence.
So sjm is the nicki minaja of authors 😭
lol
Honestly the only problem I’ve ever had with her books is that I started reading throne of glass in middle school and really enjoyed it until she put smut in it and it got removed from my school library. Now I didn’t know that’s why it was taken out so when I got the next book from the public library my parents had a lot of very awkward questions to answer. Like she could have just written another series for adults not add it into a young adult book that a lot of young kids were reading.
Edit: I wrote this before finishing the video but the point still largely stands
I’m currently reading SJM first series and I already read the acotar series. well, this is all interesting. I’m a huge music person and a big reader and I choose not to politicize my musicians or my authors. I know that it’s really important for some people for people to take stances on things but for me, I just treat it like they’re humans and they’re allowed to have their own opinions and keep things private. And at the end of the day, I just judge on whether it’s a good book or not. I’m not going to run out and buy the new books with the additional chapters. But I know some people will. I think that’s a personal choice and marketing is something that’s just very part of our culture in general. so it’s really up to people what they want to spend their money on and they want to give money to. I do appreciate deep dives because this is all interesting and I did learn a lot but ultimately I like the material in the book so I’m going to continue to read it and I don’t really care what the author does in their spare time.
I’m not judging anybody or critiquing this video or the person who made it or anyone who agrees with her. I just wanted to offer a different perspective because she ended it saying that clearly a lot of readers don’t participate in the discord about her or seem to care. But I’m guessing that a lot of the people that are continuing to support her and her books are similar to me where they just want to read a story and get lost in it and don’t really Care that much about what the person who wrote it about Palestine. But to each their own.
I am a therapist who works with people ages 12 and over and I do not think that the one series is appropriate for young adults. It did shock me that it’s being advertised as such, but it does sound like a little bit out of control to some degree. And as a therapist, I do appreciate that she takes a stance on trauma and highlights that you can come out of it. But I didn’t read it as that the love interest made the female characters less strong, but rather that in loving somebody else and having someone love them they learn to love themselves, and I don’t think that’s inherently a bad message personally. Not trying to change anybody’s mind again just offering a different point of view.
I can’t call her books REAL fantasy.. I loved some of them.. being a female the same age as her. Having read some of the best fantasy with little to no hardcore sex like wheel of time etc I can’t call it real fantasy. Am I alone? I think SJM is going to approach her older midlife and say to herself “have I written anything real?”. She’s talented.. I feel like she could have written something that counted her in the top names of fantasy writers..but it got so sexual which in some ways yes.. but it feels like a cheap way to sell. She didn’t need to rely on it. And her business moves have made her seem cheap to me. A sell out.. a product of the US greed scene. And it’s all just put me off.
The LoTR comment... Oh yeah totally agree, not like Tolkien was a WW1 vet or anything. What would he know about writing about trauma.
I just really wish more romantasy fans would read A Discovery of Witches, because that is legitimately some of the best paranormal/fantasy romance out there imo
Not to bash but I tried a SJM book, Throne of Glass it was very high school and the writing was not poetic at all. The hype came from the book tube community. Books aren’t for everyone, but don’t put YAs with Classics. The writing styles are at different ends of the spectrum. It’s putting Leonardo Davinci in the same list as Hello Kitty. Both have a place, but not together.
I haven't finished the video yet, but I just wanted to thank you for making it because fantasy books are really not my thing so I've never read her books, but ignoring her existence is silly because as you said these authors are cultural phenomena so it's worth knowing about them
thank u for watching!! 🤗 i’m not a big fantasy girlie either hehe
Ironically I actually like Susan Dennards books but not SJMs books because the fantasy is better written
i read the first two truthwitch books while i was reading the throne of glass series. i don’t know if it was because i was starting a new series or what, but i ended up liking tog more. i’m always down to retry, but it sort of left a weird taste in my mouth 😅
i’m interested to know why you like susan dennard books more.
@@readsbyemma I'm not sure why I preferred it. I actually liked throne of glass when I was younger then when the crown of midnight came out (showing my age that I read it before the second book was out) I refused to read it when my friend said there was sex. I don't enjoy romance being a main theme in books. Especially fantasy because it is often written in a way that detracts from the story. Years later I bought it and read the first book and the second and I hated it so much I donated it after. I thought I would have liked it just like I did as a teenager. My reading comprehension has improved over the years and could actually comprehend what was going on and didn't like it and thought it was just surface level and not enjoyable.
Truthwitch I picked up because it was recommended when I was sucked into the book tube buying every book that came out craze. I loved the world it built and the magic systems being unique and interesting. I also liked how there wasn't just one main character who everyone loved. There were two friends who went on seperate adventures during the dark time in the books. Also the villain is fascinatingly well written. It's been a while tbf since I read them but I am up to the 4th book witch shadow but I really liked them. I am just a slow reader. I especially like the character of Iseult. I think the fantasy not having the main character being pretentious that I hate them (the darker shade of magic by ve schwab had a character like this that I just couldn't stand it anymore despite liking the overall book) and not having the magic systems constantly overridden for the plot and having interesting politics and history has made me really like it.
Tbf the writing could not be that great and my learning issues make it so I didn't notice but I read the first book when I was at least 20 and it's only been a few years since I read them.
Sorry for this long message lol. I think it is a mix of Brandon Sanderson ve schwab (the stuff I liked in those books minus the character of Leila) and the three dark crowns
@@readsbyemma sorry for the long comment. I actually begged my library for the next throne of glass book after I read it. There was no "next" book when I was begging for it
same!! susan's books are so underrated and it makes me sad to see sarah getting all the media attention :((
@@Biancaleigh693 interesting! i might need to reread! 👍👍
I'm pretty sure romantasy doesn't mean "fantasy written by a woman" but actually "a romance story happening in a fantasy world", which means that it is a story in a fantasy world where the main plot is a romance - two characters discovering or renewing their love. (So if the same story can still happen without the characters developping feelings for each other, it isn't a romantasy since the plot isn't romance driven)
Romantasy can absolutely be written by men, and women can write fantasy that isn't romantasy.
hey! :)
what you say is absolutely true (in fact i have a whole separate video about the romantasy genre, where i go over it in more details)
of course there is romantasy out there written by men, and fantasy written by women.
but i personally see this newly coined term of romantasy as almost a byproduct of people incessantly criticising fantasy written by women for not being “real”, “adult”, “serious” fantasy
@@rayareadzzzzI think it makes sense to have a separate term for a different genre, especially one that is getting so popular and is different to fantasy. Some readers do go to romantasy because they want to read something with a central romance, and some readers don't want important romances at all so can also find use from the distinction.
But unfortunately there probably indeed is some effect of "romance is for women" that affects romantasy too (which isn't surprising since it is a subgenre of romance)
So it does lead to some separation of 'fantasy by and for women' VS 'real fantasy', but I wouldn't agree that it comes from generally refusing the books written by women as 'real' fantasy. Rather, that there are people now pointing to romantasy as the 'fantasy for women genre' _because_ it's different from fantasy
not to be a hater but if you genuinely think fantasy doesnt explore themes of trauma....im begging you to read better books
hehe i’m frankly not a huge fantasy reader, it’s just not my genre overall 😃
here i personally was thinking more in terms of YA fantasy specifically + as i said, i was reiterating what i saw people online say re SJM
but again, yes, my knowledge of fantasy as a genre is very limited, but i’ve been having fun reading comments of what other people have to say regarding this
@@rayareadzzzz this wasn't intended to be directed at you specifically, so I apologize for coming off so argumentative! it was more meant as a general statement since I've seen this type of sentiment a lot online recently, and it does make me sad as an avid adult fantasy reader 😔
19:23 I don't trust any writer who uses "like" 20 times in a span of 20 seconds. My god that was annoying.
I watched a really good deep dive into ACOTAR from a channel called Charlotte Reads. It gives a really great and well-thought out critique of the books it's called "The Villain in the Story: Abuse, Feminism and Choice in SJM's ACOTAR Series." for anyone interested!
thanks! ⭐️
First of all love the make up
Second of all thanks for this deep dive I personally am not a fan of SJM because of her views but I am insanely curious so I gotta watch
thank you 🥰
and ty for watching, hope u enjoy!! ✨✨
I really appreciate you trying to make this video as neutral and purely informative as you could-Thank you! 💖💖
About the aspect of mysogony underlinning SJM criticism: I agree it is a part of the issue, but to boil it down to "a woman writes sex and the patriachy is angry about it" is slightly disingenuous. Yes, the adult fantasy space was once male dominated. However, this hasn't stopped women and queer writers from breaking that glass ceiling, and in recent decades the genre as a whole has grown more diverse which is great to see. That being said, plenty of female writers have written books which are aimed at and marketed for adults and which have sex scenes in them (for example, Fonda Lee or NK Jemesin - *and they've won prizes for those books). I think the reason SJM gets criticised when others don't is that the sex scenes and romance in her books are the scapegoat for all the other issues. It's easier to criticise romance and sexuality for being frivolous than it is to build a solid case against her. That's the real misoginy: simple laziness.
If I can speculate on why her books are marketed towards a YA audience: I think it's because there's a certain simplicity to her writing that undercuts the darker asspects. Yes, that darkness is explored but in a very surface level way. This is not to say that YA can't be complex, but rather that its a *possible* characteristic of a YA book which can make a novel scew towards YA rather than adult.
Also, adding on to the trauma thing as well ... I've seen a lot of people mock SJM for her comment on Lord of the Rings, and ... well, yea, I agree, it's pretty ridiculous all things considered, but it's intersting to compare SJM's approach to trauma and people's reaction to it with other stories. It's silly of her to insinuate that exploring trauma in fantasy is new and I think is a misrepresentation of the genre as a whole and shows that SJM doesn't understand fantasy as much as she claims to (note: this might explain why people dislike her worldbuilding). Considering how many other fantasy books have covered trauma, and done so in more intersting and enlightening ways, I think its fair to say that SJM fans tend to be newer to reading fantasy and thus more likely to see what SJM is doing and think it is new and unique. Maybe that's the real reason her books are marketed at a teen audience; they're like a modern HP fandom: enthusiastic but mostly because they haven't experienced much else.
All that being said (and, whoa I ranted for longer than I wanted to), enjoy reading what you want ... but maybe step out of your bubble from time to time and try some other authors (Fonda Lee and NK Jemesin are only some of many amazing adult fantasy writers to try).
(oh and I tried to stay focused on the storytelling stuff but on a meta level: the way SJM used Breonna Taylor's death to promote her book ... so fucked up and it's the real reason you shouldn't read her books)
First off you’re beautiful😮💨
Secondly you actually did a really good job on the video providing thorough information
And actually remained unbiased good ass video 🔥
I find it funny how people still associates acotar to beauty and the beast, when it’s so obviously a retelling of Tam Lin, a Scottish tale.
she really is the tswift of books