ACOTAR: Chapter 6

[atualamadeus]

I think my initial bewilderment at the quality of this book has calmed down, or perhaps I am simply too tired this week to be angry at it outside of actively reading it.

1. "...even our former manor couldn't compare" And see what manor. You haven't actually described any of that. (pg. 47) - Like... what is this exactly being compared to. Nothing. We have nothing to compare this to. I hate this.


2. "To paint it would be useless" Should this come back yet? (pg. 47) - I feels like this is rushing the whole. Return of art thing, you know? She should not have hope this soon. I wonder if this metaphor was even intentional, at their point. Either art means too many things, or it means nothing at all.


3. "...amethyst irises and pale snowdrops and butter-yellow daffodils" those flowers are always that color (pg.47) - It's always such a waste when authors take the time to describe things that are just.... mundane. Why are we describing flowers as these great great things and then the words are like..... "the beautiful [flower that is know for being a color] was [that color], how special!!" like is there no way to try and evoke beauty outside of flowers being the same color they've always been?


4. "Food--getting food, then running..." (pg. 48) - I don't know if this is a viable thing to hate but I dislike things like this because it makes me feel like the plan isn't actually that solid in the authors mind and that comes through in the character. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out weak points in my own writing, I feel like I am just very aware of when other authors run into those same issues.


5. "...longer than any we'd ever possessed at our manor..." WHAT FUCKING MANOR YOU WERE 8 (pg. 49) - I don't think I need to explain at this point? I'm yet to run into new issues here. She just keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.


6. "...my heart beating so fast I thought I'd vomit" Your heart doesn't do that (pg. 50) - Maybe go to a doctor....?


7. "I'm not your jailer. The gates are open-- you can live anywhere in Prythian." Can't be mad at this (pg. 51) - Like, if we're in the garden paradise, why not enjoy it? Why not make the most of it? Why are you still here, girl. Get out of there.


8. "That promise to my mother..." Thumbs down. (pg. 51) - I am getting bored of this. I'm sure it's going to have some big reveal to it at some point, but for now it's very..... boring! it's boring.


9. "The Treaty's magic brought me to her doorstep..." I hate this (pg. 52) - Could we not think of a better name. Does it have to be capitalized. I just. I don't like this.


10. "Bastard--an absolute bastard" Now don't overuse this (pg. 52) - I praised you once, don't make me go back on it. I can appreciate the usage of whole and bastard in a fantasy setting, though! Although I hope you have the biases and infrastructure in place for these words to have actual meaning.


11. "A long, lethal claw slid out" hey wtf (pg. 52) - Cool idea for a flexible form, easy for them to go back and forth between them. I sure hope this is used in a creative and interesting way! Also I would appreciate some description for like.... how this works.


12. "Perhaps he wore it out of solidarity" Skull emoji. /neg. (pg. 52) - Girlboss feminism moment. Not a fan. It makes sense in the context, I guess, but when there is just a general running ton of girlboss feminism it just makes me roll my eyes.


13. "Room--not cell" Not judging yet... but I'm about to (pg. 54) - Okay so like.... if she is free to go where ever, why is she being taken care of in this room. Why did they have this so suddenly prepared. This is just... lazy. It feels lazy. It feels like SJM had a scene she wanted to put in and had no way to make it fit with what she'd actually set up so she just... shoehorned it in there.


14. "A hovel..." The most description we've gotten! (pg. 54) - This is about their house in.... their unnamed village. Second time ever the state of it has been described! Yay! The bar is in hell!


15. "...velvet turquoise dress..." holy 2015 (pg. 55) - I love it when I can date a book this easily


16. "I hadn't worn a dress in years" girl boss feminism (pg. 55) - Issue here isn't that she hasn't worn a dress in years, the issue is that this is so clearly a "my heroine doesn't wear dresses because #femininism and it's written off as like.... a functionality thing. Do we really think that the men's formalwear will be more functional? Do we think that? Do we? I don't think it is. I mean, maybe, but it's a weird thing. It's shallow. It is "subverting gender norms" in a way that still... reinforces gender norms.


17. "The bedroom was larger than our entire cottage" We never had a size reference for that, anyway. (pg. 55) - Like, I have no fucking clue how big your cottage was, sorry. Or your manor. I have no idea how big any of these things have ever been. Because. Nothing ever gets described. Ever. What is even going on.


18. "It fell apart...left of your pants" OK this is funny I will admit it (pg. 57) - Feyre would make such a great loser girl failure if she like... was one. I think this is funny. Her clothes are falling off her, she's probably smelly as hell. Her personality isn't scrappy enough. Her narration is too nice. If she was genuinely meaner then I would probably like her a lot more. (Also I didn't mark this but like they should have kept her hairy.)


19. "It tugged at that useless part of my mind that admired lovely and strange and colorful things" ??? (pg. 56) - I don't even know if I want to go into detail about why this was bad. At first it brought her comfort, now it is weird and strange? What warrants this change in her perception of it. I thought she liked art. The beginning of this chapter literally had her liking art at the start of it. This is so inconsistent??


20. "I tried not to cringe" #metoo (pg. 57) - Is that insensitive? Am I allowed to make this joke. I don't think I am.


21. "Lucien..." (BAE! Only decent person for a while) The bar is on the floor, I fear! (pg. 57) - My friend who also hates these books but has read all of them went through this chapter before I read it (and a few other places) and made wrote down comments of her own. The words in parenthesis are hers!

Final thoughts on Chapter 6: This whole thing is a dead twig. I could snap it in half so quickly. I have little about this one to say. I dislike the fake feminism, I dislike being spoon fed basic descriptions while simultaneously not being given any description for anything that matters. I am glad to be past this one.