This trilogy (I don't have the energy to write about these three books separately) is about a human entering into a faerie world (not fairies, not those little Tinkerbells you're imagining, but immortal gods and goddesses that have magic and could kill you on sight) and falling in love with one and trying to save him and the whole faerie world. Not to give too many spoilers, in case anyone wants to read these, but Feyre falls in love with several different faeries and becomes one herself, and then has to save the world several times against the powers of supreme evil that are trying to wipe everyone out. Basically.
The overall story was interesting and I definitely got sucked in to finding out what was going to happen. I read all three books quickly and couldn't put them down. I got invested in the characters and wanted to know what was going to happen. It was worth reading all three of them to find out what was going to happen. BUT I had some major gripes, and I don't know if I would recommend these books to anyone.
First of all, there was way more sex in them than what I normally read. It was way more detailed too, and so overwritten... Every time Feyre had sex it was the most passionate moment of her life, and Maas had to use the most dramatic metaphors to describe her reactions to the sex every single time. She never wasn't turned on, she never got tired of it, and she felt totally comfortable doing all sorts of things in front of all sorts of people. The men were always "growling with approval" and... it just felt so unbelievable and annoying after a while. I was skipping pages left and right whenever she started getting going, which was way more often than you'd think in a book that's ostensibly not a romance novel.
Second, Feyre, the main character, was a totally annoying character. You never have any idea what she looks like (although everyone says she's gorgeous and she says she's not, of course) and her main characteristic is calling the men around her "pricks" when she wants to sound tough. (Her conversations were very annoying at times.) She is brave to the point of foolhardiness, like
getting mad about not being allowed to explore the faerie lands when she is clearly a human about to be eaten by every last faerie around the house where she's staying in the first book, and then her main issues in the second and third book are that she CANNOT handle anyone trying to help her in any way because it reminds her of being controlled by her ex-lover after they escape the dungeon where they were kept as prisoners at the end of the third book. She gets super mad when anyone says they want to protect her or serve her or act like maybe she doesn't need to be involved in something. It just got so old and I was so annoyed by her after a while. Okay, we get it, you're super powerful and don't need anyone to care about you or protect you. How dare they care about you and not want you to die. Wow. I did like some of the supporting characters a lot, like her main love interest.
Third, it seemed like the author kept building up to these climaxes that were always less interesting than they seemed like they would be. In the final book in the final battle, Feyre literally says, "We all knew we were going to die." And then it turned out, not a single one of their friends died. They all miraculously somehow survived the battle. Even the ones who purposely sacrificed themselves were resurrected and it all ended up like a nice family reunion at the end. It just seemed like there was never any conflict that wasn't magically resolved perfectly, and it got old after a while. She also kept building up several love stories for the supporting characters that never ended up happening or getting any traction. There was no resolution for them in the end. Come on.
All in all, they were a perfect read to distract me while I was so sick and miserable--I needed something that didn't involved any thinking. But I don't feel like I would read them again and I would feel awkward recommending them to anyone, mostly because of the sex.
No comments:
Post a Comment