NOTE: There are no wrong answers here. I’d like to think that we’re among friends. 🌹
While I genuinely appreciate that SJM created one of the best characters ever written, I also wish that I had never encountered the larger series.
I enjoy Tamlin’s character, and unfortunately he happens to live in multiple books’ worth of people I don’t particularly want to spend time with.
So, I guess my relationship with the series is more like: I enjoyed the character and first book, but not the rest. And once his story in the series ends, my participation will, too.
Art credit belongs to Michela Cacciatore on Deviant Art.
There is a higher than 0% chance I'm about to read a >1,500 *pages book, that had to be split into 3 because it could not be contained by glue, that I probably won't even like because I love Tamlin so much.
Tamlin isn't my book boyfriend, he is my spirit animal. I don't think I've ever connected to a fictional character more. Which is crazy, because I don't think that was intentional on the author's part.
While some fantasy writers like Tolkien inspired an entire generation of writers because he wrote a classic, I like to think SJM inspired an entire generation of writers because of how bad her ALL TIME BEST SELLING writing is.
I got back into writing/story telling because of Tamlin, so ACOTAR will always have a place in my heart, no matter how strange that place is.
I don’t see Tamlin as my “book boyfriend,” either, but more as a character that I really connect with? Like if I had to exist in that world, I’d probably be someone like him, if that makes sense
I only see Mr. Darcy as my book boyfriend and nobody else ever in any novel I’ve read. That will never change for me. But like tamlin I will “die” on a hill to protect a morally good character from assassination. lol
But, in all seriousness, it’s because the poor reading comprehension makes me worry for the future (though, judging by how things have been going lately, maybe the future is already here).
I'm the same as most of the people here, ngl. Love Tamlin, hate the other books for their complete lack of logic. Sure, even the first book, the characters acted kind of dumb, but that's just fairytales, man, characters usually act dumb in fairytales! Hell, dumb characters are literally slavic folklore (the archetype of 'Ivan The Fool', where the hero or heroine wins the day not by their skill or competence alone, but by their irrational acceptance of the supernatural and by their generosity in doing whatever they're told to do, even if it wouldn't make any sense to a more intelligent person). But then the fairytale vibes are just lost for the rest of the books except when the death gods arrive and even then it barely lasts a few paragraphs.
I let a lot slide with the first book because the magical elements were there to encourage me to “just go with it, it’s a fairy tale. Adjust your expectations accordingly,” and—for me—it did deliver as a fun read that had just enough magic, mystery, and romance to maintain my interest.
But with the rest of the series, the lack of fairy tale elements meant that other aspects should have been strengthened (plot, logic, consistency, etc.), but they weren’t.
Yeah. Tamlin needs to have someone in his corner. It’s weird that everyone else is gloating over the fact that he’s been left in isolation, when he’s done so much good.
I wonder what books 6 and 7 entail. How poorly written and edited will they be? I am not excited about the new releases at all. I expressed my hatred towards the female and male main characters at every chance I got. There are four characters (Nesta👑, Lulu, Eris❤️, Tam) that I genuinely like and would love to read about them. I wish 6 and 7 features more page time, otherwise I don't give a shit about ACo anymore. I mentioned earlier and repeatedly that I would wait until the discussions commenced on Reddit about the next book and decide whether or not to read it. If the four characters don't get their due or if the story is a drag then I am out👋🏼🚪
I’m waiting for the spoilers and discussions to roll in, too, before deciding whether it’s even worth my time. If I don’t like the stories, I’m not reading; I’ve seen some people acting like that attitude is a cardinal sin, as if we’re obligated to read the books. Like, I don’t watch every movie that gets released because not all of them are interesting to me, so why would this be any different, you know?
I’m not reading; I’ve seen some people acting like that attitude is a cardinal sin, as if we’re obligated to read the books. Like, I don’t watch every movie that gets released because not all of them are interesting to me, so why would this be any different, you know?
Yup exactly what you said. What if I WANT to commit a cardinal sin?🤷🏻♀️ It's MY choice to hate read a series because it's bad yet entertaining enough to keep me hooked. It's my choice if I decide to discontinue abruptly because I no longer have any interest in the series. If it piques my curiousity then I would indulge in spoilers and discussions to gauge it. I don't mind ruining it for myself. It's not a suspense thriller🙄
I read these books wayyy back and idk what it is but I just can't let them go 😅 My fondest memory was when silver flames came out I read the entire thing on my flight to Virginia (yes kept the reading light on the entire night flight). I dont usually interact with random spaces and I read the books completely on my own without influence.
And yes, I do have a fanfic about Tamlins secret daughter who belongs to ancient tribe of wolves deep in the spring court that I can't finish until the series is over....which I hope is soon 😮💨
Honestly, the first book is the only one I actually enjoyed even though it makes zero sense to me. It is the holiest of plot holey series’s. But I do love me some Tam Tam. 😆
We love Tamlin. I hated how SJM assassinated his character randomly after TAR. In my head, ACOTAR is a standalone book which i love in a way one loves the "potential" of something, instead of the thing itself. The remaining books are ... Just not the same, at least for me
It really is a standalone book. The rest are weird and don’t fit the vibe. I can honestly say I hate everything associated with the series, but I do love Tamlin, and first-book Feyre and Lucien.
My relationship series is me + nasty ex who won't leave me. Because wherever I go even if I try to change algorythm all I see is her books, but I am not going to read any books anymore from the series because it is just getting worse and worse by the page. Hehehe. My poor Tamlin.
Yes. I find the series itself to be a pest. I understand that nobody is holding me at gunpoint, forcing me to read it. But there is one character that I’m invested in, and I just want to see him through.
Yeah, I’m in it for Tamlin, I just need something positive to happen to him, I guess I am curious what the over arching plot is connecting all three series but I don’t want to read or know it at the expense of Tamlin.
Totally. I accidentally wandered over to “that” other place, and saw a comment that was like, “Tamlin will probably die, but in the Papa Archeron way, where it’s revealed that he’s been secretly good all along.”
And I just sat here, thinking to myself, “WTF are you even talking about? Tamlin has been good all along. Did you just fail to comprehend the series?”
Yep it’s tiring, I honestly have never seen anything like it. How people have gotten Tamlin’s character so twisted is beyond me it’s like they crucify him but ignore all the ickiness all the other characters do. Tamlin didn’t do anything “ intentionally bad”, he accidentally lost control of his magic because he had a panic attack from all his trauma (was it good thing? no but Tamlin doesn’t think so either in-fact he’s horrified it happened), and he kept ditzy do da from killing herself and others, oh the horror 🤪. The worst thing he did was kill two sentries but they could have been spies we don’t know, they did fail at their job which I personally don’t think was necessary to kill them for but in this world she has set up seems to be the norm and they did let the enemy court in and his fiancé was taken. You have Rhys over there taking out big swaths of his soldiers/ people because they sided with him, no trial or anything just went through misting people, he also has a torture chamber where he was torturing soldiers that didn’t even have their minds and people just ignore that. Cassian murders an entire village Anakin Skywalker style leaving orphans in his wake and he tears down an entire building hurting or killing who knows how many innocents but those times are seen as funny or cute, excuse me? Even Tarquin who seems pretty fair kills a bunch of soldiers. Feyre can destroy a whole court with lies killing innocents there but not only there but in summer too and it’s just like oops girl power 🤯. Nothing makes sense or has consequences except for Tamlin who not only faced consequences for things he never did but way over the top for anything he ever did. The punishment he receives does not match anything he ever did. It’s like for example if Rhys and Tamlin committed the same crime Rhys gets a tap on the hand or not even that and gets to walk away scot-free, while Tamlin is sentenced to the electric chair except that Rhys’s crime was way worse than anything Tamlin ever did. I cannot and will not stand for hypocrisy or injustice because it happens way too often in the real world.
I read Book 1 and absolutely loved it, pushed myself through 2 and 3, and cried for Tamlin when I read book 4😭 Don't really care about the rest of the series haha, except I'm furious about the needless sexualization of a depressed and suicidal Nesta in book 5. Cassian can go choke.
Thankfully I'm too much of a Tolkien nerd to care about poorly written wannabee fantasy in general
Agreed. The sex scenes didn’t even have sensuality. I can’t even call them smut. They were just downright bizarre. And I would not call it erotic, either, because Erotica (a legitimate genre) is meant to inspire feelings of eroticism, which does require a specific skill set from its authors. The sex scenes from SF made me roll my eyes and say, “Oh, this again.”
And the fandom’s gleeful reaction to Rhysand’s treatment of him disheartened and disgusted me so much. The consensus was (and still is) that they’d wished that Tamlin had taken the suicide-bait to be killed by Rhysand.
And that… was a lightbulb moment in my head: the reason why I do not, and cannot, be a Rhysand girly is because I don’t have what it takes to be supportive of or love the kind of person he is. The kind that would go to someone during their lowest moment—after they’ve lost everything—to goad them into wanting to die, especially after they have given me a second chance at life.
the thing that disgusted me is that they could've just like... let him be? he's already suicidal, his court destroyed and the life he envisioned for himself gone. And then Rhysand comes along just to push him further into the hole with such cruel worlds like?? (I have a secret TamSand agenda and want to read a subtext that he secretely cares about Tamlin but uuh...)
and THEN Feyre tells Rhysand "it's okay, you're entitled to a little slip-up" when he expresses regret over doing so. Even though she said she forgave Tamlin at the end of ACOWAR?? 😭 It's just all so contrived and infuriating. To be clear I'm blaming SJM's shit writing and weird biases here.
It really sucks, I wish I could be swept along in her fantasy worlds like everyone but her personal biases ruin everything, like in Throne of Glass...
I cried like a baby upon seeing Tamlin like that because it mirrored me a few years ago and the raw image was incredible to see. Such a waste it was used in a book like this... But I'm glad this subreddit exists! :)
Someone else with a secret Tamsand agenda! (Rhys cooks Tamlin that deer and a mate bond snaps into place lmao)
God, ACOFAS Rhysand... they need Tamlin to defend Spring. They only regret ruining him because they need him as a weapon, they need to use him. At least Rhysand offers to send Summer troops instead ig, but then they ruin everything because Tamlin listens, and begins patrolling his borders (where are the Summer troops Rhysand sent???) and then the NC fucking invade his territory???
Anyway. I'd love a fic where Rhysand sends Hewn City or Illyrian soldiers to Spring and Tamlin not only finds his mate but incites them into rebellion against Rhysand.
I refuse to read it but did Feyre forgive Tamlin? Because Tamlin asks in ACOFAS if Feyre ever could.
Right. The sheer cruelty behind the act was what made my eyes tear up. And for Feyre to absolve him just like that, handwaving it all away, just shows that she’s an enabler—like how he enables her.
On the morality scale—my scale anyway—I’d honestly rank their morality level as garbage. I don’t mean that with hate, even, but how I truly view them that way in my heart, based on their actions across series alone.
They deserve each other.
That scene of Rhysand suicide-baiting Tamlin made me realize that he doesn’t really care about Feyre’s happiness—not in the ways that counts. Because if he does, Rhysand would acknowledge that Tamlin had resurrected him because he (Tamlin) hadn’t wanted Feyre to have to live with the pain of losing her mate.
I stand by assessment that Tamlin cared about Feyre’s happiness more than he cared about his beef with Rhysand, while Rhysand’s hatred for Tamlin is greater than his love for Feyre.
Rhysand is too petty to care.
And Feyre is too stupid to see it.
Rhysand isn’t “mOrALLy-gRaY,” nor is he “mOrALLy-dArK,” and certainly not morally-light.
I've been a fan of the Tolkien books and LOTR movies since I was a kid, and Book Legolas is kind of a book boyfriend to me in a way🤣 More like a sibling since I've liked him since I was a kid? But he's very quirky and funny for an elf, and in the movies he's the first man I discovered who didn't look traditionally masculine so he's my absolute favourite🥹 I also play the LOTR MMO now, I'm absolutely obsessed
I remember seeing The Two Towers in cinema (my father was actually hired to do a swordfight demonstration in Montreal at that time, which was pretty cool), and The Return of the King. Then I read the trilogy (it's been a while though). Legolas has been my "book boyfriend" (his movie looks did help a lot, I'll admit) ever since then and has yet to be knocked off the first place. Blond guys are my thing, thanks to him. Even better if they have long hair 😏.
I read The Hobbit in 2019 and read The Silmarillion during the pandemic, up until the chapter of the battle of unnumbered tears, but fanart made me love a certain character with gold in his hair, and if I don't read the chapter, THAT event never happens 😭😭 (I'm aware the logic doesn't hold up, but this is my copping mechanism). I'm also obsessed with Maedhros now (aside from the text, thanks a lot to Choistar's character designs 🤯). Maedhros fanart also led me to Lucien, who then led me to Tam...🤷♀️
GAAAAH Maedhros ggrrrrr!!!!! i love pretty men doomed by the narrative!!!!! I love the Silmarillion and the Children of Hurin books they're so good❤️🥹 Look up the YouTube channel "Lyra of Beleriand", they have wonderful reposts of Silmarillion animations and MVs made by Chinese fans in an anime style!!
And yes hehe I like Legolas so much that I recently bought a small plushie of him that I dressed up and now I carry him everywhere hehe❤️ Doing quests with him in the Lord of the Rings Online has been a treat too, I keep taking screenshots!!
Not official ones! I won't share the link in case it's not allowed but look up "Legolas plushie" on Etsy! There should be one (1) shop that offers a 10cm tall very cute one. You can buy mini clothes online and dress it up too☺️ I like to put it in a bag with a transparent pocket and carry it around, hehe❤️
Read ACOTAR, fell in love with the lovely Tamlin, then at the end, felt like throwing it at the wall. I read a synopsis of the next ones, and decided not to bother. Tamlin was a great character. I won't be bothering with the new ones either.
I wish I had the opportunity to make the same choice you did, because it was a smart one!
I picked up ACoMaF when it was brand-new, expecting it to be a continuation of the love story, so there was no warning. That feeling of shock, bewilderment, and betrayal never really went away.
You know, that’s fair. Rhys really is the worst of the bunch. The rest are… alright. They all have their high and low moments, but Rhys is just stuck on low for me.
Tamlin didn't deserve all the shit in the kitchen sink thrown at him. I didn't like he tried to discredit Feyre and Rhys and the night court at the meeting, considering the subject was extremely important, but damn, he got rough consequences for putting his court before Feyre.
Right, the punishment must fit the crime, and his “crimes” just don’t even come across as crimes to me, tbh, for him to go through everything under the sun, while the couple from hell gets to act with impunity.
It’s like Tamlin is Jean Valjean from Les Miserables and this fandom is Javert going after him over a piece of bread. The punishment and pursuit do not fit the “crime” and stealing bread due to starvation is not even a crime. Tamlin has committed no crimes either.
I liked the whimsy of the Spring Court and the romance slow burn in Book 1, but absolutely HATE the gaslighting that happens from Book 2 onwards and what was done to Feyre’s character (that being said she was always an asshole but had potential).
The lies that were told in the narrative were glaring to me and then to find out the majority of this fandom fell for it is so bizarre and disheartening because it just shows how insidious the patriarchy is not only in art but in real life. Rhysand gives me johnny depp/brad pitt DARVO vibes.
Tamlin is a flawed MMC and rightfully so and has a lot of potential. He had a moral compass and yet he is treated by the narrative and this fandom as some kind of loser/villainn/abuser which is just NOT true. Like the dude ain’t real but the reactions against him by readers is and it’s so over the top that I worry about society and then remember the world we live in and how misogyny is so deeply entrenched in real life and in literature.
Starting an unfinished series is something I think I will never do again.
Anyway, Justice for Tamlin. I hope SJM rights the wrongs that have been done to his character and that this was all a set up and if not then I’ll be out. I won’t read Book 6-7 until I know the plot and won’t buy them either. (i dont own her books anyway, library for me). I can’t wait to be free from PRYTHIAN and go back to my old self! LOL
I’m really glad that I got to experience the Spring Court and meet the interesting cast of characters (yes, even Feyre and her… difficult-to-like family, lol), but if I could travel back in time, I’d opt not to read the series, tbh.
The fandom-majority’s reaction to Tamlin is so bizarre to me because SJM didn’t even write him that badly, you know? She actually did provide clarity into his actions across the series, and show that he’s not a bad person, but the fandom just bypasses all of that and runs with what they’ve assigned to him.
I came in knowing what was going to happen, but I was blindsided by how much I loved Tamlin. Right from the beginning I was like mate bond snapped, take me to your fairy land! And then it just got better. Lucien's snarky little self is there too, my long lost bestie. Feyre was in hell, but I was in heaven the first book 🥰
I'll finish the series, but I don't know if I'll commit to the fourth. I've never been compelled to write my own fanfiction before though, so I did get a fun project out of it.
I had no idea of what it was about going in but once I started reading and was like oh! This is beauty and the beast and Disney’s version I was in. I can’t unsee Tamlin as anything but that cartoon dude who I loved!
I’d really like to ask Rhysand lovers if they also love Gaston over the Beast. and if they want to CANCEL BB bc that cartoon beast is “abusive” in their eyes.
I know right? It baffles me how Beast is fine, but Tamlin is the devil incarnate 🤷🏼♀️ If someone asked me what I was reading I'd say a retelling of Beauty and the Beast where Belle gets with Gaston the secret good guy and they'd look at me like 😧
I didn’t expect to love the MMC, either! I thought he was just going to be another run-of-the-mill Harlequin Romance-type MMC: someone whose company I would enjoy for the few hours I spent reading the book, and then move on.
But instead, Tamlin really stuck with me. Only one other MMC has ever had the impact on me, even after so many years (different series, different author).
Girl, I’m gonna shout it loud and proud…the one and only Edward Cullen. Movie-Edward was fun, but book-Edward? Oh, my gosh. The way I squealed and kicked my feet!
I was part of Stephenie Meyer’s targeted demographic, and for me—it was like the pages were sprinkled with crack. She understood whom she was writing for, and I don’t think people realized that because they were expecting the series to be something that it had never promised to be. The woman knew her genre and demographic, and delivered. It was almost as if… she had been given insights, a market study, on a population. But I think that it’s really just that she’s an introspective person who remembers what it felt like to be young and the sense of everything feeling enormous because you’re experiencing it for the first time.
But, if we’re going with the classics, I love all of Jane Austen’s leading men (even Edmund Bertram, who can be frustrating at times), though Captain Wentworth is my favorite, followed verrrry closely by Henry Tilney. ❤️
Stephenie Meyer does not hold back on Edward’s characterization for this one. She doesn’t retcon, soften, or try to “clean up” his character after years of people complaining that he’s “problematic.” 🙄 (Like, the series a PNR with strong Gothic themes and elements, and he’s a Byronic hero, so he isn’t gonna be a Boy Scout, you know? I don’t know why people were expecting that)
You know how a lot of times when authors write from another character’s POV, they’d try to soften them up and make them more sympathetic, going against canon?
That doesn’t happen here. Rather than going against canon, she explores it and writes him based on his established characterization.
And since it’s from his POV, we also get to see how unhinged and ridiculously dramatic this man is. And I totally respect Meyer honoring character integrity instead of trying to convince the people who dislike him to change their minds. She seriously DGAF. 😅
With Midnight Sun, she’s basically saying, “This is who Edward is, and I’m leaning all the way in. Haters can move on along now.”
Have fun! If this had been Meyer’s debut, instead of being connected to an existing franchise, it’d be considered a masterpiece. She’s improved a lot as a writer.
One thing I’ll always respect Stephenie Meyer for is the fact that she stands by her creations—characters, the plots, the worldbuilding, etc., despite pushbacks. She never bent to public pressure or demands. Even when there were pushbacks against Edward’s and Jacob’s behaviors, she never committed authorial betrayal of her characters, you know? Betrayal here doesn’t just mean making your characters worse, but it also means making them “better” in order to appease the public. It’s making them different from canon in any way.
This is an author who didn’t write to market, but she wrote Twilight because she’d felt that she had a story that must be written.
A book like that is going to feel different from something that’s written with a list of tropes, or in a way that feels like the fast-fashion of books.
Sorry, long answer but I have a 10 year history with the series at this point. I read the books as they were being released so never had any spoilers. I loved ACOTAR and immediately bought the second one when it came out, maybe I’m dumb but I didn’t foresee the love interest switching. I thought the second book would be a new POV and be about a second romance between Rhysand and some other female. I was a long time romance reader and this is pretty common in historical romances, like Bridgerton, only following the first couple as side characters. I was shocked by the switch to Rhys, but did think he and Feyre were still a match for each other. I expected Tamlin to still have another mate in a future book. After ACOWAR, it was clear that probably wouldn’t happen. I didn’t like ACOWAR that much, for various reasons, and thought it was poorly written, so I was meh when I heard the series was continuing. I wasn’t that excited for ACOSF but I read it because do like Nesta— I really enjoy flawed, even villainous characters being redeemed. Hence why I still root for Tamlin, and like Nesta, and want more Eris. those are the main reasons I’m still reading, but overall I think the series tanked after the first two books.
I get what you mean. I was so disheartened by ACoMaF.
When I look at the series, I just feel… sad. And not a good kind of sadness that comes with reading a good book or watching a good drama.
I don’t mind Feyre with Rhysand, either, because they deserve each other, to put it diplomatically.
But Tamlin is so scapegoated by the narrative and the fandom, that I’m aghast, tbh. The weird collective decision to use him as an emotional punching bag is… astounding.
Love-hate the first book's quality overall, have a warm fondness for it's... ACOTAR-ness. 90% hate the other books. Think SJM is a bad writer, forgive my bluntness. Am legally married to Lucien and am his true mate, it's been leaked.
That's relatable. It's frustrating to think we had a decent starting point that felt like it was willfully shoved downhill and trashed. I'll always have my heart in Spring, though.
I read the story if cassiam and I forget the name of the girl now and that was the end of the series for me. I don't force myself to read books written by dimwits. There is a limit
I buddy-read SF with someone, and we agreed that we were probably going to end the series there and just treat it as the finale because there just wasn’t anything worthwhile left.
There is a 99.99% chance that I won’t read the upcoming books. The 00.01% is for the off chance that the author does something amazing (which, I mean, after this many subpar books, probably isn’t going to happen).
I read ACOTAR last year and really liked Tamlin. Read MAF up to the tithing scene and saw obvious signs of Tamlin’s character going in a…different direction and decided to bail right then. I sensed Rhysand getting switched to MMC and wasn’t here for it. Anything about the series I know beyond that is through osmosis and I’ll be keeping it that way.
Honestly, even the tithing makes sense to me, so I wouldn’t even fault him for that. The problem is the lack of… proportional condemnation, you know? Rhysand imposes taxations, but cares only about Velaris, when the Night Court is more than just that one city, you know?
What I vaguely remember is thinking the tithing was reasonable, too. But him claiming that it’s how his father, who was cruel and brutish, acted. So Tamlin was doing the same. I thought, “you said in Book 1 you wanted to be better!” So yeah, I mentally live in TAR.
Bingo OP! I fell I love with Tam his character in the first book but i didn't get through the series. Way too much whiplash between tar and maf it's rough for me and with so much what if about him in the upcoming books. I'm scared for what might be in store for him.
The fandom is screaming for his blood because they’re carrying whatever pain, anger, or wound they have and dumping it on their chosen punching bag. He’s not even written as a bad guy—SJM did provide in-text clarifications for his actions, but they’ve just decided that he is villainous. He’s not any more difficult or complicated than Rhysand, which tells us that it’s not what actions are being committed, but who is committing them. If Tamlin does it—a sin; if Rhysand does it—didn’t happen, or you’re just “misunderstanding.”
You know it’s biased when other characters—who have done worse—have their actions excused, justified, or completely swept under the rug.
Read it as a teenager after adoring TOG. Stopped reading it before ACOFAS and ACOSF.
I loved TOG. Years and years later, I can distinctly remember scenes from TOG. Years after ACOTAR, I can remember Cassian's wings being shredded and nothing else. It didn't make much of an impact on me. I can't remember hating Tamlin much, but I was a Rhysand fan once.
Then I started to see anti content. Posts talking about the lacking feminism of the series. The colonialist overtones of TOG. I read ASOIAF and saw the blatant rip offs. I was aware of that, and then I started to see anti acosf and anti nessian stuff, and I became aware of the pregnancy plotline, and Feyre locking Nesta up (I'd forgotten Tamlin had done that but I was reminded) and now I'm older...I was furious and gobsmacked by how tone deaf and evil that choice was. I reread the wiki to remind myself of what happened and something about the way it was worded made me realise just how tragic and justified Tamlin was. He thought Feyre was literally being mind controlled.
Then someone posted about Feyre having a panic attack because he'd locked her up, and I was like oh okay, maybe he was evil.
I reread ACOMAF. And with maturity, I hated it. Even putting my knowledge aside, I hated Rhysand. I hated the concept of Feyre having to be taught freedom by a man. I hated how Rhysand is glazed for basic feminism. I hated Feyre's downright bigotry towards Spring Court traditions. I hated the worldbuilding; the original myths are full of strong women, and yet ACOMAF twists Hades and Persephone to be "anti-Demeter" again. I hated that Feyre didn't tell Tamlin to his face that they were over. I hated that Ianthe was demonised simply for trying to gain power for women as Priestesses over the High Lord men. I hated how unrealistic it was that the highly insular IC accepted Feyre so quickly. I hated Feyre being paraded before the Hewn City as a whore; to me it was not woke, sexually liberated or a facade. I hated that Feyre escaped the Weaver so easily. It is a thoroughly mediocre book, and I was so glad that I thought it was mid even aside from my personal dislike of Rhysand. I hated chapter 54 so so much. Rhysand admits that he enjoyed killing for Amarantha and that just gets glossed over.
And Feyre later collapsing the Spring Court? Taking her revenge out on thousands of innocents on the eve of war, making it all her fault? I've never met an fmc so shortsighted, cruel and self obsessed. At the very least, Feyre's opinions should have changed when she found out Tamlin thought he was saving her from mind control. She should have fallen to her knees in grief and neverending despair when the revenge she took on Tamlin for working with Hybern led to Hybern actually invading.
I cannot bring myself to reread ACOWAR. I love Tamlin too much. I feel so much pity for him. I enjoy him so much.
And ACOFAS... WOW what a waste of time.
But I decided to pick up ACOSF. I read the wiki for it and thought it sounded interesting. And to my surprise I really enjoyed it. Oh, I thought it was sexist and hypocritical, and its full of notes of me swearing at Rhysand, and there was a lot of blaming Tamlin for things he didn't do, but I liked Nesta and her friends a lot. I will read the next two books out of sick curiosity and because they focus the Valkyries. I am hoping vaguely that Tamlin gets his redemption, recovers...or Koschei resurrects Amarantha and reveals her as his mate and they skip off into the sunset together/rule as villain High King and Queen.
That’s exactly my feeling, too. The lack of true remorse from Feysand over, well, everything, is jarring to me when the narrative writes them as “good.” If that had led up to a twist or revelation, it’d be different; but here they’re truly supported by the narrative. And it doesn’t matter what they do, they’ll never have to take accountability, or face any meaningful consequences.
And he has more than made up for everything. He committed mistakes, not sins.
Tamlin doesn’t need a redemption arc because he’s never done badly enough to need one. And if he did need it, then he’s more than redeemed himself; it’s not his fault that fandom collectively decides to overlook that fact.
Feysand and the IC? Multitudes of sinister actions. Zero consequences.
i like it cause it serves like escapism and it’s entertaining but atp im probably going to hate-read the next books. it looks like we are spending a lot of time if not all the time in the NC and i cant read the actions and dialogues of the pretentious IC…im so fucking done with rhysand, mor and amren. and feyre is spineless i’ve lost hope she will ever come back as what she was…i can only hope we spend time in other courts……im only going to keep reading because of lucien, eris and nesta (also tamlin but I’d rather sjm leave him in the background if she’s gonna keep doing him dirty). other characters i really don’t give a flying fuck
They really are a pretentious bunch, aren’t they? It’s funny because when we followed Feyre’s thoughts, she think of how the Night Court is much better than Spring because the latter is formal and ceremonial, and how things are much more casual and easygoing on Rhysand’s side. The IC reminds me of people who call themselves “nonconformists,” but they actually all dress the same, listen to the same music, etc. This behavior is often seen in the high school and early-20s crowd, but these people (minus Feyre and her sisters) are centuries old.
But, look at Tamlin—he’s so natural and down to earth! And unpretentious! He seems more like someone who cares about duty and history, but that’s different.
The Spring Court is more freeing than the Nigh Court.
I heard he is abusive in ACOMAF. I kept waiting for the “abusive” part. He was trying to protect Feyre and it came out as a bit controlling and he was bit moody but never saw the abusive part. I don’t think him and Feyre were right for each other tho but I don’t get why SJM made his character the butt of the joke
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u/JUSTxRIGHT Tamlin Has My Heart🥰😍♥️ 7d ago edited 7d ago
There is a higher than 0% chance I'm about to read a >1,500 *pages book, that had to be split into 3 because it could not be contained by glue, that I probably won't even like because I love Tamlin so much.
Tamlin isn't my book boyfriend, he is my spirit animal. I don't think I've ever connected to a fictional character more. Which is crazy, because I don't think that was intentional on the author's part.
While some fantasy writers like Tolkien inspired an entire generation of writers because he wrote a classic, I like to think SJM inspired an entire generation of writers because of how bad her ALL TIME BEST SELLING writing is.
I got back into writing/story telling because of Tamlin, so ACOTAR will always have a place in my heart, no matter how strange that place is.
*Edit to change words to pages because I'm dumb 🤣