i think the main thing im tired of is people putting these books out as āfantasyā reads rather than specifying romantasy (not everyone does this but itās happened to me multiple times). iām a full on fantasy reader like game of thrones or the stormlight archive so when i get recs for these types of books im just like š (again they can be fun to read they are just not for me)
not really, it seems more like a divergent/red queen (from what Iāve heard about red queen. I think thatās the series Iām thinking about) knockoff. also itās not any worse written than twilight and actually way better written than 50SOG which were the big āx books are ruining readingā like ten years ago
*SILVER ELITE SPOILERS* all i could think about while reading it was fourth wing and powerless. also half of the plot was driven by the āromanceā (the other half was not that bad plot-wise). what really made me angry was the forced enemies to lovers trope where she hated him (because he was part of the power that has been killing her people) and then only seemed to like him because he was hot. they then had sex daily for like a month (which is fine but i was missing ANY emotional chemistry)
no yeah I agree (I have like 150 pages left but I think I know where itās going so idc about spoilers), like I get the dystopian side doesnāt have depth but the plot isnāt bad, the romance definitely distracts from the plot tho in a way thatās particularly distracting since dystopian is supposed to be about the commentary, unlike fourth wing where romantasy is supposed to be about the romance
itās either a case of a publishing company wanting to create an immensely marketable book (like fourth wing- I think people forget that red tower shopped authors to write a series they algorithmically created- this wasnāt a Yarros passion project, she was just looking for a paycheck) or an author who wanted to branch out but just didnāt understand the genre enough to write it well
but either way, this isnāt really a new phenomenon. publishers have always graded books toward trends (they just donāt tend to have the staying power that more solid classics have which is why we donāt hear about them). authors have always written shitty books. silver elite and fourth wing didnāt invent that
but yeah I mean I still get divergent more than fourth wing, but I can see the FW comparisons. havenāt read powerless but I know thereās the whole āpowerless is a direct copy of red queenā thing which is why I mentioned RQ (havenāt read that either but Iāve seen vids analyzing the similarities between the two)
yeah I mean ig I got this from booktubers so I could be wrong, but red tower (the publishing company) ran like an algorithm about what book would sell and then found an author to write it. idk how much Yarros came up with (or ācame up withā) herself vs how much red tower gave to her, but I donāt criticize her for the base concept itself
red tower specifically is whatās wrong with the publishing industry imo. they pushed a rapid release schedule on Yarros (I think fourth wing blowing up is the only reason she had the sway to push back the pub date for onyx storm and subsequent books), likely at the expense of proper editing (which we can all tell). afaik theyāre the origins of the āspecial edition sprayed edges upon releaseā phenomenon that weāre seeing (I have mixed feelings about this) but they didnāt have the proper quality
control measures in place which was very apparent on iron flameās release so yeah I think there is definitely a lot to criticize in the book world, but I 100% think itās more on publishers than authors and readers, which is I distinction i donāt see made very often and is why I get so defensive
NAHHHH NOT AT ALL i found the book fun to read (just not great). itās definitely not ruining reading at all, i think the main issue is the repetition of tropes (like the OP in the other post mentioned). i like your point on the publishing companies a lot nobody talks about it. i never try to be harsh on authors because writing is HARD WORK so i respect all of them for what they do.
the sprayed edges have been insane. i love special editions but i think it should be an option rather than the original thatās released. i really wanted a book that was getting released by one of my favorite authors but it was a sprayed paperback and i didnāt like it at all š