Personal Enjoyment: 2/6 Writing Quality: 2/6 Final Rating: 1⭐️

If I ever read the phrase “watery bowels” again, it’ll be too soon.

I have nothing to say that every other hater review hasn’t already said. This book has been picked apart by people way better at critique than me. I will say that it’s badly written, features incredibly toxic relationships, and has some of the most inexcusable world building I’ve ever read. I read this book because of FOMO, a desire to understand the references I was running into in other media, and because some of the people in my life desperately wanted me to. I feel nothing but regret. I was better off having not read this.

Did I mention it was badly written? Some of the worst prose I’ve ever consumed. If I participated in a drinking game that had me take a shot every time Feyre mentioned her bowels, I’d have been dead from alcohol poisoning at the 25% mark.

The world-building is beyond problematic. Ah yes… all the bad and evil fairies live in, checks notes, IRELAND. Yes. That a great take 😒. Totally nothing bad to see here. The English are definitely paragons of all that is good and moral.

The relationships are the most inexcusable to me. This book is a masterclass in stripping women’s agency. Feyre spends this whole book being nothing but a pawn to those around her. One that consistently has her body and autonomy violated by those claiming to care. Hell, the entire final arc is built on the fact that she is being repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted by someone who is “on her side”. Sorta. Honestly horrifying. The flags are as red as this book’s cover.

Am I a hater? Yes. Do I understand how people find this book compulsively readable? Also yes. This book feels like literary brain rot content. It is a book that is meant to be rapidly consumed. People praise it for being a “turn your brain off” read, and it certainly is that. I will say, I definitely understand the building blocks of romantasy a lot better after finishing this. I’ve also discovered that I just hate those blocks.

I don’t think people are bad readers or bad people for enjoying this, but I would ask them to maybe question what about it they like and whether those things actually hold up upon reflection. People are allowed to enjoy bad media (Lord knows I’ve been enjoying Rosario+Vampire long enough to know that), but even enjoyers need to be able to see the critiques of a body of work and I don’t feel I see enough of that with this work. I feel nothing but fear when I realize that people are praising the relationships in this book and voicing that they want something similar for themselves, and I see it often enough that I feel it’s something that absolutely needs to be talked about.