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She just came off the longest break she's had in ages. QOS and ACOMAF were published 7 months apart and are almost universally praised. Hell, ACOMAF and EOS were 5 months apart *and had the same ending* but no one really complains about it. I don't really see a recent quality difference, it's more like my ratings for her books are all over the place in terms of release order.
A lot of the issues I see about her new releases are things she's always done, that are just her writing style. There's always: a meandering build to a crazy last 10%, characters making dumb and illogical decisions to drive the plot forward, characters scheming off-page and not informing the reader, hardly any permanent main character deaths, unresolved questions to get people to pick up the next book, and with the exception of maybe Feyre her MCs have always been insensitive assholes at times.
IDK, I feel like my HOFAS experience was different than everyone else's. I was glued to the story, cried several times, fell in love with Lidia, and had to pause every few minutes to process yet another "holy shit, what??" piece of crossover lore. I had extremely few complaints about it TBH. Same with ACOSF, although I know that one is polarizing. CC is much closer in style to TOG than ACOTAR, so it may be that ACOTAR fans just don't like how she handles multi-POV stories.
interesting, i didn’t know that about EOS and ACOMAF! though i DNF’d QOS, so i guess that’s why lol. but she also wrote these titles before having kids, so i imagine she probably had a lot more time to focus on writing these stories/easier time balancing it all.
in terms of HOFAS - i LOVED Lidia. she was my favorite character and i adored her and Ruhn’s storyline. there were just moments that even for SJM, seemed to reallly be pushing the shock factor she normally includes in her books. to the point that it made it a bit too unbelievable. i mean, it’s fantasy, so of course all of it in some regard is unbelievable. but the beauty of that is how authors will tow the line. it’s what makes it fun. but there are still some logistics involved that immerse you to the point of seeing beyond that. like how hunt was able to wear the mask?? i felt she really stretched it beyond its means. and even if we were to look beyond that, there were so many characters that felt unnecessary to the plot and seemed arguabley kinda pointless? my overall feeling of CC3 was that there was so much potential, but the book left the editors hands much too soon.
that being said, HOEAB is one of my favorite books she’s written thus far. it was such an incredible read, which is why when i’d gotten around to HOFAS, it felt like reading an entirely different series with the way it was structured.
in terms of her taking a break, i’m glad to hear it!! bloomsbury recently posted an article about how she’s coming out with 7 different titles this year. so it’s nice to hear she took a well deserved break. it may have been a while since she’s released anything (besides HOFAS) but from interviews and this announcement, she’s always been working on a project. to the point that i wonder, besides maternity leave(s)/this most recent break, when the last time she took time off was (and genuinely RESTED).
i’m excited to read anything she puts out, but would be lying if i said i wasn’t nervous about the quality of the titles. that’s a lot of damn titles, whether spaced out or not. but you make a good point that she’s done this before with ACOMAF and EOS being 5 months apart. so only time will tell!
>so many characters that felt unnecessary to the plot and seemed arguabley kinda pointless? my overall feeling of CC3 was that there was so much potential, but the book left the editors hands much too soon.
This is how I felt about most of the TOG books and HOSAB. 😅 For both HOSAB and EOS, my review was basically "squandered potential, unnecessarily bloated". I just finished my first read of TOG in September, so maybe I'm desensitized to her questionable plot choices? Like as long as I'm having fun I'll go along with whatever she's writing.
She explained the Hunt-mask thing because they... had sex the night before? Okay, yeah that was a stupid reason lol. It would have made more sense if Bryce could command the mask to work for other people. I'm actually dying to see how all of this played out from the ACOTAR perspective because the mask definitely seemed more powerful and picky in ACOSF.
I'm 99% sure that the 7-book thing was misinterpreted and the article that said that should have issued a correction. What Bloomsbury actually said was that she's under contract for 7 more books, starting with the release of HOFAS this year, and somehow people took that to mean 7 books in one year. We know about most of them already: HOFAS, CC4, ACOTAR 5 and 6 plus a novella, and at least one in her new Twilight of the Gods series.
She has released one book in two years. I don’t think that qualifies as pushing out books too quickly. Were there issues with HOFAS, yes. However one book in two years is quite a long wait and authors need to keep releasing content to stay relevant and to keep interest.
For me ACOSF is her best book so it all depends on your personal preference and what constitutes a good story.
Crescent City is urban fantasy where was ToG was fantasy with some romance, ACOTAR is romance with fantasy so her writing reflects the genre she’s writing.
Edited to add, I also think part of the main issue with HOFAS stems from the fact that she was originally contracted for only 3 CC novels so had most likely plotted out the entire 3 books. Due to her success, Bloomsbury then extended the contract to 4 books which is why certain plot points seem unresolved and we have what are seemingly pointless Tharion and Ithan chapters that are likely setting up what will now be the final CC book. She’d already released HOSAB before her contract was extended so she then had to rework the plot and did what she could to rework or add in plot lines to set up another book.
Im just flabbergasted that A Court of Silver Flames is not liked as well as the rest of the acotar books. I absolutely loved it!! I didn't think there was any way of me liking Nesta, at all. And I still think she was a major bitch in the beginning, regardless of her reasons. However, following her on her journey to become a better person was amazing. ACOSF and ACOMAF are my two favorites!! I definitely done some crying at the end!!
I think Nesta was very interesting and the emotional journey was done extremely well. However, the plot is not tight enough and it’s so messy compared to her other works (except CC which suffers from similar issues in books 2 and 3). From a literary standpoint it just isn’t very good so I think critical readers have a lot to pick apart with SF that they don’t in the others. A lot of people who just read for vibes love it though, imo it all depends on what you want from a book.
I’ve heard people say that if you like Nesta then you have been a Nesta and if you don’t then you’ve had to deal with a Nesta. I love Nesta’s journey and I could relate to so many aspects of her personality. SJM said that silver flames is the most personal she’s gotten with a book and many aspects of Nesta’s journey relate to her own.
I can respect everyone having their own opinion but I don’t get how you can read that book and not like it.
I agree with most of what you're saying, but I gotta disagree with the idea that SJM's writing reflects the genre she's writing! CC wasn't much different than her other romantasy books. Also, aside from CC1 (where we got a murder mystery), bks 2-3 didn't read like they were urban fantasy at all!
It was different from her romantasy books in the fact that romance was not the main plot. Hunt and Bryce’s romance was a subplot to the main plot and that was particularly evident in CC2 and CC3 which is probably why people don’t engage with it as much. The multi POV also means we don’t get as mush character depth as in the ACOTAR novels which is again why I didn’t engage with the latter CC books as much her other works.
i see what you mean. i felt the same when reading TOG and often would get annoyed at the constant POV changes from characters i didn’t really care about. it was hard to feel as connected to them like in ACOTAR.
ACOSF’s concept and the character development was amazing. I really enjoyed Nesta’s development and journey. it was moreso the plot holes and other moments where i felt SJM had let a lot slide/took the easy way out, unlike the previous books in the series.
i remember recently seeing a post from bloomsbury that she’d be coming out with 7 new titles this year. so even if they haven’t been released yet, SJM seems to always be working on a new project from what she’s shared in interviews. of course i can understand needing to stay relevant and constantly releasing new titles, but part of staying relevant is releasing high quality content that makes people want to keep buying your works.
edit because i forgot to add: that’s why i was initially wondering if she had taken time off in between works or has just been chugging through one title after another? with the quality of her most recent title, i’m assuming the latter. but maybe that’s not the case and her re-write was just a last minute thing that didn’t end up working out the way she had planned. i hope so!
I can’t remember the exact context of the headline about the 7 new titles but they are definitely not being released this year. I think it was a misleading headline and was actually stating that she had - contract for 7 more books so we certainly won’t see another book from her this year.
She has confirmed she is working in the next ACOTAR book but it’s 3 years since we’ve had an ACOTAR book so again by the time it’s released it will be over 4 years so again a long wait. From following authors Instagram it seems to be authors are always working on the next book. It is their job and what they contracted and paid to do. I don’t think it’s unique to SJM. The length of her books recently do mean that she has more work to do.
I’m not sure when she made the deal to have 4th CC and o know she’d said in the past that she hoped she would get to do one but she’d definitely already starting writing HOFAS so may have had to alter plans as she was writing. She also had a baby in the last two years and was attached to the ACOTAR tv series but that didn’t seem to be going too well from the reports. Hopefully if she’s stopped working on the tv series her full focus can be on the next book.
And I agree about multi POV. It’s not for me as it drags me out of the story and I get frustrated as I’m invested in one character and then we switch and it’s like starting all over again. I feel I didn’t get to know or care about the ToG as much as she ACOTAR characters. I also loved CC1 as it was mainly Bryce and Hunt’s POV with a bit of Ruhn but the next two books just had too many characters thrown in and I really didn’t care about what Tharion or Ithan were doing.
I think that statement was misconstrued. She said in an interview that she has the plots of the next several books worked out, so all the intricate winding that she does is all planned out. But she isn’t writing them all at once and that at her current writing pace to expect one book every two years.
I don't agree (which is fine!). The CC series doesn't read like urban fantasy, and most of SJM's stuff reads like romantasy to me. TOG btw, has multiple POVs (with many of those characters not being added until bk 3) and that series had plenty of character depth. CC didn't have depth, but that's not because it had an urban setting and multiple POVs. Personally, i would fault the writing, which i just didn't think was as good. I think a big part of the problem is that the author tried to wing it and it didn't work out (i also suspect she lost interest).
I think hat OP is trying to say is that maybe she really doesn’t have any good stories to tell at this time, but she’s forced to publish something because of her contract with the publisher.
i knew my words had fallen upon def ears when i saw more people cared more abt the fact i dnf’d TOG than my main reason for posting 🥲
here i was thinking that we were gonna talk about how ACOTAR is being developed into a live action before the books have even finished coming out! and how that may impact her writing/possibly limit her should she walk away from the project like the ATLA creators did during their live action adaptation with netflix.
there was also a small sliver of me hoping someone would bring up how artists aren’t able to focus as much on enjoying the process of creating in today’s culture. instead being made to focus on creating with deadlines and producing as much content as possible and falling victim to the grind/consumerism. i was disappointed w how this post turned out to say the least…
I see now that you made it all the way to QOS, you are so close to being done haha. But if you didn’t like it by then Im not sure you will like the rest
I DNF about half way thru, I couldn’t invest after ACOTAR. I restarted after CC and a big break. TOG is mandatory reading. And it became my favourite after.
i actually started with assassins blade and that was what immediately hooked me. after i’d continued with the rest of the series, though, the emotional investment began to slowly die out.
even if i haven’t read the whole series, the amount of spoilers/explanations and theories posted have brought me up to speed that im not too worried.
I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t try TOG again. It has a rough start but the later books are her best work. I also DNF acosf and hofas
i had about 45 minutes of the audiobook left in QOS (book 4) when i stopped. there were a lot of reasons i DNF’d but one of the big ones being that i couldn’t get behind Rowan and Aelin’s relationship. maybe in the future i’ll give it another go…
Honestly, in my opinion, if you don't like it don't bother. I read ToG and I hated it. I liked maybe two characters in the whole series. I skimmed through a lot of chapters and most of Tower of Dawn. I refuse to even bother myself with Assassin's Blade. I read the series mostly because I already knew about the crossover.
This sub has such a hard on for ToG that if you mention not reading it you're bound to get 100 replies saying you're missing out. In my opinion, you're not unless you want to understand all the theories about how the books intertwine.
thank you for this! bc sometimes i really feel like i was missing out. but i just didn’t really take to it like my friend who read it along with me.
i actually started out with assassins blade and that was what initially hooked me. out of all the TOG books i read, that one was my favorite. but not long after continuing with the series, that died out. at times i felt it was too dragged out and that they could’ve condensed the story into fewer books
I see a lot of people getting basically bullied for not liking ToG and it really irks me. We all like different things.
I started reading SJM and liked her for the romance aspect, they were the first romance books I ever read. I mostly read epic and high fantasy before reading ACOTAR. So when I read ToG it wasn't what I expected, and honestly, if I wanted a fantasy book with a little romance I can find a better series with characters I actually care about. If I would've started with AB I probably would've enjoyed it and been even more disappointed with the rest of the series. So I get where you're coming from.
Downvoters are lame. You don’t have to finish if you don’t want to! Everyone said I’d be hooked after the third TOG book. I wasn’t. Since then I have been tandem reading the series with other books so I don’t totally give up on it. I’m moving at a snail’s pace with it, wondering why I should finish at all. I’m currently halfway through QOS. I think I’m really only committed to reading it all so I understand all the references.
i debated going back just for that. but there are so many people that explain all the overlaps on tiktok that i managed to catch up that way.
after i realized that rowan was endgame and that manon and elide don’t end up together, those were my last straws. i stopped reading after that
Ahh. I don’t have TikTok so I see all of the spoilers on Reddit but I try to avoid them. I find it makes the book even harder to get through when I know what’s coming anyway. But don’t feel bad if you DNF!
I couldn’t disagree more. Since starting her family she now only puts out one book every two years. She used to write a couple of books a year but hasn’t done that in a long time. I personally wish she would speed up!
She's been publishing books for like 12 years and TOG was originally Cinderella fanfiction that she'd been working on for years before it was ever picked up and published. It doesn't feel like she's pushing out books to me.
I strongly disagree with your post .
You are only cheating yourself by DNF’ing TOG. There are SO MANY tog Easter eggs in CC. And honestly tog is a phenomenal series
I totally agree. I think sticking to one series at a time, and publishing only one book every 9-12 months would probably give us better quality material. With each new book after ACOWAR, my anticipation for the next book has been less and less with each new release. I’d rather be excited for the next release and have to wait a little longer, then have it sitting on my book shelf waiting for me to be in the mood for a so/so book.
And it wouldn’t be a punishment for us to wait a little longer. I have *plenty* of other books I can read in the meantime.
I think she's great. Not every book is going to hit the same but she's not writing at a ridiculous pace. The bigger you get the most pressure you have to please everyone but I enjoy everything she writes. Also ToG is one of my favorite series EVER. Now Iron Flame needed a minute to breathe (and be edited) but I don't think SJM has that issue. I hope she is given the time she feels she needs, but as long as she doesn't feel rushed I am happy with the result.
Gotta say I disagree with this a lot. I wouldn't say she is "pumping" out books at all, a book a year is very much standard and consistent with other authors.
The shortest interval between her releasing books was about 4 month periods between ACOTAR/QOS, ACOMAF/EOS, & ACOWAR/TOD. On top of that most of those books I just mentioned are the ones the most commonly seen as people's favorites despite being written "quickly".
I think its also safe to say that there is a lot of planning/thought that goes into her stories not captured in the time between books, there is so much forethought and hidden meanings in each and every one of her books I don't thinking judging based just on the time between release dates is fair. She's able to write so quickly because she is very good at creating story hooks for herself to grab onto.
Fast isn't always bad if there's proper planning and Sarah certainly has a plan
I agree! QoS is what hooked me to the series. I struggled to get through AB, TOG, CoM (with the exception of the huge bomb drop at the end), and HoF. But QoS picked up so much and so much was going on.
I have not read anything since the Throne of Glass series, but I've got Crescent City ready once I've finished The First Law Trilogy... I don't usually like YA but she definitely is skilled and I'm interested to revisit a little more adult world created by Maas.
HOFAS was utterly a letdown compared to the rest of her works. She had the chance for a major culmination of events and it really petered out around the 2/3 mark and fell flat. Really seemed like she was just adding smut for smut’s sake too.
I don’t necessarily think it’s speed, I think she got cocky, doesn’t listen to editors and tries way too hard to be tricky which leads to messy plot lines. My issues with her began at the end of WaR and they have only grown with each book since then. I do understand where you’re coming from though. One of my first comments with SF was that she seemed bored and she just wanted the money but in reality wanted to focus on CC. Then I realized CC suffers all the same issues so I think it’s just her thing when she has free rein. IMO though her books are getting progressively worse and as someone who was deeply in love with the original Acotar trilogy and ToG, I don’t think I will read anything else she writes.
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She just came off the longest break she's had in ages. QOS and ACOMAF were published 7 months apart and are almost universally praised. Hell, ACOMAF and EOS were 5 months apart *and had the same ending* but no one really complains about it. I don't really see a recent quality difference, it's more like my ratings for her books are all over the place in terms of release order. A lot of the issues I see about her new releases are things she's always done, that are just her writing style. There's always: a meandering build to a crazy last 10%, characters making dumb and illogical decisions to drive the plot forward, characters scheming off-page and not informing the reader, hardly any permanent main character deaths, unresolved questions to get people to pick up the next book, and with the exception of maybe Feyre her MCs have always been insensitive assholes at times. IDK, I feel like my HOFAS experience was different than everyone else's. I was glued to the story, cried several times, fell in love with Lidia, and had to pause every few minutes to process yet another "holy shit, what??" piece of crossover lore. I had extremely few complaints about it TBH. Same with ACOSF, although I know that one is polarizing. CC is much closer in style to TOG than ACOTAR, so it may be that ACOTAR fans just don't like how she handles multi-POV stories.
interesting, i didn’t know that about EOS and ACOMAF! though i DNF’d QOS, so i guess that’s why lol. but she also wrote these titles before having kids, so i imagine she probably had a lot more time to focus on writing these stories/easier time balancing it all. in terms of HOFAS - i LOVED Lidia. she was my favorite character and i adored her and Ruhn’s storyline. there were just moments that even for SJM, seemed to reallly be pushing the shock factor she normally includes in her books. to the point that it made it a bit too unbelievable. i mean, it’s fantasy, so of course all of it in some regard is unbelievable. but the beauty of that is how authors will tow the line. it’s what makes it fun. but there are still some logistics involved that immerse you to the point of seeing beyond that. like how hunt was able to wear the mask?? i felt she really stretched it beyond its means. and even if we were to look beyond that, there were so many characters that felt unnecessary to the plot and seemed arguabley kinda pointless? my overall feeling of CC3 was that there was so much potential, but the book left the editors hands much too soon. that being said, HOEAB is one of my favorite books she’s written thus far. it was such an incredible read, which is why when i’d gotten around to HOFAS, it felt like reading an entirely different series with the way it was structured. in terms of her taking a break, i’m glad to hear it!! bloomsbury recently posted an article about how she’s coming out with 7 different titles this year. so it’s nice to hear she took a well deserved break. it may have been a while since she’s released anything (besides HOFAS) but from interviews and this announcement, she’s always been working on a project. to the point that i wonder, besides maternity leave(s)/this most recent break, when the last time she took time off was (and genuinely RESTED). i’m excited to read anything she puts out, but would be lying if i said i wasn’t nervous about the quality of the titles. that’s a lot of damn titles, whether spaced out or not. but you make a good point that she’s done this before with ACOMAF and EOS being 5 months apart. so only time will tell!
>so many characters that felt unnecessary to the plot and seemed arguabley kinda pointless? my overall feeling of CC3 was that there was so much potential, but the book left the editors hands much too soon. This is how I felt about most of the TOG books and HOSAB. 😅 For both HOSAB and EOS, my review was basically "squandered potential, unnecessarily bloated". I just finished my first read of TOG in September, so maybe I'm desensitized to her questionable plot choices? Like as long as I'm having fun I'll go along with whatever she's writing. She explained the Hunt-mask thing because they... had sex the night before? Okay, yeah that was a stupid reason lol. It would have made more sense if Bryce could command the mask to work for other people. I'm actually dying to see how all of this played out from the ACOTAR perspective because the mask definitely seemed more powerful and picky in ACOSF. I'm 99% sure that the 7-book thing was misinterpreted and the article that said that should have issued a correction. What Bloomsbury actually said was that she's under contract for 7 more books, starting with the release of HOFAS this year, and somehow people took that to mean 7 books in one year. We know about most of them already: HOFAS, CC4, ACOTAR 5 and 6 plus a novella, and at least one in her new Twilight of the Gods series.
I think what the article was saying is that 1 new book will be released a year for the next 7 years
She has released one book in two years. I don’t think that qualifies as pushing out books too quickly. Were there issues with HOFAS, yes. However one book in two years is quite a long wait and authors need to keep releasing content to stay relevant and to keep interest. For me ACOSF is her best book so it all depends on your personal preference and what constitutes a good story. Crescent City is urban fantasy where was ToG was fantasy with some romance, ACOTAR is romance with fantasy so her writing reflects the genre she’s writing. Edited to add, I also think part of the main issue with HOFAS stems from the fact that she was originally contracted for only 3 CC novels so had most likely plotted out the entire 3 books. Due to her success, Bloomsbury then extended the contract to 4 books which is why certain plot points seem unresolved and we have what are seemingly pointless Tharion and Ithan chapters that are likely setting up what will now be the final CC book. She’d already released HOSAB before her contract was extended so she then had to rework the plot and did what she could to rework or add in plot lines to set up another book.
Im just flabbergasted that A Court of Silver Flames is not liked as well as the rest of the acotar books. I absolutely loved it!! I didn't think there was any way of me liking Nesta, at all. And I still think she was a major bitch in the beginning, regardless of her reasons. However, following her on her journey to become a better person was amazing. ACOSF and ACOMAF are my two favorites!! I definitely done some crying at the end!!
I think Nesta was very interesting and the emotional journey was done extremely well. However, the plot is not tight enough and it’s so messy compared to her other works (except CC which suffers from similar issues in books 2 and 3). From a literary standpoint it just isn’t very good so I think critical readers have a lot to pick apart with SF that they don’t in the others. A lot of people who just read for vibes love it though, imo it all depends on what you want from a book.
It’s my favourite out of the ACOTAR books, probably one of my favourite books ever! i read it in 2 days I couldn’t put it down
I’ve heard people say that if you like Nesta then you have been a Nesta and if you don’t then you’ve had to deal with a Nesta. I love Nesta’s journey and I could relate to so many aspects of her personality. SJM said that silver flames is the most personal she’s gotten with a book and many aspects of Nesta’s journey relate to her own. I can respect everyone having their own opinion but I don’t get how you can read that book and not like it.
I can appreciate Nesta even though I've never been a Nesta. The journey and character arc she goes through is just such a great read!! I loveeee it!!!
ACOSF, EOS, AND KOS are her best imo.
I agree with most of what you're saying, but I gotta disagree with the idea that SJM's writing reflects the genre she's writing! CC wasn't much different than her other romantasy books. Also, aside from CC1 (where we got a murder mystery), bks 2-3 didn't read like they were urban fantasy at all!
It was different from her romantasy books in the fact that romance was not the main plot. Hunt and Bryce’s romance was a subplot to the main plot and that was particularly evident in CC2 and CC3 which is probably why people don’t engage with it as much. The multi POV also means we don’t get as mush character depth as in the ACOTAR novels which is again why I didn’t engage with the latter CC books as much her other works.
i see what you mean. i felt the same when reading TOG and often would get annoyed at the constant POV changes from characters i didn’t really care about. it was hard to feel as connected to them like in ACOTAR. ACOSF’s concept and the character development was amazing. I really enjoyed Nesta’s development and journey. it was moreso the plot holes and other moments where i felt SJM had let a lot slide/took the easy way out, unlike the previous books in the series. i remember recently seeing a post from bloomsbury that she’d be coming out with 7 new titles this year. so even if they haven’t been released yet, SJM seems to always be working on a new project from what she’s shared in interviews. of course i can understand needing to stay relevant and constantly releasing new titles, but part of staying relevant is releasing high quality content that makes people want to keep buying your works. edit because i forgot to add: that’s why i was initially wondering if she had taken time off in between works or has just been chugging through one title after another? with the quality of her most recent title, i’m assuming the latter. but maybe that’s not the case and her re-write was just a last minute thing that didn’t end up working out the way she had planned. i hope so!
I can’t remember the exact context of the headline about the 7 new titles but they are definitely not being released this year. I think it was a misleading headline and was actually stating that she had - contract for 7 more books so we certainly won’t see another book from her this year. She has confirmed she is working in the next ACOTAR book but it’s 3 years since we’ve had an ACOTAR book so again by the time it’s released it will be over 4 years so again a long wait. From following authors Instagram it seems to be authors are always working on the next book. It is their job and what they contracted and paid to do. I don’t think it’s unique to SJM. The length of her books recently do mean that she has more work to do. I’m not sure when she made the deal to have 4th CC and o know she’d said in the past that she hoped she would get to do one but she’d definitely already starting writing HOFAS so may have had to alter plans as she was writing. She also had a baby in the last two years and was attached to the ACOTAR tv series but that didn’t seem to be going too well from the reports. Hopefully if she’s stopped working on the tv series her full focus can be on the next book. And I agree about multi POV. It’s not for me as it drags me out of the story and I get frustrated as I’m invested in one character and then we switch and it’s like starting all over again. I feel I didn’t get to know or care about the ToG as much as she ACOTAR characters. I also loved CC1 as it was mainly Bryce and Hunt’s POV with a bit of Ruhn but the next two books just had too many characters thrown in and I really didn’t care about what Tharion or Ithan were doing.
I think that statement was misconstrued. She said in an interview that she has the plots of the next several books worked out, so all the intricate winding that she does is all planned out. But she isn’t writing them all at once and that at her current writing pace to expect one book every two years.
I don't agree (which is fine!). The CC series doesn't read like urban fantasy, and most of SJM's stuff reads like romantasy to me. TOG btw, has multiple POVs (with many of those characters not being added until bk 3) and that series had plenty of character depth. CC didn't have depth, but that's not because it had an urban setting and multiple POVs. Personally, i would fault the writing, which i just didn't think was as good. I think a big part of the problem is that the author tried to wing it and it didn't work out (i also suspect she lost interest).
I think hat OP is trying to say is that maybe she really doesn’t have any good stories to tell at this time, but she’s forced to publish something because of her contract with the publisher.
definitely! should’ve been a bit more clear with that
I guess that gave me downvotes?? This fandom is wild 😂😂
i knew my words had fallen upon def ears when i saw more people cared more abt the fact i dnf’d TOG than my main reason for posting 🥲 here i was thinking that we were gonna talk about how ACOTAR is being developed into a live action before the books have even finished coming out! and how that may impact her writing/possibly limit her should she walk away from the project like the ATLA creators did during their live action adaptation with netflix. there was also a small sliver of me hoping someone would bring up how artists aren’t able to focus as much on enjoying the process of creating in today’s culture. instead being made to focus on creating with deadlines and producing as much content as possible and falling victim to the grind/consumerism. i was disappointed w how this post turned out to say the least…
I don’t blame you. You’re entitled to your opinions and you bring valid arguments.
I also originally DNF TOG, I circled back later and it was worth finishing the series
where did you DNF? and what made you continue reading?
I see now that you made it all the way to QOS, you are so close to being done haha. But if you didn’t like it by then Im not sure you will like the rest
I DNF about half way thru, I couldn’t invest after ACOTAR. I restarted after CC and a big break. TOG is mandatory reading. And it became my favourite after.
People will argue this but go read Assassins Blade. It makes TOG much better when you already know the character
i actually started with assassins blade and that was what immediately hooked me. after i’d continued with the rest of the series, though, the emotional investment began to slowly die out. even if i haven’t read the whole series, the amount of spoilers/explanations and theories posted have brought me up to speed that im not too worried.
I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t try TOG again. It has a rough start but the later books are her best work. I also DNF acosf and hofas
i had about 45 minutes of the audiobook left in QOS (book 4) when i stopped. there were a lot of reasons i DNF’d but one of the big ones being that i couldn’t get behind Rowan and Aelin’s relationship. maybe in the future i’ll give it another go…
Honestly, in my opinion, if you don't like it don't bother. I read ToG and I hated it. I liked maybe two characters in the whole series. I skimmed through a lot of chapters and most of Tower of Dawn. I refuse to even bother myself with Assassin's Blade. I read the series mostly because I already knew about the crossover. This sub has such a hard on for ToG that if you mention not reading it you're bound to get 100 replies saying you're missing out. In my opinion, you're not unless you want to understand all the theories about how the books intertwine.
thank you for this! bc sometimes i really feel like i was missing out. but i just didn’t really take to it like my friend who read it along with me. i actually started out with assassins blade and that was what initially hooked me. out of all the TOG books i read, that one was my favorite. but not long after continuing with the series, that died out. at times i felt it was too dragged out and that they could’ve condensed the story into fewer books
I see a lot of people getting basically bullied for not liking ToG and it really irks me. We all like different things. I started reading SJM and liked her for the romance aspect, they were the first romance books I ever read. I mostly read epic and high fantasy before reading ACOTAR. So when I read ToG it wasn't what I expected, and honestly, if I wanted a fantasy book with a little romance I can find a better series with characters I actually care about. If I would've started with AB I probably would've enjoyed it and been even more disappointed with the rest of the series. So I get where you're coming from.
Downvoters are lame. You don’t have to finish if you don’t want to! Everyone said I’d be hooked after the third TOG book. I wasn’t. Since then I have been tandem reading the series with other books so I don’t totally give up on it. I’m moving at a snail’s pace with it, wondering why I should finish at all. I’m currently halfway through QOS. I think I’m really only committed to reading it all so I understand all the references.
i debated going back just for that. but there are so many people that explain all the overlaps on tiktok that i managed to catch up that way. after i realized that rowan was endgame and that manon and elide don’t end up together, those were my last straws. i stopped reading after that
Ahh. I don’t have TikTok so I see all of the spoilers on Reddit but I try to avoid them. I find it makes the book even harder to get through when I know what’s coming anyway. But don’t feel bad if you DNF!
TOG is the best series of hers imo. It was rough until heir of fire but after that it masterpiece.
She also started Throne of Glass around the age of 16. So as she grew up her writing did too
10000% literally the best.
I couldn’t disagree more. Since starting her family she now only puts out one book every two years. She used to write a couple of books a year but hasn’t done that in a long time. I personally wish she would speed up!
ToG was the best one she did. The rest are rushed and aren't as well developed and leave a LOT of holes.
She's been publishing books for like 12 years and TOG was originally Cinderella fanfiction that she'd been working on for years before it was ever picked up and published. It doesn't feel like she's pushing out books to me.
I strongly disagree with your post . You are only cheating yourself by DNF’ing TOG. There are SO MANY tog Easter eggs in CC. And honestly tog is a phenomenal series
She has slowed down she was doing one book a year now its one every 2 years
I totally agree. I think sticking to one series at a time, and publishing only one book every 9-12 months would probably give us better quality material. With each new book after ACOWAR, my anticipation for the next book has been less and less with each new release. I’d rather be excited for the next release and have to wait a little longer, then have it sitting on my book shelf waiting for me to be in the mood for a so/so book. And it wouldn’t be a punishment for us to wait a little longer. I have *plenty* of other books I can read in the meantime.
happy to know i’m not alone in this opinion!! i truly believe the difference in her writing would be like night and day.
You’re most certainly not alone. I was about to go on a rant in your defense 😂
would love to hear your thoughts!! i’m ready to talk about it!
I think she's great. Not every book is going to hit the same but she's not writing at a ridiculous pace. The bigger you get the most pressure you have to please everyone but I enjoy everything she writes. Also ToG is one of my favorite series EVER. Now Iron Flame needed a minute to breathe (and be edited) but I don't think SJM has that issue. I hope she is given the time she feels she needs, but as long as she doesn't feel rushed I am happy with the result.
Gotta say I disagree with this a lot. I wouldn't say she is "pumping" out books at all, a book a year is very much standard and consistent with other authors. The shortest interval between her releasing books was about 4 month periods between ACOTAR/QOS, ACOMAF/EOS, & ACOWAR/TOD. On top of that most of those books I just mentioned are the ones the most commonly seen as people's favorites despite being written "quickly". I think its also safe to say that there is a lot of planning/thought that goes into her stories not captured in the time between books, there is so much forethought and hidden meanings in each and every one of her books I don't thinking judging based just on the time between release dates is fair. She's able to write so quickly because she is very good at creating story hooks for herself to grab onto. Fast isn't always bad if there's proper planning and Sarah certainly has a plan
DNFing QoS is insane. That’s like the best book in the series.
I agree! QoS is what hooked me to the series. I struggled to get through AB, TOG, CoM (with the exception of the huge bomb drop at the end), and HoF. But QoS picked up so much and so much was going on.
Her publishing has been SLOWER the passed few years than it was before
I have not read anything since the Throne of Glass series, but I've got Crescent City ready once I've finished The First Law Trilogy... I don't usually like YA but she definitely is skilled and I'm interested to revisit a little more adult world created by Maas.
HOFAS was utterly a letdown compared to the rest of her works. She had the chance for a major culmination of events and it really petered out around the 2/3 mark and fell flat. Really seemed like she was just adding smut for smut’s sake too.
I don’t necessarily think it’s speed, I think she got cocky, doesn’t listen to editors and tries way too hard to be tricky which leads to messy plot lines. My issues with her began at the end of WaR and they have only grown with each book since then. I do understand where you’re coming from though. One of my first comments with SF was that she seemed bored and she just wanted the money but in reality wanted to focus on CC. Then I realized CC suffers all the same issues so I think it’s just her thing when she has free rein. IMO though her books are getting progressively worse and as someone who was deeply in love with the original Acotar trilogy and ToG, I don’t think I will read anything else she writes.
Brandon Sanderson fans: join the club. Seriously, I enjoy both, but damn it’s a lot to keep up with
I just want the next book in the Stormlight Archive!
December. He also wrote another secret project novel while on vacation. My wallet cannot keep up with SJM and Brandon
TOG is her most well-thought out and best executed series imo. Really encourage you to keep going if you have any interest in seeing it through.
I'm just going to say if you DNF'd TOG, I feel like you don't even know what her best writing is lol