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Don't get me wrong, it is bad. It's got terrible pacing, it's horribly repetitive, the main character is thoroughly unlikeable, and the writing itself is poor (odd word choice, run-on sentences, grammatical sloppiness, trope-y refrains...). However, you'd thinking it was the end of literature from how some people talk about it.
All in all, a very mid, unimpressive book, not nearly deserving its huge fanbase, but if you're in the mood for schlocky, "dark" fantasy romance, you'll probably enjoy it.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Grief
Minor: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
I think the trick to this book is to avoid inserting yourself. You are just an observer, along for the ride. Don’t get attached to anyone. She’s just some idiot, and stuff happens to her, and that stuff is crazy weird.
Also she definitely shat her pants in front of everyone.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
The only thing thats carrying me forward into the next book is knowing that
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Slavery, War
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail
That being said, this is a romantasy but it feels like romance isn't as much of a main focus as I was led to believe. It has pretty good world building and the characters are decently developed. Especially Feyre, the main character, who starts out as one way at the beginning of the book and by the end, seems to have changed completely.
It's not perfect by ANY stretch of the imagination. I was warned by my friends of this when I first started. They mentioned that the first book is rough, but the rest of the series gets better.
The first part of the book was slow and hard to get into. I would have DNF'd it if I wasn't so stubborn and curious. However, the latter half of the book was really good and fast paced, so it somewhat redeemed itself in the end.
There was vanilla smut in this. Nothing too crazy, but it's still smut so there's that. Just to get THAT out of the way. The romance also wasn't too outrageous and was a pretty typical 'enemies to lovers' trope.
I have decent hopes for this series, with character development, how the plot will develop more and learning more about this world.
Graphic: Torture, Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Death
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Torture, Violence
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping
Minor: Xenophobia, War